History of Archaeology: the Otto Hauser Affair
(Credit: Randall White)
Randall White has long shown a keen interest in the history of Paleolithic archaeology. He is undertaking a long-term project on Otto Hauser, a very ambitious Swiss archaeologist who was forced to flee France at the outset of World War I under a cloud of accusations of espionage and artifact selling. Far from being of mere local interest, the “affaire Hauser” took place against a backdrop of European history, politics, and administrative entanglements. For example, Hauser was allied with members of the anti-clerical movement at a time when considerable power in archaeology was held by Catholic lay priests. Contrary to received wisdom, Hauser is revealed by archival sources and photographs to have been a remarkable excavator, well ahead of his time. A first book on this subject, L’Affaire de l’abri du Poisson : Patrie et préhistoire (Périgueux: Fanlac), appeared in late 2006 and White is currently pursuing work on a second book on this complex and controversial subject.