Welcome

Chesstories

2007

October 28, 2007

New discoveries are pushing back the date for the invention of agriculture in the Americas. This article was recently published indicating that maize farming on the Gulf Coast of Mexico first occurred about 5300 BCE, some 1,700 years earlier than scholars previously thought. Now comes news of evidence of agriculture more than 10,200 years ago in northern Peru, about the same time as it developed in the Middle East.

Bryn Mawr is featuring a special exhibition "Breaking Ground, Breaking Tradition: Bryn Mawr and the First Generations of Women Archaeologists" devoted to the first generation of women archaeologists who graduated in the 1920's and 1930's. The exhibition will run from September 25 through December 21 in the Class of 1912 Rare Book Room in Mariam Coffin Canaday Library. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, except for Fall Break and Thanksgiving weekends.

Modern atomic physics is being used to study the pigments used by the ancient Egyptians on their tomb and building frescoes.

What is up with these similarities in certain aspects of the ancient Egyptian and Aztec cultures?

Tourists are being turned on by the "vine of souls" in Peru, while in The Netherlands plans are afoot to ban the sale of "magic mushrooms." Perhaps the Dutch should set up centers run by native shamans to teach the true use of and meaning behind psychotropic vegetation...

Donald Angus MacLean, Isle of Skye, was instrumental in the production of a new film by Toronto poet and first-time producer Alison McAlpine that records ancient stories of the "second sight," passed down from generation to generation, long before the time of radio and television. Hmmmm...is this a kinsman to our own Donald Alexander McLean?

Experts are studying a carved stone recently uncovered on Whitby Abbey Headland in North Yorkshire to see if it represents the first Bronze Age artefact from the site. The article contains a nice photograph of the Fylingdales rock, discovered after a fire on the moors in 2003 with its intricate diamond hatched carving (middle of article), along with a close-up photograph of some of the markings on the Whitby stone (near the end of the article). More on the Whitby stone. More on the Fylingdales rock.

October 21, 2007

Special Announcement

One of our up-and-coming young American players, Ray Robson (13 years old), rated 2396, is trying to raise money to travel to Turkey in mid-November to play in the World Youth Chess Championship. The United States Chess Federation is contributing $800 toward his costs, and the Florida Chess Association $300. The cost of the trip is about $5,000.

The Clermont Chess Club, Clermont, FL, is holding a simul THIS SATURDAY, October 20th, in which Ray will play against all who make a donation (suggested donation is $20). Donations by check or money order can also be made to Gary Robson (Ray's dad), and sent to Paul Leggett, 14840 Windy Mount Circle, Clermont, FL 34711.

The Chess Goddess will smile kindly upon all donations!

Excavation in the Negev of an Iron Age Phillistine agricultural village leads to the discovery of late Bronze Age settlement - but whose? This article says it's Egyptian.

A number of rare and invaluable medical and astronomical manuscripts have been rediscovered in the "forgotten archives" at the National Library of Egypt. Well - duh!

One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure - so the old saying goes, and so it's proven to be - in archaeology. It's rather lowering to think that thousands of years from now archaeologists will find our landfills the most interesting thing about us...

China's Antiquities in Danger of Extinction from Massive Water Project. China might take a lesson from Egypt. When the Aswan Dam was under construction, Egypt sent out a world-wide call for help in excavating and moving precious, irreplaceable antiquities and the whole world rallied to the cause.

Publish or perish? In the U. S., where research is a $55-billion-a-year enterprise that stakes its credibility on the reliability of evidence, the work of Dr. Ioannidis strikes a raw nerve. In fact, his 2005 essay "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False" remains the most downloaded technical paper that the journal PLoS Medicine has ever published - from "Most Science Studies Appear to be Tainted by Sloppy Analysis", Wall Street Journal Online Science Journal.

Possibly the world's oldest discovered wall painting

was unearthed recently in northern Syria. Dating back to 9,000 BCE, it contains a distinct checkerboard pattern. The 2 square-meter painting, in red, black and white, was found at the Neolithic settlement of Djade al-Mughara on the Euphrates, northeast of the city of Aleppo. A second wall painting next to this one will be uncovered next year. The house in which the wall painting is located may have been used as a communal house. The purpose of the painting is unknown. At some point the settlement was abandoned and the communal house was "stuffed" with mud, according to the excavation director.

October 7, 2007

Gold the Spanish Didn't Find
The University of Pennsylvania Museum hosts a fabulous exhibit between September 23 - December 16, 2007 of pre-Columbia gold artifacts discovered at Sitio Conte in Panama in the 1930's.

Rosslyn Chapel is interesting in it's own right and that was before it was popularized in "The Da Vinci Code." All those theories about the symbolism of Rosslyn Chapel have been given a new lease on life because of Dan Brown! Here's another theory about a section of the ceiling at RC that is supposed to be quite significant - and it also ties into theories about the significance of "23 1/2 degrees." Zecharia Sitchin is mentioned too - he used to be talked about a lot in the "old days" when Art Bell ruled the late night AM radio waves. Ah, nostalgia! We have a soft spot for Art because it was at his old website that many of the Goddesschess folks first met.

Possible "Shivling" discovered in Guwahati, India
When three labourers tried to destroy the pillar last week as a new hospital building is due to be constructed at the spot, they suddenly took ill, the hospital sources said. Another labourer claimed that he had a dream in which a person told him not to destroy the pillar and that many snakes resided at its bottom...

From the above article - A commercial site, but fun to browse nonetheless. Crystals and geodes and spheres - Oh My!

Meanwhile - back in the Renaissance... a site with lots of information about the wonderful world of Europe's cultural flowering and chess. Nice page, batgirl!

Let there be light! Now we can play chess in the dark. Light is provided by four LEDs situated in the corners of the board.

Did Templars refugees carve the Kensington Runestone? A geologist thinks so...

(click to enlarge)

More on the Templars

-- An intriguing interview with Oddvar Olsen about the Knights Templar

-- Ian Sinclair, Grand Prior of the Scottish Knight Templars and The International Order of Gnostic Templars will give a presentation on - (you guessed it!) the Knights Templar in Sedona, Arizona