Jersey has been a magnet for Neanderthals and other hunter gatherer groups for over the last half million years. The Quaternary Archaeology and Environments of Jersey (QAEJ) project aims to investigate this past on different locations on the island. This multidisciplinary project consists of a team drawn from the the Institute of Archaeology (UCL), the Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins (Southampton), Manchester University and the University of Wales Trinity Saint Davids. The project forms part of the Leverhulme-funded Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) project based at the British Museum and has been developed in close partnership with the Société Jersiaise and Jersey Heritage
Through the news section of this website you can stay updated on the current ongoings of the project. The long-term aim of the project is to use Jersey’s unique and world class record for the ice age to understand the movement and behaviour of humans in response to climate change over the past half million years across Britain and Northern France. This will include both on and offshore surveys, new analyses of lithic and faunal material (including isotope analyses) and new fieldwork. On this website you can also find more information about the different key sites the QAEJ team has been excavating at :
- La Cotte de St Brelade– a prominent Neanderthal site containing thousands of
lithic and faunal remains spanning a 250,000 year period
- Les Varines - a 14,000 year old hunting camp
- Canal du Squez – a Mesolithic find spot rich in microliths
Please click on any of the above tabs to find out more about the different aspects of the research we are currently undertaking. You can also follow us on Twitter or contact us thourgh: quaternaryjersey@gmail.com
The QAEJ team digging at Les Varines - July 2011
