Experiment: I found a human bone in the Thames

It was a beautiful mid-week morning last September. I am an avid rower and go out on the Thames as often as possible with my club. The river is generally murky and gray, with thick silt at the bottom. But that day, around 7:30 a.m., it was different. The tide was low and the water was calm and clear.

Six of us walked our boats from the Brentford Boathouse. I was at the bottom, the last in the water. As I walked in I saw what I thought was a bone on the riverbed about 30cm deep. Instinctively, I pulled it out. I was holding it with my hip joint up - as soon as I saw this I was sure it was human.

My friends had already rowed and called for me to hurry. I said, "I found a bone," but they didn't take it seriously. So I put him in my boat and rowed.

We arrived at Richmond Lock, where we usually stop before turning around . I showed them what I found and they agreed it looked human. They joked that my DNA was now everywhere and that I would be involved in a crime if it was a recent case. This worried me, but I suspected the bone was old because it was so blackened.

We rowed to Brentford. The seriousness of the situation dawned on me: I had picked up a human bone, put it in my boat and argued with it. I knew I had to call the police.

I came home and told my wife, "I found a human bone." His first reaction was, "Wow," then, "You didn't bring it home, did you?" But what else was I supposed to do? Leaving it where I found it was not an option. I didn't know if it belonged to a murder victim. I felt I had a responsibility to report it.

It was very strange to call the police. I told them that I had found a femur. A few hours later, they arrived at our apartment. They gasped when they saw it and said, "Yes, it's human." They wanted me to take them to where I found him, but when we arrived the tide was high.

The next day, a detective took a statement. We met on the foreshore and she took a look. There was no sign of any other bones. They took the bone to examine it and carbon date it.

It took about five months to get the results. I was intrigued by what was to be revealed. When the detective finally called, she asked me to guess the age of the bone. I said medieval or Tudor - I knew they used to throw bodies overboard in the estuary if people died at sea to avoid bringing them back to port.

The detective said it dated between 3516 and 3365 BC. J.-C., which makes it more than 5,000 years old. They don't know the gender or age of the person, but it belonged to someone from Neolithic times.

I was dumbfounded. I couldn't understand. This person lived before Stonehenge where the pyramids were built. This area of ​​west London would have been flat and marshy, with pebble islands. I've been told that the lack of oxygen in the mud preserves the bone - but what brings it to the surface now?

Police have no idea how he ended up in the Thames. There is nothing sinister about the bone, so the detective said: 'As far as we are concerned, no crime has been committed. So it's up to you. Can you pick it up?"

I could have left it I guess, but I wanted to make sure the bone was well taken care of. I felt responsible - this person had lived in the same area as me 5,000 years ago. I signed a form to say it was mine. I was wondering what to do with it. There is a fragment of a Neolithic skull at the Museum of London from the same period, so I donated it to them and it may be on display in the future.

It looks like a one in a million chance of finding something like that. I could have gone over the bone many times before. I go rowing a lot, so I wonder how all these things lined up that day: that I put my boat in that particular stretch of water and that it was so clear. And even though I'm not a