Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:32:36.692Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

XX.—Pleistocene Man in Jersey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2011

R. R. Marett
Get access

Extract

The object of the following paper is threefold: first, to give some account of certain relics of pleistocene times, from a cave situated on the south coast of the island of Jersey; secondly, to notice the contents of another cave existing near the north-west corner of the same island, the horizon here being more uncertain, though not improbably pleistocene; and, thirdly, to discuss briefly the general relation of the pleistocene to the post-pleistocene traces of prehistoric man in Jersey in the light of the available evidence, whether archaeological or geological.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , 1911 , pp. 449 - 480
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1911

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 449 note 1 Reprinted, with four illustrative plates, in 36e Bulletin de la Société jersíaise, 69 f.

page 450 note 1 Cf. Métivier, G., Diet. Franco-Normand, Lond. 1870Google Scholar, s.v. Cotte, who suggests a Celtic derivation for the word. I am informed, however, by Sir John Rhys and Professor Anwyl that, in their opinion, the word ct, meaning pigsty in Welsh, is not of Celtic origin, but is undoubtedly derived from the English ‘cot’.

page 453 note 1 By Ussher, W. A. E., Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1878, 449CrossRefGoogle Scholar f. I take it, however, that the so-called period merely stands for the latest and best-marked stage of a formation that may be of all ages subsequent to the pliocene.

page 454 note 1 It is of course just conceivable that the animals crossed over to Jersey on a bridge of pack-ice; or, again, that the Mousterian hunters, having made their kill on the Continent, carried back the spoil to their winter quarters over a more or less frozen sea. But the variety of the larder is all in favour of the view that the supply was both regular and close at hand.

page 454 note 2 The similar map in Peacock, R. A., Sinkings of Land (1868)Google Scholar, assumes an elevation of about 130 feet, the change thus effected in the appearance of the coast-line being, however, slight.

page 455 note 1 Rutot, A., Bull. Soc. beige de Géol., xxiv (1910), 75Google Scholar and n.

page 455 note 2 Breuil, H., Les plus anciennes races humaines connues (Fribourg, 1910), 52Google Scholar.

page 455 note 3 See Rutot, A., ‘Le cannibalisme à l'époque des cavernes en Belgique,’ Bull. Soc. Préhist. de France, 1907Google Scholar, and compare his note, Bull, de l'Acad. roy. de Belgique, 1908, 525.

page 456 note 1 Published in Jouru. Anat.and Physiol., Oct., 1911. See also Professor Keith's summary account in Nature, May 25, 1911, p. 414, from which I extract most of what immediately follows.

page 456 note 2 It is simplest to write Breladensis, from the modern St. Brelade, since there are endless ancient forms of the name as it occurs in Jersey and France (e. g. St. Breladre near Dol); see l'Abbe Manet ap. M. de la Croix, Jersey: ses Antiquités (1859), i. 200. Thus I find Ecclesia Sancti Brolardi in the Extente de l'Ile de Jersey of 1227, Breverlardi in the Livre Noir of Coutances, 1278, Broelardi in the Extente of 1331, as well as Bronarlardii, Breuuelardii, Breuelardi, Broaladrii in the early Registers.

page 457 note 1 Roth, W. E., North Queensland Ethnography: Bulletin, no. vii, 16Google Scholar.

page 457 note 2 M. Rutot, indeed, declares that one is lucky to find a single good specimen of the ‘point’ in 100 implements gathered from a Mousterian site. He explains this by supposing the Mousterian point to be the scraper that represents as it were the ‘survival of the fittest’, namely, one that has stood heavy use on both sides, with constant rechipping to revive the edge, until the well-known triangular form results. See Bull. Soc. beige de Géol., xxiii (1909), 261Google Scholar.

page 458 note 1 I owe this suggestion to M. Commont.

page 458 note 2 If the flint came from still existing beds, the presence of banded flint in both Cottes might possibly afford a clue to the place of origin.

page 458 note 3 See Ansted, D. and Latham, R., The Channel Islands (London, 1865), 293Google Scholar [3rd ed. 1893], and Noury, C., Géologic de Jersey (Paris et Jersey, 1886), 131Google Scholarn, who tries somewhat unconvincingly to explain the accumulation of flints in this locality by the prevailing set of the currents. It has been suggested to me that the fairly numerous flints of St. Aubin's Bay may come in part from the ejected ballast of ships. In the cutting below South Hill, however, Dr. Dunlop found a goodly proportion of well-rounded flint pebbles in a raised beach that must go back at least to the days of coracles (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1893, 525). Flint pebbles are found deep down in the low-level clay of Guernsey: see Derrick, G., Trans. Gnerns. Soc. Nat. Sci., 1892, 215Google Scholar. Flints also occur in some of the low-level raised beaches of Alderney: see C. G. de la Mare, ib. 237.

page 462 note 1 This plate gives examples of the coarser type of implement passing into the mere flake. On the specimens of the two lower rows M. Commont remarks generally: ‘Éclats caraderistiqnes du Moustérien des limons du nord de la France.’

page 462 note 2 The cave is indicated by a white cross.

page 463 note 1 This further exploration was carried out, under the superintendence of Messrs. Nicolle and Sinel, a week or two after this paper was read. A systematic search yielded few implements, but made clear the important fact that this is undoubtedly a sea-cave, having rounded pebbles as well as much hard sand for its lowest layer. Further, accurate plans were made of the shape of the cave; these the kindness of Mr. Sinel enables me to reproduce here.

page 465 note 1 L'Industrie monstérienne dans la région du Nord de la France, 50 Congres préhist. de France, Session de Beauvais, 1909, p. 128, fig. 15.

page 466 note 1 I am glad to say that, after having independently come to this opinion on the strength of the French parallels, I ascertained that M. Commont himself, and another great authority, M. l'Abbé Breuil, were inclined to place the two industries in the same order. It is only fair to them, however, to state that they did not have an opportunity of actually handling any specimens, but judged merely from my photographs and descriptions.

page 466 note 2 Thus M. l'Abbé Breuil informs me in a letter that he finds the bison grow rarer and the mammoth more common in France as the Mousterian period advances.

page 468 note 1 According to M. Rutot, these so-called Mousterian discs are merely cores, sometimes slightly reshaped in order, perhaps, to serve as missiles. See Bull. Soc. belge de Géol., xxiii (1909), 262Google Scholar.

page 469 note 1 It is interesting to compare the list of raised beaches of Guernsey given by Mr.Collenette, A., ‘The raised beaches, and cliff and rubble heads of Guernsey,’ Trans. Guerns. Soc. Nat Set., 1892, 219 fGoogle Scholar. These arrange themselves in a low-level series averaging 25 feet above o d., and another averaging 57 feet (the highest 75 feet). The latter corresponds to the mid-level group of Jersey. Guernsey shows no parallel to the high-level raised beach at South Hill, Jersey, though rolled pebbles occur sporadically at levels as high or even higher.

page 469 note 2 Mr. Clement Reid tells me that there is, or was, a raised beach of almost exactly the same height near Chichester; but English parallels are very scarce, a fact pointing to the conclusion that the submergence indicated is ancient, not improbably pliocene.

page 470 note 1 See p. 473.

page 470 note 2 I have in the first instance drawn largely for my information on the writings of Dr. Dunlop (see Dunlop, A., ‘On raised beaches and rolled stones at high levels in Jersey,’ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1893, 523CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Geol. Mag., 1893, 376; and 36e Bull. Soc. jers., 112), or else on the coast-lore of Mr. G. Piquet and Mr. E. Guiton; though in almost every case I can speak from personal observation of the facts.

page 471 note 1 See Dunlop, , ‘On the Jersey Brick Clay,’ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1889, 118CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 471 note 2 Collenette, , ‘The raised beaches, and cliff and rubble heads of Guernsey,’ Trans. Guerns. Soc. Nat. Sci., 1892, 219 fGoogle Scholar.

page 471 note 3 Cf. de Lapparent, A., Traité de Géologie, 5th edit. (1906), iii. 1698Google Scholar. Diluvial agencies are also invoked by Barrois, M. in his masterly paper, ‘L'extension du limon quaternaire en Bretagne,’ Annales de la Soc. Géol. du Nord, xxvi (1897), 33 f.Google Scholar, who, however, argues from an examination of the Lösspuppen, the calcite of which, acting as a petrifying agent, preserves the lithological character of the primitive loess, that no notable transport has taken place, the loess common to Brittany and the Channel Islands being at least near its place of origin.

page 473 note 1 For description see Dunlop, ‘On some Jersey peat-beds,’ 21e Bull. Soc.jers., 1906, 350–4, who, however, studies the stratification on the basis of a 15-foot section; whereas, by the kindness of Mr. H. Morris, of the Jersey Gas Light Company, who has furnished me with admirably charted records of ten experimental borings, I am able to carry the section down to bed-rock at 30 feet.

page 474 note 1 See Dr. Dunlop's already cited study, ‘On some Jersey peat-beds,’ and Mr. Sinel's papers,‘The submerged peat- and forest-beds of the Channel Islands’ (reprinted from the Guerns. Soc. Nat. Sci., 1909) and ‘The relative ages of the Channel Islands’ (35e Bull. Soc. jers., 1909, 429); also Peacock, R. A., Sinkings of Land (1868)Google Scholar.

page 475 note 1 By way of obtaining a theoretic background, however hypothetical, a passing reference may be made to M. Rutot's ingenious theories, since these deal in special detail with the North of France, at any rate from Belgium as far as the valley of the Seine. He accepts, as indeed do most authorities, Penck's four glaciations, one pliocene, the rest pleistocene. See Penck, A., Archiv für Anthrop., N. F., i (1903)Google Scholar. After each glaciation he supposes diluvial conditions to result from the melting of the ice, producing loess-depositing floods in the North of France, owing to a block in the drainage. Such a block, indeed, might easily occur if the present bed of the Channel were tilted up slightly at the westward end, and would make itself felt especially in the narrow part of the ancient bed of the Somme-Seine just north of the Casquets, namely, the chasm known as Hurd's Deep; though whether floods so caused would directly affect the Channel Islands is another question. Further, M. Rutot believes the men of Le Moustier to have come up from the south after the third deluge (severe), and to have inhabited the North of France during the interval (dry, with increasing cold) that led up to the fourth glaciation (relatively slight). This last glaciation, the subsequent deluge (also relatively slight), and an ensuing period of dry cold correspond, in his opinion, to late palaeolithic times, namely, Aurignacian to Magdalenian. See Rutot's, M. later writings, especially ‘Les grandes provinces quaternaries de la France,’ Bull. Soc. prehist. de France, 1908Google Scholar, and ‘Glaciations et Humanité,’ Bull. Soc. beige de Géol, 1910Google Scholar.

page 475 note 2 Contrast the fact that about 120 feet of elevation are at present needed to bridge the Channel south-east of Dungeness, 180 south-east of Beachy Head, 240 south-east of the Start, and 300 southeast of the Land's End.

page 476 note 1 I say final deposition because the loess was probably forming in Jersey, as elsewhere, before Mousterian days. Thus there is good reason to regard the dlterer Loss of the German geologists as of pre-Mousterian age, whilst their jüngerer Löss, on the other hand, may probably be regarded as partly Mousterian and partly post-Mousterian, that is to say, Aurignacian.

page 476 note 2 See 36e Bull. Soc.jer., 115.

page 476 note 3 For Belgium M. Rutot assumes no considerable lowering of the land-level between the Diestian period at the beginning of the pliocene, and the Flandrian at the close of the pleistocene, i. e. postglacial. See Bull. Soc. beige de Géol., xxxiii (1909), 249Google Scholar.

page 477 note 1 See Dunlop, , section at North Pier given in 21e Bull. Soc. jer., 356.Google Scholar

page 477 note 2 M. Rutot remarks that there seems to have been a general filling-in and collapse of caveshelters at the close of the Magdalenian period, and names it l'époque du grand délrilique. See Bull. Soc. beige de Géol., xxiv (1910), 70Google Scholar.

page 478 note 1 See Reid, C., ‘The Island of Ictis,’ Archaeologia, lix (1905), p. 281CrossRefGoogle Scholar.