Saturday 6 October 2012

Human and animal fossil bones found so far at Stainsby beck location.

Probably the largest Cervus antler ever excavated in Britain. 
These are images of my other finds at the same area i found the Ancient human male  mineralised femur bones one unusually large.

 1 - The red outline shows the points of impact.

 2 - This impact looks to have been caused by a horn.

 3 - I believe the horn damage was caused by the same impact.

 4 -  This piece of bone just below the eye socket seems to have refused




 5 -
This i think is a Red deer (Cervus Elephus) tine i found in the same area it measures 13.5 inches, ime not sure how long deer this size have been absent from this area.  We have plenty of  Roe deer, but Ive never heard of red deer or seen any in this area.


 6 -

These images show the human male  femur bones also found at this location one of of the male femur bones is described as unusually large in a report i have received.


.




 7 -


There may be no connection but i suspect there is, i believe the Human and animal bones found after flooding could be from a disturbed burial.


 8
 Above one of the femur bones not long after i discovered it.





9 - The bos skull and  male human femur.




The Antler piece below was found after flooding in the same area of Stainsby beck, it belonged to a very large Cervus ( Deer ) Possibly Cervus Elaphus  ( Red Deer )
 10


 11



 12



 13

Canis skull below this has spent no time in the rotting organic material of the beck, it must have been released not long before i found it, it does not have a scratch on the bone surface !

 14



 15




 16




 17




The mineralised bones below are my latest finds in the same area of Stainsby beck.




 18 - 19  - Horse tibia piece .



19 


Horse tooth
 20




21


Equid tooth

 23




24


Unknown Artiodactyla mandible

 25
  
 26


Horse Coffin Bone 
 27



This Hoof bone has spent little time in the beck.

28





 29




30

 Below Bones found on 25,12,2012

1

2

3
 Above Bos Metatarsal

4

5
 Above Bos Metacarpal
The blue silver staining is probably caused by Vivianite
6

7
 Above a Horse Humerus


8 - 12 Antler piece I believe to have been used as some sort of tool.

9

10 - Note how smooth the antler is in the areas shown in this image, I believe the antler piece was used as a restraining device, maybe to control sheep. 

11

12



13 - 14 Canis Humerus

14



15

16
 Above i think is one of the smaller Metapodial bones


17
Above unknown piece. 

And more found at an earlier date
1 - 6  Unknown metatarsal .


2


3



4



5



6



7 - 8  Unknown mandible piece .



8


9
The image above shows a Horse Metapodial


1 - 2  Horse Femur




  2



The three images below show a Bos Mandible

1

2

3


The three images below show what i believe to be a Deer Tibia 

1

2

3




The three images below show an as yet unknown Radius, it looks to be Bovine.

1

2

3



The two images below show an unknown rib
1

2


 Images 1 and 2 below show a large bird bone probably quite modern  ( Galus Galus ? )


1

2



The two images below show a Horse skull

1

2



Horse Metacarpals

The first 3 images show a Horse Metacarpal 
1

2

3



Image 4 shows another Metacarpal but the joint surface is different, i think this must be an age thing.

4


Bos Mandible section


5 - 9  This Mandible section weighs 300 grams



6  - This piece when handled feels like stone.



7

8 -  I believe it to have belonged to an Auroch

.

9




New finds same location



Images 1 to 3 show a Horse skull piece this is the second Horse skull found at this location.
1

2

3



Images 4 to 6 show a Horse Humerus.  

4

5

6


Image 7 shows a rear skull piece from an as yet unknown animal. 

7



Images 8 to 10 show a Horse upper tooth.

8

9

10




Images 11 to 15 show a Bos Cubonavicular Metapodial. 

 11

12

13

14

15



Images 16 to 17 show an unknown pelvis piece.

16

17



Images 18 to 20 show a rib piece from an as yet unknown animal. 

18

19

20

All the above show no signs of attention from man predators or scavengers, and nothing has been done to the sample other than a wash with soap mild disinfectant, then dried and rubbed up with a dry cloth. 



The link below shows the locations of sites related to the Stainton gravel beds.



 New finds 12 01 13


21 Assorted bones including two horse mandibles from different horses found very close together.

 22 These bones have not spent a long time in the beck, and must have been released in the recent flooding.

 23 This is the exact place i retrieved the two human femurs, a Canis radius a large section of cervidae antler and now this bovine femur shown below .

 24


 25-27  Horse mandible note the canine tooth.

 26

 27

 28

 29- 31 Second horse mandible found within a metre of the mandible pictured above.

 30

 31

 32 - 36  Bovine femur

 33

 35
 

 36

 37-  39  Horse tibia

 38

 39

 40- 42 unknown thoracic vertebrae

 41

 42

 43 - 44  Canis mandible

 44

 45 - 46 probably a deer tibia

46

47 -  48 bos metacarpal

48

 49 - 53 unknown tibia possibly canis .

50

51

 52

 53

 54- 56 Horse metapodial

 55

 56

 57 - 58 Rib piece probably bos

 58

 59 - 61  Unknown

 60

 61

 62 - Horse femur piece

 63 - Part of an unknown  mandible




All these new mineralised bone finds were found close to the site of the earlier Human and animal bone finds.
 64 - 67  Calcaneus ( ankle bone ) probably Bos.
  65
  66
  67

 68- 69 Mandible Bos or cervid note the blue teeth.
  69

70 - Unknown thoracic vertebrae.

  71 - Mandible piece
  72 - 73 Horse metatarsal, like a lot i find without a scratch on it !
  73

  74 - Metatarsal ( unknown )
 75- 76 Scapula piece probably cervid
  76
  77 -  I think this is a worn Astrogalas.
  78 - Canis mandible probably fox


Grey clay deposit found close to Human bone finds

79 - The clay deposit is apparent on both sides of the beck, and the beck bed, it looks like the beck has been cutting through this clay for a long time.


 80 - What ime told is a frog leg bone.


81 - An assortment of shells and another very small bone i sieved from the clay.


82 - Ime told this is a fragment from a large mammal lumber vertebrae, this was also sieved from the clay.


 83 Assortment of mammal bones found close by, they include another horse skull that is now three horse skulls found in a 2oo metre stretch of beck, i have never found one horse bone at this location with any sign of butchery



 84  The large metatarsal on the left i believe belonged to a large Auroch, it looks to have been around 300 mm long.

 85  It measures 73 mm widest


 86  45 mm thickest

 87 The bone wall averages 15 mm


 88 -  Yet another horse skull this time excavated from the grey deposit that ive sieved the frog bones and snail shells from, this now makes it four different horse skulls in a 200 metre stretch of Stainsby beck .


 89 - The skull can be seen still buried in the grey deposit. 

More on the grey deposit and the bone and artefacts excavated from it can be viewed at the link below. 




Horse skull

I found this in Stainsby beck Thornaby it at first had me baffled but after help from Friends on a US forum i found out it was part of a horse skull
 
 
 

I have no idea of its age as i never excavated it from the Stainton gravel beds located near by.
 
 
 
I hope these images help anyone in the future who comes across a piece like this as it had me confused for a while.
 I have been reliably informed there have been examples like this displayed in Museums listed as bear or big cat brain cases.  

    

Tuesday 2 October 2012

Triassic mineral lined insect tubes, possibly Caddis fly?

 
 
I have now looked closely at two segments of this material i excavated from Mercia mudstone at Stainsby beck Thornaby on Tees. ( As reported in earlier posts.)
 


I have found at least four separate mineral lined tubes with what look like carefully placed side pieces.

 
These could as far as i know the only fossil material ever found in the Mercia mudstone in this area. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The mineral lined half tubes can be seen in the centre of the image above, and just below left.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
One of the tubes is lined with clear crystals.


 

Sunday 30 September 2012

Fossil Ancient Dog skull



This dog skull was washed from the lake bed deposits at Stainsby beck Thornaby on Tees, after major flooding, it was found alongside two separate mineralised Human Femurs.
 

The shine and colouration are created by any type of prep work i only washed and dried the skull, nothing more.







The skull had no staining nore did it have the smell i would usually expect with items that have spent any time in the beck. 




Saturday 29 September 2012

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.