Does Anyone Live In Peterborough ?

[fossilkid25]

hey all
does anyne live in peterborough or near peterborough ? do you go fossil hunting around peterborough ? do you know of any good areas to fossil hunt round peterborough ? plus would you like to go on a fossil hunt around peterborough ?

sorry for all the questions and peterboroughs. im just trying to find some people near to where i live that like fossil hunting. as i dont have many people to go with . plus i would like to see what other people have found round my area.

 

[fossilkid25]

plus just to let everyone know im a great invert fossil collector and have alot of invert fossils from peterborough to show off on here.

 

[Phil]

Howdo Fossilkid!

I think there are a few sites close to Peterborough that are particularly good for fossils, as it lies in the middle of the Jurassic Oxford clays. These contain exceptionally well preserved marine fossils. I'm afraid I do not know of the location of the specific sites you could obtain access to though.

You might like to get hold of this little booklet, it's cheap, just £2.95 and is apparantly a good guide:

Jurassic Sea - Oxford Clay Fossils - Fossils of the Peterborough Area by E.R.Matheau-Raven

Here's a link to a site that contains images of the type of fossils you might expect to find (if you are very lucky!)

Click here

This is totally irrelevant but I once worked on a series of archaeological trial trenches near Market Deeping, not that far from Peterborough. We were looking for a Bronze Age settlement. After three weeks of heavy slogging and recording very little, we just caught a section of a ring ditch surrounding a now flattened barrow. We managed to date the ditch to the Bronze Age by just one small sherd of pottery. To tell the truth, the site was very boring. I did find a small belemnite there, not that that was exactly what we were looking for though!

 

[fossilkid25]

hey phil
did u do a acheology dig at flag fen as i have been offed a job there plus i done a dig there with francis prior , ferensa from time team and maisy taylor. plus i have been to those websites before but they werent as good as the fossils of the oxford clay book. plus thanks for the links anyway. plus if you would like to meet the famous archeology guys i know then let me know and i will see what i can do for u plus i know of alot of places around peterborough but not of all of them so thats why im still asking plus phil could you e-mail me at [email protected] as i have a few questions for you.

 

[Phil]

Jamie,

In answer to your question, no I have not worked at Flag Fen, however I have helped out on a series of site evaluation trenches for four months or so in that area of Lincolnshire a few years ago. Unfortunately I have not had the opportunity to visit the site but would like to one day.

If you get the opportunity to dig at Flag Fen you should take it straight away. Flag Fen is pretty much Britain’s, and arguably Europe’s, premier Bronze Age settlement site and I’m sure you would enjoy the kudos of working there. It was working on an Iron Age/Saxon burial site in Deal for the odd weekend when I was just a year older than you that got me hooked on archaeology. Go for it.

With Bronze Age sites such as this you can’t expect to find stunning finds though; on that site you would probably find post-holes, waterlogged bits of timber and possibly the odd pottery shard. Small finds are much less common than on Roman sites, though you may well get lucky. It can be very hard physical work, expect to go home with aches and pains and feeling exhausted (or is that just my age talking?).

You were fortunate to meet Francis Pryor, he’s one of the UK’s leading historians in pre-Roman Britain and writes in an easy-going popular style. You should have a look at his books ‘Britain BC’ and ‘Flag Fen’ if you are interested. You can pick these up in pretty much any high-street bookshop for under a tenner.

 

[fossilkid25]

hey phil
i did do a dig at flag fen with that wooden struckture that was going out to the wash. plus francis prior knew me from off the internet and in the newspapers and he asked for my autograph. plus im more interested in palaeontology than anything else.

 

[bigGdelta]

phil I used to live in a house built on a mississippian mound. I live in meridian ms what cephs should i be looking for ?

 

[Phil]

phil I used to live in a house built on a mississippian mound. I live in meridian ms what cephs should i be looking for ?

Well, using my Paleo-Prong and the power of Google, I have stumbled across an excellent site that should elucidate about the geology of Mississippi:

http://www.paleoportal.org/time_space/state.php?state_id=30&period_id=8

It looks as if the rocks in your area of the state are Tertiary in date, more specifically, Eocene. This means, of course, that any search for ammonites would be utterly futile, but you may come across the odd nautilus specimen. As you move to the north-eastern corner of the state, the rocks become progressively older and are Late Cretaceous in date; ammonites are indeed known from there. In addition sharks teeth have been from the Meridian area, specifically the Red Hot truck stop. Here's some information on this site for you:

http://128.220.2.80/~jhumag/0401web/crust.html

You do have a Geology museum in Mississippi at Frankstown called the W.M. Browning Cretaceous Fossil Park, but I can't find a link to it. Maybe you will have more luck, and find some contact details.

By the way, your state fossil is the early whale Basilosaurus. Well, one learns something every day!

 

[main_board]

A bit late, but I'm only 3 or so hours drive from Peterborough. My aunt and uncle live there. Its a great area for riding. The only problem is I don't believe you are referring to Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, which I am. Oops! Hehehe

Cheers!

 

[spartacus]

I used to regularly attend the BMF rally in Peterborough & there were always plenty of weird species to be seen, mostly with beards (no offence Big Kev)

Keef

 

[Phil]

I used to regularly attend the BMF rally in Peterborough & there were always plenty of weird species to be seen, mostly with beards (no offence Big Kev)

Keef

Have you ever been to a CAMRA real ale festival?

 

[spartacus]

'fraid not Phil, I can't stand beer that tastes like bath water & having grown up in Greene King country I know of what I speak

Keef

 

[fossilkid25]

hey spartacus
i have sent you a private message just as a reminder

 

[bigGdelta]

phil found many a shark's tooth behind the old red hot before they built a mall and paved the good fossil bed. yet another reason to hate wally world.