Abstract
THE other day in the course of an automobile tour I visited the Mas d'Azil. I would like to direct the attention of the readers of NATURE, and particularly of those with money and organising power, to the very unsatisfactory state of affairs in this beautiful and incomparable treasure-house of archæological material. Practically there is no control, no protection and no organised excavation whatever at Mas d'Azil. There are masses of valuable material, but none of it is being worked at properly. Much of it, I fear, is being wasted and muddled up. There is a ‘guide,’ a pleasant untrained man, who pokes about in the caves, digs out bones which, as he remarks, fall to pieces, and presents the casual visitor with teeth or flint implements he has found in his own researches. He has no regular salary. He has to supplement his fees and tips by other work. Occasionally, isolated individuals obtain permission from the municipality and prod in the rocks and extract this or that and publish their ‘results,’ according to their lights. There is a small useless museum without labels or arrangement at the Mairie. The financial situation forbids the hope of Government direction. The essential trouble seems to be the want of funds. From Mas d'Azil came some of the most beautiful and interesting objects in the admirably arranged museum in Toulouse; the carved horse head and other carvings and the painted pebbles from this site are well known. One would not need to go outside the scientific ability available in the region if money were forthcoming to mobilise it for the proper exploitation of these priceless deposits.
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WELLS, H. Scientific Neglect of the Mas D'Azil. Nature 118, 228 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118228a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118228a0
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