ABSTRACT
This chapter updates Addyman's account, at least with respect to sanitation and waste disposal more generally, using information gained during the investigation of hundreds of samples of archaeological deposits from dozens of sites during the life of the Environmental Archaeology Unit (1975-2003) at the University of York. It says, as per view of the Romans as having well-organised waste disposal is borne out by the excavation of an impressive stone-lined sewer under Church Street, within the Roman fortress. People living in clean zones of towns and, in the Roman period, in military establishments, may not have been immune to the effects of the filth exposed in less salubrious areas nearby, however. Apart from the smell, their homes and barracks would certainly have been invaded by the abundant flies emerging from cesspits and middens. Our knowledge of the cesspits of post-Conquest York comes from a variety of sites, although most studies have been on a small scale.
