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WHAT'S NEW?
Random Roundup Archives
A clearinghouse of Random Roundup files
SEPTEMBER 2010 |
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September 26, 2010
Double Dip Puzzle Edition
Dreaming and redrawing the universe
Do it Yourself Games - and more! Alphonsine Chess : : A Goddesschess historical guide for the perplexed craftsperson... This page was inspired by recent correspondence with Rev. Craig L. Cowing of Newport, New Hampshire. With help from his wife, Mr. Cowing's reconstruction of the Alphonsine chessmen and period costumes of the age offers a nice example of how everyday people respond energetically to games in general and the culture of chess in particular. The total cost for the board game project was around $30.
MYSTERY PUZZLE SOLVED?
The Chinese puzzle ball could generally be categorized as a good luck charm because it is decorated with symbolic figures and it is the shape of the eternal circle. The multi-layered sphere, which is an exquisite example of carving craftsmanship dating back to ancient China, is also sometimes called, and rightfully so, a “mystery ball.”
2,500 year old chess pieces found in tomb - September 21st, 2010 (a red letter day) Beijing, Sept. 20: Chess pieces dating back 2,500 years have been found in a tomb in China’s Hebei province.
Ten chess pieces were found next to a skeleton in a Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-24 A.D.) tomb in Pingshan county, said Mr Fan Shuhai, a researcher with Hebei provincial institute of archaeology.
The pieces were part of the original version of the game, popular in China at least 2,500 years ago. They were made of animal bones and were piled one on top of another, Xinhua reported. Earlier, several chess boards have been discovered in China, but chess pieces are very rarely found, said Mr Fan. The earliest form the game, known as chaturanga originated in India during the Gupa empire (600 BC). ED NOTE: Someone needs do do a little BASIC fact checking here... It is the GUPTA Empire - present between 320-550 CE.
However, some chinese scholars claim Chess existed first in China since 200BC. Historian, Mr David H. Li, says general Han Xin drew on the earlier game of Liubo to develop an early form of Chinese chess in the winter of 204–203 BC. — IANS
In his book "The Genealogy of Chess" (which won the 'Book of the Year' 1998 award from the editors of GAMES Magazine), David Li surveys evidence regarding the origins of chess and concludes that an early version of chess called Xiangqi was invented in China in 203 BC, by General Han Xin, who supposedly drew on the earlier game Liubo as well as on the teachings of The Art of War.
For a serious and updated reading about Xiangqi history: Andrew Lo and Tzi-Cheng Wang, "The Earthworms Tame the Dragon": The Game of Xiangqi" in Asian Games, The Art of Contest, edited by Asia Society, 2004.
SOUR GRAPES?
A story well told is not necessarily true - being a critical assessment of David H. Li's "The Genealogy of Chess" by Peter Banaschak - "Very recently Professor David H. Li published his monograph "The Genealogy of Chess" with Premier Publishing of Bethesda (Maryland)(ISBN 0-9637852-2-2). When I first heard about him working on a book-size history of Chinese Chess (Xiangqi) and the connection of this game to other chess-games including the Persian variant which evolved into the "international" chess of our time I was very intrigued. So naturally I was quite excited when finally I held his book in my hands.
THE OPEN QUESTION
CHESS IN THE WILD! Warning issued after chipmunks sighted WILDLIFE EXPERTS have issued an “invasive species alert” following sightings of Siberian chipmunks on the loose in Co Waterford. The striped rodents, native to northern Asia, are regarded as a “significant threat” to the survival of the Irish red squirrel, which is already imperilled by the grey squirrel.
WILLIAM HAS IT RIGHT!
I was sitting on the couch and I hear Will call me from the stairs, "Dad, I have the chess game set up!". So I go and find him on the landing with this.....
Fish trap may be Mesolithic find A COMPLEX series of weirs and dams to trap rare fish on Connemara’s Errislannan peninsula may date back to the Mesolithic period, according to the archaeologist who made the discovery.
Significantly, one local resident is still making and using traps for the weir and dam system, modelled on pre-Christian design, archaeologist Michael Gibbons said. John Folan said he was unaware of the historical importance of the equipment, the coastal system, or the fish species, until contacted by Mr Gibbons.
Mysterious desert lines were animal traps ("KITES") Mysterious lines on the deserts of the Near East are massive ancient hunting tools, made up of low stone walls. British RAF pilots in the early 20th century were the first to spot the strange kite-like lines on the deserts of Israel, Jordan and Egypt from the air and wonder about their origins.
The lines are low, stone walls, usually found as angled pairs, that begin far apart and converge at circular pits. In some places in Jordan the lines formed chains up to 40 miles long.
Long-Sought Viking Settlement Found by Sean Duke - Sept. 22 2010 - The Vikings, the famed Scandinavian warriors, started raiding Ireland in 795 and plundered it for decades, before establishing two Irish outposts, according to the Annals of Ulster, a 15th century account of medieval Ireland. One outpost, Dúbh Linn, became Dublin, the other, Linn Duchaill, was lost in time. Perhaps until now.
Marauding Vikings' ale packs a real punch Thursday, 23 September 2010 - A team of archaeologists has recreated the heather ale drunk by marauding Vikings to boost their ferocity in battle.
Before & After: Wine-Cult Cave Art Restored in Petra Revealed to the public in late August, the once sooty, 2,000-year-old face of a winged child now stares brightly from an ancient work of cave art—one of several that have recently been restored near Petra, Jordan's ancient rock-carved city and one of the "new seven wonders" of the world (pictures). Bacchanalian Retreat? Photograph by Taylor S. Kennedy, National Geographic Carved into sandstone, stairs lead to a rock-hewn room at Siq al-Barid, or Little Petra (file photo). The Jordanian site may have been a weekend retreat for affluent Nabataeans, a place where they toasted bacchanalian deities with goblets of wine.
Stone tools 'change migration story' 19 September 2010 By Katie Alcock -Science reporter, BBC News, Birmingham - Dr. Petraglia says robust dates can be put against the tools his group is uncovering - A research team reports new findings of stone age tools that suggest humans came "out of Africa" by land earlier than has been thought. Geneticists estimate that migration from Africa to South-East Asia and Australia took place as recently as 60,000 years ago.
Australian Aborigines 'world's first astronomers? Sep 17, 2010 SYDNEY (AFP) – An Australian study has uncovered signs that the country's ancient Aborigines may have been the world's first stargazers, pre-dating Stonehenge and Egypt's pyramids by thousands of years.
Professor Ray Norris said widespread and detailed knowledge of the stars had been passed down through the generations by Aborigines, whose history dates back tens of millennia, in traditional songs and stories.
Archaeology: ancient Bulgar burial ground found Sept. 21 2010 - Archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed a circular mound which they believe used to serve as a burial ground for the ancient Bulgars in pre-Christian times, Bulgarian National Television (BNT) said on September 21 2010.
The site, unique in South Eastern Europe, was found near the north coast of the Black Sea, where the Bulgars first settled after arriving from the east. Thus, the scientists have ascribed the origin of the site to the ancient Bulgars, "about whom very little is known" the report said.
After its establishment under Khan Asparuh in 681, Bulgaria retained the traditional Bulgar religion of Tengriism and the pagan beliefs of the local Slavic population.
Tengriism From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - A diagram of the Tengriist World view on a shaman's drum [1] [2]. The World-tree is growing in the centre and connecting the three Worlds: Underworld, Middleworld and Upperworld. Tengriism (tenger), or Tengrianism is a religion that incorporates elements of shamanism, animism, totemism and ancestor worship. It was the major belief of Xiongnu, Turkic peoples, Mongols, Hungarian and Bulgar peoples in ancient times[. It focuses around the sky deity Tengri (also Tangri, Tanr?, Tangra, etc.) and reverence for the sky in general. Today, there are still a large number of Tengriist people living in Northern and Central Asia, such as the Khakas and Tuvans.
Astrological scene found on egyptian tomb ceiling Analysis by Rossella Lorenzi - Thu Sep 16, 2010 - Brightly painted astrological scenes have emerged on the ceiling of an ancient Egyptian tomb, according to a statement released on Wednesday by the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The scenes, which include a depiction of the sky goddess Nut, have been found in the burial chamber of a Nubian priest in the el-Asasif area on the west bank of Luxor.
8,000 Year Old Seal from Western Turkey September 20, 2010 - ?ZM?R - Anatolia News Agenc - The seal shows that the settlement in ?zmir began some 8,500 year ago. Archaeologists have unearthed a seal believed to be 8,000 years old during excavations in the Ye?ilova Tumulus, one of the oldest settlements in western Turkey.
Associate Professor Zafer Derin, who has been leading the excavations from Ege University’s Department of Archaeology, said they found a historical artifact that proved that settlement in the western province of Izmir began some 8,500 years ago.
Symbols from the sky... Shortly after the autumnal equinox in the year 15,300 BC, deer hunters standing at the mouth of a cave in Lascaux, France, before dusk would have seen the constellation of the Bull, Taurus, climb the sky over the western hilltops. The Hyades cluster would have appeared as the star-speckled face of the animal, its blazing red eye the star Aldebaran, while the brilliant six stars of the Pleiades glittered above its great back.Underground Peep Show Reveals Artifacts of Life LiveScience.com – Thu Sep 23 - Walking along the scrubby countryside of central Turkey, Compton Tucker - bandana draped over his head and under his straw hat - looks like he's hauling a pushmower back to a tool shed. But the boxy equipment that he's dragging isn't cutting down weeds, it's actually a kind of radar that can see underground.
DOWN THE QUANTUM RABBIT HOLE
with Alice at Queens U.OFF WITH OUR HEADS!
Quantum Chess Changes The State Of The Game
A quantum object can exist in more than one state. When you attempt to interact with it, the wave function collapses and the object settles into a single state. This is the theory applied to Quantum Chess, a new twist on the classic game created by Queen's University undergraduate computer science student Alice Wismath.
Wismath wrote the game based on ideas from computer science professor Selim Akl at Queens. Akl wanted to make the process of predicting chess moves using computers more difficult. In order to achieve this, he decided to have the pieces mimic the way particles like electrons and atoms behave according to the laws of quantum mechanics. Play Quantum Chess
STUPID QUESTION = STUPID ANSWER DEPT.
(AKA - Geeks gone wild!) Did Humans Make Tools, or Did Tools Make Humans? Is our species, Homo sapiens sapiens, the first cyborg species? Gizmodo/New Scientist has a fascinating article up about how humans evolved as a result of technology.
Timothy Taylor, an anthropologist and archaeologist at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom, submits a theory I am very inclined to believe: that humans evolved from tool-using proto-human primates. This evolutionary path resulted in a “survival of the weakest,” which Taylor explains: ED NOTE: How about survival of the more intelligent and adaptive?
WHY IS A RAVEN LIKE A WRITING DESK?
Sizing Up Consciousness by Its Bits One day in 2007, Dr. Giulio Tononi lay on a hospital stretcher as an anesthesiologist prepared him for surgery. For Dr. Tononi, it was a moment of intellectual exhilaration. He is a distinguished chair in consciousness science at the University of Wisconsin, and for much of his life he has been developing a theory of consciousness. Lying in the hospital, Dr. Tononi finally had a chance to become his own experiment. Dr. Tononi’s theory is, potentially, very different. He and his colleagues are translating the poetry of our conscious experiences into the precise language of mathematics. To do so, they are adapting information theory, a branch of science originally applied to computers and telecommunications.
TWEEDLE DUM and TWEEDLE DEE
Particles in cahoots Physicists discover curious connections in the subatomic debris of LHC collisionsn - By Ron Cowen Web edition : Thursday, September 23rd, 2010 - This image shows more than 100 charged particles generated by a collision at the Large Hadron Collider’s CMS experiment. The data indicate that a larger than expected number of charged particles created in such collisions are somehow paired, even though they end up at opposite ends of a large detector.
Everything really is relative Physicists demonstrate time-warping principle in the realm of the ordinary - By Rachel Ehrenberg: Sept. 23, 2010 - Exploring the peculiar effects of Einstein’s relativity is no longer rocket science. Tabletop experiments at a lab in Colorado have illustrated the odd behavior of time, a strangeness typically probed with space travel and jet planes.
BORGES' DARK SIDE OF CHESS
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius by Jorge Luis Borges - "The contact and the habit of Tlön have disintegrated this world. Enchanted by its rigor, humanity forgets over and again that it is a rigor of chess masters, not of angels. Already the schools have been invaded by the (conjectural) "primitive language" of Tlön; already the teaching of its harmonious history (filled with moving episodes) has wiped out the one which governed in my childhood; already a fictitious past occupies in our memories the place of another, a past of which we know nothing with certainty - not even a that it is false.
SIGNAL NONLOCALITY - THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK
Physics & Math / Subatomic Particles Back From the Future - A series of quantum experiments shows that measurements performed in the future can influence the present. Does that mean the universe has a destiny—and the laws of physics pull us inexorably toward our prewritten fate? by Zeeya Merali; photography by Adam Magyar From the April 2010 issue; published online August 26, 2010 “Aharonov was one of the first to take seriously the idea that if you want to understand what is happening at any point in time, it’s not just the past that is relevant. It’s also the future,” Tollaksen says. In particular, Aharonov reanalyzed the indeterminism that forms the backbone of quantum mechanics.
ED NOTE: (Snark sighted!) 33 is the number of vertebrae in the human body... 33 squares compose the enigmatic game boards of Naqada era Egypt. Dice and gaming with the gods... But, whose universe, whose mind and whose body is this anyway? Chess in China YES - but we are not done wth this puzzle ball just yet...
Technical Report No. 2010-568
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING QUANTUM Selim G. Akl
School of Computing - Queen’s University
Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6
February 16, 2010
September 16, 2010
Montreal Aftershock Edition
The 2010 Montreal Open Chess Championship has run a successful course once again! The number of participants topped last year's record and goddesschess was there to record memorable moments as well as a few interesting (we think) interviews conducted by the players themselves.
International Master Leonid Gerzhoy of Toronto narrowly prevailed over GM Bator Sambuev. Both had an identical final score of 4½ - ½ and it was necessary to resort to tie-breaks in order to crown the ultimate victor. Women's International Master, Yuanling Yuan, also of Toronto, took top place among chess femmes. Congratulations Yuanling!
The organizers, who had pre-determined four tie-break methods in priority order, never thought they would need to go as far as method number four. Amazingly, they did ! The first three methods : (1) head-to-head ; (2) cumulative ; (3) Solkoff - could absolutely not break the tie. The fourth method was “Total Blacks”. (Bernard Ouimet)
The final standings, pictures and blog (French only) can be seen at http://www.echecsmontreal.ca/chom/
Jan Newton's postcript for the tournament can be found at the goddesschess blogspot - which is also rich in day to day reporting of this special event.
• Walter Chesnut (yes, that's his real name!) chats chess and the Montreal Open experience with GM Alex Lenderman.
• Danny Goldenberg conducts a brisk interview with GM Bator Sambuev - co- winner of this year's 2010 Montreal Open Chess Championship.
• An insightful exchange with Arthur Holler on chess in general - how tables turn and why, among the many games we might choose to play, chess continues to fascinate and draw new players into it's "mystique". (In the background, chess kids unwind with rukus games during their lunch intermission.)
• Lunchtime and the roving camera (actually, the loon behind it) prompts an acrobatic Chess Dance... Next year - full out choreography!
• This video attempts to capture some of the award winning architecture in which this year's 2010 Montreal Open Chess Championship tournament was hosted. The Chapel of College Jean de Brebeuf was simply magnificent in every detail. Its choice mirrors the sound judgement of the tournament's organizers, with whom it was once again a great pleasure to have shared this event.
Many thanks to all the people, organizations and organizers who contributed to publicizing and promoting this year's Montreal Open event. You know who you are! Special kudos to Bernard Ouimet, Richard Berube, the FQE, Ahuntisic Chess Club, Chess and Math Montreal, Chessdom, Susan Polgar, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Parlons Echecs/Chess Talk. and the WCF among many others who helped share this news world-wide.
The story of India - amazing BBC documentary series part (1 of 7) & the language of the birds...
Nebra Star Disc Fingerprint - Horizon: Secrets of the Stardisc - BBC
Are we living in a designer universe? The creators of the world were closer to men than to gods, argues John Gribbin. The argument over whether the universe has a creator, and who that might be, is among the oldest in human history. But amid the raging arguments between believers and sceptics, one possibility has been almost ignored – the idea that the universe around us was created by people very much like ourselves, using devices not too dissimilar to those available to scientists today.(Or so some would like us to believe...)
Dangerous Minds - Dangerous Games The video contained in this site marks a new era of conquest already underway. To some it may look like a giant Skinner Box. It probably is. The paradigm indicates how - without offsetting checks and balances, cherished human ideas of liberty, diversity and free choice may take a back seat to technocracy. This can easily lead to detailed social subversion by technological elites - which was the original plot behind B.F. Skinner's behavioral conditioning model.
The most disturbing presentaion of the year April 5, 2010 - Content provided by Morgen E. Peck, IEEE Spectrum - I invite you to take a journey with game designer Jesse Schell as his mind goes for a little stroll in the near future. He gave a talk in February 2010 at the DICE summit that is being called the most disturbing presentation ever.
In Jesse Schell's future we will still shop, eat cereal, brush our teeth and watch TV. But everything we do and (more importantly) all the information we attend to will win us points and benefits across a vast incentives network engineered by corporations and government entities. Or, more tersely: we will live in a game. Two things need to happen for this future to arrive.
1. Technology, specifically sensors, must become disposable and ubiquitous.
2. Companies need to hire game designers and put them in charge of marketing schemes.
MORE:
Ray Kurzweil Predictions in May 1997 when chess World Champion Garry Kasparov was defeated by IBM's Deep Blue computer in a well-publicized chess tournament. Perhaps most significantly, Kurzweil foresaw the explosive growth in worldwide Internet use that began in the 1990s. At the time of the publication of The Age of Intelligent Machines, there were only 2.6 million Internet users in the world,[2] and the medium was unreliable, difficult to use, and deficient in content, making Kurzweil's realization of its future potential especially prescient given the technology's limitations at that time.
Anti-computer tactics are a style of play used by humans to beat strong computer opponents at various games, especially in board games such as chess. It involves playing conservatively for a long-term advantage the computer is not able to see in its game tree search. This will frequently involve selecting moves that are believed to be sub-optimal in order to exploit known weaknesses in the way computer players evaluate positions.
Georgia's Position:
The symbol for protection from the evil eye, is an "eye" with rays beaming around it. I just did a quick search for an image of the protective eye and I came up with this:
Evil eye - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eye of Horus – an Ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and power against evil. Eye of Providence – a symbol showing an eye surrounded by rays of light or a glory, and ... The Middle East uses a Hamsa. It is a hand with an eye in the center of the palm. The use of an eye to protect against the evil eye, is like the old saying "fight fire with fire". What is interesting is that the Hamsa is sometimes represented as a blue eye.
September 5, 2010
Simply Untrue Edition
Ancient Moche burials provided insects with banquet -Sept. 01, 2010 - Peru's ancient Moche exposed their dead to corpse-eating bugs as an act of veneration, archeologists report.
In the current Journal of Archeological Science, J.B. Hucheta of France's Université Bordeaux and Bernard Greenberg of the University of Illinois at Chicago, describe a burial at the "Huacas de Moche" Pyramid of the Moon archeological site in Peru. In 2006, a team excavated about 45 graves from the site.
They might have excavated this article too, because this part is simply untrue...
"There is a major difference between the Moche view of flies and that of the ancient Near East, typified by the Egyptians. The latter did everything in their power to prevent flies from destroying the corpse, including enclosing written prayers with the body and embalming. The Egyptians hoped the ka would accompany the body of the deceased into eternity, whereas the Moche deliberately exposed the body to the flies with the hope that the anima or spirit of the deceased would be carried from the maggots into adult flies and through close contact with people, complete the human cycle."
Funerary archaeoentomology - elsewhere we find that peoples of the ANE and Tibet exposed corpses to vultures with the same goal in mind. The Egyptian vulture goddess Nekhbet is most likely an offshoot of the same iconic background , though perhaps not the same practices. The above statement is refuted as follows -
Warfare in the ancient Near East to 1600 BC: By William James Hamblin also cites ANE, Egypt and Tibet rites. Vulture ensignia also appear on the pillars of Catalhoyuk, Turkey (c. 8,000+ BC - pictured above)
Hinduonnet:"As Zoroastrianism lays great emphasis on the laws of purity and the sacredness of the seven creations, the preferred disposal mode, as per the sacred texts is that of exposure. The corpse is placed in a tall circular tower called a dakhma (Tower of Silence), and exposed to the sky. Vultures and other birds of prey devour the body quickly and efficiently."
Human Meat Just Another Meal for Early Europeans? Cannibalism helped meet protein needs, keep rivals in line, study suggests. James Owen - August 31, 2010 For some European cavemen, human meat wasn't a ritual delicacy or a food of last resort but an everyday meal, according to a new study of fossil bones found in Spain.And, it seems, everyone in the area was doing it, making the discovery "the oldest example of cultural cannibalism known to date," the study says.
Ancient Nubians drank anti-biotic laced beer A group of people who lived nearly 2,000 years ago in Sudanese Nubia took doses of tetracycline -- through their beer. By Emily Sohn - Sep 3, 2010 - People have been using antibiotics for nearly 2,000 years, suggests a new study, which found large doses of tetracycline embedded in the bones of ancient African mummies.Hair reveals ancient Peruvians were stressed out By Jennifer Viegas - Dec 2, 2009 - High levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, are found in the hair of ancient human remains. (What? Too many fies in their beer?)
Ancient city does not actually exist, says Turkish minister September 1, 2010 ISTANBUL - Controversy over plans to bury an ancient city in western Turkey with sand ahead of a new dam project was overshadowed Wednesday by revelations from Turkey’s environment minister that the site did not, in fact, exist.
Scientists find evidence discrediting theory Amazon was virtually unlivable (see picture gallery) By Juan Forero- September 3, 2010 - To the untrained eye, all evidence here in the heart of the Amazon signals virgin forest, untouched by man for time immemorial - from the ubiquitous fruit palms to the cry of howler monkeys, from the air thick with mosquitoes to the unruly tangle of jungle vines.
Archaeologists say centuries-old civilizations in the Amazon were much larger and more advanced than previously thought.
Hodder Cleans House at Famed Catalhoyuk Dig by Michael Balter - 3 September 2010 - Researchers finishing the dig season at Turkey’s Catalhoyuk—a 9500-year-old site famed for its art and symbolism at the dawn of agriculture—got a big shock last week. Stanford University archaeologist Ian Hodder, who has directed excavations since 1993, told the heads of the dig’s specialty labs that they would be asked to step down beginning in 2012, when publication of current work will be completed. It’s “the night of the long knives,” says one long-time team member, who asked not to be identified.
Petroglyphs Vandalized WILLIAMS - 8/31/2010 A hiker reported Aug. 26 that vandals defaced the main rock art panel at Keyhole Sink on the Kaibab National Forest. Keyhole Sink is a popular interpretive site open to the public and visited by many.
Petroglyphs at the site date back at least a thousand years. The site remains open to the public so that people can learn about the history of the area and enjoy the unique setting.
Archaeologists in Jordan say they have unearthed a 3,000-year-old temple By Dale Gavlak - AMMAN, Jordan — Archaeologists in Jordan have unearthed a 3,000-year-old Iron Age temple with a trove of figurines of ancient deities and circular clay vessels used for religious rituals, officials said Wednesday. The head of the Jordanian Antiquities Department, Ziad al-Saad, said the sanctuary dates to the eighth century B.C. and was discovered at Khirbat 'Ataroz near the town of Mabada, some 20 miles (32 kilometres) southwest of the capital Amman.
Scalpels and skulls point to Bronze Age brain surgery- 31 August 2010 by Jo Marchant - Onder Bilgi talks about his discovery of a razor-sharp 4000-year-old scalpel and what it was originally used for Where are you digging? At an early Bronze Age settlement called Ikiztepe, in the Black Sea province of Samsun in Turkey. The village was home to about 300 people at its peak, around 3200 to 2100 BC.
Volunteers protest dam near ancient city in SE Turkey September 1, 2010 Hürriyet Daily News - The struggle is strengthening against the construction of the Il?su Dam in southeastern Turkey, which would flood the ancient city of Hasankeyf. Some 150 volunteers recently completed their third trip to the site in an effort to lend support for local people in the fight against the dam construction. ‘All we want is an environment that does not need to be protected,’ said Andaç, a volunteer...
Palaeolithic funeral feast unearthed in Northern Israel By Katie Alcock - Over 70 tortoise skeletons were found in one of the depressions, many of them with almost intact shells.
The remains of a huge 12,000 year old feast have been found in a cave in Northern Israel. Archaeologists working in Hilazon Tachtit found what they thought was a late Palaeolithic campsite, when they discovered tools and animal bones. However they soon realised they were looking at a large burial site, with huge numbers of animal bones. They found the remains of at least three aurochs - giant extinct cattle - and over 70 tortoise skeletons. More here
Ivory bird displays ancient skill By Jonathan Amos - From beak to tail the figure is 4.7 cm long
A sculpted piece of mammoth ivory may be the earliest representation of a bird in the archaeological record. The 30,000-year-old figurine, found at Hohle Fels Cave in Germany's Ach Valley, depicts what looks to be a diving cormorant with swept-back wings. It was found with carvings of a similar style - one shaped like a horse's head; the other is half-animal, half-human.
Parched English fields reveal ancient sites Crop Marks in English fields - Aug 31 2010 - LONDON (Reuters) – The exceptionally dry early summer months in Britain have revealed the ghostly outlines of several hundred previously unknown ancient sites buried in fields across the English countryside. From Roman forts to Neolithic settlements and military remains dating to World War Two, English Heritage has been busily photographing the exciting discoveries from the air.
Syria: Tell Brak, Archaeological City Hosted the 1st Human Civilization (So...what about Catalhoyok?) By R. Raslan - 27 August 2010 - Syria (Hasaka) – Tell Brak (Nagar) is an ancient late Neolithic, Sumerian, Acadian and Middle-Late Bronze Age city on the Upper Khabur River. It is 45 km far from Hasaka city, 5,5 km from Damascus.
Studying pottery fragments found at Tel Brak archaeological site helped to date it to the sixth millennium BC as the oldest inhibited city, he added.
Morocco: "Destins croisés" and “Terminus des Anges” to be screened at Montreal World Film Festival September 2010 - Montreal - Two Moroccan movies will be screened at the Montreal World Film Festival, along with 430 movies from 80 countries. "Destins croisés" by Driss Chouika and “Terminus des Anges” by Narjis Najjar, Mohamed Mouftakir and Hicham Lasri will represent Morocco in the international cinema event, held from August 26 to September 6.
Greeks 'discover Odysseus' palace in Ithaca, proving Homer's hero was real' (well, maybe) 24 Aug 2010 By Nick Squires - An 8th BC century palace which Greek archaeologists claim was the home of Odysseus has been discovered in Ithaca, fuelling theories that the hero of Homer's epic poem was real. Nearly 3,000 years after Odysseus returned from his journey, the team from the University of Ioannina said they found the remains of an extensive three-storey building, with steps carved out of rock and fragments of pottery. The complex also features and a well from the 8th century BC, roughly the period in which Odysseus is believed to have been king of Ithaca.
'Alexander the sexy' seen i new portrait An unprecedented miniature portrait of a young, resolute, sexy Alexander the Great has emerged during excavations in Israel. An unprecedented miniature portrait of a young, resolute, sexy Alexander the Great has emerged during excavations in Israel, archaeologist announced this week. Engraved on a brilliantly red gemstone, the finely carved tiny head portrait is estimated to be 2,300 old.
Alexander the Great (BBC Documentary) 1 - Greek Macedonians - Alexander the Great, the proud Greek Macedonian that spread the ancient Greek civilization, culture and language in entire the known ancient world
