Jersey Dolmens

The dolmens of Jersey are neolithic sites, including dolmens, in Jersey. They range over a wide period, from around 4800 BC to 2250 BC, these dates covering the periods roughly designated as Neolithic, or “new stone age”, to Chalcolithic, or “copper age”.

Before that, La Cotte de St Brelade has evidence of habitation both by our near cousins, the Neanderthals, and early man. These come from the Paleolithic or “old stone age”, and belong to the period of the hunter-gatherer, where the tribe would forage in pursuit of food; in the case of La Cotte, as we know from remains, woolly mammoth was part of the diet.

By the time the dolmens came to be built, people were settled in Jersey, although it was still at that time connected by a land bridge to the continent of Europe (until around 6800 BC). The new stone age differs from the old in that stone tools were still used – axes, daggers etc. – but the community was now settled and farmed the land; they did not hunt and follow prey.

Of their habitations, no trace remains; it is likely from the evidence found elsewhere that they had fairly basic wooden huts, sealed with mud and clay, which have been lost. Only the dolmens and menhirs remain.

The Neolithic sites such as dolmens, passage graves and the like used to be considered to be primarily tombs of chieftains.

Possibly drawing from the Egyptian model, a tribe was imagined as labouring away to build a burial site of stone for a mighty chieftain, much as the workers in Egypt had done for the pharaohs. Beliefs of ancient Egypt have survived in written form, and it seems clear that the embalmed body of the king was entombed underneath or within the pyramid to protect it and allow his transformation and ascension to the afterlife, and a place among the gods. A new pharaoh would mean a new tomb, a new pyramid, often built in fairly close proximity to others.

But the Neolithic sites do not seem to function like that. They are scattered. There is no easy way of seeing that someone was special, singled out. Bodies were often defleshed (left so that the flesh rotted away) or burnt before interment. Ancient Jewish burials – where a tomb was used – then the bones gathered up and placed in a burial casket – show a similarity of practice.

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Wikipedia