Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 1928. THE GLOZEL FINDS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 81, 16 January 1928, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 1928. THE GLOZEL FINDS.

The last lias not been heard of the Glozel "finds," for the owner of the land on which the discovery was made* has announced his determination to face his calumniators. Whatver the final outcome Glozel will always' occupy a place in the history of archaelogical studies even if only. as an instance of unusually successful '''faking-." Glozel is a village in the vicinity of Yichy, famous for its mineral waters, in the south of Franc©. About two years ago a peasant working in the fields discovered, or said he had discovered, certain objects which he took to Dr. Jtforlet of Vichy, who became greatly interested in the finds and finally purchased the field in question and set to work to exploit it. He succeeded in digging* up a very large number of objects of all kinds, vases, stones with drawings scratched on them, inscriptions in some unknown characters, and so on. The finds were remarkable for the curious mixture of objects which experts had hitherto believed to belong to different stages' in the history of prehistoric culture. In particular J :h.e alphabet was ouite a revolutionary discovery, because it implied a neolithic alphabet antedating the Phoenician by many thousands of years, and employed in Europe at a time when herds of reindeer roamed Central France. Tliis, if confirmed, would have made Western Europe instead of Mesopotamia the cradle of the world's culture. From the outset, expert opinion was divided on the question of the authenticity of the finds. Professor Boule, recognised as the highest authority on prehistoric man in France, declared against the discovery. He satisfied himself that the scratched drawings had been made with a steel point when there was no such weapon available at the period when' the drawings were alleged, to have been made. And he also* satisfied himself that in some cases the drawings had been made recently as the colour of the stones snowed when seen under a microscope. That would have settled the matter in most cases, but the experts had committed themselves too deeply to admit their defeat. Finally, an international commission was aoooiiited, and after investigation it declared against the finds. When the commission started work it made discoveries that seemed to confirm Dr. Morlet's claims. Then it began to be apparent that the discoveries were made rather too opportunely. This was remarked by M. Dussaud. a member of the Institute. ' 'lt is extraordinary," he remarks, "how the sprite of Glozel" always'provides what occasion demands. As the new text books have reached Glozel new discoveries have been made that are sheer imitations —drawings of reindeer that have clearly been traced from an existing popular work: Ga]lo-I?oman script, when Camille Julien's work reached Glozel; and, finally, a year or so oQ*o, imitations of archaic Phoenician script, when this script was discovered for the first time and olates of it published. We have nroved that the reindeer drawings were made,- for example, with a pointed metal tool find not with a flint. This alone is sufficient to show up the humbug of it all. In their latest researches the international investigators have remarked the extreme fineness and clear-cut characters of lines engraved on a smooth stone. With what sort of instrument, we ask. could men of six or ten thousand t-/>~t<j nsro inciffl such finely cut lines in such a hard material ?"