Saturday 17 November 2012

Collection of excavated bone from my main dig into the stainton gravel beds, including human.

Please do not confuse these finds with the later Stainsby sacrificial clay deposit finds.  

All of these images show mineralised bone excavated directly from the Stainton gravel beds..1
 First four images unknown Humerus probably cervidae.


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The next six images show an unknown scapula piece.
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The next four images show an unknown bovine mandible piece.
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The next five images show an unknown femur piece
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The next five images show what i and others that have viewed it think is a very large cervidae humerus and ulna piece, note the cracks this piece seems to have been cracked due to the immense pressure it has been under.
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The next seven images show 2 artiodactiyla mandible pieces
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The next 3 images show either a bovidae or cervidae humerus
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The next three images show an unknown vertebrae
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The next three images show what i believe to be a carved mandible piece.
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The next three images show a piece from the back of an unknown skull the atlas vertebrae would be attached to this piece.
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The next image shows an unknown ulna piece that i believe shows a puncture mark created by the tooth of a predator.





The next two images show a horse tooth this piece was excavated i metre into the stainton gravel beds at maltby beck.
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The next image shows a bovine tooth excavated at the same maltby site.
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And last but not least the last image shows a Human tibia shaft excavated deep into the packed beds at my main dig at Stainton,    I also excavated Human skull fragments and an arm bone that i did not have time to photograph, the bones are now in the possession of the Cleveland police Anthropologist, please note all of these pieces have been washed and dried no more !
All of the pieces above were carefully excavated from deep into the packed previously undisturbed gravel beds



               

Saturday 10 November 2012

Angular whinstone layer above the Cleveland dyke

I made this excavation into the Cleveland dyke exposure at Stainsby beck Thornaby on tees today, i was surprised to find a layer of angular whinstone, averaging 350mm thick about 1 metre above the dyke, separated by a stoneless alluvial clay deposit, the same clay deposit also covers the whinstone bed.
 How this layer of whinstone got to sit a metre above the stoneless alluvial layer then be buried under the same type of stoneless deposit is beyond my understanding at the moment.



 In the above image the orange tool marks the top of the angular whinstone bed- layer ?
 In the above image the Dyke outcrop can be seen just above the water line, then the stoneless alluvial layer, then the angular whinstone deposit.
 The image above shows another piece of rounded whinstone, with pieces of decomposing whinstone around it.
 The rest of the images show some cleaned up examples of the whinstone in the deposit, there all magnetic, though for some reason the rounded pieces seem far more magnetic, than the angular whinstone.
 
 
 

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Septarean nodule

I excavated this piece from what i think is reworked mercia mudstone, at Stainsby beck Thornaby on tees.

The darker shapes contain white crystals.


The piece contains a lot of small fossils.


     

Saturday 20 October 2012

Mineralised Antler piece

Found this Antler piece today, it weighs 800 grams dry, at first i thought it to be Cervus Elephus, but ime not certain.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ancient bone handle

 
 
The worked bone looks to be a lower leg bone, from what ime not sure, i was once told by a person from Durham University that this piece contained a metal blade once, ive checked the insides with rare earth magnets and a microscope, and can find no reason, for this conclusion.