West Runton Mammoth
| West Runton Mammoth | |
| Fossilized remains | |
 Steppe mammoth
|
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| Official name: Mammuthus trogontherii | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Location | Found at the base of a cliff on West Runton Beach |
| Geology | Cromerian Stage |
| Period | 866,000–478,000 years ago |
| Date | 1995 |
| Management | Norfolk Museums Service |
| Visitation | Cromer Museum, Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Norfolk Collections Centre (Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse) |
| Discovered by | 1990 |
| - date | |
The West Runton Mammoth is a fossilized skeleton of a steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii) found in the cliffs of West Runton in the county of Norfolk, England in 1990. The find is the largest nearly complete mammoth skeleton known, and is the oldest found in the United Kingdom.
After a very stormy night on 13 December 1990, local residents Harold and Margaret Hems were walking along West Runton beach. They found that a large bone had been partially exposed at the base of the cliffs by the actions of the previous night's storm. The couple contacted Norfolk Museums Service, who soon after identified the object as a pelvic bone of a large steppe mammoth. After another storm just over a year later, a local fossil hunter, Rob Sinclair, discovered more huge bones and it soon became obvious that the site was of major importance. In January 1992 the Norfolk Archaeological Unit undertook an exploratory excavation at the site. As a result of this a second major three-month excavation followed in 1995.
The 1995 excavation of the site was carried out by the Norfolk Archaeological Unit and funding from the Heritage lottery Fund and from Anglian Water was gained for the project by Norfolk Museums Service. The meticulous excavations lasted over a period of three months. The Unit recorded every detail of the remains of the animals and other fossils in the deposit. A laser theodolite was used to produce maps, made by carefully drawing and plotting the position of the bones and other finds. Specialists from around the world were called in to collect and study all the pollen, macroflora, microfauna and sediments found at the site. The stratigraphy, mineralogy and chemistry of the site was also studied and recorded. During the excavations almost ten tonnes of soil were delicately removed a trowel-full at a time, to be sieved for the tiny bones of frogs, newts, lizards, snakes and small mammals and birds.
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