In February 2005 I took a tour with Archaeology Safaris (www.archaeology-safaris.co.uk ) to Jersey. It was good fun despite horizontal snow at times!
The island is rich in prehistoric sites, possibly because it would have been an important stopping place for the prehistoric traders who needed to keep as near land as possible. (Read Professor Barry Cunliffe "Jersey in Prehistory, a centre or a periphery.")
LE DOLMEN DE GEONNAIS UTL 573558
A passage grave discovered in l859 and first excavated in l929. Then it was re-excavated in the 1980s. The reconstruction looks unlike any other passage grave with straight sides of dry stone walling. The site had been damaged by quarrying, so it is possible there is was a mistake when it was put back together.
LE DOLMEN DES MONTS GRANTEZ UTL
Dating back to 4000 to 3250 BC, this passage grave was excavated in l912. Three granite hammers, perforated pebbles and two vase supports were among the grave goods. The shape of this monument is unusual. It seems to be a cruciform shape missing one chamber. It is possible that the early excavators failed to find this and it is still to be uncovered or that this is a large gallery grave of some kind. A neat stone wall protects the monument but detracts from atmosphere.
LA COTTE DE ST BRELADE
A cave, which can only be reached at low tide, shows traces of paleolithic man, ten thousand years before the advent of modern man. Bones of mammoths and woolly rhinos suggests this was an animal execution site. They were chased to their death over the cliffs. The site has litter all over the place - rusting barbed wire, corrugated iron and so forth. Why don't archeologists take their litter home?
LE COUPERIN UTL 703542.
This gallery grave is dated about 3000 BC and was once hidden by a long mound. It was completely ripped up in the nineteenth century and then rebuilt, so has probably been altered in the process. It is build high up looking out to the beach. Gallery graves succeeded passage graves in the late Neolithic.
LA DAME BLANCHE or THE IVY STONE UTL 678469
This standing stone was once in an orchard but now stands surrounded by ploughland, with new houses creeping up on it. It shows the damage inflicted upon it by a man with a hammer - an attack which it luckily withstood. Such are the hazards of prehistoric monuments that get in the way of intensive farming. From this stone it would be possible to see Mont Ube


LA HOUGUE BIE
The second longest passage grave in Europe containing at least 70 huge stones built some time about 4000-3500 BC. Only New Grange in Ireland is longer. The main chamber is in a cruciform shape with burial chambers to the South, West and North. There was a pavement of maroon pebbles, and smashed Jersey bowls on supporting pottery stands. This site attracted others. Two medieval chapels were built possibly as a way of Christianising a pagan site. A crypt was added on in the sixteenth century. A rather twee well (still there) was added in the l920s and even lavatory (removed in excavation). The Nazis added a bunker during World War 2. The grave itself was in l924 when a shaft was dug into the hill. The concrete pillar inside dates from then. The entrance, with its dry stone walling, was uncovered in the l990s by Dr George Nash. It had been closed and covered, possibly with soil from the top of the hill, in Bronze age times. In the same way Cotswold long barrows are closed up around this time. The mound is now 12 m high but may have been 19 m in Neolithic uncovered times.
Dr George Nash says: "If you are looking at the magnitude of a site's importance, La Houge Bie is the equivalent of Stonehenge." At the spring equinox, the rising sun shines into the tomb.
MONT UBE UTL 677475
The capstones have all vanished and the tomb itself was nearly broken up completely in l948. Some of the boulders seen in near the woodland path may have been the missing capstones. It entrance stands perilously close to a ploughed field and from the grave, one would be able to see La Dame Blanche, if it wasn't for the houses in between. A door way stone impedes visual access to the main chamber. Grave goods included fragments of 12 vessels, Jersey bowls, flints, a greenstone axe, and armlets of piece stone. This is not a cruciform grave. Instead the burial chambers with built within the main chamber.
LA POUQUELAYE DE FALOUDET UTL 710507
The mound covering the passage grave has gone though its outside ring can still be trace. Only the stone passage inside it remains, though many of the cap stones have gone. It was cruciform like La Hougue Bie and shows the same restricted visual access from entrance to the main chamber. Those peering into the tomb were not meant to see straight in.
ST BRELADE BAY MENHIRS UTL 571499 AND 572495 and OSSUARY OR LES BLANCHES BANQUES UTL 571499
These are three standing stones, and chambered monument, lie within sight of each other (obstructed by later sand dunes) - part of a late Neolithic or early bronze age ceremonial complex. The single stones are respectively known as The Broken Menhir, The Little Menhir and on the hillside the Great Menhir. The first and last stone were re-erected in the l920s, while the Little Menhir had to be dug out of the sand.


The Ossuary

Broken Menhir


Little Menhir

Higher up the hill are the standing stones found on the Atlantic Hotel golf course. These possibly make up a ceremonial corpse way either for those depositing the dead or for the dead themselves leaving their grave.

Great Menhir		 Between the Broken Menhir and the Little Menhir lies the Ossuary, a late Neolithic chambered monument dating to between 3000 to 2000 BC. This tomb, which contained the bones of 20 individuals, is unlike other grave monument in Jersey. It has been poorly excavated in l922 - "dough nutted" by being scooped into rather than carefully dug layer by layer
LA SERGENTE at UTL 561 486
The passage leads to a circular chamber of dry stone walling (contrast with le Dolment des Geonnis' straight walling). It is possible it was a beehive shaped dry stone wall vault similar to about eight other sits in Northern France. The excavators in l923 found a lot of rubble which may have been the results of the roof falling in. The burial chambers were within the main chamber. There is a line of sight to La Table to Marthes. The door, obstructing site into the main chamber is visible.
LA TABLE DES MARTHES at UTL 556 482
This a pink granite slab, almost looking as if it had been shaped into a rectangle. It is probably a huge capstone from the alte Neolithic or early bronze age, about 2500 to 3000 BC. An excavation in l850 found upright stones below it, a stone axe and some broken pottery. It was a folkloric stone, used by the inhabitants of Jersey for signing contracts. To this it may owe its survival since it was allowed to stand by the side of the now disused St Helier to La Corbiere railway.
LES TROIS ROCQUES at UTL 572516 AND THE WHITE MENHIR at UTL 571514 AND OTHER STANDING STONES
A row of three gigantic boulders lies in a field near Les Mielles golf course in the bay of St Ouens. These are so large they are visible from the planes leaving or arriving at Jersey airport.
On the golf course itself there are a two more sites, both with two erected stones. The White Menhir is probably the one at UTL 571514.
LA VILLE ES NOUAUX
In the middle of St Andrews park, a faultlessly clean site exhibits a cist in circle grave and a gallery grave. The gallery grave was built around 3000 BC, but has only one set of outlying kerbstones (in contrast to Le Couperin). These may have been lost before excavation in l869 or went missing during it. The cist in circle grave, dating from 2700 to 2000 BC, is a form common in France. This is a sanitised site.
JERSEY

LE DOLMEN
DE GEONNAIS
LE DOLMEN DES MONTS GRANTEZ
LA COTTE DE ST BRELADE
LE COUPERIN
LA DAME BLANCHE or THE IVY STONE
LA HOUGUE BIE
MONT UBE
LA POUQUELAYE DE FALOUDET
ST BRELADE BAY MENHIRS
OSSUARY OR LES BLANCHES BANQUES
LA SERGENTE
LA TABLE DES MARTHES
LES TROIS ROCQUES
WHITE MENHIR
LA VILLE ES NOUAUX