Archaeology and Prehistory in the early XXth century.

The Société Préhistorique Française.

Ivan's rare publications.

A tireless surveyor.

Photography, one of the tools of his observation.

Photographs that have become valuable evidence. 
 
 

Archaeology and Prehistory in the early XXth century.

 Ivan Pranishnikoff became interested in archaeology, more especially in prehistory, in the early 1890's. Let us remember that Prehistory, at the end of the XIXth century, had only recently been recognized as a science. It is usually considered to have emergenced in 1859, after the scientific community had acepted the idea of the very great antiquity of man-far beyond the six thousand years B.C. related by Genesis. This we owe to the work of Jacques Boucher de Perthes, as formulated in his "Antiquités celtiques et antédiluviennes ". In the same years Darwin had published his theories on the origin of Species.

 That new branch of archaeological studies developed rapidly. Strengthened by the discovery of new sites in the years 1860-1880, the basis of a new chronology of prehistory, the basis of a naw chronology of prehistory was propounded in 1872 by Gabriel de Mortillet. It was no fully discussed until the beginning of the XXth century, and the terms chosen to name the periods are still in use nowadays : Solutrian, Magdalenian, Mousterian, etc.....

The Société Préhistorique Française.
(Société Préhistorique de France until 1910).

 The story is told that yhe idea of founding the Société Préhistorique Française ( French Prehistorical Society), as a way of bringing together of lovers of prehistory, occured to a few friends, Anfos Martin, shoolmaster at Bonnieux, Marc Deydier, notary at Cucuron, Ivan Pranishnikoff, Doctor Paul Raymond et Albert Moirenc, district road surveyor at Bonnieux, as they were digging la Baume-des- Peyrards at Buoux (Vaucluse) during the Summer of 1903 .

 From 1905 onwards, the Société Préhistorique de France intiated the Prehistorical Conferences of France, which gave an opportunity for numerous debates as axcursions all around the regions where they took place. Ivan Pranishnikoff took part in all their sessions and excursions until his death. He can be seen in all the photos in company with other members of congres, in Perigueux (1905), Vannes (1906), in Autun (1907), and Chambéry (en 1908 ).
During the Chambéry congress he was promoted "Officier d'Académie" together with ten other members of congress, including his friend Marc Deydier.

Ivan's rare publications.

 It appears that Ivan Pranishnikoff published but few writings, apparently out of modesty. As a prospector, as we'll see later, his activity is quite remarkable.

 Jointly with Dr Paul Raymond, a Parisian Prehistorian digging on a site in the south of France in the "Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française",  entitled :

-"Les pierres à cupules et à gravures préhistoriques du Castellet près d'Arles" (Stones with cusps and prehistorical engravings, at Castellet near Arles)
. 
Both men were puzzled by the engraving that can be observed on the paving of the four neolithic covered alleys at Fontvieille, in the vicinity of Arles.
 They published later, in the Revue Préhistorique as an addition of this article : 

-"La divinité de la grotte des fées près d'Arles" (The deyty in the "grotte des fées" near Arles.

This article deals with an engraving to be found in "l’allée couverte de La Source" in wich they saw an  engraving of a funerary neolithic deity.

In the same periodical, Ivan Pranishnikoff published in 1907 an article on 
-"Les gravures du menhir de Congéniès" (The engravings on the Congenies standing stone) , and another one in 1909 entitled

-"Contribution à l'étude des pétroglyphes en France" (A contribution to the study of petroglyphis in France), in wich he described the megaliths or pseudo-megaliths in the Var and Gard departements, a large number of wich appear in his photographic albums. These few publications pose the questions concerning neolithic engravings and megaliths.

A tireless surveyor.

What Ivan Pranishnikoff was abble to achieve on his rambles in the Languedocian and Provençal garriqgues was even more interesting than his publications. Being naturally curious, he would go and explore (often on his bike) the sites described by XIXth century authors as "Cletics habitats", a term wich applied to any period before the arrival of the Romans in Gaul.

It seems he found a twofold interest in these sites.
To befin with, their situation in preserved natural surrownding offered an intersting sight from an aesthetic point of view.
On theother hand, he hoped to find tokens of the activities of our ancestors, xhom he called "hommes primitifs" (primitives mens).

When the opportunity offered, he picked up archaeological remains, shards, flints, etc...
With the help of a compass, his stick and a spirit level, he would mark the sites on his ordinance maps.
He made a collection of stereotypes and put them into three albums. 
When his prehistorian friends were apprised of the result of his work as a surveyor, they insisted on his writing his observations to complète his documents.

Photography, one of the tools of his observation.

 Taking photographs in the years 1895-1905 was no longuer a technical achievement. 

The invention of photography is officially dated from 1839, but all through the XIXth century successive inventors improved the use that could be made of photography. Exposure time was reduced, lenses were more luminous, photographic apparatus less cumbersome.

 The process used by Ivan Pranishnikoff is called "gelatin on glass". Invented arround 1880, it revolutionized the use of photography. It rendered possible very short exposure, the kind of camera that could be carried in a small case, whether they used   bellows camera, or Kodack's "Brownies", small camera that they could almost fit into a pocket. 
  Another advantage of this method was that they could now buy ready-made negative photographic plates, make exposures, then take them to be developed by a professional photographer, as we do nowadays. Except of course for digital processing. The films we can buy nowadays are also produced by this gelatin on glass process. The end of the of the XIXth century saw a rapid stides in amateur photography. If the photographs thus obtained are sometimes disapointing from an aesthetic point of view, the subjects represented are infinite. Thes photographs are now first rate documents for sociologists, historians, geographers etc..... 

 Aechaeologists were among the first to benefit from the progress made in photography. Even as early as the day of the official annoucement all the books published on the history of photography point out the close links between photography and archaeology.                            
"L'archéologie, notamment, peut en bénéficier au plus haut point" (Archaeology in particular can benefit from it to a very high degree)
 [Louis Arago in Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Paris, Volume IX, p.257.]

 The advantage of the gelatin on glass process, for archaeologists such as Ivan Pranishnikoff and his colleagues, was to enable them, like researchers in other disciplines, to achieve a larger number of illustrations in support of their research. They sent them to each others by post, or through the societies to wich they belonged. Thus, Vendean prehistorians could compare the tumuli of their region with those of Alsace and vice-versa. For example, I found in grasse, Arles, Nîmes, Paris, the photographs of a Grasse archaeologist, Paul Goby, who was o friend of ivan Pranishnikoff.                

 The Collection of snashots made by Ivan pranishnikoff particularly attracted the interest of his colleagues, on account of the large geaographical area that they covered, from the Herault departement as far as the Argens valley in the Var departement. The subjects of his photos  were mainly oppida, but also trogloditics caves and megaliths. 
Such work had never been done before, and even now it is worth mentionning.

Photographs that have become valuable evidence. 

 His archaeologist colleagues were higly interested in his snapshots. Most unfortunatly, after Ivan Pranishnikoff's death (in April 1909) his photograps albums "disapeared". As the time of the Nîmes Prehistorical Congress in 1911, the organizers vainly searched for them, in order to exhib them.
Yet, when I read the following notice announcing their disappearance :                
 "This album, of the greatest importance for our research, has not been found, althrough Mme Pranishnikoff at our earnest request did her utmost to find them. Such a loss would be a severe blow."
[ BOURILLY-MAZAURIC 1912.- J. Bourilly et F. Mazauric, "Statistiques des enceintes préhistoriques et protohistoriques du département du Gard", VII ème session du Congrès préhistorique de France, Paris, 1912, p.552]
I resolved to look for thes snapshots.
and I found them!!!!!! When I remember that day, I was on cloud nine ! I was in the dramatic situation of a researcher who has found what he was looking for.
They are kept in a public establishment which will, I hope, allow me to publish its name in these pages and to produce these photos. Meanwhie I have drawn a map where I indicate the sites shown on the photos, thus giving you an idea of the wide area he covered in his survey.