Reports from the EAU, York 2001/12 Technical Report: Blanket Row, Kingston-upon-Hull Reports from the Environmental Archaeology Unit, York 2001/12, 125 pp. Technical Report: Plant and animal remains from excavations in Blanket Row, Kingston-upon-Hull (site codes BWH97-00) by John Carrott, Allan Hall, Deborah Jaques, Cluny Johnstone, Harry Kenward and Stephen Rowland Summary Plant and animal remains were investigated from a variety of deposits of medieval and post-medieval date revealed by excavations at Blanket Row, Kingston-upon-Hull. Plant and invertebrate remains(other than marine shell) were only abundant in a few contexts from the earliest phases, but gave clear indication of the accumulation of rotting organic matter with a variety of kinds of litter, and probably including stable manure. Remains from the numerous floor deposits investigated were usually sparse but generally included rush seeds thought likely to have arrived in litter for strewing, or from mud on feet. The shell remains were primarily of oyster, with some minor components of other edible marine and estuarine taxa, representing human food waste. Concentrations of well preserved fish remains were recovered from Phases 3 and 4 floor deposits. A diverse range of marine and estuarine species was present, but freshwater fish were scarce. It seems likely that most of the fish remains represent domestic refuse associated with food consumption. Seemingly inedible fish, such as sticklebacks, probably formed a small component of waste related to the gutting and the processing of edible fish for cooking. Although the species present were represented by small individuals, crushed and flattened (indicating possible ingestion) vertebrae of herring, eel, whiting and flatfish strongly suggest that these fish were eaten. The hand-collected vertebrate assemblage was dominated by the remains of the major domesticates, cattle, caprovids and pigs, with few other species present. A mixture of butchery and domestic refuse was indicated by the skeletal element representation for cattle and caprovids, with increasing proportions of household waste through time. KEYWORDS: BLANKET ROW; KINGSTON-UPON-HULL; 14TH CENTURY TO EARLY MODERN; MEDIEVAL; POST-MEDIEVAL; PLANT REMAINS; CHARRED PLANT REMAINS; INVERTEBRATE REMAINS; SHELL; MOLLUSCS; OYSTER; VERTEBRATE REMAINS; FISH; STABLE MANURE; SALT WATER Authors’ address: Prepared for: Palaeoecology Research Services Northern Archaeological Associates Environmental Archaeology Unit 15 Redwell Ct. Department of Biology Harmire Road University of York BARNARD CASTLE PO Box 373 Co. Durham DL12 8PN York YO10 5YW Telephone: (01904) 433846/434475/434487 Fax: (01904) 433850 8 May 2001 List of tables and figures 1 Reports from the EAU, York 2001/12 Technical Report: Blanket Row, Kingston-upon-Hull Table 1. Complete list of plant and animal taxa (and other components of the samples recorded during biological analyses) from the Blanket Row site, Kingston-upon-Hull. Table 2. Lists of plant remains and some other components recorded from samples from the Blanket Row site, Kingston-upon-Hull, in context and sample order. Table 3. Main statistics for the assemblages of adult Coleoptera and Hemiptera (excluding Aphidoidea and Coccidoidea) from the Blanket Row site, Kingston-upon-Hull. Table 4. Insects and other macro-invertebrates from the Blanket Row site, Kingston-upon-Hull: species lists by sample. Taxa are listed in descending order of abundance. Table 5. Abbreviations for ecological codes and statistics used for interpretation of insect remains in text and tables. Table 6 . Data for the shell recovered from highly residual contexts from the 1998 excavations (BWH98). Table 7. Summary information for the shell recovered from low and medium residuality contexts from the 1998 excavations (BWH98). Table 8. Summary information for the shell recovered from low and medium residuality contexts from the 2000 excavations (BWH00). Table 9. Summary information for the shell recovered from low and medium residuality contexts by phase. Table 10. Summary information for the shell recovered from low and medium residuality contexts by period. Table 11. Measurement summary for oyster valves recovered from low and medium residuality contexts from the 1998 excavations (BWH98) by phase (all measurements in mm). Table 12. Measurement summary for oyster valves recovered from low and medium residuality contexts from the 2000 excavations (BWH00) by phase (all measurements in mm). Table 13. Numbers of measurements possible for oyster valves recovered from low and medium residuality contexts from the 1998 excavations (BWH98) by phase. Table 14. Numbers of measurements possible for oyster valves recovered from low and medium residuality contexts from the 2000 excavations (BWH00) by phase. Table 15. Measurement summary for oyster valves recovered from low and medium residuality contexts by period (all measurements in mm). Table 16. Numbers of measurements possible for oyster valves recovered from low and medium residuality contexts by period. Table 17. Date ranges for phases and period groupings for the vertebrate remains. Table 18. Vertebrate taxa represented in the hand-collected assemblage by phase (phases 1-3 grouped). 2 Reports from the EAU, York 2001/12 Technical Report: Blanket Row, Kingston-upon-Hull Table 19. Vertebrate remains recovered from samples from Phase 3. Table 20. Vertebrate remains recovered from samples from Phase 3b. Table 21. Vertebrate remains recovered from samples from Phase 4. Table 22. Element fragment counts by phase (phases 1-3 grouped) for cattle remains. Table 23. Minimum numbers of individuals (MNI) by element and phase (phases 1-3 grouped) for cattle remains. Table 24. Element fragment counts by phase (phases 1-3 grouped) for sheep/goat (caprovid) remains. Table 25. Minimum numbers of individuals (MNI) by element and phase (phases 1-3 grouped) for sheep/goat (caprovid) remains. Table 26 . Statistical comparison of biometrical data for caprovid metacarpal proximal breadth (Bp) for material from late medieval and post-medieval levels at Blanket Row, Kingston-upon-Hull, and contemporaneous sites (data from O'Connor 1995). Table 27. Extrapolated mean withers heights (in mm) for caprovid material from late medieval and post- medieval levels at Blanket Row, Kingston-upon-Hull, and contemporaneous sites (data from O'Connor 1995). Figure 1. Low to medium residuality contexts from which hand-collected shell was recovered by phase and excavation year. Figure 2. Numbers of low to medium residuality contexts from which hand-collected shell was recovered by context type and phase. Figure 3. Numbers of low to medium residuality contexts from which hand-collected shell was recovered by context type and period. Figure 4. Weight (in grammes) of hand-collected shell recovered from low to medium residuality contexts by context type and phase. Figure 5. Weight (in grammes) of hand-collected shell recovered from low to medium residuality contexts by context type and period. Figure 6. Numbers of ‘cut’ and ‘non-cut’ features by period. Figure 7. Weight (in grammes) of hand-collected shell recovered from ‘cut’ and ‘non-cut’ features by period. Figure 8. Average weight of hand-collected shell recovered from ‘cut’ and ‘non-cut’ features by period. Figure 9. Average erosion (E) and fragmentation (F) scores for hand-collected shell from ‘cut’ and ‘non- cut’ features by period. 3 Reports from the EAU, York 2001/12 Technical Report: Blanket Row, Kingston-upon-Hull Figure 10. Average values for oyster valve measurements by phase. Figure 11. Major domesticate species by NISP (number of individual skeletal parts). Figure 12. Major domesticate species by MNI (minimum number of individuals). Figure 13. Size of caprovid metacarpals from post-medieval deposits at Blanket Row, Hull, and contemporaneous sites (data from Carrott et al. 1997b and Dobney et al. 1996). Figure 14. Frequency of major fish taxa from Blanket Row, Kingston-upon-Hull and other sites within the region. Figure 15. Frequency of major gadid taxa from Blanket Row, Kingston-upon-Hull and other sites within the region. 4 Reports from the EAU, York 2001/12 Technical Report: Blanket Row, Kingston-upon-Hull Technical Report: Plant and animal remains from excavations in Blanket Row, Kingston-upon-Hull (site codes BWH97-00) Introduction excavations carried out in different years), which th dated the material from the 14 century through to Excavations on the Blanket Row, Kingston-upon- the early modern period (Table 17). Hull, site were undertaken by Northern Archaeological Associates, on behalf of Yorkshire Water, in 1997 and 1998. A further smaller Practical methods excavation was carried out in 2000, following the collapse of a modern sewer which crossed the site Sediment samples: The lithologies of the selected approximately east-west and in advance of the samples were described using a pro forma and construction of new waste water treatment subsamples of 1-28 kg were processed according facilities. The areas excavated revealed deposits of to the methods of Kenward et al. (1980; 1986). In medieval and post-medieval (and later) date, some cases several samples from the same context together with a number of associated buildings. were combined to give a larger BS sample. The GBA samples selected for main phase analysis Investigation of biological remains from these were examined to give material additional to that excavations was undertaken to shed light on the recovered from the assessment and to examine nature of