GLOZEL

The Dating of Glozel

Glozel is certainly one of the European sites which has been subjected to the greatest amount of research by highly qualified professionals from the time of its discovery. But the fierceness of the attacks by Glozelts detractors has led to a stalemate in spite of the richness of the results and the successive demonstrations of Glozel's undeniable authenticity.

In the 1970s a team of scientists (Vagn Mejdahl from Denmark, Hugh McKerrelt from Edinburgh, and Henri François of the Fontenay Atomic Test Centre> became interested in Glozel and used thermoluminescence to test Glozel ceramics.

Henri François did not hesitate to ask Dr Zimmerman of the University of Washington, who is attached to the McDonnel Center for Space Science, to undertake an investigation, as the one person capable of doing this. The aim was to determine if the Glozel ceramics were indeed authentic and not recently produced ounterfeits. Basing his conclusion on a property particular to zircon grains, Dr Zimmerman said: "There is no possibility that these two samples from Glozel are of recent date and artificially irradiated in order to make them appear old. We conclude that they were truly made in antiquity. " This conclusion certainly reinforced observations previously made, including that of the geologist, M. E. Bruet, who in 1928 concluded that the tablets with inscriptions must have been fired at a temperature of between 600 and 700 degrees.

The Glozel artifacts, which currently number some 2,500 pieces, were found in a single, well defined archaeological layer. This layer was described as being from the Neolithic by Dean Charles Depéret5. The recent international congress on Carbon-14 dating and archaeology, held in Lyon in 1998, noted that the Neolithic existed in Europe in the last centuries of the seventh millenium and was widespread by the first haîf of the sixth millenium.

The "Champ des Morts" was the subject in 1974 of an investigation using a proton magnetometer undertaken by Mrs Lemercier of the Center for Nuclear Studies in Grenoble. This confirmed the results of Dr Antonin Morlet who excavated this site with Mr. Fradin for more than 15 years. He left numerous places untouched 50 that future generations either by new excavations or new technical approaches could add to the information already avaîlable. Comparison of the results of an aerial survey with those of Mrs. Lemercier reveals traces of intact structures at the level of the "Champ des Morts' and also in nearby areas, above and to the left of the area when coming from the museum.