Two days after the press conference, on 13 June, the Orce Man was presented in the little town of Orce on what was described as the town’s ‘happiest day’. Again, the Junta de Andalucía’s head of culture and the president of the Diputació de Barcelona chaired the event and the local band joined the entourage, ‘without having enough time to learn the Andalusian anthem’.86 After this presentation, the ‘Dama de Baza syndrome’, as one journalist put it, resurfaced. The fragment had to be transferred from Orce to Sabadell to continue the scientific research, yet newspapers pointed out that the Universidad de Granada had enough good scientists to study the bone there.87 People from Orce even blocked the scientists’ access to the bone until a commitment was made regarding its return to Orce.88 It seems that the Catalan scientists alleviated fears by signing an agreement with the Junta that ‘the bone will return to Orce within a year’ and, of course, by declaring this in the media.89 Some days later, the press announced that the Orce bone was in a safe in Sabadell since the next step in its study (preparation of the inner part) could not begin until the end of the summer period. This article also highlighted that the fragment was taken to the safe for security reasons because Gibert claimed to have ‘lost sleep’ over the ‘mass panic’ that had been created around the bone.90
On 24 June, Gibert stated in El Periódico that the excavations at Orce were ‘in danger’ due to the ‘lack of funds’ and that, so far, only ‘volunteering’ had allowed the excavations to go ahead.
The article also highlighted the threat of the site’s ‘colonisation’, highlighting that if foreign scientists came they would have a lot more resources than the Catalan scientists.91 A few days later, on 28 June, the bone fragment was presented to the press in the Institut de Paleontologia de Sabadell with the presence of Antoni Dalmau, president of the Diputació, Jordi Labòria, head of the Department of Culture of the Diputació, and Eduard Porta, museologist and head of the Museums Department of the Diputació, together with Gibert, Agustí, Moyà-Solà, and the local secondary school students that went to excavate the previous summer. The presentation was reported in local and national newspapers.92 According to the press, Dalmau ‘pledged’ to help with the development
86 ‘dia más feliz’, ‘sin haber tenido tiempo suficiente de aprender el himno de Andalucía’, Hernández, Diario de Granada 1983. See also Moreno 2014, 184 and 185.
87 ‘Síndrome de la Dama de Baza’, Redacción, ABC 1983b; Redacción, ABC 1983c; Redacción, La Vanguardia 1983b.
88 Castro, El País 1983b.
89 ‘el fragmento volverá a Andalucía dentro de un año’, EFE, ABC 1983 and Redacción, El País 1984a.
90 ‘una especie de psicosis creada en torno a ellos y que, según nos ha manifestado, “me ha quitado el sueño”’, M. S., ABC 1983.
91 ‘Peligran las excavaciones’, ‘por falta de medios’, ‘voluntarismo’, ‘colonización’, Ramentol, El Periódico 1983b.
92 J.A., Diari de Sabadell 1983a and Barata, El Periódico 1983.
of the Institut and its research, though admitting that they had not yet defined how this would happen.93 Dalmau also stated that the Diputació could not afford ‘excessively high costs’, thus the help of the Spanish Ministry would be necessary.94 The article in the local Diari de Sabadell also admitted that the finding had changed the way that the Diputació funded the Institut. For this local newspaper, the discovery turned Sabadell into the ‘Mecca of Palaeontology’ and transformed the Institut into a world-class research centre at the same level as the Parisian Musée de l’Homme or the National Museum of Kenya.95 Meanwhile, El Periódico printed that ‘The Diputació will help the Orce researchers’ and highlighted Gibert’s statement that ‘this help will be enough to continue the research’, in a clear reference to Gibert’s previous appearance in the same newspaper just four days earlier.96
In mid-July, the press also announced the start of the excavation expedition in Orce that summer. The bone went back to Andalusia with the scientists to be exhibited in Orce’s small museum.97 As we have seen, since the press conference and until the excavation period, news about the discovery appeared very often, at least once a week. The ‘Hombre de Orce’ and Gibert, as its most visible discoverer, were becoming well-known characters in the Spanish public sphere.
Fig. 1.6: From left to right: Jordi Agustí, Josep Gibert, Antoni Dalmau, head of the Diputació, Jordi Labòria, head of the Department of Culture of the Diputació, and Salvador Moyà-Solà placing the Orce Man remains alongside reproductions of hominids during the press conference in the Institut in Sabadell. Source: Redacción, Noticiero
Universal 1983.
93 ‘se comprometió’, J.A., Diari de Sabadell 1983a.
94 Barata, El Periódico 1983.
95 J.A., Diari de Sabadell 1983b.
96 ‘La Diputación ayudará a los investigadores de Orce’, ‘con estas ayudas será suficiente para poder continuar con las investigaciones’, Gibert in Barata, El Periódico 1983.
97 Redacción, ABC 1983d. and Redacción, El Periódico 1983a.
Staff from the Museo Arqueológico de Granada and people from the Universidad de Granada joined the excavation expedition that summer of 1983. Isidro Toro Moyano, an archaeologist from the Museo was among the additions to the group. Pascual Rivas, a palaeontologist from the Universidad de Granada, also started a scientific project linked to the Orce research. These two characters were prominent members of the PSOE, the political party that governed Andalusia and Spain at that time, and would also become important characters in the Orce story. The rest of the excavation team was formed, again, by Gibert, Moyà-Solà, Agustí, and the secondary school students from Sabadell and Terrassa. The excavations were held until the end of August.98
The press’s use of the idea of the ‘First European’ being Andalusian, the emphasis on details like the failure of Orce’s local band to play the Andalusian anthem, the fear of losing the discovery, and the inclusion of Andalusian scientists in the research show how, as discussed earlier, the making of the ‘Andalusian identity’ was at stake at the time and the renowned scientific discovery could not escape it.
As indicated previously, on 3 August 1983, Crusafont sent a letter to Henry de Lumley answering a previous letter from the latter in which he presumably asked about the Orce Man.
Crusafont explained the intended excavation period in Venta Micena to de Lumley.99 According to Gibert, the very well-connected French prehistorian, Eduard Ripoll, phoned him to announce that the de Lumley couple wanted to see the bone and visit Orce and the excavation site.100 In Orce, Marie-Antoinette, expert in anatomy, examined the bone and confirmed that it was hominid.
Together, the researchers toasted to the Orce Man, the ‘First European’, in the Mari Cruz bar in Orce’s town square. The de Lumleys invited the discoverers to study the bone in Marseille, where Marie-Antoinette worked. Henry de Lumley was also quoted in the press praising the Orce excavations.101 The de Lumleys’ approval was seen by the discoverers as the necessary international support for the discovery.102 It also highlighted, and again given the international context of the
‘hunt for the First European’, how at that time the work of Gibert, Agustí, and Moyà-Solà was not a marginal ‘Spanish thing’, but cutting-edge research in a hot topic that attracted international interest and was followed by leading scientists abroad.
98 Gibert 2004, 39.
99 AMC-ICP: Letter from Crusafont to de Lumley, 3 August 1983.
100 Gibert 2004, 40.
101 Ibid. and González, La Vanguardia 1984.
102 Gibert 2004, 40 and Interview with Agustí 2012.
Fig. 1.7: Left: On 24 June, in El Periódico, Gibert drew attention to the lack of resources for the Orce excavations. Note the reference to foreign ‘colonization’. Source: Ramentol, El Periódico 1983b. Right: Just four days later, on 29 June,
Dalmau appeared in the same newspaper stating that the Diputació would help the researchers. Source: Barata, El Periódico 1983.