A Mammoth Christmas

I was five and half years old when I received a Christmas gift so magical that even now, over 40 years later, it still fills me with wonder.

My Nana doted on me and would have moved heaven and earth to spoil her first grandchild, but even she was surprised to find that the only thing a dyslexic child who could barely read and write his own name wanted for Christmas was a book.

A book was an unusual request, and she asked: ‘Are you sure?’, perhaps expecting me to ask for some unaffordable or unobtainable version of that years ‘It’ toy. But my favourite television show was ‘Life on Earth’, a David Attenborough-presented BBC spectacular, and each spellbinding episode would find me going to bed dreaming of fossils and what might be waiting to be discovered in the jungle of my own backyard.

Not only did she get me the book, but she also got me the full-colour augmented and enlarged Reader’s Digest edition, as the dust jacket proudly declared, ‘the millionaire’s version’. I treasured it with my life, carefully writing my name in the front in my neatest-ever handwriting, and for reasons I can no longer fathom, added my favourite number, which was 56.

Today I am a professional archaeologist, and despite having streamlined my semi-nomadic life to as much stuff as it is possible to fit into the back of a Land Rover, this book is still my oldest and most treasured possession. As I turn its pages now, I am still filled with the same sense of wonder and discovery as I felt as that awe inspired my five-year old self.

In retrospect I can join the dots between Attenborough’s inspired and accessible storytelling and DigVentures, the digital archaeology platform that I set up with my wife Lisa to help everyday people roll their sleeves up and join a dig. So, when the opportunity came to film alongside my childhood hero on the BBC’s flagship documentary ‘Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard’, all my Christmases had come at once.

The programme focused on a site we had been working on since 2017, leading a multidisciplinary team of archaeologists, geologists, and climate scientists from five different universities investigating one of the most startling archaeological finds ever made in the region. Today, the site looks as unassuming as any other former gravel quarry in England, but unbeknown to anyone, the remains of an ancient river that flowed some 210,000 years ago lay five metres below the surface. Its chance discovery by two amateur fossil hunters, Neville and Sally Hollingworth, had caught the BBC’s imagination. With cameras rolling from every angle, we greeted Sir David Attenborough and Professor Ben Garrod, catching their infectious excitement as we revealed the jumbled tusks and bones of numerous mammoths and multiple Neanderthal stone tools all washed against the ancient riverbank.

From kneeling on the edge of a tusk-filled trench to sitting in the site hut laughing at each other’s woeful chocolate addiction, the day passed in a surreal blur. In addition to at least five different individual mammoth’s remains, we had recovered pollen, seeds, insects, molluscs, amphisbaenians, fish, rodents, and small mammals, all providing important insights into what the climate was like when the river was flowing 210,000 years ago. Dating to a time when humans were abandoning an ever-colder Britain, this rich environmental record and closely associated Neanderthal artefacts provides a unique opportunity to reveal how humans responded to monumental environmental challenges – a contemporary resonance that Attenborough responded to.

As filming wrapped for the day, and we all posed for a team photo, my five-year old self moved closer to Attenborough, simultaneously not wanting to break the spell but also knowing that if I didn’t tell him my story, I would forever regret it.

Holding my well-loved book, I described to him how proud this moment would have made my Nana had she lived to see it, who despite all the odds had taught me to believe the impossible. Opening the page to my childlike signature, I asked him if he’d do me the honour of adding his name near mine; and, if he felt similarly inspired, to also add his lucky number.

Pulling away in the Land Rover from site that evening, the moment began to sink in. Most of life can feel haphazard, random and unplanned. But then moments come along like this that just feel right; like gigantic, illuminated road signs that scream ‘you’re doing awesome – keep on going!’ Pondering the serendipity of our mammoth discovery, I marvelled at the miraculously preserved currents of a distant past, and a magical Christmas gift that keeps on giving.

Watch the DV team in action with Sir David Attenborough, Professor Ben Garrod, and many others on BBC One, Dec 30th 8:00pm UK, and streaming on iPlayer after broadcast.