‘Tilbury Man’: A Mesolithic Skeleton from the Lower Thames

Abstract

Tilbury Man' is the partial skeleton of an adult male found in 1883 during the construction of new docks at Tilbury, Essex, on the north shore of the Thames, approximately half way between London and the mouth of the estuary. At the time the find stirred considerable interest due to its depth of nearly 10 m, with the eminent biologist and palaeontologist Sir Richard Owen hailing it as being of Palaeolithic age, though most subsequent (and even contemporary) researchers assigned it to the early Holocene. AMS radiocarbon dating now places the skeleton in the Late Mesolithic, 6065-5912 cal BC. This paper presents the circumstances of the find, describes the surviving skeletal elements, including two healed cranial injuries, and places Tilbury in the context of what little is known regarding Late Mesolithic burial practices in Britain.