First of all I chose to research the Catacombs of Paris because, well they just frankly interested me. The massive amounts of human bone and skulls is so horrifying yet interesting at the same time to me. All the numerous times the bodies were moved and I can’t even begin to imagine the labor of the people who had to dig out the tunnel system below Paris. I chose to write my paper on the catacombs because of the above and because of the sheer size of the catacombs, there are so many miles and levels to it, I just think that it is amazing and I wanted to know more about it. How it became a mass tomb for millions of bones, where the bones were before their final resting place in the catacombs were all things that I wanted to know.
The Catacombs of Paris is an underground mass grave. The need for a mass tomb came about when some of Pairs’ cemeteries became vastly overcrowded and the result was that they had to close. Most of the cemeteries back then were owned and ran by the church. The Parisian mines under the streets of Paris were no longer being used for mining purposes. The mines served as an excellent location to move all of the corpses. The Parisian cemeteries were emptied and moved to the underground tunnel system. The Catacombs entrance is located in the Fourteenth arrondissement of Paris. In the public section of the catacombs where visits are easy to come by, however there is an adventurous breed of explorers known as cataphiles that explore the closed areas of the catacombs, this is done outside of the law. There are two hundred and thirteen total steps on the tour of the catacombs. It takes around forty five minutes for the tour to be completed.
Les Innocents, one of Paris’ largest cemeteries at the time was a start t...
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...d and full, workers had to all exhume of the corpses, and the bones along with the skulls of the people that were buried there were moved cart by cart into the mines under the streets. At first the bones were just tossed where ever there was space, there was no organization to them at all. Later on, all of the bones and skulls were reorganized into designs and the catacombs had some order to them. After they were organized, the catacombs became open to the public. Only a small section is open for public visits. So naturally, there are people that want to go where they catacombs aren’t open to the public. These people are referred to cataphiles. They are explorers of the catacombs, they may stay down there for weeks at a time even. The catacombs are one of the largest mass tombs in the world, and is one of Paris’ most attracting site to tourists around the world.
Ancient Egyptian culture was largely focused on the afterlife. One of their most important deities, Osiris, became the ruler of the Underworld through death. The pharaoh and elite class prepared for their impending deaths throughout their lives. Much of what survives from ancient Egypt today was found in tombs and temples of the dead. When one of the elite died, the process of laying him or her to rest was extensive. Harold Hays explains that “the ritualized process of embalming and mummification is usually stated as lasting seventy days” (Hays 5). "Funeral Procession, Tomb of Pairy" shows two of the processes that Hays details. The first depicted is the procession to the tomb. Pairy’s body would have already been through several processions, mummification, and embalming. This particular procession’s goal is to lead not just the body, but also the spirit into the afterlife. People of both high and low classes attended this procession, carrying with them the tomb goods (Hays 6-7). The second depicted
Montresor seeks revenge on Fortunato by stating, “A succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back” (Poe 379). Montresor is now getting revenge on Fortunato by chaining him up deep in the catacombs behind this big wall that he has just created. He is doing this to get payback for the things that Fortunato did to him at an earlier date and going by a plan he made to do everything. Montresor gets revenge and satisfies himself. He undergoes the action of doing so when he explains, “I forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up, against the new masonry I re-erected the old rampart of bones. For a half of a century no mortal has disturbed them” (Poe 379). Montresor is building a huge wall deep in the catacombs with Fortunato behind that so no one can hear him scream and so he can die there and if that is not bad enough he is even chaining him up and drugging him in the process and then after that he is putting the bones back where he found them so even if someone did go back there no one would see or hear anything. That is some smart and painful planned revenge. This is how Montresor got revenge on
Perhaps the most notorious of burial practices originating in Egypt is that of mummification. Why such an extraordinary attempt was made to preserve cadavers may seem
In Edgar Allen Poe’s tale, the setting of Montresor’s catacombs provides Montresor with a place where he can kill Fortunato with almost no evidence on who killed him, helping his attempt at making the perfect crime. The catacombs in “The Cask of Amontillado” are old with spider webs as well as “long walls of piled skeletons, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost rec...
“Society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy; those who had anything united in common terror.” The French Revolution was a painful era that molded the lives of every citizen living in France and changed their ways of life forever. Beginning in 1789 and lasting ten years until 1799, the people of France lived in a monarch society under King Louis XVI’s rule. He was a very harsh ruler and had many restrictions placed on his people. They eventually overthrow him and become a monarch society. Among his deceptive ways, the people also experienced “The Reign of Terror,” which was a period where many lives were taken by the guillotine. Other revolutionary events included rebellions, constitutions, and groups. One of the popular groups that contributed greatly to the French Revolution were the Jacobins who were led by Maximilien Robespierre.
Teotihuacan is an ancient Mayan city that can be found about 25 miles away from modern Mexico City. This large ancient city has several pyramids and the third largest pyramid is The Temple of the Feathered Serpent. The pyramid is hardly the most famous one associated with this archaeological site but it did gain popularity during the 1980s because of a series of discoveries of curious tombs located below the structure. There are over two hundred sacrificial burials that archaeologists believe were buried as a part of a dedication of the temple. The way that the bodies were laid out doesn’t have a specific meaning yet because the bodies seem to be grouped together in certain locations. The bodies are both from men and women, with the men having weapons and jewellery buried with them which probably indicated that they were warriors. Archaeologists believe that the temple may have been the resting place of a great leader as well thanks to a large deposit of liquid mercury that was
...ows the reader to interpret the end of the story by himself, which brings imagination into the picture. Why does Montresor hesitate in putting up the last stone? This makes the reader wonder if Montresor was beginning to feel guilty. At the end of the story Montresor and Fortunato talk a little. Montresor called aloud, "Fortunato!" No answer came so Montresor states, "I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and let it fall within. There came forth only a jingling of the bells. My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so"(153). This statement leads the reader to believe that Montresor may have had a moment when his conscience begins to creep up on him. He quickly states that it is the dampness of the catacombs that makes his heart sick.
The Great Cat Massacre with out a doubt has one of the most unusual titles ever created especially for a book about history. Now this unusual title perhaps fits this book better than any other straight - forward title Mr. Darnton could have conjured. You see the text contained in the book isn’t just your standardized, boring, and redundant view of history. Most historical text looks at history from a political standpoint, of which king did what and what were the political effects of a war; then what were the politics like after the war, how were they changed and by which major political figures did the changing. Darnton instead of the old style of viewing history looks at it through the eyes of the people, and not the figures of history. Mr. Darnton’s book The Great Cat Massacre, reexamines French culture during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteen century with the eyes of the peasant’s. Robert Darnton looks at the writings of the peasant’s, and traces them to their origins and compares them to other text of similar origins and text, to create credible accounts or views of particular topics of the people during the era. In this review your going to see a summarization of the book, describing the various subjects of this book. After that I will comment on Mr. Darnton’s on some topics like his organization, writing style, and fairness to his subject material, then discuss the historical importance of the topics that Robert Darnton mentions in his book and give you my personal opinion of the book its self. Next I will discuss with you a battery of topics like why I choose the book, is the book controversial, what was the authors purpose for writing the book, what were some of the major theses, who or what Darnton’s sources were? Lastly I will end this review with a compare and contrast of potentially different views of what Robert Darnton is telling us in his book.
Summary: The Coffin of Horankh, is one of many art pieces, that helps us to understand how Egyptians valued life, but even more, how strongly they valued the ka – the life force that remained habitable in the body for the afterlife. This artifact reveals to us the end results of the in-depth process the Egyptians coined, in mummifying bodies. We see the importance, for them, in encasing the mummified bodies for tomb burials for their next life; just as we learned in our lectures of Egyptian Art. Through this artifact we also obtain imagery of Osiris – Lord of the Underworld and gained an understanding of his importance to them as the god of resurrection.
no way he was going to be put down. So they go to Montresors palazzo and into the catacombs, which was located underground. As there walking through the
were 10 doors and at end there was a statue of Osiris, the god of the
Before dropping the bones into the pit they waited the signal of the master of the ritual. After the signal has been giving they can finally place the bones of their loved ones in the pit and have a sense of peace for their loved
The fungus that accompanies it is also large and overgrown, as it feasts on flesh, “His hand had come in contact with them as he pulled and yanked at a rusty-toothed wheel, and they (white toadstools) felt curiously warm and bloated, like the flesh of a man afflicted with dropsy” (3). It gives the final sign as to what lies down beneath the basement before the main characters die. It implies that death has occured here before, and it will happen again. It applies some foreshadowing elements to the theme, that the ultimate consequence for untamed exploration and curiosity is death. The incomplete skeleton also exemplifies death. The skull itself is just bone and is accompanied by spare parts of a skeleton. “A skull, green with mould, laughed up at them. Further on, hall could see am ulna, one pelvic wing, part of a ribcage” (11). If the body decomposed normally, then it wouldn’t be askew and in pieces. This form of death means that the rats had torn the person to bits and the rats that had been in the basement had completed their task of impeding the advancement of discovery as the bones are skewed around by the extended movement of the rats. The fact that the body and the fungi are both down in level underground levels means that death is occurring and whichever man attempts to come down the stairs will meet it. This serves as a final warning before the punishment is
He was burried upright in one of the walls of the Church of the Cordeliers at Salon, and his wife Anne erected a splendid marble plaque to his memory. Nostradamus' grave was opened by superstitious soldiers during the Revolution but his remains were reburied in the other church at Salon, the Church of St. Laurent, where his grave and portrait can still be seen.
The Underground Man is spiteful. He tells us this and we really ought to believe him. The Underground Man is not only bothered by the class system of Russia but he is also plagued by everyone that he happens to glance at. Namely, I think that he is tormented by the fact that he is not free. He will never be free. He is a prisoner of himself.