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# October digest: archaeology, Paris exhibitions, protests in France and museum news
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/u-pushkina-v-oseni-roshcha-otriakhaet-poslednie-listy-vo-frantsii-v-etom-oktiabre-otriakhivali-skoree-vitriny-i-ratushi-i-poskolku-eto-sovpalo-s-moim-traditsionnym-parizhskim-otpuskom-z/
- Published: 2026-11-02T17:31:18.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-02T17:50:24.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archaeology, Museums, Heritage, Science, Society, Paris

In Pushkin's “Autumn” the grove sheds its last leaves; in France this October it was rather shop windows and town halls that were being shaken, and since this coincided with my customary Parisian holiday, a good part of the month in the channel passed to the sound of demonstrations. In the digest, as usual, I gather the best of the previous thirty days. So, here is the main material from the channel for October 🍂

Archaeology and the origins of humankind ⛏️ On the skulls of people buried beside the tombs of the first pharaohs at Abydos, [traces of violent death](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28471?ref=theparnassian.com) were found. Neanderthals may have treated themselves with [birch tar](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28527?ref=theparnassian.com); at Schöningen a [macaque milk tooth](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28549?ref=theparnassian.com) 310,000 years old was studied, the northernmost evidence of macaques living in Europe. The footprints of people at White Sands were [dated](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28571?ref=theparnassian.com) to between 23,500 and 21,700 years ago. Off the island of Kekova the [oldest shipwreck](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28567?ref=theparnassian.com) in the Mediterranean was found, 4,400 to 4,700 years old. A resident of the Nile Delta found [colossal statues of Ramesses II](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28568?ref=theparnassian.com) on his own plot of land. The Maya went on living in [Aké](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28619?ref=theparnassian.com) for hundreds of years after the collapse of the city. In Alexandria a [ring with the lighthouse](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28524?ref=theparnassian.com) was raised, and in Pompeii a cupboard with a child's [necklace of amulets](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28704?ref=theparnassian.com).

Exhibitions 🖼 The Louvre is showing [Zurbarán](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28495?ref=theparnassian.com), and beside his paintings I met [Rossi de Palma](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28606?ref=theparnassian.com). The Fondation Louis Vuitton has devoted an exhibition to the collector and artist [Gustave Fayet](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28577?ref=theparnassian.com), who turned [chance blots](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28587?ref=theparnassian.com) into flowers and carpets. At the Musée Jacquemart-André the first complete retrospective in France of [Tintoretto](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28620?ref=theparnassian.com) is under way, while the Orsay, a hundred years after the death of [Mary Cassatt](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28694?ref=theparnassian.com), has staged her first major retrospective in a French national museum. The Bakhrushin Museum has brought to Yaroslavl an exhibition [about Zimin](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28533?ref=theparnassian.com), who took over the inheritance of Mamontov's opera. At Fontainebleau an exhibition has opened on the stays at the château of [Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28661?ref=theparnassian.com).

The market and museums 🏛 Art Basel Paris sold works for almost [130 million euros](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28630?ref=theparnassian.com) and [closed early](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28618?ref=theparnassian.com) because of the protests. At Issoire a 150-kilogram [bronze cover](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28478?ref=theparnassian.com) of Dalí's “Book of the Apocalypse” was stolen. The French are arguing over whether the [Bayeux Tapestry](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28565?ref=theparnassian.com) was damaged in London. An “Enigma” machine was sold at Bonhams for more than [200,000 pounds](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28685?ref=theparnassian.com). The museums of Milwaukee and St Petersburg [put a Monet at stake](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28640?ref=theparnassian.com) in a baseball wager. In 1984 in Livorno [heads by Modigliani](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28673?ref=theparnassian.com) were pulled out of a canal, one of which students had carved with an electric drill for a joke. The Mausoleum is listed as a fixed asset, and the channel wondered how [to account for Lenin himself](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28605?ref=theparnassian.com).

Heritage and the streets 🔥 In Saint Petersburg the [Miller mansion burned down](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28463?ref=theparnassian.com) on Saint Isaac's Square. Protesters [set fire to the town hall of Limoges](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28566?ref=theparnassian.com) of 1883 and [broke into the Colosseum](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28652?ref=theparnassian.com), while students [blocked the entrance](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28501?ref=theparnassian.com) to the Louvre on the side of the École du Louvre. At Hagia Sophia foreigners now [pay 25 euros](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28655?ref=theparnassian.com) and see the church only from the gallery.

Theatre, cinema and literature 🎞 Asafyev's “The Flames of Paris” was [staged for the 15th anniversary](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28519?ref=theparnassian.com) of the October Revolution. Martin McDonagh has made [Wild Horse Nine](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28547?ref=theparnassian.com) with Malkovich and Rockwell. We recalled [Bunin's Nobel speech](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28457?ref=theparnassian.com), the first émigré among the laureates. Vodolazkin burns the [plague rags](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28690?ref=theparnassian.com) in the very place where he cooks his food, and Casper in the first cartoon [reads Carnegie](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28692?ref=theparnassian.com).

Church and power 💒 The remains of Athanasius of Orlovsky were [recognised as relics](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28559?ref=theparnassian.com). The Church of England is advised to [reduce the number of dioceses](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28664?ref=theparnassian.com) to about 30\. About a quarter of Orthodox Christians in the USA [came to the faith as adults](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28477?ref=theparnassian.com). Leo XIV [voted by post](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28708?ref=theparnassian.com) in the American midterm elections. On the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi in New York [animals were blessed](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28470?ref=theparnassian.com).

Empires and memory 🏰 The Wat Tyler rising of 1381 [grew out of the plague ](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28446?ref=theparnassian.com)and the poll tax. For [dekulakisation](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28465?ref=theparnassian.com) there is still no agreed count of victims. A mural in Tomsk has raised once more the question of whether [Fyodor Kuzmich](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28497?ref=theparnassian.com) was Alexander I. Daguerre in 1838 [photographed people for the first time](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28602?ref=theparnassian.com) on the Boulevard du Temple. On 14 October 1793 the jurors of Marie Antoinette were [told](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28555?ref=theparnassian.com) that “the people's vengeance” was in their hands.

Science 👨🏼‍🔬 A model from the Weizmann Institute [reconstructs an image](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28447?ref=theparnassian.com) from your thoughts using an fMRI scan. On the steps of an ordinary apartment-block entrance, [fossils of sea lilies](https://t.me/captainpaleo/28665?ref=theparnassian.com) 350 million years old turned up 📌