On 11 January 1984, El Periódico published a photograph in which we can see Antoni Dalmau, the president of the Diputació de Barcelona, showing the Orce Man bone fragment to Amadou M’Bow, general director of UNESCO.147 Next to M’Bow we can see Pascual Maragall, mayor of Barcelona, also from the PSC-PSOE, and in the background a smiling Jordi Agustí. The photograph illustrated an article on the new findings in Venta Micena and their analysis. It highlighted that the discoverers’ research ‘leads slowly but surely towards an authentic revolution in the old theories.’148
145 ‘El asentamiento humano más antiguo de Eurasia, que según todos los datos se situaba, desde hace un año, en Venta Micena (Granada), está en Castellón’, Prats, La Vanguardia 1984. See also Gusi 2005a, 20-21.
146 For Almenara: Gusi 2005a, 22, 25, and 26. For el Aculadero: López/Martínez 1997.
147 Barata, El Periódico 1984.
148 ‘conduce, lenta pero progresivamente, hacia una auténtica revolución en las viejas teorías’, Ibid.
Fig. 1.10: Dalmau, M’Bow, Agustí, in the background, and Maragall. Source: Barata, El Periódico 1984.
This picture is yet another example that reveals how the political context, and not only the scientific importance of the finding, determined the way that the Orce Man was presented to the public. This context also shaped the way journalists treated and presented it, and the way it was received by politicians and the general public; ‘the windows were opened’ after 40 years of dark dictatorship.149 Politicians pursued great achievements, journalists, who could write freely, were eager for big scoops, and people also craved major national events. The Orce Man was a significant scientific discovery for this period, and maybe the first that received such media and public attention. As Gibert himself later stated ‘[The Orce Man] emerged during the years of journalistic sensationalism at the beginning of the democracy.’150 One could even argue that a different scientific discovery in some other discipline would have received similar treatment from scientists, politicians, journalists, and the general public. The country wanted normality in democracy and therefore also needed normality in science. In a way, people felt that Spain needed to catch up with other countries and overcome the backwardness caused by the dictatorship. What researchers wanted to ensure was that this media attention included its own discourse emphasising the ‘lack of funding’ for science, palaeontology and palaeoanthropology and for their own specific research.151 The media thus became a place where resources and support for science were negotiated at a time when newly arrived politicians were actively deciding how and where these resources should be used. At the same time, what palaeoanthropology does easily is to involve a strong element of identity, closely linked in this case to the political situation of post-Francoist Spain and the autonomías. The ‘First European’ was also the first achievement of the new Autonomous Community of Andalusia.
149 ‘Les finestres es van obrir’, Interview with Roger Marcet 2013.
150 ‘tuvo su origen en los años del sensacionalismo periodístico de principios de la democracia’, Redacción, El Mundo 1999.
151 See a similar instance in González-Silva 2007.
In addition, the way that scientists, politicians, and journalists dealt with the discovery has shown us how the Orce research could become a kind of scientific ‘industry’ for the Spanish public, a way to ‘consume’ science that could lead to a very successful and well-known site but that ended up being a completely different thing, as we shall see. For what comes next, it is also necessary to state that at least until April 1984, the Orce research and claims were not scientifically marginalised but were central among a group of well-positioned scientists that were doing research on hominid arrival to Europe. Therefore, the Orce example shows us how the scientific claims that these
‘industries’ entail could be successful or not depending on the successes of the entire enterprise.
Scientific claims then do not exclusively depend on their own plausibility but also on the environment they are presented in, by whom, and how.
Finally, let us return to our story just before the end of this chapter. In 1983, a big international conference was announced to the press for the end of May 1984 in order to present the Orce Man in Granada to national and international scientists.152 The conference would be organised by the Junta de Andalucía and would gather almost five hundred experts including (according to a newspaper) Richard Leakey.153 By the end of April 1984, technicians from the Museu d’Arqueologia finished the cleaning process of the inner part of the bone. During this process, an unusual crest appeared.154 The crest seemed to steer evidence away from hominid classification. For Campillo, everything remained the same, as this crest could also appear in humans.155 But doubts surfaced again among the discoverers and they decided to bring the fragment to the de Lumleys, as they had previously agreed with Marie-Antoinette. They thus decided to rely again on the prestigious French discoverers. In the next chapter we will deal with Henry de Lumley’s figure, but just to get an idea of how the three young discoverers saw him, it is worth noting that at that time he was known to them as ‘Monsieur L’Empereur’.156
From here on in, the story changes radically. Let us now move from the Orce Man public discovery into the depths of the Orce Man public controversy.
152 González, La Vanguardia 1984; Redacción, El Periódico 1983d; R. F., El Noticiero Universal 1983; Redacción, ABC 1983f; ABC, 1983g.
153 Relaño, El País 1984b and R. F., El Noticiero Universal 1983.
154 Interview with Agustí 2012; Interview with Campillo 2011; Relaño, El País 1984b. See also Annex I.
155 Interview with Campillo 2011 or Campillo 2002, 33.
156 Interview with Agustí 2012.
2. Controversy
Picture the scene: three young researchers get off a train in Barcelona. They seem downcast and are not speaking to each other. One of them carries a box, which they do not pay much attention to. Another just says ‘newspaper...’ and goes straight to the train station’s kiosk. Suddenly, he lets out a shout that echoes in the high ceiling of the station: ‘That’s impossible!’ The other two run over to him. Something strange is happening: the scientific discovery of their lifetime is being questioned on the front page of a widely read national newspaper. After this front page appeared, a public controversy began.
In this second chapter, we will witness the transformation of the Orce Man story from a successful public discovery into a long and arduous public controversy. Moreover, we will see how the early popularisation effort resulted in the high level of attention paid to the later dispute. From
‘successful public discovery’ to ‘arduous public controversy’, what remains the same is the ‘public’
factor. Through this metamorphosis from discovery to controversy we will also see how ‘scientific elites’ (both at home and abroad) reinforced and protected their power and built a wall to try to keep out public controversy and disagreement. In the midst of all this, Josep Gibert i Clos emerged as the main character in the Orce controversy. He tried both to protect himself and to spread his word in an effort to maintain his professional and public position. At the same time, he began to ‘construct’ a characteristic discourse that would remain for several years. Finally, we will see how the Orce Man controversy spread through different forms of cultural expression and how the media (especially newspapers) became a necessary part of the way that scientific knowledge claims sought to be validated and ultimately confirmed.