Main Switchboard
01267 676767
Email Address
vacancies@tsd.ac.uk
Archaeology lecturer discusses Neanderthal settlements on Planet Earth
26.10.2011
Richard Hollingham met Dr Martin Bates from the School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology who is working to preserve one of the most important Neanderthal settlements in north-west Europe to find out how they lived.
Archaeologists think La Cotte de St Brelade on the Channel Island of Jersey was almost continually used over a quarter of a million years, making it one of the most important Neanderthal sites in north-west Europe.
Long-term occupation means the La Cotte ravine has revealed the most extensive collection of early Neanderthal technology in the region, including over 250,000 stone tools. Archaeologists have found stones with sharpened edges that could be used to cut or chop, as well as the remains of the animals the Neanderthals hunted and ate.
With huge piles of bones at the bottom of the cliff, it looks like the Jersey Neanderthals organised game drives, rounding up mammoths and driving them over the cliff edge. But the latest findings by archaeologists suggest this might not be the full story.
Listen to Dr Bates here (4’15)
View all news...
