Abstract
DR. R. R. MARETT'S presidential address to the fourth annual Confercnce of the British Speleological Association, which met at Swansea on August 5–8, tendered in humorous vein an anthropologist's explanation of the attraction of the modern study of caves in ‘speleolatry’—primeval man's worship of the cave, which in the racial consciousness of a late-born generation had assumed the guise of a devotion to science. He was, however, able to support his contention that speleolatry stood for something real in the history of religion by reference to the evident mystic intention, at least in part, of the palælithic cave art of France and Spain and the therapeutic cult of the cave of later times. No doubt Dr. Marett had in mind the symbolism of a mystic ritual of approach, when at the opening of the Conference he presented Sir Cyril Fox, director of the National Museum of Wales, with a silver key. Members of the Association were given ample opportunity to experience the inward thrill of which their president had spoken, in the visits which were paid to the numerous caves on shore and inland in the neighbourhood of Swansea, in which the Paviland cave in the Gower Peninsula, famous in the annals of palæontology for its association with the name of Dean Buckland, received its due meed of attention; while in the exhibition arranged by Mrs. A. Williams at the Royal Institution of South Wales, they found illustration of the cave sites and their structure, as well as of the evidence of their occupation by men and animals, ranging from Mousterian to medieval times. Among those who addressed the Conference were Prof. T. Neville George, who discussed the geological aspect of the caves of South Wales, and Prof. Bosch-Gimpera, formerly rector of the University of Barcelona, who dealt with the cultures of the Spanish caves. Dr. Marett was re-elected president of the Association, with Prof. L. S. Palmer as chairman.
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The British Speleological Association. Nature 144, 319 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144319a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144319a0