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A new view from La Cotte de St Brelade, Jersey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Beccy Scott ,
Martin Bates ,
Richard Bates ,
Chantal Conneller ,
Matt Pope ,
Andrew Shaw  and
Geoff Smith
Beccy Scott
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory and Europe, The British Museum, Franks House, 28–55 Orsman Road, London N1 5QJ, UK (Email: rscott@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk)
Martin Bates
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter, Ceredigion SA48 7ED, UK (Email: m.bates@tsd.ac.uk)
Richard Bates
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of St Andrews, North Street, St Andrews KY16 9AL, UK (Email: crb@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Chantal Conneller
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK (Email: chantal.conneller@manchester.ac.uk)
Matt Pope
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31–34 Gordon Square, London WC1H OPY, UK (Email: m.pope@ucl.ac.uk)
Andrew Shaw
Affiliation:
Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins, Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BF, UK
Geoff Smith
Affiliation:
Monrepos Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution (RGZM), Schloss Monrepos 56567, Neuwied, Germany (Email: smith@rgzm.de)
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Abstract

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Did Neanderthal hunters drive mammoth herds over cliffs in mass kills? Excavations at La Cotte de St Brelade in the 1960s and 1970s uncovered heaps of mammoth bones, interpreted as evidence of intentional hunting drives. New study of this Middle Palaeolithic coastal site, however, indicates a very different landscape to the featureless coastal plain that was previously envisaged. Reconsideration of the bone heaps themselves further undermines the ‘mass kill’ hypothesis, suggesting that these were simply the final accumulations of bone at the site, undisturbed and preserved in situ when the return to a cold climate blanketed them in wind-blown loess.

Keywords

Channel IslandsJerseyMiddle PalaeolithicNeanderthalmass killmammoth huntingbathymetric survey
Type
Research articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 339 , March 2014 , pp. 13 - 29
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
The online version of this article is published within an Open Access environment subject to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution licence ;.
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd.

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