Goddesschess Random Roundup

Archeoastronomy - The home page - cum blog of Alan Salut - a PHd candidate involved in finishing up his thesis on ancient astronomy and Greek colonisation. Lots of good links and insights about this relatively new field of study.

Are the stars out tonight?
I don't know if it's cloudy or bright
I Only Have Eyes For You, Dear.

More archeoastronomy - from Cloudbait Observatory, located under the dark skies of the central Colorado Rocky Mountains. A personal site from Chris L. Peterson that is worth exploring in its entirety.

The moon maybe high
but I can't see a thing in the sky,
'Cause I Only Have Eyes For You.

"Origins and Meanings of the Eight-Point Star"
"The shape that most clearly represents Morocco in my mind’s eye is the eight-point star. It is a simple shape made by overlapping two squares..." As we know there are other places perhaps more ancient that found this star quite important. Even so, this personal site offers a colourful tour of Moroccan culture.

I don't know if we're in a garden,
or on a crowded avenue.

The oldest solar observatory in the Americas has been found, suggesting the existence of early, sophisticated Sun cults, scientists report. It comprises a group of 2,300-year-old structures, known as the Thirteen Towers, which are found in the Chankillo archaeological site, Peru.

You are here
So am I
Maybe millions of people go by,
but they all disappear from view.

China finds ancient observatory: Archaeologists in northern China have reportedly found one of the world's oldest observatories.The remains, discovered near the city of Linfen in Shanxi province, are thought to be about 4,100 years old.

And I Only Have Eyes For You.

EXTRA!

Jan Xena, goddesschesses' very own warrior-goddess-reporter extraordinaire locks into the red transporter room at Piccadilly Circus and emerges on the other side of the known chess world!

EEEK! Does her recent visit with the distinguished court of Zenobia, "Empress of the East" suggest a hidden plot for universal conquest by these two powerful chess femmes?!! OR shall we take this Sassanian Origin for the Game of Chess as just an empty handed threat? My personal experience and the research of Dr. Ricardo Calvo say we should prepare for the unexpected!

March 23, 2008

And so begins this week's reconstructive adventure into the ancient art and science of tattoo...

"The reconstruction of ancient games is a very complicated subject where archaeological evidence, literary sources in Greek and Latin, and knowledge of general mechanisms of board games must be combined." - Ulrich Schadler Board Game Studies

(click image)

The Unique History of Chess Pieces Chess pieces are not only the rank-and-file of a chess game, but they are also the heart and soul of the chess game experience.

For more examples of incised markings, see Anna Contadini's collection of Islamic chess pieces.

Tattoos The Ancient and Mysterious History By Cate Lineberry- Smithsonian.com, January 01, 2007 Humans have marked their bodies with tattoos for thousands of years. These permanent designs - sometimes plain, sometimes elaborate, always personal - have served as amulets, status symbols, declarations of love, signs of religious beliefs, adornments and even forms of punishment.

Ancient Egypt - the Light of the World by Gerald Massey Book 2 of 12 - Totemism, Tattoo and Fetishism as Forms of Sign Language

Tattoo History - A Brief History of Tattoos and Body Art Being one with the group or for standing out, the tattoo has always been a good bet. Here is a brief history of tattoos.

From red Hot Pawn: "I have several tattoos; one of which is really large, and I'd like to get a chess tattoo on my ribs. Let me dig up the image I've in mind."

From Edinburgh "I've always wanted a chess tattoo. So when I found out there was a new Tattooist at the West Port I went along to fulfill my dream."

More tattoo amusement from Susan Polgar's Blog.

Tattoo removal with Dr. Chess (!!) simply traces the laser light over the tattoo to begin the fading process. The lasers do not burn or cut the skin in any way. The skin remains intact, except for an occasional blister

Tattoo You or Tattoo Me?

(click image)

March 16, 2008

Out of Africa, Not Once But Twice - Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News March 14, 2008 -- Modern humans are known to have left Africa in a wave of migration around 50,000 years ago, but another, smaller group -- possibly a different subspecies -- left the continent 50,000 years earlier, suggests a new study.

Wine-carrying ship dates back 2,300 years The vessel, dating from the late Classical period (mid-fourth century B.C.) is one of only a few such ships to have been found so well-preserved, said University of Cyprus visiting marine archaeologist Stella Demesticha

Baltic yields 'perfect' shipwreck: A near-intact shipwreck apparently dating from the 17th century has been found in the Baltic Sea, Swedish television has said.

Did more frequent El Ninos 5,000 years ago drive early Peruvian hunter-gatherers from the coasts to the dry valleys of Norte Chico, forming the foundation for all subsequent Andean civilizations? Along the coast of Peru, a mysterious civilization sprang up about 5,000 years ago. This was many centuries before the Incan Empire. Yet these people were sophisticated.

Satellites spot lost Guatemala Mayan temples: GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Ancient Mayan astronomers aligned their soaring temples with the stars and now modern archeologists have found the ruins of hidden cities in the Guatemalan jungle by peering down from space.

Mayan Warfare FROM BLOG: Song of the Open Road - I am on a continuous vagabond journey around the world. Tips on how to travel the world on the cheap as well as yarns of the Open Road

The Geometry of Music

When you first hear them, a Gregorian chant, a Debussy prelude and a John Coltrane improvisation might seem to have almost nothing in common--except that they all include chord progressions and something you could plausibly call a melody. But music theorists have long known that there's something else that ties these disparate musical forms together.

http://music.princeton.edu/~dmitri/

Geometry, Music and Healing by Ani Williams

March 9, 2008

"It's in the cards!"
"No! It's the dice, stupid!"
They seek here, there and everywhere...

Why dice, cards and chess?
Let's ask the old man...

Stuart Culin's publications are a major source for anyone intersted in the ethnogrophy of games. Consequently, this page includes detailed biographical information about Culin with an annotated bibliography of his many publications.

Culin's work includes: "Comprehensive exploration of chess, playing cards, and other table and board games as played in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America. Some content deals with similarity of North American Indian games and the games played in Europe and Asia.

Trionfi is the earlier name of Tarot cards, and that's, what this site is dedicated to. "We want to present material useful for the research of the oldest Tarot cards, and, of course, also to the question, where these objects come from and how they developed."

Sound familiar? If not - try this site instead! LOL!

The history of playing cards in Europe commences around 1370-1380. Out of an apparent void, a constellation of references in early literature emerge pointing to the sudden arrival of playing cards, principally in Belgium, Germany, Spain and Italy. Of course dice and certain board games were already long-established, and so playing cards were probably a new and novel addition to the repertoire of gambling pastimes.

Various contradicting suggestions have been given to explain the original meaning of the word Tarot. They range from old Egyptian origin to a cardmaker from the French village Taraux who may have produced the original Tarot cards. The true remains an enigma.

Other Chinese playing-cards (which they themselves regard as gambling cards) use systems rooted in dominoes and Chinese chess- and Rummy-type games which were not known in Europe until relatively recently.

Alf Cooke was an important producer of playing cards and card games in the UK during the period 1920-1970. The company had been founded in 1866 by Alf Cooke, in Leeds, as a general printer. Playing cards were first produced under the name of 'British Playing Cards' during the years 1920-25 with a variety of unusual court card designs. The name was changed to 'Universal Playing Card Company Limited' in 1925.

Rounding up a handful of random quotes

Iacta alea est. - The die is cast.
Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon

The dice of Zeus fall ever luckily.
Sophocles

The best throw of the dice is to throw them away.
Advice from an old English proverb

Whose game was empires and whose stakes were thrones.
Whose table earth, whose dice were human bones.
Lord Byron

I cannot believe God plays dice with the universe.
Albert Einstein

Not only does God play dice with the universe, He's using loaded dice.
John Ford

Not only does God play dice, He throws them where we cannot see them.
Steven Hawkings

Triumph depends on a roll of Fate's dice; the ultimate prize is a place in Heaven.
Friedrich Nietsche

March 2, 2008

SPRING FASHION - PREVIEW EDITION
Windows on ancient "appearances"
- Traditional attacks on Eros and Justice -
or
Going in and out of style - with a royal bang

Women in Ancient Egypt by Caroline Seawright (whom we admire for her excellent articles on AE) "In the ancient world, Egypt stood out as a land where women were treated differently... women were much more free than their counterparts in other lands... though they were not equal with men, both men and women in Egypt accepted that everyone had their roles in ma'at (the natural order of the universe)... and that the roles of men and women were different."

Jezebel Special at Biblical Archaeology Review: Fit for a Queen - Jezebel's Royal Seal; How Bad was Jezebel?; First Lady Jezebel.

Erich Lessing: Looking out the window. Archaeologists have unearthed dozens of small ivories depicting women gazing out small, square windows. Beneath the face is a row of elaborate columns; the windows have several recessed frames. This ivory comes from Arslan Tash, in northern Syria; a less well-preserved example was discovered in Samaria (see photo of ivory from Samaria), the capital city of Ahab and Jezebel. More than 500 ivory fragments were found in Samaria, and although it is tempting to identify them with the pagan cult materials that Jezebel introduced into Ahab’s court, the dating of the ivories is uncertain. Some ascribe them to the ninth century B.C.E., when Ahab ruled, others to the eighth.

The most common motif found on Phoenician ivories, the woman at the window may represent the goddess Astarte (biblical Asherah) looking out a palace window. Perhaps this widespread imagery influenced the biblical author’s description of Jezebel, a follower of Astarte, looking out the palace window as Jehu approached (2 Kings 9:30)

Looks like poor Jezebel might have received better justice in Egypt and Phoenicia... But, that might not have always been the golden rule...

The small house shrine published here for the first time provides significant support for the contention that the Israelite God, Yahweh, did indeed have a consort. At least this was true in the minds of many ordinary ancient Israelites, in contrast to the priestly elite.

In what I call folk religion, or “popular religion,” Yahweh’s consort is best identified as “Asherah,” the old Canaanite mother goddess. From "A Temple Built for Two: Did Yahweh Share a Throne with His Consort Asherah?" by William G. Dever. At Goddesschess we ask "did Asherah share a throne with her consort Yahweh?"

Oh those sexy Viking women - outfits banned by the early Church! Pssst - did they really wear blouses underneath those open-front dresses?

Dress for success and a game of chess!

Imagine what this overdress would have looked like on the queen or princess who wore it, 4,500 years ago...

Bead-net dress
Egypt, Qau, tomb 978, dynasty 5, 2494-2345 B.C.E.
Faience with modern string
Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London.
Photo by Mary Hinkley

This is just one of the treasures on exhibit right now (through June 8, 2008) at the Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina (USA), on loan from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London. More images online here...