A NEW dig is due to start at a mammoth graveyard near Cirencester which has previously featured in a BBC David Attenborough documentary.

Hills Quarry Products has announced plans for more excavation at its Cerney Wick Quarry site near South Cerney - where remains of multiple steppe mammoths were found in 2019 - which will commence at the beginning of next year.

In a BBC1 documentary called Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard national treasure David Attenborough joined fossil hunters who discovered Ice Age mammoth remains and a stone hand-axe.

This discovery of a 200,000-year-old mammoth graveyard was one of the UK's most recent and most significant Palaeolithic finds.

The next phase of activity at the site has been called Mammoth 2.0 and has been carried out by leading conservation organisation Neo Jurassica, which has seen further exploration of the site.

Neo Jurassica has been working in conjunction with Archaeological Research Services, universities, museums and experts.

New finds at the site include the remains of steppe mammoth tusks, a pygmy mammoth tooth, several bison vertebrae, a rib and jawbone, wild horse ribs and a partially complete tooth from a cave or brown bear.

All the findings have been sent to the Yorkshire Natural History Museum in Sheffield for conservation and will be accessible to researchers across the UK.

Many historians are excited to learned about the size and social structure of the mammoth herds and how it compares to modern elephants.

James Hogg, director of Neo Jurassica, said: “It was a true pleasure to meet Mike Hill and the team at Hills.

"If it wasn’t for their support and shared vision of the scientific importance of this site, this multidisciplinary systematic excavation would not have been possible.”

Peter Andrew, group director of Hills Quarry Products, said: “It’s a fantastic site and it just keeps on giving. 

"We are looking forward to next year when we will welcome more teams of experts to carry out the next part of the excavation.”