The Museum's archive of fossil mammal bones came primarily from the famous bone caves of the western Mendip Hills. The material was excavated by two nineteenth century collectors, the Revd. David Williams and William Beard, who together amassed some 15,000 specimens. The bones range in age from 40,000 to 250,000 years old. Most of the cave deposits are thought to represent vast accumulations of rotted carcasses built-up over some 200,000 years. The caves received carcasses and sediments at different times, largely washed in by storm-produced floods. The animals represented are: wolf, fox, hare, spotted hyaena, cave lion, cave bear, woolly rhinoceros, hippopotamus, straight-tusked elephant, woolly mammoth, bison, elk, hog, horse, ox, pig and at least 5 genera of deer - including a very important reindeer component.

Woolley Mammoth

History

William Beard was a farmer turned 'bone collector' and was instrumental in discovering and exploring many caves from which he made a large collection. Beard's sponsor was the Bishop of Bath and Wells and he took the finds from Banwell as wonderful evidence of Noah's Flood - the excavations pre-dating Darwin's theory of evolution. David Williams was the vicar of Bleadon and a qualified geologist.