The site, known as “Les Varines” lies at the head of a south-running dry valley north-east of St.Helier, close to a spring and overlooked by a low granite cliff. Lithic material was located as part of a ploughzone scatter by Peter Bohea and an assemblage of nearly 500 pieces collected over a 10 year period following ploughing episodes. More recently the site has been identified as being of late Upper Palaeolithic date by Paul Pettitt and Olga Finch. In advance of ploughing in spring 2011, a number of testpits were excavated by the project in the 2010 season. This work located and delimited the extent of the archaeological scatter. The material recovered through both fieldwalking and the excavation appears to represent a Late Upper Palaeolithic assemblage, dating to around 11-12,000 BP. In addition to this material, possible evidence for Neanderthal archaeology was recovered. A borehole survey revealed marine sands in the south of the field, belonging to an episode of high sea-level which can probably be dated to MIS7 or 9.
No other lithic scatter of this date is known from the Channel Islands and if the identification of the material were correct it would represent the first occurrence of late Glacial material on Jersey.
Les Varines is a major site that has considerable potential to further knowledge of the last part of the late glacial interstadial. The site appears relatively large and the broad range of tools suggests it may have served as a relatively long term camp, inhabited by a range of different individuals.
In 2011 a 2m-wide L-shaped trench was excavated conjoining the area of the two richest testpits from the 2010 season. From this area a rich lithic assemblage was recovered the material is currently being studied by Dr Chantal Conneller. During the summer of 2011 also a geoelectrical survey was undertaken across key transects at Les Varines to identify the depth and shape of the bedrock surface.
