Fossil-man discovery

Press, 21 May 1987, Page 20

Fossil-man discovery

Excavations at Gough Cave in Cheddar, western England, have revealed the most complete remains of a 12,000 year-old human face and jaw known from Britain.

This is 3000 years older than the famous skeleton Cheddar Man. The fossils newly discovered are of a child, probably male, aged about 12 years at death, and include the left side face and upper jaw, the lower jaw and a rib.

The upper jaw has one milk tooth and two molars in place. The lower jaw has three permanent molars and a canine. All teeth are perfectly preserved, and show no signs of decay. They are some 20 per cent larger than the teeth of modern British people.

This fossil find is also important because of the associated faunal remains and artefacts found in the cave. The faunal, remains include those of wild horse, arctic hare, red deer andsaiga antelope, all of which probably provided the staple diet of the human inhabitants. Other material discovered includes charcoal, flint tools and a remarkable 150 mm long ivory rod made from a mammoth’s tusk. Other remains found in the same levels have already been dated at about 12,000 years old by the radiocarbon method. This date places the human occupation at Cheddar towards the end of the last Ice Age.

The research has been carried out by scientists from the British Natural History Museum in con-

junction with Dr Roger Jacobi and Ruth Charles, of the University of Lancaster in northern England. Last year, Dr Jacobi found some isolated human teeth in the same area of the cave. These may belong to the Cheddar boy. He also found the base of a human skull that may also be part of the boy’s remains.

The skull bears cut marks indicating that the head may have been severed from the body, possibly as a result of dismemberment before burial rather than execution or cannibalism. There are also possible cut marks on the newly discovered material and these will be studied in the near future. Further excavation is planned later in the year. London Press Service;