The Cambridge excavations at La Cotte de St Brelade, Jersey—a preliminary report

Abstract

The following is a preliminary report on excavations undertaken at this site under the aegis of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Cambridge. The work was carried out during a number of seasons over the past ten years, partly as a research project and partly as field training for third year and research students under the direction of C.B.M.McB. To P.C. fell the eventual task of collating and summarizing the extensive stratigraphical observations made by us and by previous excavators, and doing the same for the pollen samples and palaeontological data. Responsibility for the report as a whole is shared, but many others too numerous to thank separately at this stage have contributed basically to the collection and analysis of field and laboratory data. It is hoped that the full results after further field work will provide the material for a detailed monograph. The work would of course have been impossible but for the kind permission of the Société Jersiaise and the active assistance of many of its members on numerous occasions.The site, the largest and most productive cave or rock-shelter site in the British Isles, was originally made famous by the discovery of a rich Mousterian industry, fauna, and eventually fossil traces of Neanderthal man at the turn of the century.