Without
the
freedom to make critical
remarks, there cannot exist sincere
flattering praise - Beaumarchais.
THE LASCAUX 'CORDE' AFFAIR
"It is only a book of real value that merits a critical analysis."
in History And Science
Of Knots
under the editorial supervision of J.C TURNER and P Van De
GRIEND
published : Series on Knots and Everything - Volume
11 - World Scientific is the
publisher.
It is a series that leaves you in no doubt about it be determined to
show the hallmark
of
academic standards of publication.
In Part ONE - Chapter 1 Page 14, last
paragraph : Pleistocene Knotting
signed by Charles WARNER and Robert G.
BEDNARIK, it is written :
[open quote]
"Some
fossilised fragments
of
probably two-ply
laid rope of
about 7mm diameter has
been
found in
Lascaux Cave from about
17000 years ago.
Perhaps the rope was
used
in
conjunction
with the extensive scaffolding that seems to have been
built there or perhaps to
facilitate entrance to the
cave..."
[end quote]
Many questions was then raised in my mind.
Much ado has been done of what, when all is said and done, is
only an interpretation
of
geometrical designs
purported to be "rope and such".
Well so much have been 'interpreted'
in artefacts from prehistoric
times, that has been held
for some time as 'The truth' but that further
research proved
'mistaken' that I am a bit shy
about 'interpretations'
in
that domain.
To take one example only : the geometrical tracings that are
interpreted as a hair dress with
a netting.
Well that could be a netting if you like playing with your imagination,
but may be that is not.
I remember from my early years of life spent in Ivory Coast some hair
dresses with
absolutely no netting or string in them that could be
artistically rendered with exactly the
same sort of tracing.
I hold that comparing a hair dress representation to another actual
hair dress is a bit more
'congruent' that to compare a hair dress to an
'imagined
interpretation''.
For once this was not a design that could be or could not be
interpreted with imagination
as depicting a cordage but the very real
object.
What was at the time the
oldest rope 'in person' or rather 'in fibres' ever
found is worth
50
words for those authors !
I was a bit surprised (would
have
been even if the
Cave had been in Patagonia, this is
not a case of chauvinistic
reaction - by the way Charles WARNER's book "A
Fresh
Approach To
Knotting And
Ropework" show an acute intellect at work, get a
copy
if
you do not already own one) so much that I
went
searching the
Net for the
Anglo-saxon sources : much discrepancies, contradictions, lack of
knoledge in some of the
supposedly "professional"
publications by American authors.
Just that point was enough
for me to see it as a red flag
warning to exercise the utmost
caution in using this sort of material
and to go digging nearer to the
source.
I then set to compare with the known easily accessible published
material.
First I looked into my "collection of books" and found again
a picture of
the rope which
made me immediately think : "not laid but
plaited".
Book with the photography of 'la corde' is LASCAUX
by Mario RUSPOLI ,
publisher :
Bordas.
On page 191 Marc GAZAY tells of the
discovery that he places in July 1949 or 1950,
the first campaign after
WW2, with Abbé GLORY .
[open
translated quote]
It was decided
that working hours would take place in the night between 09:00 PM
and
02:00 AM the next day.
A false move
with the scaffolding
dislodged some chunks of clay.
A rope remnant
was visible.
[end translated
quote ]
Still this
book is not a technical one
but a "photographic inventory" though RUSPOLI
worked for the Corpus
Lascaux
under the patronage of world's
specialist of Lascaux
:
Norbert
AUJOULAT
Norbert AUJOULAT large book on Lascaux does not evoke the rope.
I made some experiments with plastic clay and ropes ( see
slide show here
) and
arrived at the notion, confirming my very first impression, that
is
was probably a
plaited / braided and not a laid
cordage and
that is was rather a three than a
two strands.
So I went on
further on the trail :
books, Ministry of
Culture, Prehistory, Anthropology Societies and museums.... even
contacted AUJOULAT (had already done that some years back,
and he had been good
enough to help) Lascaux Cave specialist
of
specialists that the authors, had they be truly
professional, could
have contacted.
He choose not to answer this time and/or to take the
option
I had left open : no answer
or "there are some question that must be
left without answer".
May be it is just that I never got an answer that was indeed sent.
Here is the story on record for any one to find without real
hassle, or at least not what
I was trained to consider as being hassle
when
researching documentation :
( Abbé GLORY -R.I.P - had notoriously sloppy
methods even if enthusiastic ones
and it seems that he was not entirely
adverse to "forget" to
index some pieces and
"somewhat dis-inclined" to separate himself from
some
finds, "pet finds" ? : they were
found by the
DELLUCs when cleaning the Abbé's house
after
his death. Of course
conservation methodology was not really a
preoccupation.)
1958 in Mémoires De La
Société Préhistorique
Française Tome Cinquième
( Memoirs of the French Prehistory
Society Fifth volume ) Abbé GLORY
officially
related for the record the discovery made in 1953, five
years before.
Abbé GLORY gives as his aids present at the time of the
discovery (1953) :
Roger CONSTANT , Jean-Louis PECHMAJOU .
No happenstance
false move with scaffolding this time but a voluntary act
(unmotivated in the publication, may be divinely inspired serendipity ?
)
by GLORY
who took a piece of clay from a cranny and
saw :
" a black filet that traverse it from
on side to
the other",
"
Without conscious thought with a knife I spiked the black dividing
line, the clay opened in
two
parts like a book..."
GLORY state that he immediately saw " a carbonized-like
strip with twisted lines going all
the length of the piece of clay."
He
interpreted that as the remnants of plaited vines or
something like
that.
Mainly it was the moulding (cast) that was "visible".
Discovery took place in both versions in La Galerie Des
Félins ( The gallery of the
Felines) near Le
Puits ( The Well), far away inside and not at all near the
entrance.
" the second
chunk of clay opened in the same manner but the positives
and negatives
traces were a more complicated intertwining....the third broke
sideways ( or crab-wise)
and the fourth
was kept untouched as check sample. The fifth
only show a
simple strip
without visible
structure, blackish dirt, seemingly crushed and spread
but heels pressure
through the thickness of the soil which was at this
place
made thinner."
"....
Fragment N° 1 = 5 centimetres ( me : 2 inches )....
...Fragment N° 2 = 5 cm...
...Fragment N°3 = 7 cm ( me : almost 3 inches)...
...Fragment N° 4 = 4.5 cm...
...Fragment N° 5 = 5 cm...
...3 grossly right-laid ply, each one 3mm in thickness... (me please
note NOT diameter)"
"It is our enlightened opinion ....rope who was in a sort of natural
gutter leading to the Well,
seems to have been used in its time by the
prehistorics ( sic
) to go down the abrupt 6
meters wall (
me : 6 meters=18
feet)(wall
: ...meaning of the puits / the well's wall under the
margin )
"
Laboratory analysis led to confirmation that it was vegetable matter
(mainly
humic and
fulvic acids)
Action of humic acids leads to an amorphous brown-black matter
with
the aspect and
characters of peat .
Laboratory official report state "tourbifiés"
/ that is "conserved" by a process like the
one
forming peat.
No carbonization, not one trace of it, no charred
remains.
---------------------------------------------------
A bizarre point :
These days no one knows where the discovered pieces are now.
Only some photographies (Originals are lost too!)
and only 'some words' are all
that remain from this incredible find.
I was told by some official person at the Muséum that bad
conservation
methods led to
dessication which in its turn led to the destruction of
the pieces over the time.
There is no real mention of the rope in one of the DELLUCS's
book on Lascaux
(husband
and wife who "cleaned" GLORY's house after his death
).
I renounced acquiring their book
on this as most reviewers seemed to
believed it was
a pro domo publication and
a character
assassination in the guise of the praise of a deceased
mentor.
No detail in Norbet AUJOULAT very big book on LASCAUX.
The official answer of the Museum was :
Marc Gazay was
one of the occasional collaborators of Glory. An account is signed by
him
in "Lascaux
un nouveau regard" de Mario Ruspoli, 1986, pp. 190-191. His
recounting of
the discovery is a bit different from the one made by
Abbé Glory in his
publication in
"Mémoires de
la SPF, 1959, 5, pp. 135-169".
The date Marc Gazay is certainly mistaken. In fact, in 1949, only
campaign was done in
Le Puits / the Well by Abbé BREUIL ( my comment : the protector
who 'imposed'
Glory to University ), BLANC and BOURGON.
In 1949 and 1950 Glory had not yet gain official authorization for
working in Lascaux.
GLORY told that the discovery was made on 1953, 25th of September, and
GLORY's
indications were taken in"Lascaux
inconnu" (1979), avec deux photos N et B de Glory,
fig. 141 et 142, p.
183
In
"Lascaux retrouvé"
(2003), ( Lascaux found again : it was after their cleaning of
GLORY's
house and finding many actefacts hidden in metal boxes! Hence
the title as it
was indeed a RE-discovery of things that the
good
Abbé had kept to
himself.
pp. 201-202, Brigitte et Gilles Delluc tell the two versions
of the
discovery . ( Me : this
book received much controversial critics about its honesty,
methodology, real
intent
behind the avowed one.....A Florentine assassination may be
?).
There is no photographic negatives of the rope and no macro photography
was done."
End of official stance
--------------------------------------------
The photos were in :
the photothèque of Le Musée de l'Homme à Paris (
Museum of Man) :
E-76-615-493 ;
E-76-616-493 ; E-76-617-493.
But photothèque has been moved (could not get a copy of the
pictures) to the future
Musée du Quai
Branly. Future being the operative word here.
The Musée de la Préhistoire des
Eyzies told me it was the best of
those documents that
were used for the
publication of "Lascaux inconnu" in
1979
I also found :
In Lascaux Inconnu ( The Unknown Lascaux ), (
1979)
a voluminous publication by
CNRS (Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique), authored, among others by
LEROI-GOURHAN, DELLUC,
LAMING-EMPERAIRE, BALOUT and dedicated
to l’Abbé
GLORY.
Chapitre Un : L’Abbé GLORY, Page 12
signed by Lionel BALOUT (Chapter One
written about l’Abbé GLORY to the memory of whom the book
is
dedicated)
"accessorily, he made known diverse documents, generally
(usually/mostly) discovered by
him : remnants of plaited rope in
Lascaux, sandstone burner, juniper
sticks....
BALOUT quote BREUIL on this
'corde' in
the bibliography of this chapter 1 .
Of course he quote too : Débris De
Corde Paléolitique à La Grotte De
Lascaux
(Dordogne).
Mém. Soc préhist. Franç.,
Tome V,
1958, p 135-159 de GLORY Remnants Of
Paléolitic
Rope In
Lascaux Cave (Dordogne -
France)
On this exceptional discovery, Abbé BREUIL made a
communication to l’Académie des
Inscriptions et
Belles Lettres.
Unfortunately no indication of date or of title is given, text is a
ghost or it escaped
my
foraging.
I
am now
satisfied that it was a not charred, not fossilised but "transform into
peat" and
cast vestiges of a three stands plaited rope and that all this material
was
readily available
for any one wanting to find it.
Critical comments reviewed :
---
Some : most vague
In fact there was 3 chucks of clay with pieces of
rope in the 2 that were opened.
A fourth (lost now) was kept for the future when new technical means
of investigation
would be
available.
The chunk that was opened held inside ...
--- fossilised : NO, not really fossilised but "preserved" Granted! fossilised is not always mineralised
(or petrified, that is transmogrified into
mineral substance or
replaced by...) but in the case in
point it is a mummification as
the one that happen in bogs. There is no
'replacement' here but partial "cast / mould.
Clay protected the vegetable matter from oxygen so there was no
breaking down of
constituents, and a 'cast' of the rope was made in the
clay.
Process is "no oxygen and action of humic acids" that sort of
mummified, in fact "digested"
the vegetable matter leaving mainly the
cast of it.
--- 7 mm diameter : NO or rather too vague but it
is in the original publication by Glory
and it is no
invention of the two authors that are guilt-free.
It is not the rope that is 7mm
but the "cast" and
the rope itself was very much flattened so
no one can know
the real diameter from what is a width ! Not these authors fault, as it
is in
GLORY's publication.
--- two ply : NO
it is three
--- laid: NO
it is plaited. (Though I will agree there is some ambiguity
in
the terms used and between the
terms and the illustrations made.) Plait
seems to me more 'immediate' to 'invent' than
laying
and
gives a better
strength. The drawing is to my eyes too much a case of seeing what one
believe is there : you could swear that this rope just came out one of
our
ropewalk! No way
I can reconciled it with what I see in some others
drawings and in the photographies.
---was found in Lascaux cave
= vague
This vagueness lead I think to this
curious idea of
"to facilitate entrance" when in fact it was
in the depth of the cave,
near
a vertical well giving access to another, lower, space with
quite
intriguing drawings (not painting ). ---extensive scaffolding : NO
Some
scaffolding yes, extensive? no.
Extensive
is an 'improper'
word here!.
Not to forget ground level was then probably higher than now after
diggings
and a simple
trunk leaning on the wall could have been enough in many
places, or even climbing on the
shoulders of an aid.
---facilitate entrance to the cave : NO
It
is well known that this cave could accessed
without needing of a rope! (The Well is
another story) it is
near the Well
that the rope was found, far from the entry of the
cave (only way to go further
in this gallery is down the well!)
Given the following data I think that it is prudent to
keep some doubt that it was to
"facilitate
entrance to the cave" or even "" climbing down and up the well" rather
than for "
binding some sketchy scaffolding".
Not to say anything (again memories from an African childhood ) of
packaging small gear
or food in large and thick leaves bound with long
stem grasses or 'with 'small (lianes and vines ).
Breaking strain for 8 mm of diameter :
- green grass : 5 to 12 kilogram
- bark fibre : 25 to 75 kg
- vines of sort ( Acorus calamus ) : up
to 220 kilogram
To compare with modern cordage :
- laid flax 6mm : 360kilogram
- braided cotton mason line ( 4 mm : 32 kg ) that will make for 6mm :
72kilogram
- laid hemp 8mm : 395kilogram
BUT it
still remain some "?" and may be some "! "
--- TWO versions for ONE
discovery
--- Behind the words : "
In 1949 and 1950 GLORY had not yet gain official
authorization for
working in Lascaux." somehow knowing French legalese administrative
version one may very well read the words as 'officially it was a "no"
but
UNofficialy
could very well be a 'yes'.
There were indeed digging in the years GAZAY gave.
--- Where are the pieces ?
is it a case of " Truth is
elsewhere" as
Mulder says !
--- Why nobody came out outraged and branding Gazay as a
fairy storyteller.
--- Why the very "shy" " GLORY told that the
discovery was made on 1953, 25th
of September,"
If you read between the lines it is all attributed to the sole
GLORY and not endorsed by the
"authorities" that
much is clear .
---Why the school boy's excuse , not us but somebody else :
"and
GLORY's indications
were taken in "Lascaux
inconnu" (1979)"
Coming out as : "Not us that said that , it is GLORY that said it. "
Only
one
thing is very clear : GLORY
was a much controversial figure protected by
Abbé BREUIL,
another figure whose academic ways and means should be
reviewed,
(Clergy had much power in those time !) so much
'quite personally tainted opinions"
he wrote and
"constrained" others to "follow" under penalty of professional 'unrest'
till his death
which liberated a bit the French
prehistory which for was further liberated
after the death of his
successor LEROY-GOURHAN.
Between them they make French prehistorians toe
the party line! and the
party was
Breuil and after him Leroi-Gourhan !
---
GLORY
claimed a discovery at 02:00 in the morning and having an affidavit
signed by
Montignac ( Lascaux) mayor the very same day.
I will never believe that! I know
French
Administration and "deep in-country behaviour"!
( Motto there seems to be :
Not too fast in the morning and slower in the afternoon, in fact word
for word it is
Slow speed in the morning and High slow in the afternoon)
I took the point to the 'Muséum' and they carefully
refrained from answering this particular
point
while accepting to answer all my other points even if in a somewhat
diplomatic
manner.
--- "
The date... Marc Gazay is certaily mistaken" :
they do not go as far as to
write ' Gazay is
mistaken in all of his story.' or simply a broad all
encompassing "
Gazay is mistaken". It is only about the date that he is specifically
said to be
mistaken.
---
Why wait
from 1953 to 1958, five years, to make an official publication on such
a
splendid find
while having been
in so much a hurry as to have an affidavit signed a few
hours after
discovery ?
GLORY was "asked" to publish on his find ! (meaning he was "ordered"
and that he did
not "spontaneously proposed it " if I am
right. )
Seems that Glory may have been
very "anal retentive"! ( may he R.I.P).
My personal conclusion :
A most marvelous discovery was botched by persons with no real
training
(that can
be corrected , and Glory was 'put to grass' quite fast after
Breuil
lost its grip on France
Prehistory) and may be no real intelligence!
(that can not be corrected : so many people
educated well
beyond
their intelligence) and that
all along the line of what should have
remained one of the most
beautiful find.
May be the only reasonable thing to do is putting this in " profit and
losses" and
kiss goodbye!
R.I.P pauvre corde de Lascaux qui a traversé le
temps jusqu'à tomber sur des vandales.
R.I.P poor Lascaux rope which time traveled till it was unlucky enough
to finished in the
hands of 'academic vandals'.
