In 1976, archaeologists digging below the cellars of an old sweets' factory first found the remains of the tenth century city. The ground was moist and spongy, like a peat bog. This oxygen-free environment had preserved a large number of everyday items, many of which would normally have rotted away. Over 40,000 different objects were recovered. These included tools, shoes, coins, jewellery, animal-bone combs, cups - even musical instruments, and a toilet seat!

Similarly, large parts of the mainly-wooden buildings had survived. In one case, that even allowed tree-ring dating to show that the wood came from trees cut down in the year 970. So it has been possible to reconstruct the complete buildings, with the same size, shape and relationship to each other as they had more than a thousand years ago.

Each of them was both workshop and home in the same building. They belonged to tradesmen such as a butcher, a blacksmith and a carpenter, and another whose skill was creating objects out of deer antlers. Other workshops in the Jorvik reconstruction are those of craftsmen who worked in leather and metal, and there are also food shops.

The original excavation was carried out by the York Archaeological Trust, which still runs Jorvik today.

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Exercise - Comprehension

Look at the statements below, according to the text are they true or false?