Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

The Origins of York: New Thoughts

A lecture by Dr Mark Whyman, York Archaeological Trust

A joint event organised by YPS in association with the York Archaeological Trust

The history and archaeology of York is usually regarded as having begun with the arrival of the Roman IX legion at the site in AD 71.  Evidence for earlier, prehistoric activity and settlement of the site remains sparse, even after seventy years and more of co-ordinated archaeological research.  In all likelihood, however, the reasons for this are related to factors affecting the visibility of such early remains, particularly the great depth of later archaeological layers within the city.  Recent discoveries and reappraisal suggest that there may have been much more to prehistoric York than has previously been suspected; what this ‘much more’ may have been is the subject of this talk.

Report

The origins of York were thought to have resulted from the Roman eye for a military location. Archaeology of the prehistory of the city and region suggests a much earlier geopolitical origin determined by post-glacial topography. Bronze to Iron Age herding communities pastured their beasts on the sand and gravels of the uplands and had their spiritual and cultural focus on glacial meres and rivers there. They probably led their cattle down to summer pastures in the Vale of York, and many different groups may have met regularly on the land at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss where small glacial meres may also have been an attraction. Keyhole archaeological evidence in York, at the natural ground level, of heavy trampling and even ancient cowpats suggests a likely meeting place for these transhumant communities.

A more speculative suggestion emerged from beneath the Roman layer at 9 Blake Street, where a series of oval depressions was found, reminiscent of similar holes at Stonehenge where bluestones had been moved and re-established in other configurations. If a ceremonial henge site had developed at York, might the Romans have found it expedient to take it over, as they did elsewhere, and build a fortress in order to rule the tribal area – in this case, the Brigantes? A transhumant system of seasonal grazing may have become a supply system for the garrison, an example of the Empire tapping into an existing economy, and affirming the existence of the important cultural and social centre they renamed Eboracum.

Carole Smith