By RUTH LOGNONNE

Last updated at 12:35, Friday, 04 December 2009

MACHINE operator John Rutherford is used to digging objects out of the ground, but he was shocked when he came face-to-face with an 8,000-year-old beast.

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For the Thompsons of Prudhoe employee has unearthed a complete auroch’s skull – a species of large wild cow that became extinct in Britain during the Bronze Age.

John was removing sand and gravel at the company’s Haughton Strother quarry near Simonburn, when he spotted the well-preserved fossilised head.

His colleague Ryan Molloy, who is development and environmental manager with Thompsons, contacted the county conservation team and the company’s archaeological consultants to report the find.

“When I went along to the site I realised it was something important and it was Natural England who confirmed it was an auroch,” he said.

“What makes the skull so special is that the excavator didn’t smash it to pieces and that it’s stayed in such good condition – we’re really very lucky.”

The quarry is located on land, owned by Nunwick Estates, on a bend in the North Tyne river.

The skull has been identified by a Durham University expert as a large elderly male auroch, which was possibly cast out of its herd before dy-ing in secluded wetland.

It has been radiocarbon dated by a research team in Glasgow to 5670-5520 BC and is therefore of the late Mesolithic period, which started at the end of the last Ice Age.

“This discovery is simply amazing,” said Robin Taylor-Wilson, of Pre-Construct Archaeology in Durham. “It’s certainly the most significant artefact I’ve seen in my lifetime and probably the oldest of its kind in Britain.

“We want to get it into a museum as soon as possible so the bone does not decay. We are currently in negotiations with the Great North Museum in Newcastle and hope the skull will be on public display there.”

One of two red deer antlers found in the same area has also been dated to the sixth millennium BC.

First published at 09:40, Friday, 04 December 2009
Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk