Louis Capitan - Department of Science and Technology in Society

Online Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology
Matthew R. Goodrum general editor (2016)
1
Louis Capitan (1854-1929)
Matthew R. Goodrum
Joseph-Louis Capitan was born in Paris on 19 April 1854. His father, Prosper
Aimé Capitan, was a military officer who studied at the École Polytechnique and
his mother was Antoinette Delphine Barbet. Capitan displayed an interest in
anthropology and archaeology from a young age. He attended a series of
courses taught by the prehistoric archaeologist Gabriel de Mortillet at the École
d'Anthropologie [School of Anthropology] in 1872 and was influenced by his
views about artifact typology and Paleolithic cultures. Capitan also visited the
laboratory of anthropologist Ernest-Théodore Hamy and followed the

Online Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology
Matthew R. Goodrum general editor (2016)
2
archaeological work of Théodore Vacquer, a well-known member of the
Commission du Vieux Paris [Commission of Old Paris] who studied the Roman
and medieval ruins of the city. Capitan studied medicine at the Faculty of
Medicine in Paris where he studied under Claude Bernard and Charles
Bouchard. He became an intern at the Hôpitaux de Paris in 1878 and in 1880 he
and Charles Bouchard created the Laboratory of Pathology and General
Therapeutics in the Faculty of Medicine, which Capitan ran until 1888. Capitan
completed his doctoral thesis in medicine in 1883 and worked at the Hotel-Dieu
and at La Pitié from 1894 to 1899. During this time he pursued research in
bacteriology and published widely on a variety of topics in medicine. His career
and personal life was now taking shape and he married Eugénie Hélène Verdin
on 11 February 1884. He was appointed chargé de conférences (lecturer) on
pathological anthropology at the École d'Anthropologie in 1892 before being
appointed to the chair of medical geography, which he held from 1894 to 1897.
After the death of Gabriel de Mortillet, Capitan was appointed to succeed him as
the chair of prehistoric anthropology at the École d'Anthropologie in 1898, a
position that Capitan held until his death. During World War I Capitan served as
a physician and directed the Department of Contagious Disease at the military
hospital, Hôpital Bégin, in Vincennes.
While Capitan pursued research on a range of medical topics, especially
during the early portion of his career, he devoted much of his life to prehistoric
archaeology. The work of Mortillet and Hamy convinced him of the value of
integrating geology, paleontology, archaeology, anthropology, and ethnology in
his work on human prehistory. Capitan’s friendship with agronomist Paul Louis
Jules Boudy resulted in his first visit to the village of Les Eyzies, located in
archaeologically rich Vézère valley in the Dordogne region of France, sometime
during 1892 or 1893. Capitan began collaborating with Denis Peyrony in
excavations of Paleolithic sites in the region soon thereafter. Peyrony was a
schoolteacher in Eyzies-de-Tayac whose own interested in prehistoric
archaeology led him to attend the course of lectures taught by Émile Cartailhac in
1894. Capitan’s student, Henri Breuil, soon joined their endeavors. In
September 1901 Capitan, Peyrony, and Breuil discovered the decorated caves of
Combarelles and of Font-de-Gaume after a local farmer brought Peyrony a small
female statue found nearby. The caves bore carvings of animals similar to those
found at the Grotte de La Mouthe by the amateur archaeologist Émile Rivière in
1895. Claims made about the discovery Paleolithic paintings and engravings of
animals on cave walls were still highly controversial and had been rejected for
years by such prominent archaeologists as Émile Cartailhac. But Capitan,
Peyrony, and Breuil defended the authenticity of Paleolithic cave art and their
discoveries, along with those of Rivière and others, led archaeologists
(particularly Cartailhac) to change their minds about Paleolithic cave paintings.
Capitan, Peyrony, and Breuil’s work at Combarelles and Font-de-Gaume led to
an important monograph titled La caverne de Font-de-Gaume aux Eyzies

Online Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology
Matthew R. Goodrum general editor (2016)
3
(Dordogne), published under the auspices of Albert I of Monaco in 1910 and later
Les Combarelles aux Eyzies (Dordogne) published in 1924.
Denis Peyrony Henri Breuil
Capitan and Peyrony soon began excavating other Paleolithic sites in the
Vézère valley. They first explored the site of La Ferrassie in 1896, but they
conducted extensive excavations there from 1902 to 1922. They uncovered a
substantial number of Mousterian and Aurignacian artifacts and over the course
of their excavations they unearthed a total of six Neanderthal skeletons from the
site. The first specimen, La Ferrassie 1, was a male skeleton with a nearly
complete skull found on 17 September 1909. La Ferrassie 2, an incomplete
cranium and skeleton of a female Neanderthal, was found in 1910. In 1912 they
discovered the remains of two infants, followed by the skeleton of another infant
in 1920. La Ferrassie 6, the nearly complete skeleton of a child, was unearthed
in 1921, a year before their excavations there came to an end. The nearly
complete nature of the first skeletons discovered and the evidence of ochre on
the bones led Capitan and Peyrony to suggest these were Mousterian burials
that had involved some kind of ritual. Recognizing the significance of their finds
and the importance of having professionally trained paleontologists and
archaeologists present to verify the stratigraphic location of the skeletons and
ensure they were excavated properly, Capitan invited Marcellin Boule, professor
of paleontology at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle [National Museum of
Natural History] in Paris, as well as Émile Cartailhac and Henri Breuil to
participate in the excavation of the fossils. All of the La Ferrassie skeletons were
given to the National Museum of Natural History.

Online Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology
Matthew R. Goodrum general editor (2016)
4
Capitan collaborated with a range of people in excavations at La Grotte de
La Grèze (in 1904) and at La Grotte de la Mairie à Teyjat and Vabri Mège (in
1906, 1908, 1909 and 1912). He also worked with public authorities to classify,
protect, and scientifically examine the Paleolithic deposits of the Vézère valley.
As a member of the Commission des Monuments historiques [Historic
Monuments Commission], Capitan and Peyrony began the first official
excavations at La Madeleine in 1910 under the auspices of the Ministere de
l'Instruction et des Beaux-Arts. In this work Capitan received the support of Paul
Leon, director of the Beaux-Arts, and Paul Verdier, chief of the Service des
Monuments historiques. In addition to his work in Paleolithic archaeology,
Capitan was also interested in the pre-Columbian civilizations of Mexico and
Peru. He traveled to Mexico and the United States to examine their pre-
Columbian antiquities and he acquired the famous collection of Peruvian artifacts
belonging to captain Paul Berthon. As a consequence of these studies, Capitan
became a professor at the Collège de France in 1908 where he occupied the
chair of Americanism and taught a course on American antiquity. He also
became a member of the Société des Américanistes [Society of Americanists] in
1900, becoming its secretary general in 1908, its vice president in 1922, and its
president in 1927. Capitan eventually donated his collection of American
ethnographic objects to the Musée d’Ethnographie [Museum of Ethnography].
Similarly, he donated his substantial collection of prehistoric artifacts to the
Musée des Antiquités Nationales [Museum of National Antiquities]. And he
donated his collection of objects pertaining to Parisian history to the Musée
Carnavalet in Paris.
Cranium of La Ferrassie 1

Online Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology
Matthew R. Goodrum general editor (2016)
5
Capitan was a member of an impressive number of professional societies
and organizations and his career reflects the importance of institutions in the
careers of scientists at this time. He became a member of the Société
d'Anthropologie de Paris [Anthropology Society of Paris] in 1883 and of the
Société de Biologie [Biology Society] in 1887. He was appointed a member of
the Prehistoric Section of the Commission des Monuments Historiques in 1896
(later serving as vice president and then president of the Commission). He
became a member of the Commission Municipale du Vieux-Paris in 1898,
becoming its vice president in 1904 and he presided over the rescue excavations
the Commission undertook during the construction of the Paris subway. Capitan
served as vice president of the 1906 meeting of the Congrès International
d'Anthropologie et d'Archéologie Préhistoriques [International Congress of
Prehistoric Anthropology and Archaeology], which met in Monaco. Capitan
became a member of the Académie de Médecine [Academy of Medicine] in
1909. He joined the newly founded Institut Français d'Anthropologie from the
time it was established in 1911 and this was not the only new institution that he
was involved with.
The First World War caused a massive disruption to the international
collaboration of scientists and resulted in a great deal of animosity between
French and German scientists. As a consequence a group of prominent French
anthropologists that included Yves Guyot and Henri Weisgerber, (the director and
sub-director of the École d'Anthropologie), Georges Hervé, Léonce-Pierre
Manouvrier, Adrien de Mortillet and Louis Capitan circulated a notice on 20
November 1918 calling for the creation of an Institut International d'Anthropologie
[International Institute of Anthropology. The purpose of the Institute was to bring
together archaeologists and anthropologists after the war. The Institute, created
almost entirely by French scientists, differed from the Congrès international
d'anthropologie et d'archéologie préhistoriques in that its work focused on the
anthropological study of living human populations, rather than prehistoric
peoples, and by the fact that scientists from Germany and its allies were
excluded from the Institute’s activities. Capitan was involved in the creation of
the Institute and was elected Secretary General at its first meeting held in Liege
in 1921.
Capitan was also active in several important committees associated with
major scientific institutions. He became a member of the Comité des Travaux
Historiques et Scientifiques [Committee of Historic and Scientific Works] in 1903
and of the comité de perfectionnement [Development Committee] of the Institut
de paléontologie humaine [Institute of Human Paleontologie]. He served as a
member of the Commission des Monuments mégalithiques [Commission of
Megalithic Monuments].1 Capitan was also an associés correspondant of the
1 The Commission des Monuments mégalithiques, established in 1879, was attached to the
Commission des Monuments Historiques, which had connections to the Académie Celtique and
the Société des Antiquaires de France.