Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

Moir had himself collected most of the specimens, but he also described one discovered by another naturalist, a Mr. Whincopp, of Woodbridge in Suffolk, who had in his private collection a “piece of fossil rib partially sawn across at both ends” (Moir 1917a, p. 117). This object came from the detritus bed below the Red Crag and was “regarded by both the discoverer and the late Rev. Osmond Fisher as affording evidence of human handiwork” (Moir 1917a, p. 117). Indications of sawing would be quite unexpected on a fossil bone of this age. A piece of sawn wood was recovered from the more recent Cromer Forest Bed in the same region (Section 2.20).

Osmond Fisher, who was a Fellow of the Geological Society, made some interesting discoveries of his own. In a review published in The Geological Magazine, Fisher (1912, p. 218) wrote: “When digging for fossils in the Eocene of Barton Cliff I found a piece of jet-like substance about 9½ inches square and 2¼ inches thick. . . . It bore on at least one side what seemed to me marks of the chopping which had formed it into its accurately square shape. The specimen is now in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge.” Jet is a compact velvety-black coal that takes a good polish and is often used as jewelry. The Eocene period dates back about 38–55 million years from the present.

2.17 Dewlish Elephant Trench, England (Early Pleistocene to Late Pliocene)

Osmond Fisher also discovered an interesting feature in the landscape of Dorsetshire—the elephant trench at Dewlish. Fisher (1912, pp. 918 – 919) stated in his 1912 review: “This trench was excavated in chalk and was 12 feet deep, and of such a width that a man could just pass along it. It is not on the line of any natural fracture, and the beds of flint on each side correspond. The bottom was of undisturbed chalk, and one end, like the sides, was vertical. At the other end it opened diagonally on to the steep side of a valley. It has yielded substantial remains of Elephas meridionalis, but no other fossils. . . . This trench, in my opinion, was excavated by man in the later Pliocene age as a pitfall to catch elephants; and if so, it proves that he was already an intelligent and social being.” Elephas meridionalis, or “southern elephant,” was in existence in Europe from 1.2 to 3.5 million years ago (Maglio 1973, p. 79). Thus, while the bones found in the trench at Dewlish could conceivably be Early Pleistocene in age, they might also date to the Late Pliocene.

In Fisher’s original reports in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, we find the following more detailed description: “The trench was . . . followed for about 103 feet, until it suddenly terminated in a smooth ‘apse-like’ end. . . . It was a deep, narrow trench, with nearly vertical sides of undisturbed chalk. Mr. [Clement] Reid says: ‘The fissure (or rather trough) ended abruptly, without any trace of a continuing join; it was not a fault, for the lines of flint-nodules corresponded on each side’” (O. Fisher 1905, p. 35). The base of the trench was reported to be a smooth surface of chalk, twelve feet down (O. Fisher 1905, p. 36). Photographs accompanying the report show the vertical walls of the trench, carefully chipped as if with a large chisel.

In response to suggestions that flowing water might have excavated the trench, Fisher (1905, p. 36) stated: “A stream in such a locality would be unlikely to excavate a deep and narrow channel, much less, if it did so, would it come to an abrupt ending. And, even if we could account for the natural formation of such a trench, how came it that the remains of so many elephants were found in it, and (so far as appears) no other animals?”

Fisher (1905, p. 36) referred to reports showing that primitive hunters of modern times made use of similar trenches: “Sir Samuel Baker describes this method of taking elephants by natives of Africa. He says that an elephant cannot cross a ditch with hard perpendicular sides, which will not crumble nor yield to pressure. Pitfalls 12 to 14 feet deep are dug in the animals’ routes towards drinking-places, and covered with boughs and grass. The pits are made of different shapes, according to the individual opinions of the trappers. When caught, the animals are attacked with spears while in their helpless position, until they at last succumb through loss of blood. . . . If the stream which now runs at the bottom of the hill, despite subsequent changes in the contour of the country already existed, then this trench would have been made in a position suitable to intercept the route to the drinking place.”