Excavations at the Austin Friary, Hull, Yorkshire, 1994 and 1999, Part 2: The Fabric and the Material Culture

Excavations at the Austin Friary, Hull, Part 2 publishes the fabric and material culture of a religious house founded in 1316/17 and dissolved in 1539. Editors D. H. Evans and Lisa M. Wastling bring together the artefacts and structural evidence recovered in 1994 and 1999, from the buildings themselves to objects left with the dead.

The finds include an exceptional group of coffins, almost all made from imported Baltic oak, alongside preserved textiles, leather, dress accessories and window glass. Some burials contained carefully placed wooden rods, a practice also recorded across the North Sea; rare pieces of musical instruments offer another glimpse of life at the friary. Floor tiles and building materials document the religious house and the reuse of parts of its buildings after the Dissolution, while the imported timber reflects Hull’s reach as a trading port.