PREHISTORIC ANIMAL REMAINS AT HARKSTEAD by
HAROLD E . P .
SPENCER
IN 1948 a few bones of a small elephant together with sorne remains of horse, red deer and wild ox or bison were discovered. One of the fossils is an uncut first milk tooth of mammoth which may indicate a young cow who died with her unborn " first-born." DĂźring the ensuing years this patch of foreshore was obscured but some lads from the Tower Ramparts School, Ipswich, reported some bones in June of this year shortly after a visit to the site by members of the Society. These remains were investigated at the earliest convenient time, the spot being covered at high tide, and a number of the shattered bones were removed to the Museum at Ipswich. In addition to the bones partly exposed in the brickearth, it was found some had been washed out by tidal and wave action and these were scattered in fragments over a fairly large area of the foreshore. Under these circumstances parts of two teeth of a Mammoth calf three to five years old were recovered. There was also most of the upper dentition of a wild ox of bison of which one tooth, a right Upper first molar was picked up in 1948, and a few remains of red deer and horse. It is an odd fact that the left Upper first molar of the bovine was found under one of the thigh bones of the larger elephant. We may therefore assume the various animals died at about the same time. The bones have been kept very moist for a prolonged period and when first disinterred were soft and crumbled easily, but when dried they were hard enough to handle. DĂźring their removal from the sticky clay extreme care must be used to extract them in as large fragments as possible, a most difficult task as they have been subjected to the weight of some twenty feet or more of over-lying strata which has been removed by tidal erosion in relatively recent years. It is evident from the association of the bones of the older mammoth that the entire skeleton must have been present. Part of the pelvis was recovered in 1948 with one heel bone and an upper tooth. This year most of the fragments of one thigh bone have been removed and partly restored and one shin bone. Only part of one humerus and the upper part of an ulna have been found. Over a hundred fragments of the lower jaw were collected, and these constitute the major part which has been largely restored. The teeth, which also were broken, indicate the beast was about fifteen to twenty years old. The discovery of associated fossil bones of one animal in the Stutton brickearth is an unusual occurrence, and it is even more unusual to have a similar association of the remains of two or
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ANIMAL REMAINS AT HARKSTEAD
three other animals in the same limited area, viz., wild ox or bison, red deer and horse, in addition to the older and younger Mammoth. Stutton has been known as a fossiliferous locality since 1848 when S. V. Wood referred to the shells of Corbicula flumenalis a species which is extinct in this country, but still lives in subtropical rivers like the Nile. Little notice seems to have been taken of the mammaliferous nature of the Brickearth until J. Reid Moir began investigations about 1941-2. This work has been continued since Mr. Moir's death, and a representative series of mammalian bones and teeth has been assembled in the Local Geological series at the Ipsvvich Museum. The fauna includes :— Elephas (Hesperoloxodon) antiquus. Elephas (Mammuthus) primigenius. Rhinoceros sp. (cf. Hemitaechus ?). Equus caballus. Megaceros giganteus. Cervus elaphus. Bos or Bison. Panthera Leo v. spelaeus. Hyaena—inferred from a gnawed bone. The presence of Man in the area is proved by flint implements which have been found. Two blades of the culture known as Leallois are from Stutton, and an Acheulean hand axe, from which the point has been broken was found by John Norman near the bones referred to above. All the remains belong to the last interglacial, and date back about 100,000 years.
BIRD
SECTION
There were a number of changes in the course of the year. Mr. F. C. Cook resigned as Chairman and the Rev. P. H. T. Hartley was elected in his place. Mr. A. C. C. Hervey resigned as Hon. Secretary and Mr. W. H. Payn was elected in his place. All correspondence in connection with the Bird Section should now be sent to Mr. Payn at Härtest Place, Bury St. Edmunds (Tel. Härtest 224). There has also been a change in the editorship of the County Bird Report. Mr. F. K. Cobb resigned and Mr. W. H. Payn was appointed in his place. Messrs. H. R. Beecroft and C. G. D. Curtis will continue to act as Recorders. The Section records its great appreciation of the past services of Messrs. Cook, Hervey and Cobb.