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<136>: Badly damaged copper alloy Nuremburg jetton, c. 55% surviving; torn along one side and in poor condition, but most likely a Hanns Krauwinckle type. These are very common on late 16th to early 17th century sites. Probably used as a counting or exchequer token or for gaming (see Egan 2005: 172 for a full discussion of these objects). Diameter 25mm, weigh 3g.

<137>: Large copper alloy jetton or token of similar date and use to <136>; Groat size, c. 30.5mm in diameter and weighing 2g, possibly of French origin and probably 17th century in date. The inscription is illegible and would benefit from further cleaning and conservation.

With the exception of the reported pieces three pieces of window lead (<156, 170>; total weight 24g) and two off-cuts (<155>, weight 25g; <157> 11g) were also found.

Tr. 2: ‘Boy Bishop’ token, probably made in Bury St Edmunds or Ely. This example is probably of the half-groat size. Obverse has a crudely executed Bishop’s mitre and the reverse a standard long-cross, triple pellets within the central field and illegible legend. Diameter c. 27mm. Boy Bishop tokens were issued during the Christmas festive period between St Nicholas’ day on the 6th December until Childermas (or Holy Innocents’ Day) on the 28th December. During this period, a choirboy was elected as bishop and treated as a real bishop. During his time as bishop, the Boy Bishop lead processions and preached sermons, but was not allowed to celebrate Mass. The Boy Bishop would preach a sermon on the 28th December, resigning the same day. In some cities and towns, especially East Anglia lead tokens were issued, with the main centre at Bury St Edmunds, although the practice also exited at Sudbury, Ipswich and Ely. Tokens were typically exchanged for alms. Most tokens were based on general coinage and groat size, the half-groat size, such as this example, being much rarer, with more finely detailed ones generally earlier in date. The practice of electing Boy Bishops effectively ended with the Dissolution in 1536 (for a fuller discussion on these objects see Rigold 1977).

Some 81 pieces of poorly preserved and heavily concreted ironwork were recovered. The vast majority of these consisted of nails of varying weight and length and pieces of door hinge or furniture. None of these pieces are diagnostic beyond being handmade. Included within the assemblage, however, are several diagnostic pieces that warrant further comment. Due to the poor preservation of the assemblage, X-rays will be required in order to provide further identification and evidence of use.

<151> : Several pieces of door furniture, including a large hinge-strap with leaf-shaped terminal c. 205mm long and weighing 196g; basal or top door pivot c. 94mm long, with right-angle staple arrangement weighing 60g; five nail fragments, the largest weighing 25g and with a dome-shaped head and square cross-sectioned shaft.

Includes documentary archive relating to excavation, mainly site drawings, site plans, sections of trenches, context locations and descriptions, photographs and corresponding negatives of site and pits, context lists, finds list, trench descriptions.

Includes photographs and corresponding negatives of site and pits, context lists, finds list, trench descriptions.

Two boxes of animal bone were assessed. The material covers both phases of the site's occupation, the Nunnery Phase and the College Phase, and the main aim of the evaluation was to judge whether differences in living standards could be determined from the bone fragments.

The Nunnery-phased material consists of approximately 3 kilograms of animal bone while that of the College Phase is substantially more (9 kg). It should be noted that 1.5 kilograms of the Nunnery assemblage consists of the partial skeletons of a young pig and her three piglets (foetal). In general, the preservation was reasonable, and recovery techniques had permitted the retrieval of some very small fragments of bone including bird, fish and rat remains. Dog gnawing was observed on a minimal amount of bone.

The identifiable fraction of the Nunnery bone is 70 fragments and that of the College Phase, 683. However, the small nature of the Nunnery assemblage precludes further in-depth analysis, indeed many of the fragments belonged to oxo (large mammal, cow/horse/red deer) and sma (medium-sized mammal, sheep/goat/roe deer pig/) categories.
The partial pig skeleton had not reached two years of age and her three piglets were all foetal.

Showing that both meat-bearing (crudely denoted by bold type) and non-meat-bearing bone occurs for cattle, sheep/goat and pig, it would appear that live animals were brought in or kept at the College, and slaughtered on site.

Since pig bones, by virtue of their shape, can be recognised from very small fragments, it is highly likely that the sma component of the assemblage is sheep/goat and it is very noticeable that this taxa is much more fragmented than the cattle bones. The oxo fraction is most likely reflecting cattle, since horse and red deer were only represented by one metapodial fragment and two metatarsal bones respectively. This aspect would repay further study in conjunction with an in depth analysis of the butchery marks. Incidentally, several cattle and sheep /goat vertebrae had been split sagittally and also a sheep cranium had been cleaved in half in order to extract the brains.

While further analysis would establish the relative importance of the main domesticates, the impression gained from this evaluation is that mutton formed an important part of the college diet together with beef, with some contribution of pork and variation in the diet being provided by duck, wood pigeon, chicken, goose, red deer and fish, with perhaps the occasional rabbit or hare.

Both the Nunnery and College animal bone assemblages are unique in the archaeological record. Unfortunately, the Nunnery sample is too small to be useful at the analytical stage. However, the quality of such material has been established b y the excavation, a n d it is recommended that at the earliest opportunity, n o time should b e lost obtaining further samples.

The College Phase assemblage is also important because very few post-Medieval assemblages have been analysed and published. The material is very well preserved and, as stated above, an analysis of the butchery is desirable. It would be advisable to undertake this in conjunction with other assemblages of similar date, which are i n the same geographical area.

Includes documentary archive relating to excavation, mainly site drawings. Includes site plans, sections of trenches, context locations and descriptions.