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600 million
years ago a second generation of rocks were produced by ash falls and
lava. 100 million years after this, granite was formed by the molten magma
that welled up into cracks in the earth's crust.
About 100
million years later, the conglomerates were formed. As mountains were
eroded, the pebbles and clay were carried down a river, deposited, and
cemented together.
Between this
formation of the conglomerates 400 million years ago, and the ice ages
that began two million years ago, no new rocks were formed.
Major changes
in the earth's crust formed a plateau. As the sea level rose and fell,
Jersey constantly changed.
The
first settlers
250,000 years
ago, the first people appeared on Jersey. They were nomadic hunters, and
used the caves at St. Brelade as a base whilst hunting mammoth.
The island
was used on and off for 200,000 years until the first ice age ended and
Jersey again became an island. The island was unoccupied for 120,000 years
until the end of the second ice age.
Permanent
settlements
At the end
of the second ice age, settlements appeared around Jersey, on the coastal
plains. Permanent settlements were not established on Jersey itself until
4500 BC.
These neolithic
settlers established trading links with Brittany and with the south coast
of England.
Very little
else is known about the island from here until about 930 AD. There is
evidence of the Gauls and the Romans in the island, but it does not seem
that they were permanent settlers.
In 511 Jersey
became part of the kingdom of Neustria. It was around this time that the
first Christian missionaries arrived in Jersey - St Magloire and St Samson.
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