| Abstract: |
Discusses the artefacts (objects of stone, jet or shale, amber, fired clay, glass, frit, iron, copper alloy, lead alloy, bone, antler, and horn) of Roman date found at 9 Blake Street, 12-18 Swinegate/8 Grape Lane and 14 Little Stonegate/18 Back Swinegate, and the Purey Cust Nuffield Hospital, York. The first two sites are located in the praetentura and the last mentioned in the retentura of the legionary fortress. See also 94/426 (the pottery from Blake Street). Following a report on the conservation of the artefacts, an archaeological summary and typological discussion follow for each site. The typological discussion is structured according to artefact function, and the material is dated and placed within a local, regional, or national context as appropriate. A method of summarising assemblages from different periods and areas of theses and other sites is developed. Using statistical correspondence analysis, the York assemblages are then compared with others from buildings of known function within the legionary fortress of Caerleon, Gwent, in an attempt to elucidate the nature of occupation at the three York sites. The assemblage from Blake Street evinces a change in the nature of occupation and period of abandonment in the early-second century, which may be associated with the withdrawal of the Ninth Legion and reoccupation of the area by the Tenth. The artefacts recovered from the Swinegate sites do not reflect the proximity of those sites to the legionary bath house. The Purey Cust Nuffield Hospital site assemblage is suggestive of a military fabrica [workshop]. |
