Preservation of Urban Archaeological Deposits: monitoring and characterisation of archaeological deposits at Marks & Spencer, 44-45 Parliament Street, York

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Abstract

The City of York Council has been pursuing a strict policy of in situ preservation of archaeological deposits since April 1990. Planning consent is normally granted in the historic core of York for a new development so long as less than 5% of the archaeological deposits that are preserved on a site are destroyed. During archaeological evaluation work carried out as part of the redevelopment and expansion proposals for Marks & Spencer plc on Parliament Street, deposit monitoring devices were installed to investigate and monitor both the character of the archaeological deposits present and also the burial environment surrounding them (of particular importance because the burial environment, in terms both of its characteristics and stability, is thought to play a vital role in the preservation in situ of a site's archaeological deposits). The monitoring programme was undertaken between June 1995 and April 1998. As a result the data from a total of 30 site visits have been collected and are presented in this report.

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Fossilization of soft tissue in the laboratory.

MICHAEL D. BRIGGS, A Kear (1993)

Some of the most remarkable fossils preserve cellular details of soft tissues. In many of these, the tissues have been replaced by calcium phosphate. This process has been assumed to require elevated concentrations of phosphate in sediment pore waters. In decay experiments modern shrimps became partially mineralized in amorphous calcium phosphate, preserving cellular details of muscle tissue, particularly in a system closed to oxygen. The source for the formation of calcium phosphate was the shrimp itself. Mineralization, which was accompanied by a drop in pH, commenced within 2 weeks and increased in extent for at least 4 to 8 weeks. This mechanism halts the normal loss of detail of soft-tissue morphology before fossilization. Similar closed conditions would prevail where organisms are rapidly overgrown by microbial mats.

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Decay and preservation of polychaetes: taphonomic thresholds in soft-bodied organisms

Derek Briggs, Amanda J. Kear (1993)

A series of experiments was carried out to investigate the nature and controls (oxygen, microbial populations, agitation) on the degradation of soft tissues. Decay was monitored in terms of morphological change, weight loss, and change in chemical composition in the polychaete Nereis virens . Polychaetes include a range of tissue types of differing chemical composition and preservation potential: muscle, cuticle, setae, and jaws. Regardless of conditions, all the muscle had broken down and fluid loss through the ruptured cuticle had reduced the carcass to two dimensions within 8 days at 20°C. In most cases some cuticle, in addition to the jaws and setae, remained after 30 days. Where oxygen was completely eliminated, the rate of decay of the more volatile issues was significantly reduced. The degree of both osmotic uptake of water by the carcass and changes in water pH differed depending on whether the system was open or closed to oxygen diffusion. Autolytic and chemical processes are not sufficient to fully degrade the carcass in the absence of bacteria. Where internal bacteria are present, the presence or absence of water column bacteria made little difference to decay rate. Initial degradation (in the first 3 days) affects mainly the lipid fraction and the collagen of the cuticle. Later decay reduces the nonsoluble protein and increases the relative proportion of refractory structural components (tanned chitin and collagen) to more than 95% by day 30. Thus, only the sclerotized tissues are likely to survive beyond 30 days in the absence of early diagenetic mineralization. The sequence of degradation predicted from the relative decay resistance of macromolecules in the sedimentary record (protein → carbohydrate → lipid) is not, therefore, a consistent indicator of the preservation potential of structural tissues which incorporate them. The experiments reveal five stages in the decay of polychaete carcasses; whole/shriveled, flaccid, unsupported gut, cuticle sac, jaws and setae. All are represented in the fossil record. This allows an estimation of how far decay proceeded before it was halted by the fossilization process. The most complete preservations occur in the Cambrian where the Burgess Shale preserves evidence of muscle tissues. Traces of the gut and cuticle are more widely preserved, as at Mazon Creek, Grès à Voltzia, Solnhofen, and Hakel. Preservation varies within Konservat-Lagerstätten. The most common whole body preservation includes only the more recalcitrant tissues, jaws (where present) and setae, with an impression of the body outline. The stage of decay can be used as a taphonomic threshold, to provide an indication of how significantly the diversity of an exceptionally preserved biota is likely to have been reduced by taphonomic loss.

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II.—Late Saxon, Viking, and Early Medieval Finds from York

Dudley Waterman (1959)

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Author and article information

Journal

Title: Internet Archaeology

Abbreviated Title: IA

Publisher: Council for British Archaeology

ISSN (Electronic): 13635387

Publication date Created: 2002

Publication date (Print): 2002

Volume:

Issue: 11

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[1 ]University of York

Article

DOI: 10.11141/ia.11.3

SO-VID: 3f145bb8-d2ec-4f4f-be94-36b803b6562a

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Pre-history,Early modern history,Archaeology,Anthropology,Ancient history,History

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Pre-history, Early modern history, Archaeology, Anthropology, Ancient history, History

Preservation of Urban Archaeological Deposits: monitoring and characterisation of archaeological deposits at Marks & Spencer, 44-45 Parliament Street, York

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Abstract

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Internet Archaeology

Most cited references 11

Fossilization of soft tissue in the laboratory.

Decay and preservation of polychaetes: taphonomic thresholds in soft-bodied organisms

II.—Late Saxon, Viking, and Early Medieval Finds from York

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History

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