La Hougue Bie is a historic site, with museum, in the

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the l ...

parish of

Grouville Grouville is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey in the Channel Islands. The parish is around east of St Helier. The parish covers a surface area of 4,354 vergées (7.8 km²). The parish includes the south-east portion of the main island o ...

. La Hougue Bie is depicted on the 2010 issue Jersey 1 pound note.

Toponymy

''Hougue'' is a Jèrriais/

Cotentin The Cotentin Peninsula (, ; nrf, Cotentîn ), also known as the Cherbourg Peninsula, is a peninsula in Normandy that forms part of the northwest coast of France. It extends north-westward into the English Channel, towards Great Britain. To its w ...

variant form of the more common Norman form ''Hogue''. It means "heap", "how",

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher ...

" and comes from the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

word ''haugr'' meaning about the same thing. ''Bie'' is of uncertain origin. The legend of La Hougue Bie connects it with the Seigneur of Hambye in the Cotentin; an Old Norse origin may connect it to ''-by'' toponyms in Great Britain; or it may be connected to the Jèrriais word ''bié'' (variant spelling for ''biz'' "leat"). There are several hamlets called ''La Bie'' in Normandy (Ex La Bie, or La By(e), Grumesnil), that is never confused with ''Le Bié'' (Ex: Le Vieux-Bié, ''Les planters du Viez Bié'', 1263,

Gournay-en-Bray Gournay-en-Bray () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in north-western France. Geography A town of farming and light industry, it is situated in the Pays de Bray, some east of Rouen, at the junction of the N ...

). La Hougue Bie refers probably to "a building on the earth mound".

Passage grave

The site consists of an 18.6 metre long passage chamber covered by a 12.2 metre high earth mound. The site was first excavated in 1925 by the Société Jersiaise. Fragments of twenty vase supports were found along with the scattered remains of at least eight individuals. Gravegoods, mostly pottery, were also present. At some time in the past, the site had evidently been entered and ransacked. On top of the mound were built two Medieval chapels. The

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, ...

have five

passage grave A passage grave or passage tomb consists of one or more burial chambers covered in earth or with stone, and having a narrow access passage made of large stones. These structures usually date from the Neolithic Age, and are found largely in Wester ...

s with side chambers (La Hougue Bie, Faldouet and Grantez in Jersey, La Varde and Le Déhus in Guernsey). La Hougue Bie is a

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 p ...

ritual site which was in use around 4000-3500 BC. In

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

, it is one of the largest and best preserved passage graves and the most impressive and best preserved monument of Armorican Passage Grave group. Although they are termed "passage graves", they were ceremonial sites, whose function was more similar to

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

es or

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

s, where burials were incidental. Since the excavations and restoration of the original entrance of the passage observations from inside the tomb at sunrise on the spring and autumn

equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise "due east" and se ...

have revealed that the orientation of the passage, probably fortuitously, allows the sun's rays to shine through to the chamber entering the back recess of the terminal cell. Although many passage graves showed evidence of continued activity into the

Late Neolithic In the archaeology of Southwest Asia, the Late Neolithic, also known as the Ceramic Neolithic or Pottery Neolithic, is the final part of the Neolithic period, following on from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic and preceding the Chalcolithic. It is some ...

period, La Hougue Bie was abandoned before that time.

Chapels and Prince's Tower

Atop the mound are two medieval chapels, one from the 12th Century and the other from the 16th Century. This building complex has been altered a great deal through its history – including being engulfed for a period by the ''Prince’s Tower''. Construction of this tower was started in 1792 by Philippe d'Auvergne, who justified the work by erecting a signal station on the tower as the hub of an island-wide communication system. The building was demolished in 1924.

Second World War

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, it was used as a key lookout point, and an underground command bunker was built in the mound and adjacent. This structure is open to the public, and houses an exhibition commemorating the workers from across Europe forced to build defences in Jersey during the German occupation.

Museum

The site, which is managed by Jersey Heritage, also houses the island's Archeology and Geology Museum. In that section, there is a display dedicated to the Jersey Mummy.

References

External links

La Hougue Bie Museum
{{European_Standing_Stones History of Jersey Museums in Jersey Archaeological sites in Jersey Grouville Megalithic monuments in Europe Buildings and structures completed in the 4th millennium BC