Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T12:46:34.036Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Decay of delicate organic remains in shallow urban deposits: are we at a watershed?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Harry Kenward  and
Allan Hall
Harry Kenward
Affiliation:
Environmental Archaeology Unit (EAU), Department of Biology, University of York, PO Box 373, York YO10 5YW, England. [email protected]@york.ac.uk.
Allan Hall
Affiliation:
Environmental Archaeology Unit (EAU), Department of Biology, University of York, PO Box 373, York YO10 5YW, England. [email protected]@york.ac.uk.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

What conditions preserve archaeology, and what conditions accelerate decay? Here experts from York, using the wealth of experience and data gathered from that city, discuss the issues.

Keywords

stratigraphydecayurban depositswater levelsYorkorganic materials
Type
News & notes
Information
Antiquity , Volume 74 , Issue 285 , September 2000 , pp. 519 - 525
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addyman, P.V. 1989. The archaeology of public health at York, England, World Archaeology 21: 244–64.Google Scholar
Andrews, H.N. 1961. Studies in palaobotany. New York (NY): Wiley.Google Scholar
Bell, M.. Fowler, P.J. & Hillson, S.W.. 1996. The Experimental Earthwork Project 1960–1992. York: Council for British Archaeology. Research report 100.Google Scholar
Biddle, M. 1994. What future for British archaeology? Oxford: Oxbow. Lecture 1.Google Scholar
Briccs, D.E.G. & Kear, A.J.. 1993a. Fossilisation of soft tissue in the laboratory, Science 259: 1439–42.Google Scholar
Briccs, D.E.G. & Kear, A.J.. 1993b. Decay and preservation of polychaetes: taphonomic thresholds in soft-bodied organisms, Paleobiology 19:107–35.Google Scholar
Carrott, J., Dobney, K. Hall, A. Jaques, D. Kenward, H. Lancaster, S. & Milles, A.. 1994. Assessment of biological remains from excavations at 12–18 Swinegate, 8 Grape Lane, and 14, 18, 20 and 22 Back Swinegate/Little Stonegate, York (YAT/Yorkshire Museum sitecodes 1989–90.28 and 1990.1). York: Environmental Archaeology Unit. Report 94/13.Google Scholar
Carrott, J., Hall, A. Issitt, M. Kenward, H. Large, F. Milles, A. & Usai, R.. 1996a. Suspected accelerated in situ decay of delicate bioarchaeological remains: a case study from medieval York. York: Environmental Archaeology Unit. Report 96/15.Google Scholar
Carrott, J., Hughes, P. Jaques, D. Johnstone, C. Kenward, H. & Worthy, D.. 1998. Assessment of biological remains from BHS store, Feasegate, York (site code YORYM1998.2). York: Environmental Archaeology Unit. Report 98/16.Google Scholar
Carrott, J., Kenward, H. & Issitt, M.. 1996b. Seamer Carr landfill extension: evaluation of the archaeological potential of insect remains. York: Environmental Archaeology Unit. Report 96/52.Google Scholar
Corfield, M., Hinton, P. Nixon, T. & Pollard, M. (ed.). 1998. Preserving archaeological remains in situ. London: Museum of London Archaeology Service.Google Scholar
Davis, M., Hall, A. Kenward, H. & Oxley, J.. In preparation. Preservation of urban archaeological deposits: monitoring and characterisation of archaeological deposits at Marks and Spencers, 44–45 Parliament Street, York. Submitted to Internet Archaeology.Google Scholar
Elias, S.A. 1994. Quaternary insects and their environments. Washington (DC): Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Hall, A.R. & Kenward, H.K.. 1990. Environmental evidence from the Colonia: General Accident and Rougier Street, in The Archaeology of York 14(6): 289–434. London: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Hall, A.R., Kenward, H.K. & Robertson, A.. 1993. Investigation of medieval and post- medieval plant and invertebrate remains in The Bedern. Technical report, Ancient Monuments Laboratory Reports 56–8/93.Google Scholar
Hall, A.R., Kenward, H.K.. & Williams, D.. 1980. Environmental evidence from Roman deposits in Skeldergate, in The Archaeology of York 14(3): 101–56. London: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Kenward, H.K. 1978. The analysis of archaeological insect assemblages: a new approach, in The Archaeology of York 19(1): 1–68. London: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Kenward, H.K. 1985. The insect fauna: Berrington Street site 4, in Shoesmith, R., Hereford City Excavations 3: The Finds: 96 and microfiche M9.B4–11. London: Council for British Archaeology. Research report 56.Google Scholar
Kenward, H.K. & Hall, A.R.. 1995. Biological evidence from Anglo-Scandinavian deposits at 16–22 Coppergate, in The Archaeology of York 14(7): 435–797. York: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Kenward, H.K., Hall, A.R.. & Jones, A.K.G.. 1986. Environmental evidence from a Roman well and Anglian pits in the legionary fortress, in The Archaeology of York 14(5): 241–88. London: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Kenward, H. & Large, F.. 1997. Technical report. Insect remains from Seamer Carr landfill site: ecological reconstruction of a Mesolithic shore. York: Environmental Archaeology Unit. Report 97/30.Google Scholar
Kenward, H. & Large, F.. 1998. Recording the preservational condition of archaeological insect fossils, Environmental Archaeology 2: 49–60.Google Scholar
Kenward, H.K. & Williams, D.. 1979. Biological evidence from the Roman warehouses in Coney Street, in The Archaeology of York 14(2): 45–100. London: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Matthews, J.V. 1970. Two new species of Micropeplus from the Pliocene of western Alaska with remarks on the evolution of Micropeplinae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), Canadian Journal of Zoology 48: 779–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, P.L. & Wiltshire, P.E.J.. 1994. A proposed scheme for evaluating plant macrofossil preservation in some archaeological deposits, Circaea 11: 1–6.Google Scholar
Pollard, A.M. 1998. The chemical nature of the burial environment, in Corfield et al. (ed.): 60–65.Google Scholar
Purdy, B, (ed.). In press. Enduring records: the environmental and cultural heritage of wetland. Gainesville (FL): University of Florida Press.Google Scholar
Oxley, J. 1998. Planning and the conservation of archaeological deposits, in Corfield et al. (ed.): 51–4.Google Scholar
Robertson, A., Tomlinson, P. & Kenward, H.K.. 1989. Plant and insect remains from Coffee Yard, York. York: Environmental Archaeology Unit. Report 89/12.Google Scholar
Schelvis, J. 1998. Remains of sheep ectoparasites as indicators of wool processing in the past, in Dewilde, M. Ervynck, A. and Wielemans, A. (ed.), Ypres and the medieval cloth industry in Flanders: 89–98 Asse-Zellik: Instituut voor net Archeologisch Patrimonium. Archeologie in Vlaanderen Monografie 2.Google Scholar
Tomlinson, P. 1985. Use of vegetative remains in the identification of dyeplants from waterlogged 9th-10th century AD deposits at York, Journal of Archaeological Science 12: 269–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van de Noort, R. [1998]. Assessment and management of sites in wetland landscapes: four case studies from the Humber wetlands, in Corfield et al. (ed.): 133–43.Google Scholar
Van de Noort, R., Chapman, H. & Cheetham, J.. In press. Science-based conservation and management in wetland archaeology; the example of Sutton Common, UK, in Purdy (ed.).Google Scholar