Archives of previous Random Roundup updates

March 14, 2010

Mayan Mystique

Ancient Texts Present Mayans as Literary Geniuses Book elicits praise from scholars of Mayan culture throughout the world Release Date: March 5, 2010 BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Literary critics, cultural scholars and aficionados of the Mayans, the only fully literate people of the pre-Columbian Americas, have lined up to call the first fully illustrated survey of two millennia of Mayan texts assembled by award-winning scholar Dennis Tedlock, "stunning," "astounding," "groundbreaking" and "literally breathtaking.

Also very "stunning" and astounding The art of the Maya, is a reflection of their lifestyle and culture. It was an important trade merchandise.

"The Maya words tz'ib or tz'ib'al refers to painting in general, including both imagery and writing. The practitioners of these crafts, called ah tz'ibob ('they who paint'), were both master calligraphers and painters, which signed their work. The large corpus of ancient Maya painting includes portraits and names of several ah tz'ibob, depicts them at work, and presents their patron deities. The Vase rollout show below is a very distinctive class named The Holmul Dancers.

More tombs at the La Pava de Mochumí site March 4, 2010 - Five more tombs have been discovered at the La Pava de Mochumí where recently the 800 year old tomb of a shaman was found, just outside Chiclayo, the archaeology Mecca of Peru.

Maya Site Inhabitants Manufactured Weapons and Tools MEXICO CITY.- Specialists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) explore in Tenosique, Tabasco, an archaeological site of Maya affiliation dedicated exclusively to manufacture weapons and tools. San Claudio “was occupied from 200 BC to 900 AD by Maya workers at the service of other community of higher hierarchy”, informed archaeologist Jose Luis Romero Rivera, director of the excavation project at the site."

Ancient Mural Portrays Ordinary Mayans By Stéphan Reebs, Natural History Magazine: 07 March 2010 - One corner of the painted Maya pyramid structure at Calakmul, Mexico. One layer of the mural must still be excavated. Credit: Carrasco Vargas et al./PNAS

Full Size Very old artworks provide a fascinating glimpse of ancient life, but not without limitations: They typically portray the lifestyles of the rich and famous (rulers, royals, generals, and priests), abandoning the masses to the mists of history.

Add plumbing to the mysterious arts of the ancient Maya, investigators report. In a Journal of Archaeological Science study,  anthropologist Kirk French and civil engineer Christopher Duffy of Penn State report on a conduit designed to deliver pressurized water to Palenque, an urban center in southern Mexico, more than 1,400 years ago. 

Ancient Corpses Ritually Dug Up, Torn Apart, Reburied "Double burial" practiced for 4,500 years in what is now Mexico, experts say. John Roach for National Geographic News Published March 9, 2010 According to the first known evidence of "double burials," ancient people in what is now Mexico routinely dug up decomposing bodies and took off their arms, legs, and heads, then reburied the bodies, new research shows.

The tomb of a headless man adorned with jade has been discovered beneath an ancient Mexican chamber famously painted with scenes of torture. John Roach for National Geographic News - March 12, 2010 - Found under the Temple of Murals at the Maya site of Bonampak, the man was either a captive warrior who was sacrificed — perhaps one of the victims in the mural—or a relative of the city's ruler, scientists speculate (interactive map of the Maya Empire). Whoever he was, "the place of the burial tells us that the person buried there was special," said anthropologist Emiliano Gallaga Murrieta via e-mail.

Why and how did Native Americans build mounds? March 7, 2010 - "The earliest mounds seem to have functioned both as public landmarks for seasonal gatherings and platforms for villages.  Many of the shell mounds within the interior of the Southeast seem merely to have been piles of discarded freshwater mussel shells that marked the location of annual harvests and feasts.

Qin Shihuang Tomb has north gate March 08, 2010  Reporters from Xi'an Evening News learned from Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology that archaeologists exploring the Qin Tomb have discovered a north gate of the tomb's outer city, marking an important archaeological discovery. The north gate proves that the Qin Tomb has 4 gates. In addition, archaeological exploration of some Han Dynasty tombs located in the Qin Tomb site has led to the exposure of the largest solid bricks unearthed so far.

Searching for Zheng: China's Ming-Era Voyager By Ishaan Tharoor Monday, Mar. 08, 2010

Read more: "They were essentially following maritime routes that had been in use by people in the Indian Ocean for ages," says Wade. Many academics argue that the popular Arab-Persian tale of the Seven Voyages of Sinbad, littered also with snippets of Indian folklore, was derived from the real travels of Zheng He — making the mariner as much a pan-Asian protagonist as a Chinese one.

Czech archaeologists find oldest settlement in Arbil, north Iraq 8 MARCH 2010 Plzen, West Bohemia, March 5 (CTK) - An expedition of Czech archaeologists has found remains of an about 150,000-year-old prehistoric settlement in Arbil, north Iraq, which has been the so far oldest uncovered in this part of northern Mesopotamia, team head Karel Novacek told reporters Friday.

Kerala's possible Mediterranean links unearthed by researchers News Date: 9th March 2010 Did the Mediterranean region of megalithic age have any links with the state of Kerala in southern India? A wide range of megalithic burials recently discovered in some northern districts of Kerala during a research project have thrown light on possible links between the Mediterranean and Kerala coasts in the prehistoric stone age that occurred between 6000 BC and 2000 BC.

Roadworks dig finds millions of Aboriginal artefacts Updated Wed Mar 10, 2010 Archaeologists conduct a dig at the Brighton bypass in southern Tasmania. (Rob Paton) • AUDIO: Archaeologist Rob Paton talks to ABC Reporter Damien Larkins about the initial findings. (ABC News) Archaeologists say they may have found proof of the oldest and most southerly human habitation in the world at the site of a major road project in Tasmania. Archaeologists and Aboriginal heritage officers have been removing sediment from eight trenches along the Jordan River levee at the Brighton roadworks site, north of Hobart. ANCIENT TRIBAL MEETING GROUND FOUND IN AUSTRALIA The 40,000-year-old site may hold the world's southernmost traces of early human life. - Wed Mar 10, 2010 03:15 PM ET | content provided by Amy Coopes, AFP The site of the 40,000-year-old tribal meeting ground has been hailed by one archaeologist as "Tasmania's Valley of the Kings." THE GIST: • An archaeology survey conducted ahead of roadwork has found an ancient, Aboriginal meeting ground. • Up to three million artifacts were believed to be buried in the area. • Only around 470,000 of Australia's original inhabitants are still alive today.

Mummy of Egypt's monotheist pharaoh to return home Mar 11, 3:51 PM (ET) By PAUL SCHEMM (AP) A stela at the Egyptian museum in Cairo is seen Thursday, March 11, 2010 , Egypt, showing Pharaoh... CAIRO (AP) - The DNA tests that revealed how the famed boy-king Tutankhamun most likely died solved another of ancient Egypt's enduring mysteries - the fate of controversial Pharaoh Akhenaten's mummy. The discovery could help fill out the picture of a fascinating era more than 3,300 years ago when Akhenaten embarked on history's first attempt at monotheism.

Bulgaria Archaeologists, Architects Move to Save Cybele Temple Archaeology | March 12, 2010, Friday A commission of archaeologists and architects is set on securing a National Monument status for the temple of Greek goddess Cybele in Bulgaria’s Balchik. The absolutely unique Cybele temple was uncovered by accident in April 2007 at the construction site of a hotel owned by a local entrepreneur.

Pi day: Five tasty facts about the famous ratio • 12 March 2010 by Jacob Aron - Mathematics enthusiasts will this weekend be celebrating Pi day, which falls on 14 March in honour of the famous ratio's first few digits, 3.14. You probably know that pi is the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter, but here are some less familiar facts about the mathematical constant.

Sub Atomic Chess LHC to shut down for a year to address design faults By Judith Burns Science reporter, BBC News - The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) must close at the end of 2011 for up to a year to address design issues, according to an LHC director. Dr Steve Myers told BBC News the faults will delay the machine reaching its full potential for two years. The atom smasher will reach world record collision energies later this month at 7 trillion electron volts. But joints between the machine's magnets must be strengthened before higher-energy collisions can commence.

Roger Penrose: Non-stop cosmos, non-stop career • 10 March 2010 by Michael Brooks Penrose, who is 80 next birthday, is still making incursions into physics. He has just handed his publisher the manuscript for his next book, a rewrite of cosmological theory. There are those, I hesitantly suggest, who say that mathematicians would normally have ceased being this productive long ago. "Well," he says with a grin, "I can't help that, can I?"

---

The ultimatum game March 4, 2010 12:40 PM, by Jonah Lehrer... is a simple experiment with profound implications.

The game goes like this: one person (the proposer) is given ten dollars and told to share it with another person (the responder). The proposer can divide the money however they like, but if the responder rejects the offer then both players end up with nothing.

People play this game the same way all over the world, and studies have observed similar patterns of irrationality in Japan, Russia, Germany, France and Indonesia. No matter where the game was played*, people almost always made fair offers. As the economist Robert Frank notes,

"Seen through the lens of modern self-interest theory, such behavior is the human equivalent of planets traveling in square orbits."

(Irrational??! To a greedy-eyed pirate or a Chicago School bean counter maybe... Manno a manno, lopsided exchange wins no friends... )

Public Squares: a list of active partners

BREAKING NEWS!!

• Computer Labs for Kids is looking for volunteers for Dallas Saturday, March 20, 9:30AM to 12:30PM

Buckner Children and Family Services
5200 Buckner Blvd
Dallas, TX 75227 US
626-408-2390

Hello everyone, We are a 501c3 charity organization which provides a class about laptops to children in foster care. Please visit our website to see our latest project in Chicago, so you will have an idea of what we do.

Right now we are looking for 20 Volunteers Technical Assistants to help foster children one-on-one at our class on March 20th from 9:30 am to 12:30 am.

Volunteers will need to arrive at 1:30 pm and also to complete our Volunteer Training Course which can be done online. Click here to start the course.

Volunteer Technical Assistant Requirements: Basic computing skills, love for children and a desire to help them.

Thank you very much!

Shira

We enthusiatically encourage our readers to
join Shira's charity cause on Facebook

This year Shira started a foundation called Computer Labs for Kids. Shira receives donated or buys laptop computers with donations and then gives them to needy children and provides training and orientation on how to use the laptops! Wow!

Shira's first activity was to travel to Agra, India where she taught several girls who are residents of a girls' school there. This You Tube video follows their progress. You can read more about Shira's foundation work and travels at her Facebook site

---

• Hales Corners Challenge XI

Goddesschess is sponsoring prizes for chess femmes to be held on April 17, 2010 - For details

---

• Moonwalk on the Rise 15th May 2010, Hyde Park

See the Goddesschess Blog for lots more information about the upcoming Playtex Moonwalk on May 15, 2010 in London. The goal of this event is to raise funds for breast cancer research and patient assistance.

Help support our four intrepid
Showgirl Moonwalkers

Tracy French
Emily French
Lynn Goward
Hayley Brading

---

UPCOMING!

• 2010 Montreal Open Chess Championships

---

Archives of previous Access Mundae updates

Chessays

The Game of Go: (pdf) Speculations on its Origins and Symbolism in Ancient China - By Peter Shotwell © 1994-February 2008 "... just as new thinking and new evidence have turned up in recent years to help strengthen the original theses, scholarship and excavations of the multitude of China’s archeological sites that remain underground will undoubtedly influence future thought."

The Games of Chess and Backgammon in Sasanian Persia (pdf) By Touraj Daryaee California State University, Fullerton - "Board games were played in many parts of the ancient world and so it is very difficult to attribute the origin of any board game to a particular region or culture."

Chessquest

• The Montreal Open Chess Championship 2009 - A patzer's eye view of the road to and from Ahuntsic (With gathered links to postscripts on the event in French and English) by Don McLean - September 19, 2009.

Chessquest

The Daunce of Nine-Men's-Morris and the Boundaries Between Worlds by Tracy Boyd © 2004 - Well researched and written, Tracy gives us all something to sing and dance about! A stellar performance shows how the energetric pulse of a living culture courses through many tributary arteries - board games included.

Gender and Chess

• Checkmate? The Role of gender stereotypes in the ultimate intellectual sport... By Anne Mass, Claudio D"Ettole and Maria Cadinu (University of Padova, Italy) In a nutshell, when women played chess with men on the internet but they didn't know the sex of their opponent, they played consistent with their relative skill level. But when they knew they were playing a male opponent, their relative performance levels dropped 50%!

Social/socialization factors at work explain the difference in performance rather any lack of innate ability among females to play chess as well as males...

Chesstories

• Final Gambit by Karah Pino: We received this very interesting chess story for publication from Karah Pino, who stopped playing chess in 1999 after a personal trauma and subsequent realization. This is the true and well written story of her final game.

• George Koltanowski Remembered: Just who was George and what made him so special to chess? The Knight's Tours of George Koltanowski, by Frederic Friedel takes us on a brief journey back in time...

Chess Goddesses

• FILE UPDATE: The Cleveland Public Library has a collection of articles and materials on Gisela Kahn Gresser's chess career. The Gisela Kahn Gresser Collection is available for use by researchers in the John G. White Special Collections Department on the 3rd Floor of the Main Building.

Chessays

• L’Occident chrétien médiéval et les échecs. L’évolution des pièces non figuratives du 10e au début du 16e siècle. Modified for html access March 22, 2009 English-French introduction to French text - Pierre Mille offers a graphically rich and rewarding survey outlining the 10th - 16th Century evolution of non-figurative western chess pieces. Merci, Pierre!

• The Literary World of 15th Century Valencia: The Scachs d'amour Manuscript and its Three Authors by M.C. Romeo. A wonderful description of the Spanish literary circle that made modern chess what it is today.

Chessquest

• Lawrence Totaro has put together a nice pictorial essay on Salvador Dali's artistic interest in chess we are pleased to incorporate into our current library. Updated March 22: This page now hosts recent photos of the Dali Museum - St. Petersburg, Florida and some additional bits of information.

A Collection of Queens

Nitiqret (Nitocris)

 

Nitocris I (alt. Nitiqret, Nitokris I) (died 585 BC) served as the heir to and then the Divine Adoratrice of Amun or God's Wife of Amun for a period of over seventy years, between 655 BC and 585 BC.[1] She was the daughter of the Saite Dynasty 26 king Psamtik I.

By Year 7, Prince Samtutefnakht of Herakleopolis brought him the allegiance of Middle Egypt, with full control of fluvial traffic and caravan links with Nubia, Libya and the Western Oases, providing further economic opportunities. A year later, Psamtik’s diplomacy accomplished the unimaginable: the Divine Adoratrice Shepenwepet II of Thebes adopted his daughter Nitiqret (Nitocris) as her successor, thereby handing him the rest of Egypt. Psamtik had finally grown into his title King of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Salome (Shelamzion) Alexandria

(139-67 B.C.E.) was the first queen of the Hasmonean dynasty. She was the wife of Alexander Jannai and the mother of Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. After Alexander died, she inherited the title of ruler of the government.

Salome was able to make peace in the land by uniting the Pharisees with the Hasmoneans (something her husband had refused to do). Traditional oral law again became the law of the secular government. Her peace-making abilities prevented attacks from Armenia and she became a beloved ruler of the Pharisees.

Salome Alexandria retained the support of her older son, Hyrcanus II, but Aristobulus II did not agree with her diplomatic policies. Salome went so far as to allow the Judean military to use force against Aristobulus II. This, in turn, led to a civil war and the end of Salome Alexandria's peaceful reign.

While she was criticized by Josephus, she was praised in Talmudic texts as a keeper of the oral laws and a peaceful ruler.

---

Palace of Japan's warrior queen discovered Archaeologists believe they have discovered the palace of Japan's "Boadicea" – the warrior Queen Himiko. By Julian Ryall in Tokyo Published: 2:24PM GMT 11 Nov 2009 - The building covering nearly 300 square metres was located close to the city of Sakurai and the former Japanese capital of Nara, 300 miles south-west of Tokyo.

3rd-century building fuels debate over lost country BY YOSHITO WATARI AND KAZUAKI OWAKI THE ASAHI SHIMBUN 2009/11/12 - The site of a third-century building in the Makimuku ruins strengthens the theory that Yamataikoku was in Kinai. See also: Queen Himiko and the mystery of Yamatai-koku

---

Why Did Hatshepsut Stay King?

Why Didn't She Step Aside? Why Didn't Her Successor Remove Her? The female pharaoh Hatshepsut ruled for more than two decades, first as a regent for her nephew and stepson, Thutmose III, then as full Pharaoh, assuming even a male identity.

---

Women in Egypt - Menkaure and His Queen
Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe

Menkaure and His Queen
4th Dynasty - 2548-2530 BCE
Greywacke
Height: 4 feet 67/8 inches (139.5 cm)
(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

(From p. 3) "The queen represented in the statue, therefore, was no mere wife. Her position and gestures should be interpreted not as indicating inferiority and submission, but signalling her legitimization of Menkaure as pharaoh. She is shown in the act of presenting him, indicating to the world that he is the man whom she is identifying and establishing as pharaoh."

---

Female "King" Ruled in Canaan,
Carving Suggests

Ker Than for National Geographic News April 10, 2009 - The home of a mysterious female "king" in Canaan, the land that became ancient Israel, may finally have been identified.

---

" No one should gather wisdom in a bag, put it in a box, and then stand on a road and say, “Teach me wisdom!” - African Senufo tribal saying

“ 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

" Remind me again he said, how the little horse shaped one moves." - Terry Pratchett

" Chess predates the universe, as I recall. It was the reason life arose."

"Chess is the greatest game ever invented, because it only looks like a game." - Scott Kerns

 

Search www Search goddesschess.com