The earliest archaeological deposit in this area was a thick grey layer directly overlying the natural subsoil, which appeared to cover most of the excavation trench except where it had been removed by more recent interventions (such as the walls of the amphitheatre, medieval cess pits etc). This layer remains unexcavated at present but is believed to represent the original (pre-Roman) ground surface. Pollen samples taken from two exposed sections of this layer have produced good results and an initial assessment has identified alder, hazel, grass and cereal pollen suggesting that the immediate environs had been managed as part of an arable farming regime (possibly Iron Age settlement?)
The next significant event would appear to have been the construction of the ‘concentric wall’, which comprised standard military style sandstone faced block work with a rubble core and bonded with puddle red clay. The wall was set in a shallow foundation trench that was not deep enough to encounter bedrock. A masonry specialist from York felt that this wall had been constructed in a bit of a rush?
Once the ‘concentric wall’ had been built a large dump of redeposited natural clay was tipped against its internal face and presumably occupied all of the space between the concentric wall and arena wall. This material is thought to represent the first stage of excavation associated with the creation of the arena. Subsequently, a terracing cut was made into this redeposited natural clay and the flat base of this terrace was then cut by a network of slots to accommodate the timber grillage first identified in the 1960’s excavations. This timber grillage and the associated terrace were subsequently covered by a deep deposit of red sand – almost certainly the decayed sandstone bedrock quarried form the arena floor during its second stage of excavation. None of these deposits have yet been excavated so no dating evidence has been retrieved.
Along the exterior face of the ‘concentric wall’ a sandstone footing was detected, which was thought to represent the base of an external staircase leading to the back of the amphitheatre seating rake. A sandstone cobbled surface was also laid over the original ground surface on the exterior of the concentric wall. This surface was subsequently covered by a series of deposits, surfaces and postholes that are thought to represent external booths and stalls associated with activities at the amphitheatre. Dating evidence from these deposits has included late 1st century pottery and a coin (a bronze As of Vespasian AD 69-79), which suggests that the first amphitheatre has quite an early construction date. Chicken bones and cuts of beef rib also suggest that these stalls were selling light snacks for the spectators.
The outer most wall was a massive construction consisting of a sandstone foundation 2.7m wide that was excavated to sandstone bedrock. This foundation was clearly cut through the deposits thought to represent the booths and stalls of the first amphitheatre – thus demonstrating that this wall was a later addition. The upstanding masonry of this wall consisted of well-dressed stone blocks bonded in a brown lime mortar – the masonry was of superior workmanship compared to that of the concentric wall. The external face of the outer wall was furnished with buttresses at regular intervals along its circumference: there was one buttress either side of each vomitoria spaced at 3 paces; then a single buttress between each vomitorium and entranceway spaced at 6 paces. These buttresses were suitably massive as to suggest that they had performed a structural function as opposed to being part of a façade.
The vomitoria walls were also added at this time though the construction trench for these walls was no deeper than the foundations of the concentric wall and they were not as massive as the foundations of the outer wall. Even so the massive size of the vomitoria foundations would suggest that they were intended to take a heavy load bearing as one might expect from stone vaulting designed to carry the upper rows of seating in the enlarged amphitheatre. It was clear that the construction of the vomitoria walls would have necessitated the removal of the timber framework seating of the first amphitheatre, suggesting that an entirely new arrangement for the seating would have been installed – possibly all stone seats?
Beyond the external face of the outer wall there was a series of between 5 and 6 metalled road surfaces – the earliest one of which appeared to be contemporary with the construction of the second amphitheatre. These road surfaces have still to be excavated but it is hoped that they may yield vital dating evidence for the construction and use of the second amphitheatre.
Two episodes of wall robbing were detected the earlier seems to have concentrated on the concentric wall and the vomitoria suggesting that there was a desire to keep the outer wall standing to a significant height – perhaps for defensive purposes? The second robbing episode was aimed at the outer wall, but interestingly the stone robbing was undertaken from outside of the amphitheatre, which led to the inner face of the wall surviving to a much higher level – possibly to maintain an existing property boundary?
The dating of the stone robbing is still tentative, but some late Saxon Chester ware pottery (10th/11th century) may be present in the backfill of the stone robbing trenches. Certainly the amphitheatre walls had been robbed before the appearance of medieval cess pits on the site during the 12th and 13th centuries.
From the 12th century onwards the area of trench A appears to have been to the rear of properties fronting on to Little St. John Street and was largely used for the construction of cess pits. The distribution/density of medieval pits may enable us to distinguish individual properties with in the excavation trench even though the property boundaries themselves did not survive. These pits produced a good assemblage of medieval artefacts including some exceptional finds such as the bone hair comb and the complete pottery jug. They also produced a wealth of environmental samples which have produced plant seeds, fish bone and even parasite remains.
Despite the fact that some substantial buildings were still standing in the area of trench A up until the 1950’s very little evidence was present for their existence. Two flights of stone steps were identified along the north-western edge of the excavation, which apparently led to cellars now buried beneath the modern road. The main feature of these buildings present on the excavation was a network of salt-glazed sewer pipes all of which fell towards the modern road and probably served outside toilets at the back of the properties. A brick built garage with a concrete floor and car inspection pit was also identified.
The northern limit of Prof. Newstead’s excavation trench from 1930 was re-excavated and this suggested that the stone foundations of the amphitheatre recorded by Newstead had been removed as part of his excavation process. Conversely the 1960’s excavation undertaken by F H Thompson had left far more intact archaeology in the ground than we had predicted – leaving us with an opportunity to excavate some of the timber grillage next year!