• Gendron, François
• Lourdeau, Antoine

Abstract

Heir of the family fortune, the Colonel Louis Vésignié (1870-1954) constituted during his existence important collections of mineralogy and archaeological artefacts. Before his death, he willed an important part to national institutions, including the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle of Paris. The inventory of the collection deposited in 1955 at the Institut of Paléontologie Humaine was an pportunity to find many archaeological objects from North American (Canada and United States). A large part of them comes from the collection of Norman Spang (1843-1922), sold in France in 1920. Within this set, there are 27 spectacular “eccentric”-style flaked flints, identified as coming from the United States, but without any other geographical mention. The artefacts technological study revealed differential surface states between the shaping and finishing stages, involving a recovery of tools and weapons produced formerly. The analysis also permitted to observe the heterogeneity of the shaping patterns and a probable use of a ferrous metal in the process of pressure retouching of the bifacial pieces. In addition to the doubts established by the technological study, no stylistic equivalents to those of the Vésignié collection in the Woodlandian and Mississippian cultures of North America could be found through our bibliographical research. Nevertheless, this investigation revealed the singular history of Mack Tussinger (1896-1963), an Oklahoma WyandotteNative American farmer, ruined by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl that ravaged the centre of the United States between 1930 and 1940. Sold to antiquity lovers and tourists on the Road 66, the eccentric flints of Mack Tussinger could have remained at the rank of dubious originalities. But, from 1937, Science became interested in these unusual objects and the place of their discovery, and quickly deduced the mystification. These conclusions certainly provoked the anger of the collectors-investors who found in rare researchers the necessary support to launch a controversy. This article traces the vicissitudes of this amazing history and the adventures of these counterfeit artefacts of which the Colonel Louis Vésignié had been partly purchaser. As for our technological study, it definitely comes to confirm Mack Tussinger’s mystification.

Topics

• surface