Archaeology Live! 2013 - Site Diary (weeks 7-12)

[YAT]

Week 7.

This week featured a chance for Arran to get some aerial shots of site from a cherry picker. The walls of Leetham's storehouse and those of buildings running along Dundas Street look great from above and the oddly skew angles at which some walls meet stand out clearly. The team cleaned the site up fantastically well.



Ben's team continued to record and lift surfaces and make-up deposits in and around Leetham's storehouse. These produced lots of dateable material that will help to phase the activity in the area.



In Arran's area, one corner of the trench was investigated to a greater depth to give us a sneak preview of the earlier archaeology. The last Victorian make-up layers were lifted to reveal a layer of 18th-19th century horticultural soil. Excavation of this soil uncovered possible demolition material associated with the church.



Also in Arran's area, the toilet of 6 Dundas Street continued to be picked apart. The amount of re-building led to a lot of contexts to record! In the north of the trench, Tom and his team continued recording and excavating layer after layer of Victorian yard surfaces.



This week saw us pass the halfway mark of the season, and once again the trench really came on thanks to the fantastic work of our trainees and placements.



On a marginally less serious note, this proved to be the week when Ben and Arran's teams formally took on tribal divisions. Ben's team became the Pink Fluffy Unicorn Tribe (?!)



While Arran's team became the Angry Giraffe Clan (Don't ask...)

[YAT]

Week 8.

This week in Ben's area, the team continued their work on deposits and features that post-dated the Victorian walls in the area. This required a lot of recording, and a fair bit of mattocking! However, we still found time to break out the trowels!



Work also began on a curious rectangular, mortar filled feature near the site entrance.



On Arran's side of the trench, work in the deeper slot stripped away demolition layers and revealed the robber trench of the north wall of St John's church. This was an exciting moment as it marked the first point during the season where we had located part of the church structure. The wall line is visible in the right of this shot.



Elsewhere in Arran's area, more yard surfaces were lifted revealing an ever increasing line of postholes representing a lean-to structure pre-dating the later stables. Also, Gus and Ed had to employ some carefully controlled demolition to remove the last of the 6 Dundas St. toilet additions without damaging the fragile early cesspit structure.



Here's the week 8 team in the friday sunshine.



A particularly nice find from this week was a medieval long cross penny found in the demolition material over the church. Helen was suitably chuffed



Another highlight was Kate and Ellen's enthusiastic approach to mattocking...



Finally, the Pink Fluffy Unicorns crowned Toby as their king and celebrated in matching shirts...

[YAT]

Week 9.

After weeks of hard work, Ben's team began to take up the last of the deposits built up against the walls of Dundas Street and Leetham's storehouse.



This freed up the first of the main walls to be recorded and removed, a task that Liz seemed to rather enjoy!



In Arran's area, further postholes associated with the predecessor of the 19th century stables were excavated, some proving to be trickier than others (as Gus found out!)



Alongside several trample deposits and small pits, we also uncovered a dog burial cut flush to the rear wall of 5 Dundas Street.



Here's the team at the end of another productive week.



It wouldn't be right to finish this week's update without including this shot of Kate really enjoying her archaeology...



On a brighter note, Ben was happy to make a discovery of his own as he unearthed this rather lovely key.

[YAT]

Week 10.

In Ben's area, the recording was finished on more 19th century walls allowing Polly and Juliet to begin demolition!



This allowed the horticultural soils below the wall to be recorded and for excavation to begin. This was a big job, so it was all hands to the pumps!



It was a similar story on Arran's side of the trench where the last Victorian walls and surfaces were excavated and work also began on the horticultural soils. The whole team worked incredibly hard and moved a fair few tons of material!



After the heavy work was completed, the lighter demolition material over the church began to appear...



The week 10 team drew the lot of moving the most material of the whole season. The team worked incredibly hard and were rewarded with a number of nice small finds (and Lisa's 'tache!)



Finds highlights included Elaine's medieval coin



Heather's rather lovely strap end.



Chas and Chris' key.



Finally, an interesting find was also made during sieving...

[YAT]

Week 11.

After the last of the horticultural soil had been stripped away, work in Ben's area focussed on recording and excavating demolition deposits and revealing structural elements of the church. We were excited to see very clear wall lines beginning to appear. The lost church of St John the Baptist was emerging.



The south-east corner was particularly impressive, despite extensive robbing.



In Arran's area, Pete, Anne and Megan excavated and recorded several early horticultural features close to the suspected northern boundary of the church.



Demolition layers and dumps to the north of the church began to be picked apart while Joan and Kath looked to expose the top of the robber trench over the north wall of the church.



By the end of week 11, the team had revealed some tantalising glimpses of the church structure and begun to understand the activity north of the church. Thanks to all for their fine work!



Eli and Becky were forced to improvise while recording a 19th century wall. Classic archaeological ingenuity!

[YAT]

Week 12.

It was here before we knew it, and there was so much left to do! Week 12 proved to be a hectic mix of recording the church structure we had already exposed while discovering even more!

Ben and Arran had the chance to go to the top of the new building by Hungate HQ and photograph the trench from on high. The yellow piping in the top left of shot represents the location of All Saints, Peasholme, with St. Johns occupying the bottom right. This shows the volume of churches that were crammed into medieval York!



Back in the trench, more and more stonework was being revealed. The inner face of the east wall proved to be quite tricky to tie down. Hopefully, we'll be able to clarify this in October.



As time grew short, the team's attention turned to recording the walls as they had been exposed.



The rear yard wall of 6-7 Dundas Street proved to have used the east wall of the church as a footing!



In Arran's area, the dream team of Jane, Janet and Betty were excavating a number of late medieval refuse pits. As these features were taken away, we began to glimpse what may be the northern boundary of the church.



Also excavated were a number of late/post medieval dumps and cut features to the immediate north of the church, a large 19th century pit (which revealed an in-situ medieval burial) and a slot through the north wall of the church. This was cleaned up to a fantastic standard by the team!



Here is the week 12 team. They had to work very quickly to get everything done before the all important final bbq and they managed it in fine style!



The last week provided a few highlights, including Maddy's first ever coin.



Megan found several fragments of glazed floor tile and this piece of painted window glass.



Dave found a new look.



Toby found he could fit into very small holes.



...and Ross found out that he looks fabulous with a mop!