This find, from one of the pits on Hungate, is about 45% of a face turned wooden bowl.  It was cut from a section of Alder trunk wood which had been split in two then roughly shaped before being mounted on the spindle of a pole lathe and turned.  Marks from the chisels and gouges made during this shaping are still clear on the interior and exterior faces of the object.  The rim is rounded and there are two parallel grooves carved around the outside of the bowl for decoration.  The base is slightly rounded and a turned step has been created to emphasize the transition from wall to base. The bowl seems to have been associated with food preparation or eating.  Much of the inside is stained with the same sort of dark staining from oils and fats that can be seen on modern wooden tools used in the kitchen.  At some stage in its life the bowl was very close to a fire, some small charred patches can be seen on the inside, just below the rim. Measuring about 80mm in height from base to rim and originally around 230mm in diameter, enough of the bowl survives for us to compare it with other finds from other excavations. 

The most similar object we have been able to find is a bowl which was excavated from a site at 33-35 Eastgate, Beverley, East Yorkshire.  This came from a medieval pit dated to the mid-fourteenth century and our bowl is so close in appearance it is almost certainly of the same date. At the end of its useful life the bowl had split along the grain.  This half of the bowl was thrown into a rubbish pit which became rapidly waterlogged and prevented the wood from rotting away completely.  The other half of the bowl was not found, although the pit was fully excavated.  Wood is a material which can be and was recycled and it is likely that the missing portion of the bowl ended up in a fire.

Steve Allen, June 2008