Tea at Trianon: Viking Treasure Hoard

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

Saturday, June 12, 2021

Viking Treasure Hoard

From BBC:

The Galloway hoard was discovered in 2014 by metal detectorist Derek McLennan from Ayrshire and was acquired by National Museums Scotland (NMS) three years later. It has been described as "one of the most important UK archaeological finds of the century". NMS senior curator Dr Martin Goldberg said it still had the power to surprise.
"There is something unexpected about the Galloway hoard at every turn," he said. "It just keeps telling more and more stories." The latest is about a lidded vessel which held some of the hoard's most precious treasures. It was thought to come from continental Europe, but a new 3D model of the container suggests it might come from much further afield.
Research has also shown that the wool wrapping the vessel is older than expected and pre-dates the Viking era.
"This is only the third silver-gilt and decorated vessel to be found as part of a Viking-age hoard in the UK, and so we might have expected it to be like the other two," said Dr Goldberg. "However, the 3D model reveals that the vessel is not from the Carolingian (Holy Roman) Empire of continental Europe as we'd expected based on other similar examples.
"Instead, the decoration and design show leopards, tigers and Zoroastrian religious symbols, all of which suggest that it is a piece of central Asian metalwork from halfway round the known world." (Read more.)