Tea at Trianon: Neanderthals on the Beach

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, January 27, 2020

Neanderthals on the Beach

From Haaretz:

As for the aquatic Neanderthal, there is a lot of evidence that they did not shy from water. Separate studies have shown that Neanderthals fished for shells to eat and caught fish in shallow freshwater too. For example, a 2011 study reported on the earliest known consumption of shellfish in Spain, 150,000 years ago – thus debunking the notion that shellfish are a modern human passion. Neanderthals also bored holes into shellfish by the hinge (the umbones) and colored and decorated the mollusks too, 115,000 years ago in Spain. Isotopic studies have indicated that Neanderthals preferred meat but also ate shellfish and fish, whether out of necessity or choice.

Further supporting the theory of aquatically competent Neanderthals: Last year, Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis reported evidence of “surfer’s ear” in Neanderthal skulls – abnormal bony growths in the ear canal that are relatively prevalent among humans who swim in cold water. Presumably the Neanderthals weren’t surfing – but for that painful syndrome to develop, it’s possible they swam for fun as some of us do today, even in icy water (Polar Bear Club, looking at you, uncomprehendingly). (Read more.)