Tea at Trianon: Ancient Egyptian Head Cones

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, September 10, 2024

Ancient Egyptian Head Cones

From Live Science:

Until recently, archaeologists had only seen the hats depicted in paintings and never found physical evidence of them in burials. But in 2019, the Antiquity study described two burials at cemeteries in Amarna, an archaeological site in Egypt that was once its capital. The burials contained skeletons with head cones, proving that the accessories were more than simply stylistic motifs created by painters. An analysis of the remains revealed that the cones were made of beeswax and that neither individual appeared to have been wealthy. Rather, their skeletons indicated that they had been laborers and had experienced food shortages.

Archaeologists remain uncertain about the hats' purpose. One previously proposed idea was that these caps were crafted from a type of perfumed unguent, or balm, that released a pleasant scent as it melted. Another possibility is that the cones were thought to help with fertility, as they are featured in paintings with Hathor, the fertility goddess.

"Scholars often link the cones specifically with sensuality, sexuality and related notions, as they are frequently associated in imagery with women, sometimes unclothed," the authors wrote in the Antiquity study. (Read more.)