In 2017, the femur of a mammoth was discovered by Sally and Neville Hollingworth in a commercial gravel quarry close to the village of Cerney Wick, on the Gloucestershire/Wiltshire border in England. Subsequent exploration of this site yielded further remains of Pleistocene megafauna including horses, bison, hyena and elk, as well as Neanderthal hand tools.
In the following years, the excavations at Cerney Wick expanded in scope into what is now the largest palaeontological dig in the UK. The potential for public interest in the site and its finds was quickly realised and the documentary ‘Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard’ was produced by Windfall Films for the BBC in 2021 (see top of page). Now, the continuing recovery of fossil content, and a better understanding of the environment in which the remains were preserved, are helping to paint a progressively more detailed picture of this exciting locality.
In this episode we’re joined by both Sally and Nev as we discuss their mammoth discovery and examine the complex geology of the site with its interplay of Jurassic and Pleistocene sediments. Finally, we reflect upon the dig’s relationship with the quarry’s commercial owners and the numerous volunteers required for the work.
We’ve been granted access to the site, allowing us to record media from within the field. Over the coming weeks, we will add new multimedia-rich posts featuring videos of the excavations, pictures of the finds and interviews with various people at the dig.
Cerney Wick is the name of a commercial gravel quarry operated by Hills Quarry Products and located in Gloucestershire, England. It is situated within the Cotswolds Water Park, a series of lakes formed as a result of similar quarrying activity throughout the 20th Century.
Like the other former gravel pits in the surrounding area, the site spends most of its time underwater. These pits act as silt traps, allowing sediments to settle out from quarrying wastewater. These lakes are now a haven for wildlife. Image: Kieran Mason.Before any excavation, the water has to be drained away. This is a lengthy process and even once empty, the pit will begin to fill up again because the water table in the area is so high. Image: Sally Hollingworth.This means that the digging work at Cerney Wick is extremely muddy and great care has to be taken to control how water flows into the pit and to continuously maintain water levels. Image: Issy Walker @palaeoissy.Geologically, the rocks of Cerney Wick are from the Middle Jurassic (Callovian) Kellaways Formation. These rocks are absolutely stuffed with fossils, ammonites in particular, and were the reason why Sally and Nev were fossil hunting here in the first place. These ammonites can be used in stratigraphy to provide very precise dates for rocks. Given the number of them in the Kellaways Formation, the age of this rock is incredibly well constrained. Image: Laura Hobbs.Cutting through the Kellaways Formation is an ancient channel of the River Thames. In the Pleistocene, this river would have been running over the same Jurassic rocks as are exposed today. Image: Laura Hobbs (modified).The Thames eventually filled this particular channel with loosely-consolidated sand, clay and gravel. It is in this material that the Pleistocene remains are found. Image: Kieran Mason.Much of the highly fossiliferous Kellaways Formation has been reworked into the Pleistocene gravel from upstream, meaning that it’s common to find ammonites (such as this Sigaloceras calloviense) and other Jurassic taxa alongside the bones of mammoths. Image: Michael Jackson.Whilst mammoths remains are the headline-grabbing finds, other large and scientifically significant taxa such a this potential rhinoceros are also commonly found. Image: Casey Rich.
Molar from a steppe mammoth (specimen CW0038) as it was found in situ. Image: Sally Hollingworth.Sally, Nev and mammoth expert Steven Zhang with the extracted molar. Image: Sally Hollingworth.Sally and Andy cleaning and preparing the molar in the camp’s conservation tent. Here, a team of volunteers work to stabilise and catalogue the most important finds using a variety of tools and techniques. This protects the fossils from the effects of drying out and allows their safe transfer to a museum where they can be properly stored. Image: Sally Hollingworth.CW0038 cleaned, prepared and conserved. Image: Sally Hollingworth.
Other mammoth finds have been pretty significant, like this tusk. Image: Kieran Mason.Another Neanderthal hand axe (specimen CW001) was discovered on the first day of digging in 2024. This further demonstrates that humans and Pleistocene megafauna were inhabiting this area at the same time. Image: Jacob Quinn.
Reconstruction of Cerney Wick in the Pleistocene with steppe mammoths and Neanderthals. Image: Mark O’Dell.
Acknowledgements: We’d like to thank Sally and Neville Hollingworth for their help with putting this episode together and for accommodating us on site. We recognise Hills Quarry Products for making their site so accessible for research and science communication. Thanks to all the volunteers who have contributed to the multimedia on this page. Laura Hobbs provided assistance with the development with this episode.
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