First artifacts found at Stainton excavation area.

These Artifacts were the first i found at Stainton beck, and were just down stream from were i have recently excavated Human skull fragments and a tibia shaft, from over 2 metres into the packed gravel beds.

 

1  Human male Tibia shaft

2  Human skull fragments inner brain case

3 Outer surface.

 

 

This Artifact was found in Stainton beck by myself 5 years ago, it has been described by Professionals from Durham University as firstly a possible ice skate! then a water worn piece of medieval cow bone and last but not least a regurgitated piece of bone a cow swallowed. this idea was from the main man Andy Currant of the National history museum.

The Artifact shown above and below had two equal tines when found, one was broken and lost.

The pieces below i believe are utilised animal leg bones ( Digging sticks )  one is a horse tibia, the other some type of bovine radius. These two items were also viewed by people at Durham university on a few occasions, and each time refered too as being split for marrow nothing more.

All these items where found in a very small section of Stainton beck not long after flooding, and just down stream from an exposure of the Stainton gravel beds.

 

 

 

 

 These images show very similar tools found in the orme copper mines in wales .

 

 

 

 

More organic looking material taken from mercia mudstone.

I today found more organic looking fossil material  in the Mercia mudstone outcrop at Stainsby beck Thornaby on tees. The image above shows the piece buried into the Mercia mudstone just below the tool.

The image above shows the new find before i removed the Triassic mudstone, it was buried in.

The image above and following images show the cleaned up pieces.

More as i learn more !

The image above shows one of many tubular pieces that resemble caddis fly casings

 

 

 

 

 

The images above and below i hope show what i believe could be the yellow coloured fossil larvae?

 

 

 

My good friends Andy Cooper and Roger Curry both spotted parts of these pieces dug from the Triassic Mercia mudstone outcrop at Stainsby beck Thornaby. That hinted at them being some kind of burrow system or tuffa but both spotted what looks to possibly be a section of caddis fly lavia ( of some sort ) casing.

 

 

 

 

 

The triassic mercia mudstone of Stainsby beck

Today i excavated the beck bank at stainsby beck in the south west area of Cleveland. The images show blue Mercia mudstone ( Triassic) that i uncovered.

I discovered that the Mercia mudstone is covered in exactly the same alluvial red-brown loamy friable clay that covers the Stainton gravel beds. but the gravel beds here are abscent, the very hard blood red clay that sits directly above the flat laying Mercia mudstone, has no rocks or pebbles in it, and both is intruded by and intrudes the Mercia mudstone.

Note how flat the Mercia mudstone is as are all the superficial deposits Ive excavated in the south west area of Cleveland.

The image above shows the very hard blood red clay that sits directly above the Mercia mudstone.

The last image shows the top red -brown loamy friable clay that that covers every excavation i have carried out in the south west area of Cleveland. With the blood red very hard clay below.




                                   The geological layers found at this location are as follows -

 Red - brown loamy friable clay, with very little stone or pebble content.

Blood red hard packed stoneless very dry clay, average thickness 300-400 mm

Mercia mudstone containing Tufa with fossils.

Ive recently been informed by Andy Cooper a good friend and in my mind an expert in the geology of the Cleveland area, that the red stone-clay could be the result of a fault in the Mercia deposits.

I have informed Andy that ive found that the Mercia mudstone outcrop in the Stainsby beck area of Thornaby on tees, is a lot larger than first reported, ive identified at least a 200 metre stretch of the western bankside, has visible mudstone outcrops.

Magnetic horse bone.

I recently read a report stating that magnetic material has been detected in human nasal bones, so i decided to carry out a little experiment myself. 

Firstly i sawed through a horse metacarpal, then carefully scraped the inner bone with an aluminium needle. I then placed strong magnets on the scraped out bone .

The magnets attracted the bone material i made sure there was no contamination to any of the items used. I can only presume that the bone contains some form of magnetite.   

Another femur and bos skull found in the same area as the earlier fossil male femur find.

These images show my discovery of   another Male human femur, in the same section of beck that i recently found the first male human  femur. also close by was this impressive fossil bos skull, it shows signes of a violent impact to the right, possibly enough to kill the animal.

Bos skull and Human femur Both mineralised found close together in an area i have found two mineralised Canus skulls and another Human mineralised femur.

I excavated this canus skull from the same location last year ime now wondering if there could be a connection.

These images show the Bos skull found not far from the human femurs,  and what ime sure is a more modern Bos skull found by myself at fairy dell Middlesbrough. The skull found at fairy dell has in my mind most definitely been slaughtered maybe quite modern , ie a centre punch to the centre of the skull.?

I have witnessed pigs being killed in this way, or maybe as the last comment says a pole axe? . But the Bos skull found near the human femurs was not slaughtered at least not by the impact wounds  i described

The skull above is most likely quite modern.

 

The skull above   i think could well have been washed from the nearby grey deposits that have yielded many more pieces , including a Human tibia piece .

Ancient human femure

The first image shows a horse radius, and bovine tibia i found not far from the mineralized Human femur, as with almost all the bone i either excavate or just find after flooding in the becks, there was no visible evidence of attention from animals or insects, or the elements.

The images below show an ancient mineralised human male femur it is unusually large and robust.

 Today identified by Anthropologists from Teeside university,  i believe it was washed from the Stainton gravel beds as with the majority of the fossil bone i find and excavate directly from the gravel beds.

The gravel beds have been dated by geologists as over 20 thousand years old, so if ime right this would  make this and other excavated human bone from deep inside the packed ancient Stainton gravel beds, from a time in our past when this area was not supposed to have trees, never mind horses - bovine -  and last but not least humans.  .

When found not far from Stainton village south west Cleveland, the shaft was full of hardened white minerals, maybee calcite. there was no visible damage to the surface of the bone, or evidence of attention from animals or insects. And as with most of the mineralized bone i find in the deep beck valleys of south west Cleveland there was no visible damage by the sun (heat) or water, nore was there any algae attached.

 

Stainton gravel beds found and excavated at another location.

These images show my latest discovery of the Stainton gravel beds, and excavation.

The image above shows the start of the excavation, the gravel bed can clearly be seen. The image below shows how flat the Stainton gravel beds are, and as at my other excavations covered with separate almost stoneless alluvial deposits.

The image above and below shows the excavation as i discovered a bone it looks to be a fibula piece but as yet i can not id it.

The end of today's excavation only one bone was found and no fossils, but as at Stainton and all the other excavations the bed was full of unrounded whinstone.

The geological layers at this location are as follows-

Red- brown loamy friable almost stoneless clay

Blue grey stoneless sandy clay containing organic material, average thickness 150 mm .

Stainton gravel bed average thickness 400 mm

Red plastic almost stoneless clay containing well preserved fossils.