Internet Archaeology 7. Nicholson. Introduction

1.0 Introduction

The fish remains discussed in this paper originated from two sites excavated behind the present Quayside at Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The excavations took place in 1984-5 and 1985-6 and the sites are known as Queen Street (A) and Crown Court (B) respectively (see Figure 1).

Key
	Reclaimed land
	Excavation
A	Queen Street
B	Crown Court

location map
Figure 1: Newcastle quayside - site locations

Both sites revealed evidence of medieval buildings and dumping to reclaim the riverfront in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries (O'Brien et al. 1988; 1989). Most of the fish remains originated from the organically rich dumping horizons and from accumulations of ashy material on streets and floors. The assemblages have been studied individually (Nicholson 1988; 1989), but as the sites were similar in date and produced similar groups of fish bones the assemblages are discussed together for the purpose of this paper.