Tea at Trianon: Burial Site in Peru

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, April 8, 2019

Burial Site in Peru

From Fox News:

Experts have revealed the gruesome details of a 15th-century ritual sacrifice site in Peru that contains the remains of more than 140 children. In a new study on the archaeological site at Huanchaquito-Las Llamas, archaeologists explain that the children’s hearts were apparently ripped from their bodies. The grisly location, which is near the UNESCO world heritage site of Chan Chan, is the largest known mass sacrifice site of children in the Americas, they say. The remains of over 200 llamas, or possibly alpacas, were also discovered across an area spanning more than 7,000 square feet. “Cut marks transecting the sternums and displaced ribs suggest both the children and llamas may have had their chests cut open, possibly during ritual removal of the heart,” scientists explain, in a statement. Analysis of the human remains reveals that they were boys and girls aged between 5 and 14. An international team of researchers led by Gabriel Prieto of the National University of Trujillo compiled details of excavations conducted between 2011 and 2016. Their findings are published in the journal PLOS ONE. (Read more.)