Towards the end of our excavations at Bradley Fen we came across a large rectangular pit in the shape of a grave. Sure enough, the pit did turn out to contain a burial but not that of a human. The skeleton belonged to an aurochs, the wild ancestor of the cow. These animals are thought to have become extinct around the beginning of the Bronze Age (c. 2000 BC). In comparison with modern cattle an aurochs was a massive beast with the male of the species standing up to 1.7m at the shoulder. Our aurochs has been identified as being a young female approaching full size and would have stood 1.4m at the shoulder.

The aurochs had been 'laid' in the pit with its head turned upwards and its legs neatly folded in a lying down posture. There was no indication of how the aurochs had died, but a bone from its right ankle (calcaneous) had three small cut marks suggesting that the animal had been skinned prior to burial. Therefore, although the animal had been buried in a fully articulated condition it had been done so minus its skin. Why this was so is unknown, but it is interesting that well-preserved Bronze Age bodies in Denmark have been found wrapped in 'ox' hide. Perhaps by wearing the hide one took on the attributes of the animal. In the case of our aurochs this may well have been a matter of strength.

Chris Swaysland, the CAU's animal bone expert, was able to identify the skeleton as being that of an aurochs by taking a series of measurements and comparing them with similar measurements from aurochs and modern cattle. Three measurements in particular helped with the identification: the dimensions of the front lower leg (metacarpal), the toe bone (2nd phalanx) and an ankle bone (astragalus). When plotted on a graph the Bradley Fen animal falls neatly into the female aurochs category. The age of the animal, in this case 3-3.5 years old, was estimated by looking at the eruption and wear of its teeth and the state of fusion of its long bones.