July 6, 2008
The Deterioration and Destruction of Ancient Sites:
“Decay is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence.” (Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, 563-483 B.C.)
• Pompeii in Ruins! The Italian government has declared a state of emergency at the Pompeii archaeological site to try to rescue one of the world's most important cultural treasures from decades of neglect. Archaeologists and art historians have long complained about the poor upkeep of Pompeii, dogged by lack of investment, mismanagement, litter and looting. Bogus tour guides, illegal parking attendants and stray dogs also plague visitors.
• Greek theatres threatened by chewing gum and high heels! Chewing gum, high heels, booming amplifiers and other modern plagues are seriously damaging Greece’s 2,500-year-old outdoor theatres and should be banned, according to the country’s powerful archaeological establishment.
• More on Greece: Greek Ruins in Ruins! Extra staff have been dispatched to guard the great cultural gems of Greece as the government in Athens tries to deflect growing criticism of its handling of national treasures. Amid unprecedented protests from tour guides, travel companies and tourists irritated by conditions at prime archaeological sites, the ruling conservatives last week rushed hundreds of additional personnel to staff museums and open-air antiquities. "The situation at museums and sites around the country is bad," the culture minister, Michalis Liapis, conceded in parliament last week. "It has to be corrected."
• Are archaeologists complicit in the destruction of local heritage? That's the charge leveled in the continuing controversy surrounding the route of the M3 motorway near Tara Hill in Ireland.
• Oh Mummy! A 2,278 year old mummy of an Egyptian priestess is falling apart for lack of proper care in a Jaipur, India museum.
• Archaeologists are in a race against time as global warming and increasingly sophisticated looters destroy Scythian burial mounds.
• Microbes Destroying Ancient Ruins: In various places around the globe, from Ankor Wat to Easter Island to the Acropolis, microscopic organisms are accelerating the deterioration of monuments and historic landmarks. Scientists and conservators have only recently begun to understand the role that common bacteria and fungi play in destroying cultural sites and how — if at all — they can be stopped. This growing recognition is inspiring new techniques to combat microbial damage.
Rare amber gaming pieces
... dating to the time of the Vikings have been put on permanent display in a Swedish museum after being excavated by a team led by the University of Chester’s Dr Howard Williams. Working in partnership with archaeologist, Dr Martin Rundkvist, Dr Williams and the dig team excavated a boat-grave dating back to the 9th century AD at Skamby in Ostergotland, in South Sweden.
More on the excavation: Just SW of the mid-ship was a cluster of 23 well-preserved amber gaming pieces, some located on top of collapsed stones. The gaming set had thus probably originally been placed on top of the grave’s roof. Beneath the gaming piece cluster, a group of iron rivets and nails was found on the bottom of the cut. They may represent a box or a game board, although they formed no observable pattern and there was no sign of the L-shaped mounts typical for Viking Period game boards. Small curved fragments of iron rods here may be from rivets, nails or a simple strap buckle. A little spherical stone was also found here.
See also Antiquity article (2005) for general information.
June 29, 2008
Migration Theories:
• Evidence from the archaeological site in southern Chile confirms Monte Verde is the Americas earliest known settlement and is consistent with the idea that early human migration occurred along the Pacific Coast more than 14,000 years ago, but questions remain about just how rapidly that migration occurred.
• But, some evidence suggests man was already in Alaska 40,000 years ago: Jacques Cinq-Mars, a renowned archeologist living in Longueuil, is heading to Beringia - a vast territory that once spanned the Yukon, Alaska and Siberia - in hopes of resolving a controversy he unleashed nearly 20 years ago
• Did Humans Colonize the World by Boat? Research suggests our ancestors traveled the oceans 70,000 years ago.
• New research analyzing mitochondrial DNA reveals that the "Out of Taiwan" theory of populating the islands of Southeast Asia is wrong!
• A dinosaur bone discovered in Australia has defied prevailing wisdom about how the world's continents separated from a super-continent millions of years ago (or perhaps the prevailing theories about evolution is wrong, although current science won't admit it...)
• For the past 10 years, University of South Carolina archaeologist Dr. Albert Goodyear has been digging up artifacts that indicate humans lived here 37,000 years before the Clovis people arrived. His is a controversial theory he tries to prove each time he dusts off a rock or stone tool fragment.
Navigation/Ancient Trade:
• Sailing Round the Dark Continent: British sailor Philip Beale aims to rewrite a bit of African history by sailing round the continent in a boat built with the same materials he believes the Phoenicians used 2,500 years ago to make the same trip, when it was originally underwritten by Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt in 600 BCE.
• 6000-Year-Old Trade Link Between Clare & Cumbria Identified: Clare Museum and the Irish Stone Axe Project (ISAP) at University College Dublin have uncovered evidence of a 6000-year-old trade link between Ireland and Great Britain. (This doesn't seem extraordinary; there is evidence of ancient trade between cultures all around the world, including Egyptian maceheads dated to about 3500 BCE excavated in northwestern China in 2001).
• L'Anse aux Meadows (Newfoundland) likely represents the first European contact with the New World, more than 1,000 years ago and 500 years before Columbus
• Myth of a "Pure" Race: A team of forensic scientists at the University of Copenhagen that studied human remains found in two ancient Danish burial grounds dating back to the Iron Age discovered a man who appears to be of Arabian origin. The findings suggest that human beings were as genetically diverse 2000 years ago as they are today and indicate greater mobility among iron age populations than was previously thought. The findings also suggest that people in the Danish iron age did not live and die in small, isolated villages but, on the contrary, were in constant contact with the wider world.
Astronomers look skyward to track Odysseus
• Homer's ancient Ithaca may not be Ithaki
• Homer's Ithaca located
NEW YORK, June 24 (UPI) -- Astronomers from North and South America completed their odyssey determining when Odysseus slew his wife's suitors after returning home from the Trojan War.
June 22, 2008
The Devil, you say?
More than a mouthful... on memes, tropes, cultural bias, perception, automata, chess symbolism, the "inevitability" of good and evil and how culture often portrays the idea of "evil" through denegrating stereotypes that affect our navigation of the world in general.
A meme is:
• An idea that, like a gene, can replicate and evolve.
• A unit of cultural information that represents a basic idea that can be transferred from one individual to another, and subjected to mutation, crossover and adaptation.
• A cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one generation to another by nongenetic means (as by imitation); "memes are the cultural counterpart of genes".
The term and concept of meme is from the 1976 book by Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene. Though Dawkins defined the meme as "a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation," memeticists vary in their definitions of meme.
Tropes are: ... (Merriam Webster Dictionary)
Function as a noun and derive in etymology from the Latin tropus, from Greek tropos turn, way, manner, style, trope, from trepein to turn
1 a: a word or expression used in a figurative sense : figure of speech b: a common or overused theme or device : cliché (the usual horror movie tropes)
2: a phrase or verse added as an embellishment or interpolation to the sung parts of the Mass in the Middle Ages
Conspicuous Chess Tales and Allegories
(ed. note: The Devil personified as female shows a common medieval presumption that also carries over into Renaissance chess literature. This trend appears in Lucena's world via Roja's "La Celestina" (see also "Lucena an Escape into Chess" - pdf - by Dr. Ricardo Calvo and Runoko Rashisdi's outlook on the "Black Oppressor" - listed below...)
Paulo Boi and the Devil
This is a loose translation of a story which appeared in Les Cahiers de l'Echiquier Français (november-december 1936). Story, problem and drawing are by V. Barthe
Paul Morphy and the Devil "If chess was a religion, Morphy would be God." Chopin. A vignette describing Morphy's superhuman abilities appears in this religious reflection. "When the Devil Gets Kicked out of Heaven for Good " - Revelation 12:7-17
A Guide to Invernesshire's Mysterious Sites
Ruthven Barracks "The castle that once stood on the site of the barracks, was said to be haunted by its notorious lord, who was trapped in limbo playing cards with the Devil."
Conspicuous Humour
A local goddesschess event - In which the wrath of a ruthless goddess takes hold of Harold J. Ruthven Murray and puts him in his place... eternally...
The Devil's Dictionary of Chess
Kurt Godden's blog is inspired by Ambrose Bierce’s 1911 book The Devil’s Dictionary.
Conspicuous Philosophy
ed note: Chess provides a "memetic" structure around which eternal controversies take up formal position, However, seldom is the morality involved entirely "innocent" of cultural biases.)
Damned Chessmen
The Damned Chessmen are netherworld-crafted chess pieces which appear in Devil May Cry 3. They move of their own accord, and whether the game of chess is based on these demons, or vice versa, is said to be unknown.
A.D. 1250 Mabinogion, Welsh epic, attains written form. Chess mentioned.
Chess in any language "I find it fascinating that each language has a unique word for "Chess" and also the Welsh word "Gwyddbwyll" is important because I think there is a myth associated with it. Anyone familar with it?"
The Mabinogion was a collection of eleven (twelve) tales from the Welsh myths. The tales of the Mabinogion were preserved in two manuscripts, White Book of Rhydderch (c. 1325) and the Red Book of Hergest (c. 1400).
Arthur and Owain Playing Gwyddbwyll
Alan Lee - Illustration, 1984
Peredur and the Black Oppressor
The African Presence in Welsh Tradition - Tales from the Mabinogion by Runoko Rashisdi "My name is the Black Oppressor, and I am called that becasue I never left anyone round me without doing him violence, nor did I ever grant compensation." --The Mabinogion
The Chess Artist The true story of J.C. Hallman's friendship with Umstead wanders from interviews with chess-playing murderers to encounters with Nobel Prize-winning scholars to speed chess matches with Mongoliian girl champions and finally to the office-cum-throne room of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov...
Conspicuous Dreams - memes while we sleep?
Dreams
Chess Devil - Dreamed 1997/8/5 by Chris Wayan
http://www.worlddreambank.org/2/2GAME.HTM
The World Dream Bank: GAMES
Dreams of games, including chess, go, tag, puzzles, and cards, plus some strange dream games harder to name. The World Dream Bank has 1500 dreams and dream images plus 500 other pages on dreamwork and shamanism, creativity, genius, art, surrealism and fantasy. Unless otherwise noted, all material copyright Chris Wayan, 2001-2006.
Conspicuous Religious References
In the beginning was the board...
...and the board was empty and monochromatic. Then God created the pieces – the pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, queens and kings. And He saw that the game was somewhat gross, but still it was good. And then He played a first game against the One Whose Name Should Not Be Uttered. Alex Shternshain has annotated it.
New Oxford Journal (pdf files) Articles require regisitration and purchase fees. Chess and the Devil Notes and Queries, 1897; s8-XII: 354. ......University Press reply REPLIES CHESS AND THE DEVIL R. R. Boston, Lincolnshire...fashion upside down. T. WILSON. Harpenden. CHESS AND THE DEVIL (8th S. xii. 207, 251...story referred to in the Philidorian, a chess periodical of the early part of this century......
God, Mankind, the Devil and the classic chess game.
"In the old books, they say God and the devil used to be good friends. Some even go as so far to call the devil God's favorite. It goes on to say that God and the devil used to play many games."
The Devil is a Logician
(A Homily for First Sunday of Lent)
Bottom line: Satan uses logic to tempt Jesus - and us. (ed. note: No doubt Richard Dawkins would be very critical of this "logical" assumption.)
Conspicuous Reseach and Attempted Correctives
The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil from the Earliest Times to the Present Day by Paul Carus - (ed. note: It appears as though some historical conjuring tricks were performed over a long stretch of time...)
The Devil and the Pathology of History by Aaron Ross - "Throughout history, humanity has been faced with the problem of evil."
Chess With Death
Death and the Knight, from Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal.
"The opponent looked long and hard at the board. The abbot waited to see what long-term, devious strategies were being evolved. Then his opponent tapped a piece with a bony finger."
More:
As the Devil Commands (1933)
Mae Clarke, Neil Hamilton, and Alan Dinehart
Chess in the Movies
The award for best supporting game goes to...
Movies wih Chess Scenes by Bill Wall
(Note: a more thorough list can be found in the book Chess in the Movies by Bob Basalla
June 15, 2008
Digging the dig...
• Royal Burials in Iran: The female burials discovered at Ramhormoz (southern Iran) in May, 2007 are being examined by a team of archaeologists who think the girl and woman were most likely members of an Elamite royal family. A golden armlet with floral motifs, two golden bracelets bearing deer-head patterns at each end, some ornamental stones with floral decorations, 155 golden buttons of various sizes, several statuettes of goddesses, a golden necklace, golden plaques with floral motifs, 99 golden necklace beads, 23 golden necklace pendants of various sizes, three marble stone dishes, earthenware and bronze dishes, several bronze bracelets, a fish-shaped goddess ornament, and a number of other artifacts have been discovered at the site. More coverage with two photographs.
• A fresh analysis of a 5,000 year old mass grave excavated in Germany reveals a mystery: "Our analysis points to the local women being regarded as somehow special and were therefore kept alive." Were the women captured simply for "companionship," as the story asserts? Or was there something more going on?
• Ancient Greek Burial: A 2,300-year old grave containing a female skeleton, accompanied by four gold wreaths and gold earrings in the shape of dogs' heads set with semiprecious stones was uncovered during subway construction in Thessaloniki. More coverage with photographs
• Alexander the Great's "Crown," Shield Discovered? A re-examination of the original excavation done in 1977 yields surprising new findings.
• Honoring the Dead: Three Bronze Age round barrows excavated at Cossington, Leicestershire reflect Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman and Anglo Saxon times, showing how the three barrows were used in repeated ceremonies to honour the dead. They offer the first definite example of an Anglo Saxon cemetery sited on an earlier monument to be found in Leicestershire. Silliest quote in the story: “The re-use of the barrow by Iron Age, Roman and Anglo Saxon people is very interesting. These people could not have had any knowledge of the original use and meaning attached to the monument – but it survived as a prominent landmark in a fairly flat landscape and became the focus for settlement in these periods." Really? How arrogant to assume that the people who inhabited the area had no history and traditions passed down orally from generation to generation...
• Older than Caral: Is Bandurria in Peru the mother of all ancient American civilization?
Guardians of Antiquity?
James Cuno, president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago, posits in his new book Who Owns Antiquity? (Princeton University Press, $24.95) that the UNESCO treaty and laws enacted around the world aimed at applying its principles have done nothing to stop looting and have succeeded only in inhibiting the global movement of art. UNESCO, he argues, has impoverished our understanding of one another and contributed to a stale, narrowly nationalistic view of culture.
More specifically, these laws have prevented museums like his from acquiring antiquities as they have in the past. He calls them "nationalist retentionist cultural property laws," and views them as one outcome of what he sees as the chauvinistic nationalism that has infected governments and led to the suppression of minorities and even ethnic cleansing.
“It is right to teach young people that chess is not a game of war, but is a beautiful game.”
(Russian Chess Grandmaster - Yuri Averbakh)
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Updated
items: July 16, 2008