Roger Grosjean and the stone men of Corsica Roger Grosjean at the start of excavation in 1956 24|British Archaeology|July August 2012 “There they stand in the landscape, Fighter pilot, MI5 agent and Paris, and then the first woman great, granite figures – some 13 feet tall racehorse trainer and breeder in Italy). and weighing up to 2 1/2 tons. Their discus-throwing record He spent all of his free time on his new hollow gaze seems to follow the visitor; interest, archaeology, and he dug with their enigmatic expressions change holder: Roger Grosjean was the French archaeologist l'Abbé Breuil, from minute to minute in the no ordinary archaeologist. famed for his work on cave and rock art. shifting sunlight.” He followed courses in Paris at the Thus starts an article in Time As François Grosjean Sorbonne and the Musée de l'Homme, Magazine, July 1968, about the “stone and in 1954 he obtained a position at the men” – the sculpted prehistoric menhirs explains, his discoveries CNRS (the French National Research – of Corsica. The man who excavated were equally distinctive Centre) and asked to be posted to them in the middle of the last century, Corsica. Nobody believed for a second Roger Grosjean, had a rather short but that he would find anything of interest. remarkable life that is now slowly being His first project was to survey the revealed. It is a life in which Great rather sparse archaeological Britain and British people played a role, monuments and menhirs that had been in different ways and at different times. found over the years. This is where Roger Grosjean was born in 1920 in another British person entered his life. Chalon-sur-Saône, east central France, Dorothy Carrington, a writer who was and spent his early years in the north, to become an authority on Corsican changing cities as his father, a judge, culture and history, had visited the changed postings. He quickly showed island in 1948 with her husband, the interest in sport and excelled in rugby painter Sir Francis Rose. They were and athletics (he was the French discus shown four sculpted monoliths, two of record-holder in his age category). But them half buried, in Filitosa, a small his real passion was flying and in 1939 he hamlet in south-west Corsica. She later joined the French Air Force and trained wrote in her book Granite Island as a fighter pilot. (Penguin 2008, originally published In the spring of 1943, in order to join 1971), that she had a premonition that the exiled Free French leader Charles this was of great significance, but she de Gaulle, he put together a risky did not follow it up until Grosjean strategy: he told the Germans that he arrived. The two of them went to would send them information if they Filitosa and examined the statues helped him reach England. When he carefully. They rolled one over and saw a duly arrived, having gone through Spain sculpted face with deep-socketed eyes, and Portugal, he reported his cover and a dagger carved on the upper part of story and was asked to act as a double the body. As she wrote about agent for the Security Service (mi5). Grosjean's work, “Then began a time of Recruited by the Double Cross System, almost daily discoveries – of dolmens, he took part in a deception operation menhirs and statue-menhirs”. aimed at the Germans concerning the As a trained archaeologist, Roger landing sites in France. Grosjean knew what to look for and Grosjean was an agent for about a where to excavate. For instance, one year, codenamed Fido, and was evening he was sitting on a rather large condemned to death by the Germans stone with the owner of the land, when they realised that he was working Charles-Antoine Cesari. Cesari for the allies. It is only recently that this belittled Grosjean’s interest, saying he part of his life has been uncovered, had used the stone as a bench for some although mi5 has not yet released his 20 years. Nonetheless Grosjean had it file. Along with this activity, Grosjean turned over, and there lay what is now was a member of the Free French Air one of the best known statue-menhirs Force and he did part of his advanced in Filitosa, known as Filitosa V. The training at Caistor in Lincolnshire. face is outlined by a V, the nose and While there, he discovered aerial eyes are clearly marked, and on the body archaeology, which proved useful to Statue-menhir Filitosa V there is a dagger in its sheath and a long, him later in life. vertical sword. This statue now Grosjean had a difficult time after the welcomes visitors at the entrance to war. He tried his hand at various jobs “Then began a time of almost the site. ) 2 ( including publishing and business, but On another occasion, just before daily discoveries – of dolmens, N A never got very far. He broke up from his going back to Paris, Grosjean was E J S British wife, Sallie, whom he had met in intrigued by a spur covered in maquis, O menhirs and statue-menhirs” R G England (she became a top model in the distinctively Corsican dense, F British Archaeology|July August 2012|25 scrubby vegetation. The owner said that there had been an old convent there but when Grosjean finally worked his way through the trees, he found cyclopean rocks clearly signalling an important prehistoric fortified site. It contained a tumulus and a partly demolished tower. When Grosjean returned in 1956, he had the maquis cleared away and he started excavating the spur. Over the next few weeks, numerous statue-menhirs were uncovered, many of them broken into two or three pieces. Two stood out for their remarkable beauty, Filitosa VI and Filitosa IX. The former came in three I Stantari pieces. The head was complete and, alignments according to Grosjean in an Illustrated London News article published the following year, it represented a higher Statue-menhir Filitosa VI The central monument at Filitosa Statue-menhir Filitosa IX state of evolution than any of the menhirs and statue-menhirs previously found. It had eyebrow arches, almond- shaped eyes, and a projecting nose and chin. Dorothy Carrington, who saw it a few weeks later, characterised it as “astonishingly, disturbingly realistic”, with a likeness “of some formidable warrior, some prehistoric Tamberlane”. As for Filitosa IX, Grosjean thought it the megalithic masterpiece of Corsica. It has a remarkable face in low S T relief, the skull is fully three T I P dimensional, and the features are M , ) 6 ( regular and symmetrical. Carrington N A E talks of a stately, aristocratic face, a face J Statue-menhirs S O Cauria IV (left) and of intimidating authority. As these R G F II (right) statues were being aligned at the base of 26|British Archaeology|July August 2012 excavated: Alo-Bisucce, Cucuruzzu, Torre, Tappa, Araghju and others, not to mention Filitosa’s. Grosjean developed a theory which is worth expounding even though it has been much debated (and some say proved wrong). According to him, there had been two distinct cultures present at the same time in that part of Corsica, between 1500 and 1000bc, or thereabouts (archaeologists would now say nearer 2500–1500bc): the Megalithic culture and the Torrean culture. Members of the former, who built the dolmens and menhirs, were shepherds and goatherds who had a the central monument, Grosjean writes, The Torrean religion which included the the Corsican sun alternately accented monument at representation of human beings, either or diminished the shadows, giving them Alo-Bisucce themselves or their enemies. The finely different, almost human, expressions. sculpted statue-menhirs portrayed the The reaction in the media, French Torreans with their weapons and and international, was outstanding. equipment, maybe in the hope of Headlines proclaimed “An unknown capturing their strength and magic. Roger Grosjean as a young French Air Force pilot civilisation has been discovered in The Torreans, on the other hand, Corsica”, “The mystery of the stone- were skilled in war and navigation (they tops of their heads that had probably men”, “Enigmatic masterworks of 4000 had arrived on the island more held horns, short swords in a scabbard years ago” and “The brooding masters recently), and it is they who built the slung from the shoulder, a loin cloth or of Filitosa”. In the years that followed, cyclopean fortified monuments as well girdle carved around the statue and television crews arrived from France, as cone-shaped cult and living sites. other details. Grosjean concluded that Germany and England, and Contrary to the Megalithic builders, the Torreans were in fact the Sherden. the BBC spent an entire they never represented the human He pursued his work for several more week filming Grosjean's figure in their art. years on some 30 sites in all. excavations. All this must The two cultures clashed repeatedly In the summer of 1975, at the height have been rather and when the Torreans won, which they of his career and while working on his humbling for someone often did as they had bronze weapons, new museum in Sartène, Roger who, only a few years they took over the Megalithic sites, Grosjean died of a heart attack; he was earlier, was undecided broke the statue-menhirs and reused only 55 years of age. In a bit more than as to where his career the fragments in their new fortifications 20 years of research, he had contributed was going. and cult monuments.