Mammoth discovery for Hanson’s Arco Avon

Marine aggregates dredger uncovers rare mammoth tooth dating back to the Ice Age

HANSON’s Arco Avon marine aggregates dredger has uncovered a rare mammoth tooth dating back thousands of years to the Ice Age.

The tooth, which is almost complete and still has the roots visible, measures 300mm long by 160mm wide.

Experts from the Natural History Museum have identified it as belonging to an animal that was about 35 years old, very probably from the Late Pleistocene period (350,000 to 10,000 years ago).

The discovery follows other recent finds in the same dredging lane, about 10km east of Great Yarmouth, including a mammoth vertebra and tusk fragment. These have led experts to believe that there may be a whole mammoth skeleton within the area.

Hanson said the find was another example of the important role responsible marine dredging can play in uncovering the UK’s archaeological and historical past.