Tixier postcards 2 – Miskolc: man and stone

Szerző: | 2019 máj 23

Jacques Tixier, the scholar of lithic technology passed away on April 3rd 2018. We dedicate the volume of 2019 to his memory. As another form to pay homage to Jacques Tixier, we recall his personality by photographs, sent by the authors of the papers, that we present here as a series of “postcards.” The second part of the series was submitted by Zsolt Mester (Institute of Archaeological Sciences Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest).

The experimental knapping accompanied Jacques Tixier along his life. In 2015, at the age of 90, he showed me his “workshop” in the basement of his house in Pradines. It was touching to see his tools and products. He confessed with a little sadness that he is knapping less and less. He practiced and taught it so enthusiastically that everyone looked at him with admiration, while thinking that knapping is the best thing in the world. Fortunately, many of us witnessed his enthusianism.

In 1999, Jacques Tixier with his wife Catie was invited to a symposium at the University of Miskolc. Since it was his first visit to Hungary, he was curious about everything, including local raw materials. So we showed him a block of limnosilicite, a siliceous rock of post-volcanic origin that had been widely used by the prehistoric people of the region because it was abundant. Jacques never had the opportunity to work with this material very different from flints of sedimentary origin. He had a lot of problems, but he continued to work with it tirelessly. In the end, his perseverance was rewarded by a fairly good tool. When he finished working, he gave me his diagnosis of the behavior of that raw material. And I immediately realized that experimental knapping is for him a tool for understanding human-material interaction. Since then, I consider this conclusion as one of the most important lessons by Jacques Tixier.

Earlier postcard: Les Eyzies conference.

Left and middle: the crime scene – all You need are lithic raw material, tools and a lot of plastic foil. Tixier works a low-quality block of Avas limnic silicite at the former Department of Prehistory and Ancient History, Miskolc University, 1999.

Right: visiting the Miskolc Avas-Tűzköves site in 2005. This huge palaeolithic quarry was used to extract limnic silicite tens of thousands years ago. In clear weather the Tokaj hills can be seen from here – source area of the famous Carpathian obisidan raw materials. Next to Tixier, Avram Ronen inspects the lithics; at the right margin, William Davies can be seen. The cool person with a ’Street Life’-labeled rucksack is Pierre Vermeersch.

French version

La taille expérimentale a accompagné Jacques Tixier le long de sa vie. En 2015, à l’âge de 90 ans, il m’a fait visiter son « atelier » dans le sous-sol de sa maison à Pradines. C’était émouvant de voir ses outils de tailleur et ses produits. Il a avoué avec un peu de tristesse d’en faire de moins en moins. Il l’a pratiquait et l’enseignait toujours avec tant d’enthousiasmes que tout le monde le regardait avec admiration, tout en pensant que la taille est la meilleure chose du monde. Heureusement, nous sommes nombreux d’en être les témoins.

En 1999, Jacques Tixier en compagnie de sa femme Catie a été invité à un colloque organisé à l’Université de Miskolc. Puisque c’était sa première visite en Hongrie, il était curieux de tout, les matières premières locales inclues. Nous lui avons montré donc un bloc de limnosilicite, roche siliceuse d’origine post-volcanique qui avait été largement utilisé par les Préhistoriques de la région, étant abondant. Jacques n’a jamais eu l’occasion de travailler avec ce matériau très différent des silex d’origine sédimentaire. Il en avait beaucoup de problèmes, cependant il continuait de tailler infatigablement. À la fin, sa persévérance a été récompensée par un outil qui n’était pas mal. Quand il a fini de travailler, il m’a donné sa diagnose sur le comportement de la roche en tant que matière première. Et j’ai aussitôt compris que la taille expérimentale lui constitue un outil pour comprendre l’interaction homme–matière.

Depuis, je considère cette conclusion comme un des plus importants enseignements de Jacques Tixier.

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