Imaging the Glozel Affair: Doubt, Controversy, and the Glare of Publicity in 1920s France

In 1924, a farmer discovered what seemed to be a prehistoric tomb or vault on his land in a remote hamlet in central France. After news of the find spread, excavations led by Antoine Morlet, a physician and amateur archaeologist from Vichy, the nearest large town, revealed a plethora of unusual objects, many with inscriptions in hitherto unknown script. Morlet’s publication of his finds quickly led to doubts, and then to accusations of forgery, that split the French archaeological world and its chief scholarly institution, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. The debate became so heated that in November 1927 an eight-member international commission was appointed to visit the site and conduct a verification dig. Its  largely negative report, however, did little to resolve the controversy, which dragged on through a series of trials – of the discoverers for fraud, and of one of their principal accusers for slander – in 1928. 

My presentation will focus on media coverage of the Glozel affair, especially its visual dimensions, around the time of the commission visit. While the affair produced a large number of satirical cartoons, I am particularly interested in newspaper photographs and line drawings of the verification dig, the site museum, and certain emblematic objects. These images and their accompanying texts (captions, articles, headlines) provide a window into the way archaeologists attempted to represent themselves, their practice, and the wider discipline in the 1920s. Visual traits such as legibility, regularity, and adherence to norms attested not only to the site’s authenticity but to professional credibility. As the representation of archaeology takes place at the intersection of multiple historical scales, regional, national, and international, my paper will also reflect on the range of approaches appropriate to studying them, from microhistory to discourse analysis.