RECENT PRE-HISTORIC RESEARCHES IN 

 JERSEY. 



BY ED. TOULMIN NICOLLE, 

 Secretary of La SocUte Jersiaise. 



I.— La Cotte at S. Brelade. 



Until quite recently evidence was wanting of the existence 

 of Palaeolithic Man in these islands. It is true that flint 

 implements, suspected to be palaeolithic, had been found from 

 time to time, but not having been discovered associated with 

 the remains either of primitive man or of those animals which 

 were his companions, no decisive interpretation could be 

 placed on the finds. 



The result of the explorations carried on by the Soeietc 

 Jersiaise during 1910 and 1911 has cleared away any doubt 

 that may have existed on this subject. The cave-dwelling 

 known as La Cotte at S. Brelade has at last given up its 

 secret and not only is there revealed to us the existence of a 

 Pleistocene fauna in Jersey, but human teeth, pronounced by 

 the highest authorities to have belonged to man of the 

 Neanderthal type, and the Mousterian implements he made 

 and used, have been unearthed. 



La Cotte is situated in a cliff near Le Ouaine in S. 

 Brelade's Bay. Its floor is about 60 feet above mean tide 

 level. Previous to excavation the cave was filled with rubble 

 and clay almost to within a feAv feet of the roof. Since 1880 

 flint implements had been from time to time found at the foot 

 of the talus. In 1905 the Societe Jersiaise decided to explore 

 the cave, but the work had to be abandoned on account of its 

 dangerous nature and it Avas not until 1910 that a full 

 examination was carried out, resulting in the splendid discovery 

 with which the members of the Guernsey Society of Natural 

 Science are acquainted. The fully detailed account of the 

 Society's explorations of 1910 is to be found in the Bulletin 

 of 1911, whilst the report on the work done in 1911, com- 

 pletely confirming the results of the previous year's 

 examination, has just been published in the Bulletin for 

 1912. 



In commencing operations in the summer of 1910 we were 

 very fortunate in alighting directly upon the hearth. Here 

 all around we found evidence of the presence of decayed 

 bone, but owing to the decalcifying properties of the clay only 

 [1911.] 



