An archeology expert has made a mammoth discovery in the cliffs of the Saanich Peninsula.
Grant Keddie, curator of archeology at the Royal B.C. Museum, found a piece of a mammoth tusk last week among sand and rock debris from erosion in cliffs above Island View Beach in Central Saanich.
Mammoths were believed to have roamed the Saanich Peninsula tens of thousands of years ago. Their remains are stored in sand deposits on the beach that were covered by gravel during glaciation, Keddie said.
He was walking along the beach explaining the sand cliffs to someone when he spotted something smooth and white.
"I looked up on the cliff, and it sort of looked like something that could be bone, and I climbed up there and sure enough it was a piece of tusk," said Keddie, who had been looking for physical evidence of the extinct mammal's existence in the sand and gravel deposits for the last 30 years.
"These mammoth bones are falling out of the cliff."
Previous study of a mammoth leg bone found in a similar spot showed it was 17,000 years old, the only estimate of how old the latest piece might be.
The tusk part, which is a section close to the tip, is about the length of a forearm -- approximately 30 centimetres -- and about as wide as one's hand, Keddie said.
Over the past century, about 20 pieces of mammoth bone, tusk and teeth have been found along the Peninsula, most of which were donated to the museum for preservation and display.
The museum will carefully conserve the tusk, which will likely not go on display, he said.
Keddie believes the rest of the tusk is buried along the beach, he and plans to return to look for the other pieces.
