Saturday 15 September 2012

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 .







Tuesday 11 September 2012

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.



 

Saturday 8 September 2012

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.
 

Sunday 2 September 2012

Monday 27 August 2012

Compass experement with Basaltic andesite.

I recently experimented using a compass, firstly i placed a plastic wheelie bin well away from any metal objects, i then placed first a piece of rock taken from the great whinn sill at High force in upper teesdale on top of the bin. Then i approached the bin with the compass from about 3 metres, by the time i had placed the compass on top of the rock it had been deflected by 70-80 degrees.
Irepeated this proscess with similer sized pieces of rock my findings below.


Results
             Whinn sill  deflected 70-80 degrees   ( High force)
  
               Laverkiite  deflected  20 degrees  ( Staithes sea wall )

              Coldberry  ( Cleveland dyke )  40-60 degrees


               Stainton quarry  Middlesbrough  ( Cleveland dyke )  This i repeated 3 times  70- 180 degrees. 






Saturday 25 August 2012

Auroch-Ox skull

I visited Dormans museum today with my daughters, we took the skull found by one of them at fairy dell south Midlesbrough, to compare with a 10.000 years plus skull they have on display said to have been found in Middlesbrough .


The image above shows the skull on display in a secure glass box in Dorman museum in Middlesbrough, titled as a short faced Ox? dating between 10 to 200,000 years bp





Above is one of the skulls found at fairy dell Middlesbrough  by one of my daughters to the left being compared with the museum piece.


The skull my daughter found all them years ago still sits un viewed by the Cleveland public in my shed along side countless other ancient treasures , because of so called professional arrogance !

Sunday 19 August 2012

Stainton gravel beds excavated at yet another location

The first image shows the approach down the deep beck valley side of maltby beck to the excavation.







The second image shows the early stages of the excavation, even at this stage i was in no doubt that i had found yet another continuation of the Stainton gravel beds.

The third image shows the gravel bed becoming more apparent, as are the deposits both above and below identical in make up and thickness as at my main stainton excavation at Stainton beck just short of a mile east


The fourth image shows my first bone find embedded deep in the gravel bed.







 Image 6 shows the bone released and covered in a concretion.




The seventh image shows a horse upper molar, these gravel beds ime told must be over 20.000 years old, yet ive also been told by professionals in the past that there were no horses in this area around that time !!! well ive found plenty.



image 8 shows the end of the excavation for the day, the Stainton gravel bed can clearly be seen.



Image 9 shows either a Bos or Bison tooth.


The remaining images show the washed and dried bone found, the larger bone is a piece of a tibia but its to damaged to id.







Re: Tooth mineralization
August 24, 2012 08:06PM
Heath,
Teeth and bones start out as the mineral Hydroxylapatite (with some organic components too). During long burial in soil, some of the hydroxyl part (the "(OH)" in the chemical formula) can slowly get replaced by fluorine (F), and eventually the mineral part turns into the mineral Fluorapatite, which is a bit more resistant than the original Hydroxylapatite. There have been attempts to date old teeth and bones by the amount of fluorine they've absorbed, but I imagine there are so many variables involved that the results would be only a little bit superior to guesswork, although I haven't studied the method..
That's the reason that toothpaste contains "fluoride" - It's an attempt to speed up the replacement of the Hydroxylapatite in our teeth by Fluorapatite, making them more resistant to decay.
Depending on the soil chemistry in your area, other minerals could be entering the teeth too, like iron oxides, iron phosphates (vivianite, etc.), aluminium phosphates (variscite, etc.). The dark colour isn't necessarily from a mineral, however; it could be from the decomposition of the organic part of the tooth.
Cheers

Thanks for that Petrov






Update on this excavation 26,8,2012
I excavated another metre in today although i did not discover as many fossils as usual, i did uncover this lower jaw piece, i  also discovered a rich organic section below the tightly packed gravel bed. 

The first image shows the sit before i started  the second excavation.

Image two shows the upper jaw piece, i t was excavated about 2 metres into the packed gravel bed.


Image three shows the separate sequence of layers as at the main excavation at Stainton beck about a mile to the east.


Image four and five show the mandible after being washed.



Update on excavated fossils


This piece has coating  a of many different small crystals the main stone is full of small Ammonites and coral among other unidentified pieces

This piece was also excavated



The geological layers at this location are as follows-

Red - brown loamy friable almost stoneless clay.

Blue grey sandy clay containing organic material average thickness 100mm

Stainton gravel bed containing fossils and preserved mammall bones.

Mixture of sandy clay deposits and plastic almost stoneless red clay.


               

Thursday 16 August 2012

Ironstone hematite fossil dug from the Stainton gravel beds




I excavated this piece of what i think is hematite containing the fossil shell that can be seen to the top middle of the image. The piece attracts a rare earth magnet.


           
                                                                

                                                     

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Minerals recently found in upper Teesdale .



 
 
 
 
I found these minerals recently i find them fascinating, the first two images show crystals found in split geodes found in upper Teesdale,   The third image shows what seems to be some kind of melicaria commonly found in Mexico, this piece was found in upper Teesdale .

The two images above show a split rock found in the centre of an egg shaped geode, its coated in crystals.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The first image's show  split geode's containing what i think are quartz crystals both large and very small.
The last image shows the inside of the rock found in the egg shaped geode.