The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-26 00:00:00

ARCH2EOLOGICAL DISCOVERY,

A very interesting discovery has, during the past
autumn, been made at Normanby, near Middlesborough, in
the North Riding of Yorkshire. In order to facilitate cer-
tain of the mining operations carried on at that place by
the Messrs. Bell, it became necessary to form a new road-
way at a lower level than that hitherto in use, itself lower
by four or five feet than the modern surface in the
vicinity. Daring the process of the necessary excavations
the attention of the engineer and workmen was drawn
to the presence of human remains. There were many
fragments of ancient pottery, portions of two broken
querns, the upper stone of a third in an unfinished
state, and eventually even a portion of a human jaw, with
three teeth. The bones were principally those of the ox,
inand, jadss g from the form of a skull obtained in some
degree of integrity, of bos longifrons. Some were of large
dimensions, and those which had contained marrow item
deer were so small as to
swwi tinh
numerouse f.
,ewN eoXbt Co
aenPfe
etsiwoonofsf,
ttbhhreeo
skhsehenos
pual
and
ords-sbd.
leas
drT,e hssenrodef
awt
hefeer ews
hbco, eefspi
tdhoe
ars
at the time to which the deposit belonged, of very small
varieties of the breeds thee presence in Cleveland,
toreresented. On none of these
bones did there appear
tohaeny signs of gnawing—per-
haps a negative evidence of
absence of any spec:les of
dog at the time. There wer©
to admit of any many small bones of
various kinds, but too much decayed air
at-
tempt to decide to what creatures theye had originally be-
plarregseeur
t.b2l.ones
be-
longed. There was one, however, at asft,
to the presence of articles of food derived
probably
which
ebhti
seathat
tea
a t t
(ex-
clusiveof others to be presently mentioned)rpo-
aa boneseal froorm
othpeoflrappopiseer., orsbamreeastfeefiwsho,
festhe
y either
showed signs of cutting, the cut parts
rough, jagged edge, strongly suggesting that the' cguta-
ting instrument employed had been very blunt or very
rude. Besides these cut bones, one other, the metatarsal
bone of a sheep or deer, was bored through transversely
as well as longitudinally, the hole being perfectly circular,
All the bones, without any exemption, were much coated, or
their hollow parts lined, with earthy phosphate of iron, which
after a few hours of exposure to the air assumed a very
beautiful blue tint. Besides the bones just noticed there
was a layer of shells—namely, those of the common sea
mussel and the ordinary periwinkle—of six or eight inches
in thickness, 14 or 15 feet in length, and of considerable
but undetermined width, All the mussel shells had been
opened, and in no one instance did two still united at the
hinge present themselves. This shell-bed lay at a depth
of 12 to 14 feet below the old road, and, therefore, 17
to 19 feet below the modern surface. The bones, pot -
tery,land querns were most abundantly met with in the
part of the deposit just above the shell-bed, and intermingled
with them were twig;, leaves, sticks, chips, knots, or broken
branches of trees, charcoal, a specimen or two of wrought
wood (pegs or the like), hazel-nuts, acorns, ling, moss,
bracken, sedges, rushes, a few seeds of plants, besides wing-
cases of beetles, half of a small, well-wrought and polished
jet ring, and a rude bone peg or two. About five feet above
the shell-bed lay an ochrey-yellow band of some inches in
thickness, which, with all that lay below it (to a foot and
a half or two feet beneath the shells), gave unquestionable
evidence of having been deposited in water not liable to
violent commotion. A careful inspection of the whole
deposit and of the surrounding locality seems to lead to the
supposition that there must have been a pool here in ancient
times. There are reasons for assuming that the bed of thi
pool originated in the geological movement which created
a fault in the adjacent bed of ironstone, which fault is shown
clearly, in section, a fewyards beyond the deposit. But as to
the circumstances under which the deposit was made there
is no evidence whatever on which so much as to found an
hypothesis. There may have been a species of " "aka
dwelling," though no trace of its existence presented
themselves. There may have been a settlement on the
verge of the (probably) steep bank which encompassed one
side of the pool, although on this supposition it is not very
possible to account for the equable deposition of the shells
and other light matters, and still less for the diffusion
of the bones, pottery, &c., over a tolerably wide area.
It is barely possible that a family lived in huts con-
structed in the overhanging trees. It is, perhaps, more
probable that the site of the assumed dwelling or
dwellings may have been demolished, and no attention
pottery,
drawn to it, at a period much earlier than that of the
time formationwhon
theof tehserlieprreesxeenatvatriooands—a
esrakya at
etc]: the
sary towards quarrying the ironstone in the adjacent
bank were in process of being carried out. As to the
tnhdatothisertwo
date of these curious remains, that is also too rinn,i,
----. a mat-
terthe querns. and the jet ring, it is assumed not to be ex-
tremely remote. They are undoubtedly Celtic of conjecture ; but, from the character of the
, and beyond
that little that is positive can be alleged. The discovery
of any kind of edged implement or
ght, perhaps,weapon mi
have given room for a more definite i
Judgment
nothing of the kind has been discovered. It , but
may be
added that the human jaw obtained was remarkably
massive and large, and most have behinged to a person of
hugh proportions. The three teeth> Which are still in their
sockets, are of great size and Very much worn down; in-
deed, nearly the whole crown le Worn fact which
away—a testifies plainly enough to the coarse nature of a very con
eiderable portion of this ancient
mans daily bread.

SPORTING- INTELLIGENCE.