Wednesday 16 March 2016

Ice Age Exhibition

I popped into my local library recently to find this replica mammoth skull and tusks by the main desk.  They were there to promote the libraries Ice Age exhibition, which showcases remains of Ice Age animals found in our neighbourhood.  The remains are on loan from the Natural History Museum, who retain the mammoth which was found with almost the whole skeleton.

I had to take the kids back to have a look the next day.








The exhibition included mammoth teeth, rhino bones and bones from giant horses, wild cattle, beavers and deer.  We searched the maps to see where near our home the remains had been found very close to where we live and where the children's school is now.






   
There was a display of the equipment the Victorian archaeologists used when recovering the finds.  




One thing I noticed was how beautifully hand-written the labels on the bones are.  A bit of an art I think and one generally lost in this time of typing on computers.









The exhibition was a nice little diversion for a Saturday morning for the kids and nice because its the type of things my boys are fascinated by. It was also nice to learn more about the place we live.

2 comments:

  1. I'm fascinated by mammoths. The thing is, dinosaurs lived way, way in the past - so far back that I can't get really get my brain around it.

    Mammoths were closer to 4,000 years ago. this means that groups of people we have records of were around at the same time. Some of the early myths we have, like Gilgamesh, were probably stories from around that time.

    That's so strange, and I think it's cool your kids got to experience that so close to home!

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    1. Salam Nasreen and thank you for your comment. Like you I'm fascinated by how recent they are, recent enough to be around human beings and to have modern counterparts.
      I loved that our little part of the world held this discovery and the thought that it was once so different.

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