York Historic Environment Record

The site lies on land previously used as railway sidings but currently re-developed for ancillary railway buildings. Construction of the railway in the second half of the nineteenth century located an extensive Roman cemetery in the area, which contained both inhumation burials and cremations. Although earlier archaeological investigations around the station have demonstrated extensive damage caused by levelling associated with the former railway construction work, recent excavation of articulated burials at the Railway Hotel indicate that the area is archaeologically sensitive, with the possibility of intact deposits. The evaluation here reported confirmed the presence of archaeological remains on the site. From the analyses of the material recovered, it would seem that the deposits encountered were all disturbed and redeposited by the construction of the railway. However, given the limited depth of the trenches and the disturbance by recent services it cannot be stated that no intact strata survive on the development area. The disturbance encountered could be localised and the depth of the disturbance remains unknown. Four sediment sample from deposits revealed by excavations at York Railway Station were submitted for an evaluation of their bioarchaeological potential.The very few recovered biological remains were of no interpretative value. No further work is recommended on the current material.