Matt Pope; Paleolithic archaeology and the Société Jersiaise

Thank you, Rosalind, and thank you so much for the invitation to come here and celebrate um your 100th and 50th anniversary.

Um, my talk is very much going to be about paying tribute to members of the Societe who put together so much of the palaeolithic record and uh as you'll probably see in 20 minutes' time, I'm not a historian. I'm an archaeologist, but I'm gonna give you my history of palaeolithic archaeology through the endeavours of the Societe and think about the individuals who brought together all of this knowledge, who facilitated this knowledge and take it right through to the present, um, so that we can begin to discuss the future, the future of archaeology and the future of deep time on the island. Um, I'm gonna be steering largely away from geology, which is going to be covered by John Renn, um, um, this afternoon, but of course there'll be some overlaps. Um, but let's, um, use this to celebrate some of the, um, some of the people who put together this record. Well. The palaeolithic record really predates the Societe in terms of its discovery, um, unbeknownst to them at the, at the time, Joseph Tennell and Samuel Dancaster, probably both about 17 at the same time, discovered flints at the Cotala Cheev. They didn't note much, we don't think, other than they were flints at Leotalachev.

Why did this get into the minds of 217 year olds? We can only think it's about their already education in the geology of Jersey and the uh availability of different types of raw material. Those seeds are there and they're planted. And really, Josephel, the first person I really wanted to celebrate.

We think of him as a evolutionary biologist right now, um, today he was a systematizer of the Jersey Museum. He even fed in, was a consultant in the creation of the Karnak museum. He was a heritage professional um of his time and wrote. Two really important books, The Geology of Jersey and Prehistoric Times and Men of the Channel Islands in 1912 and 1914. 2 books aimed at a popular audience, two books which haven't really yet been, um, yeah, well, the prehistoric times, I think still needs to have its modern incarnation. Josephenne.

Was part of the team that carried out the first palaeolithic excavations we know of at Le Cotale Chev, probably around 1881, how that came about is probably a really important story because 1881 is the year that Leco de Saint Berard is discovered, that's 20 years after.

Joseph Senne and Dancaster are noting these strange flints.

Why does it all come back in 1881? It's because one of those, Dancaster, um, at that point, um, is exploring as, uh, well I would have thought a 37 year old man, the headland at the Cotte de Saint Berard. And there discovers flints, but of course the paradigm has changed.

1859, the palaeolithic is recognised, but of course by 1881, the Palithic has been shared through scientific communities, the Societe is in existence and the discoveries of the cave sites of France and the Somme Valley. being widely shared. So Dancaster knows exactly what he's finding at that point in time at Le Cotte de Saint Berard, and of course, maybe excitedly continues that conversation with Joseph Sone saying, remember the flints that were discovered at the other cave. So that very year, an excavation takes place at Le Cotala Cheev. It is not a societe um excavation.

Joseph Sanau in this quote here. Um says we communicated the discovery to some of the members of the Societe, but the matter was not taken up.

We decided to continue the exploration on our own accounts. And this is a bit of a theme. When is an endeavour, a sociote endeavour in the history of Paleoic archaeology, or when someone is esteemed and so associated with the Societe as Josephinne is carrying out discoveries. Outside of an official capacity from the Societe, really it's still part of the Societe legacy because that knowledge is feeding back here into, into, into the society.

Attention shifts at this point for the latter part of the 19th century to Le Cotte de Saint Berard.

There's various attempts to capitalise on these early discoveries and these early finds, usually thwarted by the dangers of the site. We know there's a couple of campaigns in the 1890s, but in 1894, we got Nori and Shaui, Cason and Raibot attempting. They're thwarted because it's so dangerous. There's another attempt in 1905. It's thwarted because of collapsing rocks. So Lecotte takes a while to really um uh uh have the challenges of its dangers met. But when those challenges are met in 1910, not only is there an incredible collection of individuals, um, all bringing expertise to it, also have Emil Guitton there to capture the photography.

And I've got there, I, I don't know, it's probably a very early selfie um from. Jersey of Emil Gretton. I can't imagine he did anything other than set that camera up himself. He's there with some friends. So it's a very remarkable photograph. But honestly, every single one of the Mill Gretton's photos which are here in the Societe archive and have been generally shared, generously shared with us by the Societe, each one is for us an important scientific document. Documenting the state of the cave, the state of excavations year by year, the individuals involved and the methodologies. So without that photographic archive, going alongside the endeavours of these gentlemen, um, led by Nicole and Sinel but also with Maritt who at this point was um a professor of anthropology. Recently absolutely invigorated by his sudden passion for prehistory, the sociote took on Lecotte de Saint Berard in 1910 and 1911.

3 weeks in 1910, 2 weeks in 1911, transformed the understanding because they were working with a professional team of engineers, quarrymen led by Ernest Daghorn. And his expert, you know, labour team to safely remove that perilous rubble and allow excavations to take place. I'm not here to discuss what was found, this is a history of the society. Think about the endeavour, think about.

This didn't happen overnight.

This was a site discovered in 1881.

Some of the people are still here. It was attempted three times before everything comes together in August of 1910. The right people, the right resources, all focused on a societe um endeavour. Um, A Marre quote here, uh, the splendid results which have crowned the work of the society will be fully explained in the pages that follow.

Um, you know, but this was an incredible achievement. This was a point at which, and Marret knew this, having, let's introduced, um, Robert Ranulph Marratt, um, he knew this because he had spent preparation time working alongside French pale archaeologists, learning from the very rapidly, the Abbey Broyle. Common, Peroni, you know, great names actually bringing um to uh uh uh even bringing to, to, to London, um, them to sea sites like Paviland, absolutely making that connection not only between Oxford and French palaeolithic archaeology, but Jersey and French palaeolithic archaeology. And there's important people like this who become anchors in the networks that are being created, and I think we've got to see the people who are actually on the ground making things happen and the people who are connecting through the sociote, these results, the understanding from the wider scientific community and feeding them in to understanding on the island. Marrett will be picking up again and again.

He right through to the occupation when he ended up, um, unfortunately in, well, maybe I think fortunately for him, maybe in Oxford, but he, he did not survive the war. So we have a period here from 1910 through to 1940 when Marra continues to be active in promoting and encouraging and forwarding palaeolithic investigation. He takes on the excavations after 1912 on his own, um, effectively with funding from outside from the British Association of Science, from the resources at Oxford, bringing over Oxford students, including the first females to excavate at Lecos, which are his students.

He does not have Dorothy Garret amongst them, despite Dorothy Garrard being. One of his students, that's an alternate reality, where Dorothy would have come here and sorted out the palaeolithic, and we could have all gone home. Um, but he is bringing new people, new perspectives in through the end of the, um, 19th century. The Societe apparently wished him well, um, and he could carry on on their own. They had made their impact and their attention moved on elsewhere. Not going to go into it today, but there's an entire parallel story alongside the the sociote from the Jesuits, especially um Talliad de Chardin, who's a regular visitor, um, who are developing their own understanding of the Jews.

and to a degree, the archaeology.

It's interesting that as far as I know, and please tell me if I'm wrong later on, there's very little connection in the early part of the 1910s, but it all comes together right at the end in 1918 when Father Moran. Deposits with the Societe finds from the Balhoo cave of of uh of of er of the dwarf deer, um, the discoveries that they made there, um, but apparently completely unaware of the discoveries of Teliad de Chardin at the same cave, despite them being Jesuits, um both at.

Um, uh, at, at Maison Saint Louis. So there's something interesting going on there. Arthur Moran wrote a whole paper on this trying to work out how how Father Moran was completely unaware of Tyard de Chardin's discoveries and did Burdo, who we'll meet a little bit long, have a role in that as well? Also just throw out at this point, just a complete mystery, a photograph from Emil Guitton of a skull which turned out to not be genuine, but we don't know why. It was apparently found at the Cotte de Saint Berard, turned out to be um a hoax. That's all we know about it. So if anyone has any further information on that, I'll be very um interested to know. Let's move forward to the 1930s.

I needed to be 10 minutes in for the 1930s, and I'm there. So that's in the 1930s, excavations recommenced at Le Cotte de Saint Berard after a fairly decent hiatus of of probably at least 1515 years. Why do they get going again at that point in time? Well, Marret is. Heavily involved in getting them going again, he's drawing his attention back um to to the site, but I think there's two other individuals who are going to pick up the story of now who were really throwing energy into it. First of all, Arthur Moran, who, Initially began his career as a geologist, unfortunately, the depression apparently meant the career progression for him in geology didn't work out. Thankfully for the rest of humanity, he became a haematologist. Um, it was, and he kept on his interest in in geology, publishing on the raised beaches, publishing on the Pleistocene, but also encouraging wider awareness of Jersey's um Palithic archaeology. But also Christian Murdeau at this point has developed fully his interest in archaeology.

He's there sharing experiences with Taliard de Chardin, maybe even investigating Bel Ho Cave with Taliard de Chardin 20 years earlier in the 1910s, but his interest isn't on archaeology. He spent some of his time as a relatively young man working on excavations in France, learning, um. Really sophisticated methodologies for their time in excavating, and he brings these back to the Societe, and this is really where that Jesuit legacy and the Societe in terms of archaeology come together um in in Christian Bordo, and they, after excavating the pinnacle, Burdo, Godfrey, and Lomax bring their dream archaeological team to Lecotte de Saint Berard and attempt. To make stable the um West ravine, which had been too precarious, Marrett had abandoned it in 1918. They knew there was potential there, so they, they kept on working. I mentioned Arthur, Arthur Moran.

I think one of the most important things he did in the 1930s was he was part of bringing over Frederick Zeiner, who we'll meet um later on. And from this point on, from the 1930s on, Arthur Moran is constantly there as um as a regular voice encouraging and fostering the progression of Palelithic archaeology, recognising um its importance. I think we can. Kind of put together his interest in, you know, human biology, um, in evolution, of course he published on domestication with Zoya later in this quote from him. I believe that studies of mankind, sick of the kind I have described will add up to a true science of human biology, gradually, on the one hand, dispelling the myths that hide man's biological origins and the on the other, giving him more and more control over his future evolution. Really interesting how he places the understanding of archaeology and evolution in terms of humanity, understanding themselves and understanding their future.

There's a really lovely resonance with this because Talliard de Chandan in 1919, his last trip here before he never returned as far as we know to Jersey, had his first um inklings of how he was going to harmonise Christian theology and human evolution. And it was here in Jersey that he wrote his first paper working towards that great work for which he became um famous later on.

In the 1930s, we also need to, I think, and each of these people I'm talking about could deal with so much more historical research, look more deeply at the connection that brought Jaquetta Hawks here to continue and finish the archaeology of Jersey.

She made palaeolithic discoveries here. She brought an incredible knowledge of modern palaeolithic typology. To that work and that work, even though it's just summarising the artefacts that Lecotte, the other finds from the wider landscape which had received scant attention, puts them into a for then a very modern, very erudite framework, and I think more can be teased out of the circumstances of Giquetta Hawks's visit here. Another visitor in the 1930s was Frederick Zoyer from my own institution, the UCL, was just the Institute of Archaeology here, who as a um, As a geologist who was trying to put in a framework for understanding human evolution, saw raised beaches as being important, so, uh, Lacotte as being important, and also changed the course of excavations at Lecotte. Because when Christian Burdeau on his own, took over excavations at the Cotte de Saint Berard, he followed up on. Zoiner discovering below the Soote excavations from 1910, 1911, an older set of deposits that contained older artefact types, and this, and I'm sure John Renn will explain in more detail later on, really opened up a whole set of unknown deposits at the site. We have the Societe excavations led by Christian Burdo continuing through the 1950s.

Wonderful to have him as a full member. Um, you know, what a wonderful synergy of experience from the Societe and from his Jesuit legacy.

And of course he was teaching the children of Jersey and you know, I've been lucky enough to meet people in the last 10 years who who knew Father Burdot at that point in time. We have 5 minutes to go, the great handover of uh Le Cottes and Berard excavations from Burdo as he reached the end of his career to Professor Charles McBurney, seen there on the left in in in lab coats inspecting some of Burdo's fines.

I've spoken to the Societe many times on the McBurney excavations.

We're not going to give a history here, but I think there's a really important history that here to look at how the Societe negotiated that. How they first brought McBurney here, was it McBurney's. Curiosity about it, what was McBurney's motivations? How did the Societe meet that? What were the discussions, what were the conditions, because this was a major important collaboration, almost wholesale handing over the direction of the excavations to an external university team. Charles McBurney died, um, you know, relatively young in 1978, unpublished, and as we come to a close here, we must think of the very recent history, a very recent history where of course, you know, many people are still here, many people are still around and, This history is playing out even, even now, so we have this wonderful photograph here from um 19, I think it's 19882.

Um we've got Anne McBurney now the widow of Charles McBurney, the director of the Cambridge Museum, John Coles, Professor John Coles from Cambridge Museum, who was overseeing um the publication of Learte and Margaret Finlayson, who's acting here as one of the big conduits and connections between the Societe and the site, and what to do, um. About the site in the in the wake of Charles McBurney's Charles McBurney's death. And of course, one of the big societe sort of interventions there to preserve the site at that point is the is the creation of of the wall. But we also have in the 1980s, the excavations by Paul Callow there to get it published. And at this point, John Renn becomes, you know, really important, having been someone who had been there when the McBurney excavations have been taken. Taking place, had witnessed them, had understood them, and was there in a position to work with Paul Callow to witness the site and actually contribute to the publication of the monograph. And there's there's a picture of John with Jean-Pierre Latradou on the beach just to the south of Lecotte. And of course, even Arthur Morrant at this point, very precarious photographer there of um of of Arthur Morrant going down into the deep sounding with Paul Callow. So to bring to a close, here's a photograph which I've shown many times before of our first official visit as as a team to Lecotte de Saint Berard showing um the reality as it was in 2009.

We have John Reno and Martin Bates, um one of our geoarchaeologists discussing there um in the tableau, um, the site history. We have Olga Finch from Jersey Heritage. Um, an organisation which wasn't there during the McBurney excavations, but we're in a new reality where a new professionalised heritage organisation is here in Jersey.

We have a number of different representatives from different universities continuing this legacy of connection and discuss, discussion and handing on um the the mantle of knowledge. We should also point out, oh sorry, um, that, uh, you know, this, this photograph was taken by John Clarke.

So we have John Clarke here who at that point in time was the head of the archaeology section recording this this moment. When we come through to publication of our most recent book, we're lucky enough to have John Renno as a contributor.

We're lucky enough to have Kate Scott, one of McBurney's team, contributing to the book. We have French colleagues Annelise Rivo, David Harrison, Pierre, Antoine. I hope this sort of adds to that legacy of connection between the island, between other academics um and um. Continuing to hand on that mantle.

So to conclude, I think we need to think about the ebb and flow of the Societe in lots of different subjects of interest. At some point it's becoming pivotal, at some point it's becoming supportive in a wider sense, in some points becoming more distant. I think for every subject, there's ebb and flow there. It's in front. Through that combination of individual endeavour and a collective sense of responsibility, and it's thrived on the connections made with international scholarship. And in terms of archaeology, you now have the amazing appointment of Hervey here as as your archaeologist, which brings that continued heritage of, of connections beyond, beyond the island. Um, it's an intergenerational endeavour in working on our latest phase at the Carte de Saint Berard with Jersey Heritage.

We're very much aware that we are now carrying on a very long term intergenerational endeavour, and we will have to hand that on to other generations and leave a good record on which the Societe have have done brilliantly. Um, there's still so many stories to tell about these individuals, their motivations, their connections, their, their psychologies, their challenges. Let's continue to tell those stories and find other voices and other people who haven't been quite so prominent. Um, and for the future, let's all work together to reimagine the.

Societe now working in a very different reality to that in which it started in one of its success stories, being contributing to the fact that we now have professional um heritage, professional curation. That is the legacy of years of societe advocacy and as Rebecca said at the beginning. A non-political organisation, but an organisation with a unique independent voice, which you shouldn't hold back on, and I know you never do. So thank you.