Assessment of biological remains from excavations in

The bioarchaeological potential of a large number of samples from 1st Millennium deposits excavated from a series of five trenches in Wellington Row, York, has been assessed by means of examination of plant and animal remains from selected samples of raw sediment and sieved residues, together with bone from hand-collection and sieving. The concentration and quality of preservation of plant and invertebrate remains was very variable through the samples examined, but several groups of deposits gave interpretatively useful assemblages. In particular, some samples from an early ‘turf bank ’ and others from mid/late 2nd Century Roman occupation deposits evidently containing highly organic material similar to stable manure, are likely to be valuable in understanding aspects of the local environment and human activity at this site. Another group of samples (of 3rd/4th Century date) contained few biological remains other than peat. For samples from these three groups of deposits, further analysis is worthwhile, in some cases by means of larger subsamples. Samples from a few other deposits showed some bioarchaeological potential but the concentrations of remains were low. For these and some other groups of samples (especially those from the phases of late Roman abandonment and re-use in Trench 7), a low-cost review is recommended