The Dig

This is an aerial view of our excavation area. The image shows the trenches on the left hand side of the quarry, as well as pools of water. This entire quarry was flooded prior to the start of the excavation. Water management became a key part of successfully completing the dig, and required constant monitoring to ensure the area did not become resubmerged while the excavation was ongoing.

Once the quarry was drained, an extensive period of fieldwalking began. Working in 10m x 10m grids, the team carefully traversed the quarry looking for worked flint and faunal remains. Each find was carefully logged with a GPS and flagged for later investigation. This fieldwalking helped inform the team as to where to locate trenches for the next phase of investigation.

A team of geoarchaeologists from the University of Winchester worked to identify the path of the palaeochannel which once meandered through the landscape. Palaeochannels are ancient, extinct waterways which are an excellent place to focus an excavation. Through all periods of time, bodies of water attract both humans and animals alike, and can often be a great source of archaeological finds and environmental insight.

As the excavations began on site, the team made sure to carefully wet sieve every shovelful of sediment removed from the trenches. Working in a water-logged, muddy quarry means that identifying human-worked flint from naturally occuring flint is made all the more difficult when it’s covered in a brown, silty clay film. Each bucket of spoil was carefully washed on a sieve lined with stiff mesh and thoroughly checked over for worked flint. Luckily, there was no shortage of available water.

Once the layers of gravel were removed, the team began to excavate the sandy layer beneath. The geoarchaeologists determined that this sand formed the bank of the ancient river. Centimetre by centimetre, layers of sand were removed, paying close attention to any flint, fossils or plant remains uncovered along the way. All of the excavated sediment was collected in buckets and put through a fine-mesh wet sieve to catch small fragments of worked flint and palaeoenvironmental samples.

The team worked in 1m x 1m grids to carefully excvate the bank of the palaeochannel. With no features like post holes or ditches, the entire open excavating area required careful examination. Here, you can see the undulating clay of the river bed, shaped by the water which once flowed through this area. You can also see the sample buckets full of excavated sediment on the trench edge ready for processing, and the wet sieve in the background. The samples were analysed for seeds, shells and insects to better understand the environment and climate over 200,000 years ago.

Within one of our grids on the bank of the palaeochannel, we uncovered a disarticulated mammoth ulna. This fragmentary right ulna weighs over 5kg, and would have belonged to an adult mammoth measuring approximately 4m tall at the shoulder. Preliminary analysis suggests this find may show evidence of butchery or animal gnawing, providing vital clues to understanding how mammoths and Neanderthals interacted in this landscape. However, further research is needed to confirm these findings.

This thoratic vertebra was nearly complete when found. It measures just shy of 20cm across, is unfused, and has been identified as belonging to a juvenile mammoth – under the age of 18-19 when it died.

This flint scraping tool fits perfectly between a thumb and a forefinger and is even more evidence that there was human activity at the site. Measuring approximately 4cm long by 3cm wide, a small tool like this would probably have been used for scraping hides which could then be used for clothing or shelter. This tool was collected from a grid less than 1m away from the mammoth ulna, suggesting that perhaps early humans and mammoths were indeed interacting on this site.

A test pit situated around the find spot of the handaxe which was discoverd by fossil collectors. This trench uncovered a substantial amount of mammoth remains including a mandible, rib and tusk.

A palaeolithic handaxe found by fossil collector Mark O’dell. This handaxe was not found as part of the Cerney Wick excavation, but was collected from a nearby field. The heavy abrasions and staining on this handaxe suggests it is much older than the handaxe found in conjunction with the excavation. Furthermore, its degraded state may indicate that it has encountered significant post-depositional movement, perhaps in water and gravel. Given the lack of secure provenience for this tool, it does not give much insight into the excavation itself, but does indeed add to the wider picture of the palaeolithic landscape in this area.

A test pit which explored the deposits within the palaeochannel. By looking at the composition of each layer, we can determine the path of the ancient river and how it changed over time.