York Historic Environment Record

Between 25th February and 6th March 2013 York archaeological Trust undertook an archaeological evaluation on a plot of land known as the Former Bowling Green, Sycamore Place, York (NGR SE 5924 5236). The site was subjected to a desk-based assessment in December 2012 (Antoni, YAT Desk-based Assessment Report 2012/58) which reasoned that the area was suspected to contain burials pertaining to a 3rd – 4th century Roman cemetery, although there was no certain evidence from the site itself. The work was commissioned by Merry Vale Developments, in advance of submitting a planning application for the proposed construction of five dwellings on the site. A total of seven 5m x 2m trenches were excavated in areas currently considered most under threat from the proposed construction of five properties on the site. Three of them were positioned adjacent to the southern site boundary, over the footprint of proposed dwellings fronting Sycamore Place and Trenches 5 and 6 were placed towards the northern edge of the site, inside the footprint of garages proposed to serve them. The results showed that the western two-thirds of the site had been cut down to the natural sub soils by ground works undertaken in advance of the formation of the bowling green. The eastern third of the site was found to contain a well stratified sequence of 3rd – 4th century Roman deposits and features, including large pits and possible structural features such as beam slots and/ or drainage gullies. These are not fully understood and will remain so unless further work is undertaken. The environmental evidence showed that these features may have been excavated for the discard arising from metalworking and smithing and that such activity have been carried out close by. The pottery evidence recovered from the same features did, however, have ritual or sepulchral characteristics, suggesting that this may be an oversimplified interpretation for the site in general.