La Motte is a

tidal island A tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands, many of them have been sites of ...

, and listed archaeological site, also known as Green Island, located in the

Vingtaine de Samarès Vingtaine de Samarès is one of the three vingtaines of the Parish of St. Clement in Jersey, Channel Islands. It takes its name from the salt marsh that used to occupy much of the area of this low-lying coastal vingtaine. Samarès used to be s ...

in the parish of St Clement on the south-east coast of Jersey,

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

. There is evidence of human visits to the island since

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

times, having left a

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

, a number of

midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

s and

cist A cist ( or ; also kist ; from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle East ...

s which were uncovered in the early 20th century. The island rises to above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

and can only be accessed at low tide. The rock is from the late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

covered with

loess Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits. Loess is a periglacial or aeolian ...

below a grassy surface.

Location

The island is approximately from the beach and rises to above sea level. The island has a grassy surface and is predominantly clay surrounded by rocks. In recent times efforts have been made to reduce erosion of the island by the construction of walls and steps. It is only accessible at low tide and cut off twice a day when the sea water rises.

Archaeology

Some

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

evidence has been found here. Remains of a cemetery on La Motte are believed to be from later settlers. There are

elements including a

and a number of

s, dating from 1500 BC to 300 BC, on La Motte. The 18

s have been removed, and transferred to the

La Hougue Bie La Hougue Bie is a historic site, with museum, in the Jersey parish of Grouville. La Hougue Bie is depicted on the 2010 issue Jersey pound, Jersey 1 pound note. Toponymy ''Hougue'' is a Jèrriais/Cotentin variant form of the more common Norm ...

museum. They were excavated between 1911 and 1914.

Geological site

The surrounding area and beach were listed as a site of special scientific interest in 2009. The rock was laid down in the late

and is covered with preserved

. They provide evidence of past environmental changes in the locality.

Gallery

File:La Motte Saint Cliément Jèrri.jpg, La Motte seen from the beach at La Sordonnière. File:Aerial photo of La Motte tidal island, Jersey.jpg, La Motte seen from the air.

References

External links