The context of mammoth bones from the middle Pleistocene site of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, England

Abstract

This paper gives an insight into how and where bones are deposited and preserved in a meandering fluvial system. During the course of excavations in Middle Pleistocene sediments at Stanton Harcourt, a record was made of the context of finds, both in plan and in section. The excavated material included mammoth and other vertebrate teeth and bones and Palaeolithic stone artefacts. Stratigraphic and sedimentological analysis of the sediments indicates that large items collected at various times as a lag in a gravel bed channel, predominantly where very thin, discontinuous mudstone horizons outcropped in otherwise clay bedrock. A series of plans is produced to illustrate how a concentration of bones accumulated on a point bar of this meandering mixed-load river. The bar grew by lateral accretion and bones and stone artefacts did not appear in the sequence until it was well established and partially vegetated and provided an extension of the floodplain at low water levels. Semi-articulated parts of mammoth skeletons imply that some of the vertebrate material was not transported far. Sediment deposition by secondary currents on to the bar provided an environment for quick burial and incorporation into the fossil record. It is proposed that stone artefacts were discarded on the bar, close to where they were found, probably by seasonal hunters or scavengers following the animal herds.