became less of a barrier, and may have been actively dismantled. They were perhaps
replaced by an extension of the other two sides of the fortress walls down to the rivers,
thereby defining the line taken by the city’s medieval stone walls in this area. To the
south of the River Ouse, within the former Roman colonia, the rectilinear street grid
was totally disregarded by a new main road, Micklegate (ON Miklugata ‘Main Street’),
leading to the new river crossing. Meanwhile, to the east of the River Foss, there is
evidence for a 500 m long ribbon development of properties in the tenth/eleventh
Figure 27. 2. 1 Excavations in 1967 – 81 by York Archaeological Trust in Coppergate, York, provide
much of the currently available information about Viking Age York. In the tenth and eleventh centuries
the Coppergate street frontage was occupied by timber buildings, with long and heavily pitted backyards
behind them.
–– chapter 27 ( 2 ): York––