Pebble Returns to France After Two Years at Harvard

Three weeks ago, one of the most valuable pebbles in the world--the lucky pebble of La Columbiere--left Harvard's Peabody Museum and was returned to its rightful place in France.

Discovered in the summer of 1949 by an expedition from the Peabody Museum, the pebble is 20,000--perhaps 30,000 years old. When the French received it after it had remained at the College for two years of examination, they declared the stone a national antiquity and placed it on exhibit at the Musee de L'Homme.

Meaningless Lines

The priceless pebble, pitcured here, is more than a mass of jumbled, meaningless lines. Only four-and-three-fourths inches in length, archaeologists have acclaimed it "the greatest Aurignasian drawing ever found." At least 14 animals are portrayed on the pebble, in addition to the wild horse which can be clearly seen.

In 1949, Hallam L. Movius, Jr. '30, curator of Paleolithic Archaeology at Peabody Museum, led a group of scientists to France in order to make some diggings in the La Columbiere range. The site of the excavations was eastern France, at the banks of the Ain River near where it flows out of the Jura Alps.

Wins $1,000 for Discovery

It was here that Movius came across the "lucky pebble," the small piece of rock that helped him win the $1,000 Viking Award for Archaeology in 1950. Movius believes that it was used in ceremonies performed by medicine-men of the Paleolithic tribe.

He suggests that the stone was used to insure success or offer thanks in the hunt. Perhaps on one occasion, someone carved a picture of an animal on the rock. Since the following hunt was a successful one, the natives believed that the stone was invested with supernatural powers. They began to use it either as a means of insuring good fortune, or of giving thanks for a successful hunt. This theory explains the numerous animals, which include a horse, an ibex, a deer, and a woolly rhinoceros.

The pebble is, Movius said, possibly one of the earlier examples of Stone Age art. But, he adds, it was not art for art's sake--rather, "art for the stomach's sake."

According to a number of contemporary engravers, the pebble is technically good. Wood engravers, after examining the rock, claimed that the figures were made by pushing, rather than pulling an instrument. The former is the modern method.

Movius, an associate professor of Anthropology, brought the pebble to Harvard for examination. For two years, experts at Peabody tried to separate the innumerable lines that had been carved one atop the other. Despite complicated methods used, only the 14 animals could be definitely identified.