High on a bluff overlooking a lush valley that runs down to the sea is Les Varines and trapped in an ancient cwm or cirque is an Ice Age archeological site yielding vast numbers of Neolithic finds. Small fragments of napped flint and over 3,000 tools created by Magdalenian hunters around 18,000 years ago, immediately after the last glacial period.
A recent discovery, a mammoth tooth, has been excavated and sent off for analysis.
Jus two more weeks and the site will be filled in and left for a good few years as the search for new sites continues.
As Dr Matt Pope explained "Jersey has provided some of greatest number of significant Ice Age finds in the world. It really seems as though we have barely touched the surface in what Jersey has to offer in informing us about the Ice age and its inhabitants."
I queried the need to close the site but Matt explained it was a matter of resource, the chance for further discoveries elsewhere and a desire to leave further digging for future generations.
This coming Sunday's open day will be the last chance to stare at artefacts and an exposed landscape that has not seen the light of day since mammoths were hunted by our ancestors. Worth a look.
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