Tea at Trianon: The Last Neanderthal

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, October 7, 2024

The Last Neanderthal

From Live Science:

Neanderthals created certain types of tools, named Mousterian after a Neanderthal site in France. This type of tool was invented 160,000 years ago and largely disappeared by 40,000 years ago across most of Europe, presumably along with its Neanderthal creators. But archaeologists have found Mousterian tools at southern Iberian Neanderthal sites that were made after that time. These objects may be evidence that Neanderthals clung to the region, possibly taking refuge from climate changes affecting other parts of Europe.
To show that Neanderthals were alive where such tools were found, however, archaeologists ideally need undisturbed, uncontaminated layers in which they find materials clearly tied to Neanderthals' activities — such as bones with cut marks, bone tools, and charcoal that was purposefully burned. That's where things get complicated — especially because many Neanderthal sites were excavated or dated before people knew how to avoid contaminating ancient samples. (Read more.)