This series explores how artefacts, animal and plant remains provide a rare glimpse into Hackney’s distant past. In this post, we are exploring some of the curious creatures discovered to have once roamed Hackney.
What animals were in Hackney 300,000 years ago?
Ancient bones, teeth and other animal remains have been found across the borough. Remains of wolves were discovered in Abney Park cemetery, Stoke Newington, showing how early humans faced the risk of predators.
Another creature that would have made life dangerous for early humans was the narrow-nosed rhinoceros, with rhino remains found in Abney Park, Evering Road and Upper Clapton. Rhinos are one of the largest animals alive today, and their horns and teeth can be used as a weapon when defending themselves.
Despite these dangers, cut marks made by stone tools on bones provide evidence that humans were eating – perhaps even hunting – rhinos in Britain for half a million years.
The Evering Road elephant
Stoke Newington was once home to what is probably the largest land mammal to have ever existed: the straight-tusked elephant.
Straight-tusked elephants could weigh over 14 tonnes and reach up to 4.5 metres tall, making today’s modern elephants seem small in comparison. They became extinct in Britain about 115,000 years ago.
During the construction of a new sewer in Evering Road in 1960, local amateur geologist Howard Lewis observed ancient animal remains being excavated by workmen as part of the tunnelling operations. These included teeth and bones from more than one straight-tusked elephant, alongside the remains of a rhino, steppe bison or auroch, and a wild horse.
What ‘Ice Age’ animals have been found in Hackney?
Around 300,000 years ago, the warm climate was replaced by a cooler period lasting 60,000 years. This led to the appearance in Britain of animals suited to these conditions.
A woolly rhino tooth was found in Stoke Newington. This animal was covered in thick, reddish-brown hair to protect against cold weather. Their impressive horns measured 60cm long. The species went extinct when warming conditions replaced their preferred habitat of huge open grasslands with woodland.
In a brickfield to the south of Shacklewell Lane, a skeleton of the Old Stone Age’s most iconic creature was discovered: the woolly mammoth. And in Stoke Newington, the extremely rare discovery of remains of a kill site was found in the 1880s, when a sharp stone tool was found in contact with a mammoth’s shoulder bone. This shows that early humans hunted mammoths, which were roughly as big as modern African elephants.
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Content for this blog featured in the exhibition ‘Hackney 300,000 BC: Meet the Neanderthal neighbours and curious creatures of the borough’s Old Stone Age’ at Hackney Museum 26 January – 29 July 2023.