MEDIEVAL AND POST-MEDIEVAL PLANT AND INVERTEBRATE REMAINS FROM AREA II, THE BEDERN (NORTH-EAST), YORK.
Author(s): A R Hall, H Kenward, A Robertson
Deposits of medieval and post-medieval date, many of them associated with the college of the Vicars Choral, attached to York Minster, from Area II, The Bedern (north-east), were investigated for plant and invertebrate remains. 33 contexts were examined by means of 52 samples, of which 27 contexts and 37 samples were analysed for plant and insect remains. Many were subjected to analysis of intestinal parasite eggs. Apart from some pit fills with good preservation by 'waterlogging' many of the deposits from this site gave small assemblages of plants and insects. Most of the pit fills gave some evidence for faecal material, probably human, and some were a rich source of foodplants, notably fruits and flavourings. Worm eggs were usually well represented in such deposits, and there was sometimes a component of insects associated with foul decomposing matter. Most of the insect assemblages from the site, however, were either interpretatively bland or rich in 'house fauna'. The material provides a useful addition to the growing corpus of information concerning post-Conquest medieval (and also to a small extent post-medieval) York.
- Report Number:
- 58/1993
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 85
- Keywords:
- Environmental Studies
