IX.—Further Observations on Prehistoric Man in Jersey

Abstract

This paper is intended to supplement, and in the light of fuller information to modify, the communication regarding recent archaeological discoveries in Jersey that I had the honour to lay before the Society of Antiquaries last year. The new matter relates to two sets of excavations undertaken by the Societe Jersiaise, in both of which I was privileged to take part. Neither site was altogether virgin. But, whereas the cave known as La Cotte de St. Brelade could be counted on as rich in objects of antiquarian interest, Green Island, or, to call it by its more ancient and authentic name, La Motte, had yielded little, at all events of late. Fifty years ago a human cranium of ancient appearance had been found low down in its basement of loess or brick-earth; but since that time nothing more had come to light here, except a rough neolithic implement or two from the higher levels of the islet. Even now, perhaps, it can scarcely vie with the St. Brelade's cave as an attraction to the student of prehistorics; for I am afraid that he is apt to rate the neolithic in general all too cheaply, owing to the glamour that enshrouds the more remote, if hardly more inscrutable, palaeolithic. Yet, as the sequel will show, La Motte has at any rate given birth to a crop of problems, which, I venture to think, may prove of more than local importance.