NHER 55482 (Find Spot record) - Palaeolithic woolly rhino tooth, modern spoon and undated objects, North Sea

This record details archaeologically significant material recovered during off-shore dredging within Aggregates Extraction Licence Area 228. These discoveries were reported to English Heritage/English Heritage through the Marine Aggregate Industry Protocol for Reporting Finds of Archaeological Interest. See (S1) and (S2) for further details.

Pre 21 September 2010. Off-shore Dredging.
Found at Brett Aggregates Cliffe Wharf:
1 undatable animal bone. Cattle femur. The damage that can be seen on both ends may have occurred whilst the bone was under the water or perhaps during the dredging process. There are no obvious butchery marks making it difficult to determine how the bone ended up on the seabed. Possible ways it could have entered the water include: as refuse from a ship, as domestic waste from shore, as a carcass washed out to sea, or as remains of ancient cattle from a time when this area of sea was dry land.
See Discovery Report (S3) and reporting protocol annual report (S4) for further details. This bone is featured in the Spring 2011 issue of the protocol's newsletter (S12).
S. Howard (HES), 4 May 2011.

Pre 8 February 2013. Off-shore Dredging.
Found at Lafarge's Thurrock Wharf:
1 modern metal spoon. See photograph (S5). The spoon bears the stamp of the Cunnard White Star passenger ship company, dating the object to between 1934 and 1949. There are no known Cunnard White Star wrecks in the area so presumably the find was lost by chance.
See Discovery Report (S6) and reporting protocol annual report (S7) for further details.
J. Page (HES), 22 January 2014.

2016-2017 (exact date unknown at present). Off-shore Dredging.
Found at Brett Aggregates, Cliffe in Kent:
1 modern brass pintle pin for fixing either a heavy door/gate or ship rudder.
1 undated wooden board. Initially identified as a ship timber it is now thought to be part of a timber groyne.
See reporting protocol annual report (S8) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 16 November 2025.

Pre 5 March 2018. Off-shore Dredging.
Found at Flushing Wharf:
1 undated unidentified wooden object. This round wooden object measures 80mm by 75mm and has a flat 'base' with rounded raised sides. A circular hole in the middle appears to have been machine made.
See Discovery Report (S9) and reporting protocol annual report (S10) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 28 March 2018.

Pre 16 April 2018. Off-shore Dredging.
Found at Flushing Wharf:
1 Palaeolithic fossilised woolly rhino tooth.
The woolly rhinoceros is widely regarded as having been a 'fellow traveller' of the woolly mammoth Mammuthus primigenius, as their remains commonly occur together in deposits. Woolly rhinoceros disappeared from Britain around 35 000 years ago.
See Discovery Report (S11) and reporting protocol annual report (S10) for further details. This tooth was featured in the Autumn 2018 issue of the protocol's newsletter (S13).
P. Watkins (HES), 30 April 2018.