Tea at Trianon: Ancient Tools Discovered in Maryland

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

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Ancient Tools Discovered in Maryland

From Arkeonews:

The story of the first Americans has enthralled scientists and the general public alike, frequently leading to contentious debates. Geologist Darrin Lowery, who was previously affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and has made 93 trips to Parsons Island with his team, has now joined them, according to The Washington Post.
Darrin Lowery discovered 286 artifacts in the Chesapeake Bay, with the oldest embedded in charcoal that dated back more than 22,000 – at least 7,000 years earlier than what scientists believe was when people initially populated America. Archaeological finds in New Mexico’s White Sands National Park, according to multiple researchers, date human activity to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago. Lowery now believes that humans existed in Maryland around the same time.
Lowery and his team have been excavating Parsons Island for over a decade, finding ancient stone tools in layers of sediment that were dated by studying preserved pollen and microfossils.
Following a non-peer-reviewed publication of his findings—Lowery told the Washington Post that “life’s too short” to debate with other experts over the peer-review process—he claims that the oldest of 286 artifacts found on Parsons Island significantly pushes back the date of human arrival in the area. (Read more.)