York Historic Environment Record

Seven cores through the earth mound under Clifford's Tower, York were commissioned by Ramboll in 2015 as part of a geotechnical study of the mound's properties in advance of construction work. This report contains descriptions and images of the cores, which represent the only reliable information on the stratigraphy of the mound's full depth. Finds of human and animal bones, as well as plant remains were found in a number of cores. Sediment sampling from the basal parts of the cores was therefore carried out to help understand the make-up, retrieve further datable material and try to establish whether the construction might have made use of an existing prehistoric mound. Many of the plant remains recovered from these samples were post-Roman or medieval in character. All samples also contained ceramic building material, suggesting a Roman and/or later dates. The mound of Clifford's Tower appears, therefore, not to have augmented an earlier mound, but instead was constructed directly on top of part of the Roman cemetery, recorded within the Castle Yard. It appears that base of the mound was made by simply excavating and piling up the local topsoil, subsoil and sediments and their contents, with little regard for the Roman burial ground Centre for Archaeology Report series Canti M et al/2016/Clifford's Tower, York Report on Cores through the mound, 2015/Report No 40-2016.