Henry Testot-Ferry

Henry Bernard Alfred Testot-Ferry known as Henry de Ferry is a Géologue, Archéologue and Paléontologue French born the February 5th 1826 with the Vault-the-Queen (Seine-et-Marne). Discoverer of the prehistoric site of Solutré, it is suddenly deceased the November 9th 1869 at the age of only 43 years, with Bussières (Saône-et-Loire).

Its family

Henry is the son junior by the general baron Claude Testot-Ferry, hero of the Napoleonean wars, anobli by the emperor Napoleon i in 1814.

After a typical somewhat idle youth of the young jet set of the 19th century, where hunting is its principal passion, he marries in 1852, according to the councils (or rather the insistence) of his older brother Gustave, IIe Baron Testot-Ferry, judge with Mâcon, Louise O' Brien, downward of the clan O' Brien of the Munster which gave several kings to the Ireland, and which was received with the honors of the court under Louis XV in 1737. The latter brings in dowry its property to Prissé (Saône-et-Loire) which they occupy until he moves definitively to settle in the village of Bussières, of which he will become mayor in 1856 and who is located at a few kilometers of the Roche of Solutré.

It will have 6 children, from which the trajectories will be very far away from the Paléontologie.

Beginnings of a passion

Henry Testot-Ferry devoted himself initially to the Géologie. Founding member of the Committee of French Paleontology, it was charged to realize in collaboration with Dr. Louis Edouard Gourdan de Fromentel a monograph on the Polypier S. on this occasion, it discovers and describes of it a new kind which will bear its name: Ferrya .

It is the first to note in the valley of the the Saone the traces of various prehistoric occupations, by excavating the area as a whole and more particularly the site of Coal-scuttles (Saône-et-Loire).

The Rock of Solutré

The Paleontology quickly taking the step on geology, it will probe as from 1866 the site of the Crot-of-Mass grave to the foot of the Roche of Solutré, outcrop of bones of horses (called magma). A little later Henry Testot-Ferry discovers along the way crossing the Crot-of-Mass grave the zone of the hearths of the " age of the renne" container of many tools in Flint and of the Fauna. If the reindeer prevails, one also finds horse, elephant, stag Elaphe, fox, wolf or of the tiger of the caves. One found in certain hearths more than 2000 flints and 400 wood of reindeer.

Contrary to the sites discovered in cave, it is difficult to determine in Solutré the width of the layer and to delimit it. With Adrien Arcelin, Henry Testot-Ferry proceeds by surveys. The two men in addition decide to filter the ground between their hands, the vestiges thus methodically are collected and examined.

In 1868, Henry Testot-Ferry concluded with the existence from a station from hunting for the foot from the rock: " Only with the prevalence of the weapons, the scrapers and the blades, it is easy to see that one deals with people here exclusively hunter, to which one needed weapons before very being made main of its prey; then blades to cut it up, cut the bones or wood of it, then scrapers to expose the cords with bowels, to scrape the bones and especially to prepare the skins, preparation which, to judge some by the quantity of these last tools, was to be one of the principal occupations of the tribe, once this one sunken in its hearths ". (Henry Testot-Ferry, 1869).

Henry testot-Ferry also discovers in 1867 a small statuette of Cervidé. It is the first known specimen of art Solutréen, and testifies to the culture of the prehistoric men as well as the cave paintings under cave.

A consecrated life with sciences

Within the framework of the study of the prehistoric layers of Solutré, Henry Testot-Ferry returns in contact with the majority of the prehistorians of his time to discuss and validate a certain number of assumptions. He thus maintains a long correspondence with Jacques Boucher Perthes. Edouard Lartet, Gabriel de Mortillet and Sir John Lubbock will come even on the spot to attend the Fouille S.

With Adrien Arcelin, they present their research in international congresses and Solutré very quickly becomes one of the great French prehistoric sites.

It contributed to the scientific life of many companies in France and was:

founding member of the Committee of French Paleontology, with which it will take part in the writing of the last 16 volumes of the French Paléontologie started with Alcide Dessalines d' Orbigny
member of the Geological Company of France
correspondent of the Linéenne Company of Normandy
correspondent of the Company of Emulation of the titular Doubs
of the Académie of Mâcon

An important part of its collection of reference (rich of 5262 parts) will be bequeathed to the national Muséum of natural history to Paris, like with the Museum of the Ursulines of Mâcon. Its grandson André Testot-Ferry will sell another big part of this collection with the British Museum of London in 1958.

Anecdotes

A few years after the death of Henry Testot-Ferry, in 1872 with the congress of Brussels, celebrates it Anthropologue Gabriel de Mortillet decide to allot to the prehistoric cultures names formed starting from stations éponymes. Thus, it will give the name of the site to a cultural facies Préhistorique of the Paléolithique superior: the Solutréen.
With Bussières, there exists a street Henry Testot-Ferry , inaugurated in 2004, which skirts the house where it lived and which leaves in direction Solutré.

Random links: