This volume is the second in a series commissioned by Jersey Heritage as part of an overarching Archaeological Research Framework for the island. It is a comprehensive, up-to-date study of the Neolithic of Jersey in the context of the other Channel Islands and their relationship with north-west France. After a brief reference to the preceding Mesolithic period, and a discussion of the Neolithisation of Jersey, the volume summarises our current state of knowledge and proposes key outstanding research questions for the Early Neolithic (c. 49004700 BC), the Middle Neolithic I (c. 4700/46004300 BC), the Middle Neolithic II (43003400 BC) and the Late Final Neolithic and Chalcolithic (c. 3400 2300 BC). It offers an academic framework for future investigations in Jersey and aims to inform the actions of those responsible for the care and protection of Jerseys artefacts, archaeological deposits and monuments.
Preface
Chapter
1. General introduction and overview
Chapter
2. Before the Neolithic: A glimpse into the Mesolithic of the Channel
Islands
Chapter
3. The Neolithisation of Jersey and the other Channel Islands, and
the Early Neolithic, c. 49004700 BC
Chapter
4. The Middle Neolithic I (c. 4700/46004300 BC): development of an
Insular Neolithic, while remaining connected just to the neighbouring
mainland
Chapter
5. The Middle Neolithic II (43003400 BC): the golden age of
megalithic (and drystone) funerary monument construction in Jersey (c.
43003900 BC), followed by a period (c. 39003400 BC) characterised by the
near-absence of evidence
Chapter
6. The Late-Final Neolithic (and Chalcolithic), a long (c. 34002300
BC) and poorly-understood period
Chapter
7. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Alison Sheridan is a Research Associate and former Principal Curator of Early Prehistory in the Department of Scottish History and Archaeology, National Museums Scotland. As the UK, Isle of Man and Channel Islands co-ordinator of the French-led research project, Projet JADE, she has investigated the axeheads and other artefacts made from jadeitite and other Alpine rocks that have been found in the Channel Islands. She has also worked with the late Ian Kinnes on the dating of the funerary monument of Les Fouaillages on Guernsey.
Emmanuel Ghesquière is in charge of archaeological prospection and excavations at the Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (INRAP), Grand-Ouest, in Bourgébus, and a permanent member of the Centre de Recherche en Archéologie, Archéosciences, Histoire, Rennes (CReAAH). A specialist in the prehistory of Normandy and of the west of France more generally from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age, he has directed excavations at the Neolithic cemetery of Fleury-sur-Orne since 2014.
Cyril Marcigny is the Deputy Director (Scientific and Technical) of INRAP, Grand-Ouest, in Bourgébus, and is a Faculty Member (and former Director of CReAAH) at the Université Rennes-I and II. He also teaches at the École du Louvre and is a member of the Pre- and Protohistory Section of the Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques at the École nationale des Chartres. He brings his encyclopaedic knowledge of the Neolithic in Normandy, and in western France more generally, to bear on interpreting Jerseys Neolithic.
Hélène Pioffet is Conservatrice du Patrimoine (Curator of Heritage) in charge of the département of Morbihan, based at the Service regional de lArchéologie in Rennes, and a permanent member of CReAAH. She is a specialist in Neolithic pottery, not only of France and the Channel Islands (having produced the definitive report on the assemblage from Les Fouaillages, for example) but also of Britain and Ireland. Her work on Channel Islands Neolithic pottery has clarified its development and its relationship with French ceramic traditions.
