Monument record NKT 081 - Coronation Hotel, Newmarket, (Pleistocene).

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Summary

Remains of straight tusked elephant, hippotamus, rhinoceros, aurochs, bison, red deer and fallow deer in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge. Also a mammoth? Molar in the geological Museum (now part of Natural History Museum, London)

Location

Grid reference Centred TL 6440 6278 (35m by 40m)
Map sheet TL66SW
Civil Parish NEWMARKET, FOREST HEATH, SUFFOLK

Map

Type and Period (1)

Full Description

"In the Sedgewick Museum are some bones of straight tusked elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, aurochs, bison, red deer and fallow deer. These came from a pit close to Newmarket Station, now occupied by the Coronation Hotel, as Recorded by Marr (1926, 115). Hughes (1916, 16) described ' beds of gravel and sand with lenticular masses of kneaded-up chalk and grey clay with chalk and flint at its base'. He thought the bones were probably derived from an earlier deposit. There is no mention of the flint in the Sedgewick Museum that he had found within the bone-bearing beds. Marr was 'not prepared to assess that it is an artefact.' (S1)

See also (S2-S5).

Formerly recorded as EXG MISC and EXG 133 (Sedgwick material) and NKT MISC mammoth molar.

Excluding mammoth molar which cannot be found in a 2019 Search of the NHM catalogue, the faunal assemblage (with an absence of horse), is diagnostic of MIS 5e using the Joint Mitnor Mammal Assemblage Zone (MAZ) fauna (S7). If the molar is elephant rather than mammoth this would be more secure (S6). The description of the find site (and its potential derived nature) means that this conclusion must be considered likely but uncertain.

Sources/Archives (7)

  • <S1> Bibliographic reference: Wymer, J.J.. 1985. Palaeolithic Sites of East Anglia. 101.
  • <S2> Article in serial: Marr, J.E.. 1926. The Pleistocene deposits of lower part of the Great Ouse basin.
  • <S3> Bibliographic reference: Hughes T, McKenny. 1916. The gravels of East Anglia.
  • <S4> Museum Record Card: Geological Survey Museum.
  • <S5> Unpublished document: West Dr S E. SAU (West S E).
  • <S6> Personal Correspondence: Cutler, Hannah. 2019. Personal Observations as part of the Enhancement of the Suffolk HER for the Palaeolithic & Mesolithic Periods project.
  • <S7> Article in serial: Andrew Currant, Roger Jacobi. 2001. A formal mammalian biostratigraphy for the late Pleistocene of Britain A formal mammalian biostratigraphy for the, Late Pleistocene of Britain.

Finds (2)

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Events/Activities (2)

Record last edited

Nov 14 2019 11:18AM

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