Paul Wernert
Paul Wernert (born October 29, 1889 in Strasbourg / Alsace ; † September 19, 1972 ibid) was a French paleontologist , ethnologist and archaeologist in Paris and Strasbourg.
Life
Paul Wernert was born - after his sister Madelaine - the second child of the lawyer Florent Wernert and his wife Mathilde (née Ulrich). French was spoken at home, and Wernert learned German and Latin at the Lycée Fustel de Coulanges in Strasbourg. In 1902 his father died and his mother took over the education alone. It inspired him for prehistory , so that the 15-year-old was already interested in the soil layers of Achenheim , about which he wrote his first publication in 1908.
After graduating from high school, Wernert studied - freed from military service due to a visual defect - paleontology at the University of Tübingen . From 1910 he studied at the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine in Paris , where he met Hugo Obermaier and Henri Breuil . A long-term friendship developed between Obermaier - at that time a private lecturer in Vienna - and Wernert. Since the institute carried out excavation projects of prehistoric caves in cooperation with foreign institutions, Wernert, Obermaier and Breuil were given the opportunity to take part in excavations in Bavaria ( e.g. Klausenhöhle ), France and Spain.
When the beginning of the First World War stopped the Franco-Spanish excavation projects in 1914, Obermaier entered the service of the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid and Wernert was placed at his side as an assistant for excavations, glaciological and Quaternary studies on the Iberian Peninsula .
After the war and back in Strasbourg, Wernert first worked for the newspapers Dépêche and République , then he joined the Spanish embassy as a chancelier . In 1938 he became a professor at the Institut commercial supérieur in Strasbourg, where he had completed his studies in 1922 with a diploma. In 1932 he was appointed lecturer in paleo-ethnology at the École d'anthropologie de Paris . Outside of the lecture period, he further investigated the deposits in Alsace in the vicinity of Achenheim and - together with Abbé Breuil, at that time professor at the Collège de France - the terraces of the Garonne and various caves in southwest France . In 1933 Wernert took part in the "Breuil-Teilhard de Chardin-Monfreid Expedition" in Abyssinia .
On November 24, 1934 Paul Wernert married Jeanne Claire Ittel; a son, Michel, was born to the couple in 1944. In 1940 Wernert was commissioned by the director of the Université de Paris to teach prehistory and to take on the functions of deputy director of the ethnology department at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris without pay . During the annexation of Alsace (1941 to 1944) Wernert was president of the Strasbourg Society for Classical Studies ( Société pour la conservation des monuments historiques d'Alsace ), which allowed him to organize conferences in Strasbourg. In 1945 Paul Wernert became a member of the Center national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and in 1948 honorary director of the Antiquités préhistoriques de l'est de la France division , a task which was practically limited to Alsace and which he held until 1964.
It was probably due to Wernert's perfectionism that he only presented his doctoral thesis on November 15, 1956, at the age of 67 and after almost 50 years of research, at the University of Strasbourg, which at that time represented the most comprehensive work on the Quaternary in Alsace and its Research costs until 1945 had been paid by Wernert from his private assets. His long-time colleague Abbé Breuil gave the laudation at the age of 80 . Wernert held lectures at the University of Strasbourg until 1968, but even after that he worked at the Institut géologique , where he processed thousands of notes that he had written during his almost 70 years of research.
Paul Wernert was described by colleagues and employees as an old school scientist, who put enthusiasm for his research work first and who was happy to make his knowledge, experience and services as a scientist, discussion partner and multilingual translator available to his employees and students. He died in 1972 after a brief illness.
Research topics
Quaternary stratigraphy in Alsace
The Quaternary in Alsace shows itself through gravel deposits, scattered pebbles, mud deposits and layers of loess, which can be observed particularly well in Achenheim. For 52 years, Paul Wernert, supported by his employees and the workers of the brickworks around Achenheim, took samples in the clay pits, carried out thousands of measurements and also came across mammal fossils and traces of human settlements.
Layer by layer, the fauna of the late Quaternary - alternating between the colder and warmer periods - could be reconstructed. Wernert described finds of Mollusca and a number of archaic and more advanced mammals such as Rodentia , Equidae , Cervidae , Canidae , Ursidae , Hyaenidae , Rhinocerotidae and Elephantidae and compared them with other finds in Europe. From prehistoric tools he found rough tools ( rubble tools ) up to tools of the Aurignacien . The results are documented in Wernert's dissertation, a volume in the series Mémoires du Service de la Carte géologique d'Alsace et de Lorraine (1957), which reconstructs the history of life and climate changes in the late Quaternary on the Rhine plain.
Prehistoric cave paintings in Spain
In Spain, where important work was carried out to secure prehistoric cave paintings, Wernert, Obermaier and Abbé Breuil met Père Teilhard de Chardin . An important work was the excavation of the El Castillo cave on Monte Castillo ( Cantabria ). Wernert discovered and documented the La Pasiega cave . A number of publications date from this period, during which Wernert dealt specifically with the Paleolithic in the Manzanares Valley and in the province of Madrid , as well as with rock paintings from the Spanish Levant . In addition, he also carried out studies on questions of glaciology on the southern slope of the Sierra de Guadarrama .
Stone tools in Abyssinia
Wernert took part in a scientific expedition in Abyssinia and Somalia from 1932 to 1933 together with Abbé Breuil, Père Teilhard de Chardin and Henri de Monfreid . Research focused on the Quaternary and early history of these regions. Wernert examined the “Porc-Epic” ( porcupine ) cave near Dire Dawa in Harrar and published on the way stone tools are made in this region.
Other research
As a member of this group of the best specialists in Europe in the field of prehistory, Wernert came into contact with numerous studies and problems of the first half of the 20th century, such as the Quaternary in the Garonne area , the record of the cave paintings in the cave Les Trois Frères in the department Ariège and took part in studies at the Institut de paleontologie humaine and the department of ethnology at the École pratique des hautes études .
Paleo-ethnology
Finally, Wernert also made contributions to paleo-ethnology. His familiarity with the tools and especially with prehistoric wall paintings led him to the difficult problem of the rituals, cults and religions of prehistoric times, which can be examined in comparison with the rituals of today's indigenous peoples. He worked on headhunters , nailed skulls ( crânes clouées ), the role of fire in funeral rites, ritual mutilations and scarifications, and rites with animal skins. In Achenheim, Wernert found 3–5 cm large loess balls that had been kneaded in the Paleolithic and apparently stacked in piles and which could be cult objects.
Publications
From 1908 to 1972 Paul Wernert published 110 publications in German, French and Spanish, a short selection of which is listed.
- An important paleolithic find from Achenheim. The Vosges, II, hatchet. Wasigenstein, 2, pp. 6-7 (1908)
- A Bronze Age find at Achenheim. Scoreboard Alsace. Antiquity, I, 1, pp. 8–9 (1909)
- with I. del Pan Interpretaciôn de un adorno en las figuras humanas masculinas de Alpera y Cogul. Ensayo de etnografia comparada Bol. R. Soc. esp. Hist. nat., 15, pp. 180-189 (1915)
- with Hugo Obermaier Las pinturas rupestres del Barranco de Valltorta (Castellón). Mem. Com. Invest. Paleont. Prehist., 23, p. 134 (1919).
- Massacres de Cervidés du Paléolithique ancien du Castillo (Santander) et d'Achenheim (Bas-Rhin) Anuario del Cuerpo Facultativo de Archiveros, Bibliothecarios y Arqneólogos, 2, pp. 5–15 (1934)
- L'anthropophagie rituelle et la chasse aux têtes aux époques actuelle et paleolithique. L'Anthropologie, 40, 1-2, pp. 33-43 (1936)
- (I) Le culte des crânes à l'époque paleolithique, pp. 53-72; (II) Les hommes de l'âge de la pierre représentaient-ils les esprits des défunts et des ancêtres? Pp. 73-88; (III) La signification des cavernes d'art paleolithique, pp. 89-97. In: Histoire générale des religions , I, Quillet éd., Paris 1948
- Stratigraphie paleontologique et préhistorique des sédiments quaternaires d'Alsace, Achenheim. Mém. Serv. Carte géol. As. Lorr., 14, 259 S. (1957) (= dissertation)
- Les boules de loess d'Achenheim et les "Lihtte Mirr"; essai de Paléo-Ethnography comparée . Cah. as. Archéol. Art et Hist., 5, pp. 5-18 (1961)
Honors and prizes
- Prix Millet-Roussin of the Académie des Sciences on November 17, 1958
- Paul Wernert was Officier d'Académie (since April 13, 1936) and officer of the Ordre d'Isabel la Catolica (since August 29, 1954).
- The Collège von Achenheim has been named Collège Paul Wernert in his honor since 1979 .
literature
- Georges Millot and Jeanne Sittler: Paul Wernert 1889–1972. In: Sci. Géol. Bulletin 27 (1974), pp. 241-251
- André Thevenin: Necrology: Paul Wernert 1889–1972. In: Revue archéol. de l'est et du center-est 24 (1972), pp. 7-10 (1972)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wernert, Paul |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French paleontologist and paleo-ethnologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 29, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Strasbourg |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 19, 1972 |
| Place of death | Strasbourg |