Presentation of the Petrie Medal to the Abbé H. Breuil

Abstract

IN the proceedings of Foundation Day of the University of London on November 21, over which the Chancellor, Major-General the Earl of Athlone, presided, the premier honours were accorded to the Abbe H. Breuil, who was present to receive the Petrie Medal awarded him in recognition of his services to archaeology. The study of the origin and growth of civilisation from its earliest beginnings down to historic times is fortunate at the present day in having in its service a number of brilliant exponents in practice and in theory of archaeological methods of investigation, whose authority receives world-wide recognition. Am°ng these, the Abbe Breuil is a commanding figure. For a generation he has stood in the front rank of French archaeologists. His investigations in the caves and occupation sites of palaeolithic man in France, Spain and North Africa have added a mass of facts to the sum total of our knowledge of the history of man's early development, while his personal examination of all the more important archaeological sites, and the archaeological and palaeontological material derived from them,, throughout the world has given breadth and vision to that innate aptitude for the analysis of evidence and the logical classification of scientific data, which has won acceptance of his verdict in all questions relating to prehistoric archaeology as a final court of appeal. The ovation given the Abbe Breuil at the close of the more formal proceedings of the assembly on Foundation Day was no more than an endorsement of an award, which in the fullest sense of the term was deserved.