Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Skeleton of extinct straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), from near the shore-line at Upnor, found by Mr S Turner in 1913, and then excavated in 1915

Monument Types

• FINDSPOT (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 125000 BC)

Associated Finds

• ANIMAL REMAINS (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 125000 BC)
• FLAKE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 125000 BC)

Full description

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The skeleton was initially exposed (but not noticed) during practice for trench-digging in c. 1910 by the Royal Engineers on their Upnor training ground. It was then noticed in 1913 by Mr Sid Turner, leading to its proper excavation in 1915 (1, 2). The skeleton indicates a beast of exceptionally large size (estimated as nearly 4m high), therefore most-likely an adult male. It was found at the base of what seem to predominantly-fluvial sand/gravel deposits, described as banked against a low cliff of Chalk capped by Thanet Sand. However the very basal layer of the sequence, in which the elephant was found, was more clayey and with a wide range of flint-clast sizes, so may perhaps have been a slopewash or solifluction deposit. The age of the deposit is uncertain; its elevation may be estimated as at c. 5-10m OD, and the skeleton is probably of late Middle Pleistocene or Late Pleistocene age. No artefacts were found in association with the skeleton (3, p106). J Turner (son of Sid Turner) provides a map showing the site's location (4). Site is included in the Southern Rivers Palaeolithic Project (5, 6). Whitaker (7, 8, 9) provides some details of the deposits in the vicinity, described before discovery of the elephant.

<1> Andrews, C.W., 1915, The discovery of a skeleton of Elephas antiquus at Upnor, near Chatham. (Article in serial). SKE51548.

<2> Andrews, C.W., 1928, On a specimen of Elephas antiquus from Upnor. (Monograph). SKE51549.

<3> Bather, F.A., 1927, The Upnor Elephant. (Article in serial). SKE51550.

<4> Cook W.H, 1923, Excursions [III - Geological Excursion to Lower Greensand Beds and Pleistocene Drifts at Aylesford]. (Article in serial). SKE51484.

<5> Wessex Archaeology, 1993, The Southern Rivers Palaeolithic Project, Report No.2: The South West and South of the Thames [Vol. I - text], M 5.8 (Monograph). SWX6569.

<6> Wessex Archaeology, 1993, The Southern Rivers Palaeolithic Project: maps for Report No. 2, Regions 4 & 1, The South West and South of the Thames [Vol II - maps], M 5.8 (Unpublished document). SKE12023.

<7> Whitaker, W., 1872, The Geology of the London Basin, Part I. (Monograph). SKE51551.

<8> Whitaker, W., 1880, Excursion to Upnor. (Article in serial). SKE51552.

<9> Whitaker, W. & Monkton, H.W., 1891, Excursion to Upnor. (Article in serial). SKE51553.

Sources and further reading