Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [51]
De Mortillet then alluded to the well-publicized disputes between Calvert and Schliemann, which he claimed had discredited both men. In addition to Calvert’s disagreements with Schliemann about the dates of his archeological discoveries at Hissarlick and their relation to the classical Troy of Homer, there were also some financial bickerings. Calvert and Schliemann had an agreement that they would share the proceeds from the sale of any discoveries at Hissarlick. A particularly fine statue was the source of some controversy, with Calvert charging that Schliemann paid him far less than it was actually worth (Traill 1986a, pp. 53 –54). But it seems that Calvert emerges from all this as an honorable and truthful person, who had a better grasp of the archeology of the Hissarlick site than Schliemann. This tends to increase, rather than decrease, the credibility of Calvert’s reporting about his Miocene discoveries.
Finally, de Mortillet (1883, p. 69) stated that because no further reports of a serious nature or new discoveries of human artifacts had emerged from the Dardanelles site, the original Miocene finds reported by Calvert should be considered unconfirmed. But perhaps if new finds had been made, de Mortillet would have reacted as he had to the first ones—by calling them “too perfect,” questioning the character of the discoverer, and demanding more discoveries.
2.11 Balaenotus of Monte Aperto, Italy (Pliocene)
During the latter part of the nineteenth century, fossil whale bones bearing curious marks turned up in Italy. On November 25, 1875, G. Capellini, professor of geology at the University of Bologna, reported to the Institute of Bologna: “Recently as I was cleaning a bone that I myself extracted from the blue Pliocene clay, synchronous with that of the Grey Crag of Anvers, of Astian age, I saw to my great surprise on the dorsal surface a notch and an incision. The former, especially, was so clean cut and deep as to indicate it was made by a very sharp instrument. I am able to say that the bone found is so completely petrified as to preserve all the most delicate details of its microscopic structure; furthermore, it has acquired such hardness that it is not possible to scratch it with a steel point. This circumstance enables us to completely reject suggestions that tend to attribute the marks to modern action” (de Mortillet 1883, p. 56). During further cleaning Capellini discovered three other lighter marks on the bone. He announced this discovery and others that followed at the Academy of Lynxes at Rome and the International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archeology meetings at Budapest in 1876 and Paris in 1878. Capellini, a founding member of the Congress, was a prominent member of the European scientific community.
The whale bones studied by Capellini were from the extinct small baleen whale Balaenotus, which is characteristic of the Late Pliocene of Europe (Romer 1966, p. 393). This confirms Capellini’s assignment of his discoveries to the Pliocene.
In 1876, Capellini showed his principal specimens at the Congress at Budapest, where he told the members (1877, pp. 46–47): “For fifteen years I have been researching and studying cetacean fossils. After my work on the Balaenopteridae in the province of Bologna, I decided to undertake researches into the baleen whales of Tuscany. . . . By the kindness of Professor D’Ancona, I was able to examine at my leisure the remains of fossil baleen whales at the Museum of Natural