Study into Jersey Neanderthal mammoth hunters
Archaeologists are investigating the truth behind the story that Ice Age Neanderthals in Jersey would push mammoths off cliffs in St Brelade for food.
About 30 years ago, evidence suggested early residents of what is today the island of Jersey chased the giant mammals off the cliffs at La Cotte above Ouaisne.
Dr Geoff Smith, an analyst for Jersey Archive, said: “It was in the 70s and 80s that the hypothesis was put forward that Neanderthals were grouping together to drive herds of woolly mammoth and woolly rhinos off the cliffs and butchering them.”
I guess in the absence of a true ‘buffalo jump’ type of bone bed you’d have to. . .well. . . .I wonder if you could look at breakage patterns that would suggest a fall? I’m not seeing how the health of the animals would indicate driving them off a cliff though, you could still kill a healthy critter although they usually go after old/sick ones.
