Women in Archaeology: Eliat Mazar

Sep 25, 2008 10:18 Updated Sep 25, 2008 10:19 Archeology: Dr. Eilat Mazar: The Bible as blueprint By ETGAR LEFKOVITS She has been at the forefront of a series of back-to-back Jerusalem archeological finds, including what she believes is the biblical palace of King David, a discovery which led her to international prominence. She has also been at the epicenter of a public campaign against Islamic destruction of antiquities on the Temple Mount, and has repeatedly and unflinchingly criticized - and clashed with - the Israel Antiquities Authority for overlooking and turning a blind eye to the past desecration of Judaism's holiest site, which has earned her the reputation of something of a black sheep in the local archeological world. Meet Dr. Eilat Mazar. The no-nonsense 51-year-old mother of four, a strongly secular Zionist who comes from a venerated family of archeologists - the most prominent of whom was her grandfather, the pioneering Dr. Benjamin Mazar, who carried out the excavations around the Western Wall area after the 1967 war - has emerged as one of the country's leading archeologists. Over the last several years, her ongoing dig in the City of David just outside the walls of the Old City has proven to be a treasure trove. In addition to the potential biblical palace - which has been dubbed as the find of the century by some and dismissed by others in the bitterly competitive local archeological community - Mazar has discovered two seal impressions belonging to ministers of King Zedekiah which date back 2,600 years, as well as the remnants of a wall from the time of Nehemiah. Mazar, who is both revered and reviled by some of her colleagues for being a "biblical archeologist," says that the Bible is unquestionably the most important historical source for her work, since it contains a "genuine historical account of the past." "I work with the Bible in one hand and the tools of excavation in the other," she says. "The Bible is the most important historical source." Despite her early experience with archeology as a teenager under her family's tutelage, Mazar didn't decide to become an archeologist until after her army service, when she enrolled in courses at the Hebrew University, where she would eventually earn her Ph.D. She calls her university years - during which she had her first child - an "immense delight," a time when she and her fellow students would run to any place in the country where an excavation, no matter how modest, was under way. Balancing a career with family has not been easy. Mazar married right out of the army, had a child and then divorced. Later she found new love, archeologist Yair Shoham, and the couple had three children. Tragically, Shoham died suddenly of a heart attack in 1997 at 44. Mazar says her family is a critical component of her work. "My family gives me the strength to do what I do," she says. "I see my work as a complete life." Three decades after the thrill of her university years, the excitement is still palpable within - and radiates from - Mazar as she continually uncovers the past. "It's nice to touch your history," she concludes.

Tomb Full of Phallic Figures???

Hmmmm - I have to say it - I think only one of these artifacts resembles a penis. One looks like a proto-Egyptian scarab, two look like vulva or sea-shells (that were used for currency and also represented the female genetalia), and one looks like a hand tool, maybe an axe or an awl. Well, whatever - I'm no expert, darlings, and that's a fact. But the experts aren't so good at this stuff either! From Discover Magazine Blog Archaeological Surprise: Grave Site Full of Phallic Figurines September 8, 2008 Archaeologists excavating a burial site near Nazareth dating back to between 6750 and 8500 B.C. found the area littered with shells, axes, and other artifacts—no surprise there. But something else also caught their attention: a high number of phallic figurines. It’s not unusual to find reproductive-themed artifacts in grave sites from this period, says study leader Nigel Goring-Morris of the Hebrew University. But this period of history, not so long after the agricultural revolution, typically produced more female figurines, associated with the fertility of the land. Even though most of the 65 people buried in this 10 meters by 20 meters plot were young men, he says, the finding is an odd one. Goring-Morris speculates that these guys were trying to reclaim their manhood. With societies at the time moving from being hunter-gatherers to farmers, he says, men lost some of the macho feeling: Let’s face it, plowing a field just doesn’t get the testosterone flowing as much as killing a gazelle. There’s no real evidence that these men felt that way, but the possible alternative explanations for carving a bunch of phalluses are perhaps more unsavory. In any case, farming—and female fertility imagery—won out in the region. But every time a group of men jump in a freezing lake or embark on a disastrous camping trip to reassert their manhood, they can rest assured that they might just be carrying on a millennia-old tradition. Image: Nigel Goring-Morris

Neanderthal Moms Had it Tough

Gee, you don't say. Duh! I believe Neanderthals were just as human as we are - perhaps even more so. There's no evidence of which I am aware that Neanderthals killed each other and/or tortured animals as we do - supposedly "superior" Homo Sapiens Sapiens. From Discover Magazine Online Neanderthal Moms Had It Tougher Than Modern Moms September 9, 2009 A new analysis of the skulls of three Neanderthal babies shows that the cranium of a newborn Neanderthal was about the same size as that of a newborn Homo sapiens, and that the Neanderthal children grew faster than modern humans in the first few years of life. The report on the young skeletons, which date from between 45,000 to 50,000 years ago, adds fuel to the debate over how similar Neanderthal culture was to that of our early Homo sapiens ancestors. A big-headed infant skeleton found in Russia suggests that childbirth was no easy task for for Neanderthal women. Neanderthal mothers had slightly larger birth canals, but the prominent face of Neanderthal babies made it just as hard to push out as a modern human. This suggests that both groups had the social structures needed to help with childbirth [New Scientist]. In the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science [subscription required], researchers analyzed the infant specimen and two toddler skeletons from Syria, and made 3-D computer reconstructions of the whole skeletons based on the available fragments — about 70 to 80 percent of the complete skeletons. They also studied the skeletons’ teeth to estimate their ages by their dental development [LiveScience]. The researchers’ analysis of the Neanderthal toddlers’ growth rate lead them to hypothesize that Neanderthal babies grew more quickly in their early years than Homo sapiens, which could have placed a burden on their mothers. “Neanderthals must have had a rich diet in protein and fat for children to fuel rapid growth in [their] brains,” said [anthropologist] Holly Smith. Mothers also likely had to consume vast quantities of calories to produce enough breast milk. This energy-intensive child rearing may have caused “somewhat longer interbirth intervals, or somewhat older mothers,” study co-author [Christoph] Zollikofer said [National Geographic News]. But while Zollikofer suggests that this disadvantage may account for the Neanderthals’ eventual disappearance from the world, other researchers say that he is drawing hasty conclusions.

Friday Night Miscellany

Hola darlings! Ohmygoddess! It's been so fricking cold this week. Although I swore up and down that I would NOT turn on my heat until at least the end of October, yesterday morning it was so chill in the house that I flipped on the furnace switch and set the temperature to 64 (it was 60 degrees in the house at the time). I heard the furnace kick in, and settled down with my coffee and newspaper in anticipation of soon feeling some dampness creep out of the house as the heat did its job. Only - it never happened. The furnace cycled and shut down. Oh shit. I've had this problem before - it's the ignition system. Because of the safety features, if ignition does not result in a spark within a certain period of time, the furnace shuts off, the gas doesn't flow. That's good for my health and safety, at any rate. The problem is, these ignition systems are particularly sensitive to "irritants" such as dust and, in my basement which suffers from perennial dampness, corrosion. Cha ching! The cash register is already clicking away in the background. Yesterday was a work day in Hell, I didn't even have a chance to crack open the telephone book to see what kind of heating/furnace service I might be able to get out after 6:00 p.m. or on a Saturday; today at 3:30 p.m. I finally had a brief lull and placed several telephone calls, none of which were answered except the last one - quite promptly - to a very expensive service I've used in the past. $59 just to pull up in the driveway (not even get out of the truck). The first 15 minutes at "diagnostic" is $65, and $65 per 15 minutes thereafter. Once the diagnosis is set, I'm then given an on the spot estimate for what needs to be done and how much it will cost. Decide - like the famous line from the song "I WANNA KNOW RIGHT NOW...." Geez - I should have gone into HVAC! Or - duh - I should have hired a concierge service to do the shopping for me, to see if there was someone out there cheaper (there no doubt is, even after paying the concierge fee). Well - next time... As if dealing with a recalcitrant furnace isn't bad enough (at least it didn't break down when it was 20 below zero, like it did in January, 1997), I've been on a "balanced meal and increased physical activity" plan since September 15th, which happens to be the date the latest season of "The Biggest Loser" (har!) debuted on network television. In one of those ridiculous things that somehow always connect together, our local PBS station was running fundraising specials and I happened to catch part of a show one Saturday afternoon that told me, plain as could be, if I only cut back my calories by 225 a day and increased my physical activity to burn an additional 225 calories a day, I would lose one pound a week with very little effort. Yeah, right. One night in the bathroom, looking in the mirror at my naked bad self for the umpteenth time in my life, I went "oh yechy", and determined to lose some of this post-menopausal weight gain. I set what I thought was a modest goal of losing 10 pounds in 5 weeks. The sixth week begins on October 20th, when I will have my big weigh-in, a Monday. If I've lost 10 pounds, I'll have a Big Mac (no kidding - that's my big reward I set for myself). It's uncanny how I've tracked the contestants on "The Biggest Loser." The first week was big - just like on the show - I lost 5 pounds! Eek! The second week, the dreaded "plateau week," I lost zero pounds. Eek! I stepped up the physical activity (I do NOT exercise) and tried to cut back even further on the caloric intake. I am NOT writing things down in a log book, and I'm still sucking wine like there's no tomorrow, but I AM eating more salads and vegetables and have cut way down on the fatty meats and unneeded carbs. I'm also making an honest attempt every morning to have a breakfast and, wonder of wonders, it actually works - what the nutrician dudes say about breakfast being the most important meal of the day. It does sustain one through hectic, frantic mornings until lunch time. So, this is the third week. I weighed myself on Monday and I'd managed to lose another 1/2 pound. Hmmmm. More physical activity. I weighed myelf yesterday. Lost another 1/2 pound! Yippee! But I didn't trust it. And so I weighed myself again this morning and yep, I have not lost 7 whole frigging pounds! Only 3 more to go and 2 whole weeks to do it! I am STOKED! I now realize that I will make my goal, perhaps even ahead of time. Then the really hard part starts, the NEXT 10 POUNDS! Let me tell you, though, except for a bit of a loosening of my autumn jacket (which I first purchased 25 pounds ago), I don't notice any difference in the Body Splendid, and neither has anyone else. It will take that next 10 pounds to tip the scales, no pun intended. Some by-lines from The New York Times to pass the time: U.S. Shed 150,000 Jobs; Ninth Straight Monthly Drop. Yeah - but the "experts" say we're not in a recession. Oh no, of course not. Top Psychiatrist Failed to Report Drug Income - now what kind of drugs do you suppose they're talking about here... Explosion Kills 7 Russians in South Ossetia. Pay back is a bitch, and it's probably just beginning, Miniputin. The NEW MIDDLE CLASS DEFINED BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: Assets of $1,000,000 or more. Yeah, sure, Sarah Palin is just a hockey mom, a regular joe who can't speak English properly. Take THAT, all you wimpy exurbian soccer moms out there. From the Daily Grail: Just hide for 14 days after a nuclear explosion near you and you, too, will survive. The respected voices of the BBE say so. BBC releases pre-recorded blurbs to be used in the event of a nuclear war. The Enemy Within: 2,000 Years of Witch-Hunting in the Western World. A new book about the evil that lurks within all men to demonize those who are not like us. Speaking about the evil that lurks within, yeah I freely admit it and I don't care - I think John McCain stinks. Wants to tax me for the health insurance benefits that my employer partially pays for, does he? Wants to give me a lousy frigging $2,500 "credit" (which never goes into my pocket) to "buy" health insurance coverage in exchange for my employer dropping my health insurance coverage, does he? My plan costs about $8,000 a year (and believe me, it's not the top of the line plan), I pay $150 a month toward that coverage this year. Next year, it will be more, and my options will be fewer as my employer tries to force everyone, regardless of age and health status, to "health savings accounts." Tell me, Mr. McCain, where the hell am I supposed to come up with the other $5,500 to pay for my health insurance, heh? My wages aren't going to increase by that amount once my employer drops my coverage (my employer would be insane not to drop coverage once the government starts "paying" for it, after all). The man is insane, absolutely positively insane. He is a menance to the middle and working classes in this country, and he doesn't even KNOW it!

Barbados Women's Chess Champion Named

From the BarbadosAdvocate.com Rashida Corbin!! the new Chess Queen Web Posted - Fri Oct 03 2008 RASHIDA Corbin is the new Barbados ladies national chess champion. She was victorious in the recently concluded CGI/BOA National Chess Championship. Rashida scored an impressive six points out of a possible seven points. She won six games while lsoing one game. Rashida, back from a short lay off from competitive chess, demonstrated her superior theoretical knowledge and easily clinched the title. A former champion and national player since her junior days, Rashida should add a wealth of experience to the ladies squad in training for the World Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany. The defending champion, Corrine Howard, finished in second place on 5 1/2 points ahead on the tie break of Juanita Garnett also on 5 1/2 points. The tournament was keenly contested with Corrine Howard handing Rashida her only loss of the tournament. There was also a major upset in round two when the unheralded Cheri-Ann Parris inflicted a painful defeat on Comarie Mansour. Final standings: Rashida Corbin 6 (no FIDE rating) Corrine Howard 5.5 (no FIDE rating) Juanita Garnett 5.5 (no FIDE rating) Cheri-Ann Paris 4 Comarie Mansour 3 Katrina Blackman 3 Cherise Austin 1 The ladies squad will attend 2 training lectures as part of their preparation for the Olympiad. The first one will be conducted by International Master Kevin Denny tomorrow at 4 p.m. The following Saturday, October 11, at 4 p.m. Fide Master Dr. Philip Corbin will be the presenter. The venue for both seminars is Bridge House, Cavans Lane, The City. The sessions are open to the public at a cost of $10.

Mystery Burial in Sicily

From the University of British Columbia website: UBC Reports Vol. 54 No. 10 Oct. 2, 2008 UBC Dig Uncovers Roman Mystery By Lorraine Chan UBC archaeologists have dug up a mystery worthy of Indiana Jones, one that includes a tomb, skeletons and burial rites with both Christian and pagan elements. This summer, Prof. Roger Wilson led excavations at Kaukana, an ancient Roman village located near Punta Secca, a small town in the south-eastern province of Ragusa in Sicily. Combing through the sand-buried site, the 15-member team made a series of startling discoveries. Central to the mystery was finding a tomb inside a room in a house dating from the sixth century AD. Wilson explains that tombs during this period are normally found only in cemeteries outside the built-up area of a town, or around the apse of a church. And since the building was substantial with mortared walls and internal plaster, this would have been likely a tomb for the wealthy. “It’s extremely unusual to find an elite burial set inside a house in the middle of a settlement, even as late as the sixth century,” says Wilson, who heads UBC’s Department of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies. The UBC initiative -- in collaboration with Prof. Giovanni Di Stefano of the Superintendency for the Cultural Heritage of Ragusa -- is the first major exploration of this historic site since 1972. Locals first stumbled upon the late Roman village during the 1960s when a bulldozer preparing for new houses uncovered the tops of some 24 ancient buildings. Only a few, among them a church, were explored at the time, by renowned Italian archaeologist Paola Pelagatti. Wilson directed students from UBC and Sicily in their painstaking work, focusing on what proved to be an “exceptionally well-preserved” structure on the south side of Kaukana, only yards from the beach. The walls uncovered stand nearly six feet high. Once the cover was lifted off the tomb, one team member spent 10 days sieving the contents with great care. Two skeletons were found. One was of a woman between the ages of 25 and 30, with teeth in excellent condition and no signs of arthritis. “She was in pretty good nick, so we know this wasn’t a peasant working in the field,” says Wilson. The other skeleton was a child of indeterminate sex between the ages of five and seven. The position of their bones showed that the woman had been laid to rest first. The tomb was then re-opened to bury the child and the woman’s spinal column was pushed to one side. A hole in the stone slab covering the tomb allowed visitors to pour libations for the dead. “This shows that the long-established, originally pagan, rite of offering libations to the dead clearly continued into early Byzantine times,” observes Wilson. Yet, the presence of a Christian cross on a lamp found in the room and on the underside of a grave slab suggests that the deceased were Christian. As well, the skeletons were wrapped in plaster, a practice believed to be Christian for preserving the body for resurrection. “It is the first plaster burial recorded in Sicily, although the practice is known from Christian communities in North Africa,” says Wilson. What also intrigued the archaeologists was learning that the tomb was opened one further time, an intrusion that disturbed the bones of the child and caused its skull to be placed upside down. Wilson says he wondered whether it was grave robbers in search of expensive jewelry or other loot. “But the tomb was tidied up again afterwards.” Around the tomb was plentiful evidence of periodic feasting in honour of the dead. The archaeologists found cooking pots, glass and several large clay containers (amphorae), of which one is virtually intact. These would have been used to carry oil and wine to the site. The team also found the remains of two hearths where meals had been prepared. As well, the room was designed with niches along one wall. Wilson says a knife, seafood, and fragments of stemmed goblets and other glass vessels were left on these shelves, “as though placed there after the last party.” UBC’s snapshot of late Roman and early Byzantine life has stirred considerable interest among the Italian media and historians worldwide. With support for three years of study from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Wilson says the team is eager to further unravel the skeins of history. When they return to Kaukana next summer, they will attempt to solve the riddles encountered this first year. “Along with questions of when the house was built and whether it was still occupied when the tomb was inserted, we want to find out why the woman and child were buried in the tomb at all.” Last reviewed 03-Oct-2008

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How about - were the woman and child related? Will DNA tests be done to determine this? Was nothing else found in the tombs to aid in identifying what rituals (if any) may have occurred or what class the deceased may have belonged to? Wh

Mycenaean warrior used 'imported sword'

Confirmation of ancient trade is always good; however, the trade talked about in this article is rather late in the proceedings. Trade was going on at least 1400 years before, among Egypt, the city-states in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley cities, as well as the population centers on the Persian Plateau. There is a wee bit of evidence suggesting trade with ancient China too, long before it became a unified "state" in 22o BCE and the silk road became regularly travelled. A cache of ancient Egyptian maces dating to circa 3400 BCE was discovered in northwestern China a few years back (I read about it in 2001); and a remnant of silk fabric which, at the time, could only have come from China, was recovered in an ancient Egyptian queen's tomb. Over time declines in contacts would arise due to natural disasters and war (such as when the Hyksos attacked and conquered part of Egypt in the 17th century BCE, the explosion of the volcano on Thera in circa 1550 BCE, etc.) that then had to be re-established and built-up once again. This cycle may have occurred several times in pre-history and in historical times, but no evidence remains today. Finds such as this Myceanean sword from Italy are therefore priceless in assisting historians in attempting to fill in so many of the large blanks in our collective past. Many chess historians espouse the theory that chess was a gradual synthesis of several different board games that were played among the merchants of many different cultures travelling along the silk road (and in the centers of trade along the way), and in this way was also spread from west to east (or vice versa :)) From howrah.org 03 October, 2008 03:02:49 A Mycenaean warrior who died in western Greece over 3,000 years ago was the proud owner of a rare gold-wired sword imported from the Italian peninsula, a senior archaeologist said on Thursday. "This is a very rare discovery, particularly because of the gold wire wrapped around the hilt," archaeologist Maria Gatsi told AFP. "To my knowledge, no such sword has ever been found in Greece," said Gatsi, head of the regional archaeological department of Aetoloakarnania prefecture. Tests in Austria have confirmed that the bronze used in the 12th century BCE, 94-centimetre (37-inch) sword came from the Italian peninsula, she said. The Mycenaean remains were discovered in July 2007 near the town of Amphilochia, some 300 kilometres (186 miles) west of Athens during construction work on a new motorway, Ionia Odos. Archeologists also discovered a second bronze sword with a bone handle, a bronze and iron dagger, a pair of greaves (armoured plates), an arrowhead, a spear point, a golden kylix or wine cup and a bronze boiler in the grave. The finds confirm the Mycenaeans were trading with other civilisations in the Mediterranean basin. The dagger is also considered a rare discovery because of the combination of metals used. Conquerors of the Minoan civilisation, the Mycenaeans flourished between the 17th century BCE and the 12th century BCE, occupying much of the Greek mainland and establishing colonies in Asia Minor and on Cyprus.

Ninja Squirrels

From the Princetonian Beware the ninja squirrels By Anu Kahn Contributor Published: Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 I would love to ramble on about a million and one different Princeton perks and privileges: the food, the dorms, the people, the clubs, the culture and maybe even the classes. None of these topics, however, strikes me as particularly shocking. Honestly, only one thing about Princeton has really shocked me. The squirrels. I hail from lovely suburban Massachusetts and have stared down my fair share of furry, tree-dwelling, bushy-tailed rodents, but the Princetonian squirrels are a breed apart. They are not only plentiful but also disturbingly large and freakishly aggressive. During the second week of school, I was ambling down to Frist Campus Center, minding my own business, when I saw a squirrel scamper onto my stretch of sidewalk. Right behind the squirrel, walking toward me, was a well-dressed, middle-aged gentleman. Here was my dilemma: I could continue walking toward the squirrel and hope that it wouldn't attack me, or I could swerve into the elder gentleman's path, forcing him to walk on the street but putting a wide berth between the squirrel and me. I did what any polite Princeton student would do: I swerved in front of the unsuspecting passer-by, keeping one eye firmly fixed on the furry little beast to my left. The gentleman, observing the squirrel, chuckled. For some reason, he didn't seem surprised that I had risked pushing him into the street to avoid an apparently harmless woodland creature. This episode was only the beginning of my misgivings about Princeton squirrels. After that incident, I started seeing squirrels all over campus. I'd never noticed before, but they seem to have the run of the place. If I had a nickel for every time I've seen one of those fleet-footed devils leap out of a tree, I'd have an awful lot of nickels. Neither tree, nor bush, nor grassy knoll is safe from squirrelly invasion. Moreover, not they have pure strength in addition to their strength in numbers. By some freak of New Jersey nature, the Princetonian squirrels have reached roughly the size and weight of small puppies. (Note to Paris Hilton: perfect accessory for next season's Coach tote?) Far more terrifying than the sheer volume of squirrels and far more disturbing than their Schwarzenegger-esque size are the apparent ninjas of the campus squirrel community: the black squirrels. If you've seen one, you know the terror they can inspire with just a flick of their beady black eyes or a mere twitch of their ebony flanks. Last week, I was walking past Alexander Beach when I saw a runty squirrel scratching around for some nuts. Like the dastardly villain from a Charlie Chaplin film, a black squirrel darted out from behind a tree, ran down the runty squirrel, stole his stash of nuts and fled the scene. I watched the whole process, utterly aghast. The most important thing I've learned in my first few weeks at Princeton is simple: Beware the ninja squirrels. Now you've been warned as well.

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My squirrels come when I whistle for them...

Czar Nicholas and Family Vindicated

Hmmmm, interesting. I wonder if this is a Miniputin move that may come back to bite him in the butt (along with the ill-advised invasion of Georgia). How do they KNOW relatives of the Romanovs won't file suit for reparations against the war crimes committed by the Bolsheviks, the benefits of which have flowed to the neo-USSRists? Stay tuned... (Photo: The Czar and his family, 1914). From The New York Times Court Rehabilitates Status of a Czar and His Family By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ Published: October 1, 2008 MOSCOW — Russia’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of full rehabilitation for Russia’s last czar and his family on Wednesday, officially recognizing the Romanovs as victims of “unfounded repression” 90 years after they were executed. The ruling is the latest step in Russia’s post-Soviet reinterpretation of history, which has seen a new embrace of a monarchy once castigated for brutality and backwardness, accompanied by both nostalgia for and damning reconsiderations of seven decades of Soviet rule. Soviet historians constructed accounts that emphasized blaming Nicholas II, or “Bloody Nicholas,” for famines, wars and social collapse. But as Russian nationalism has strengthened after the fall of the Soviet Union, Nicholas has increasingly been depicted as a thwarted visionary and a beacon of the Russian Orthodox faith. The church, which sanctified the Romanovs in 2000 and was itself persecuted in the Soviet era, welcomed the court’s decision. “It is an important step to remove from our history the heavy burden of this crime against the czar’s family,” said the Rev. Vsevolod Chaplin, a church spokesman. “In one way or another the perceptions of society toward Nicholas II and his family are changing,” Father Chaplin said. “More and more people are becoming free of the sharp clichés that were imposed in the recent past.” In its decision on Wednesday, the court reversed a ruling of last November, when it decided that the Romanovs were not eligible for rehabilitation because their execution was a criminal act, not one of political repression. The new ruling “recognizes their unfounded repression and rehabilitates the members of the royal family,” said Pavel Odintsov, a spokesman for the court. “This is a final decision,” he added. In July 1918, under Lenin’s orders, the czar, his wife, Aleksandra, and their children, Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia and the 13-year-old heir to the throne, Aleksei, were shot to death in the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Ural Mountains in central Russia. Several members of the family’s staff were also killed. The killings by the Bolshevik government were meant to solidify its hold on power in the midst of an intensifying civil war. The Romanovs’ bodies were likely doused in acid to mask their identities before being buried in secret graves. The remains of Nicholas and Aleksandra and three of the five children were discovered in 1991 in the waning days of the Soviet Union, and interred in 1998 in St. Petersburg, in a special chamber in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, where many other Russian royals are buried. The remains of the two other children were missing until August 2007, when an archaeologist in Yekaterinburg unearthed bone fragments not far from where the other Romanovs had been buried. The authorities announced this year that DNA testing had confirmed that the remains belonged to Aleksei and Maria. Other members of the royal family had been posthumously rehabilitated. In 1999, four Romanov princes killed by the Bolsheviks, including the son of Aleksandr II — the Russian czar blown up by revolutionaries in 1881 — were found innocent of criminal wrongdoing. In July, thousands of Russians took part in events to mark the 90th anniversary of the family’s execution, and calls for the restoration of the monarchy can be heard despite today’s Kremlin-managed political landscape. The ruling Wednesday seemed to echo that nostalgia. “This decision shows the supremacy of law and the victory of justice over evil and tyranny,” said German Lukyanov, the lawyer for Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, a Romanov descendant who first filed a suit for the rehabilitation three years ago. Mr. Lukyanov said that in the coming months he would file suits on behalf of other Romanovs who had yet to be rehabilitated, including the czar’s brother, Mikhail, and several other members of the dynasty. It is still unclear why the Russian government took so long to rehabilitate the czar. Some have suggested Russia’s current leaders feared that Romanov descendants would seek to reclaim property confiscated by the Bolsheviks, while others have speculated that recent leadership changes in the country could have played a role. Yet, past decisions — including the earlier rehabilitation of those responsible for organizing the family’s execution — are less important than what comes next, said Edvard Radzinsky, a Russian historian and the author of “The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II.” “We have two graves that symbolize the revolution: the dirty hole into which the Romanovs were thrown, and the mausoleum of the one who ordered this,” Mr. Radzinsky said, referring to the red pyramid on Red Square that houses Lenin’s preserved body. “The closing of the first grave,” he said, “should lead to the closing of the second.”

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If you believe in a grand overarching conspiracy theory, then settle in for a long haul yet. The "royals" - descendants of the kings and queens of old, can afford to play a game of wait and see/cat and mouse. Russian politicians will come and go, and so will political systems, but the royals remain forever...

Istanbul Artifacts Back To 8,500 BCE

Significant finds may re-write the history of the Anatolian Peninsula. This, at least to me, fills in a missing puzzle piece. We KNOW that Catal Hoyuk dates back at least as far. It makes sense that a settlement of equal age would be located close to or on the Mediterranean (as it then stood). Archaeological find puts back settlement of Istanbul 6,000 years 16:23 02/ 10/ 2008 ANKARA, October 2 (RIA Novosti) - Turkish archaeologists have found artifacts showing that Istanbul, earlier believed to be founded 2,700 years ago by the Greeks as Byzantium, is 8,500 years old, local media said. The Al-Watan newspaper said the excavations in Istanbul, which have gone on for four years, have uncovered four skeletons, as well as wooden and ceramic pieces, shedding new light on the history of the Turkish city. The discovery was made two months ago at a depth of six meters below sea level at the site of an ancient settlement. Ismail Karamut, who directs Istanbul's Archaeological Museum, said the finding would force historians to rewrite the country's history. Istanbul, Turkey's largest city with a population of around 12 million, was the country's capital until 1923, when the government moved to Ankara. The city, historically known as Constantinople, was given its modern Turkish name in 1930.

Treasure Trove in Vladimir, Russia!

Pre-Mongolian Hoard Discovered in Vladimir 2.10.2008 Archeologists working in Vladimir have found a hoard of jewelry dating back to the 13th century. The treasure was found in Gertsen Street, near the former cinema Mir. The hoard consisting of beads, crosses, and pendants was wrapped up in fabric with a gold thread and hidden inside of a jug. The digging place where the jewels were discovered had once been part of the Vetshany Town located to the east of the Vladimir Kremlin. Throughout the whole history of archeological research of Vetshany Town the historians found four pre-Mongolian hoards, the last of them discovered in 1998. The latest find is the fifth one. Source: lenta.ru

A Taste of Honey

A lengthy but entertaining article about this ancient history of the bee at Andrew Gough's Arcadia. This is identified as a "bee" next to the "signature of Hapshepsut" by Gough. Hapshepsut was one of the most famous of the female pharaohs of ancient Egypt, who ruled during the 15th century BCE. I'm not necessarily buying everything Gough has to say on the subject of bee worship in antiquity, but he does bring a refreshing slant to the subject of a very important little living being, one which this world cannot long survive without (unless we come up with nano-bees or something like that will take over the process of pollinating kajillions of plants and food crops every year...)

Follow-up: "Christ the Magician" Cup

Key point of interest in this article for me is the reference to the "soothsaying" ritual of using the cup to divine from oil poured on water in Egypt, a practice that dates back to ancient Mesopotamia. So now we know the possible use of the cup (it wasn't for morning coffee): Earliest reference describes Christ as 'magician' By Jennifer Viegas updated 9:23 a.m. CT, Wed., Oct. 1, 2008 A team of scientists led by renowned French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio recently announced that they have found a bowl, dating to between the late 2nd century B.C. and the early 1st century A.D., that is engraved with what they believe could be the world's first known reference to Christ. If the word "Christ" refers to the Biblical Jesus Christ, as is speculated, then the discovery may provide evidence that Christianity and paganism at times intertwined in the ancient world. The full engraving on the bowl reads, "DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS," which has been interpreted by the excavation team to mean either, "by Christ the magician" or, "the magician by Christ." "It could very well be a reference to Jesus Christ, in that he was once the primary exponent of white magic," Goddio, co-founder of the Oxford Center of Maritime Archaeology, said. He and his colleagues found the object during an excavation of the underwater ruins of Alexandria's ancient great harbor. The Egyptian site also includes the now submerged island of Antirhodos, where Cleopatra's palace may have been located. Both Goddio and Egyptologist David Fabre, a member of the European Institute of Submarine Archaeology, think a "magus" could have practiced fortune telling rituals using the bowl. The Book of Matthew refers to "wisemen," or Magi, believed to have been prevalent in the ancient world. According to Fabre, the bowl is also very similar to one depicted in two early Egyptian earthenware statuettes that are thought to show a soothsaying ritual. "It has been known in Mesopotamia probably since the 3rd millennium B.C.," Fabre said. "The soothsayer interprets the forms taken by the oil poured into a cup of water in an interpretation guided by manuals." He added that the individual, or "medium," then goes into a hallucinatory trance when studying the oil in the cup. "They therefore see the divinities, or supernatural beings appear that they call to answer their questions with regard to the future," he said. The magus might then have used the engraving on the bowl to legitimize his supernatural powers by invoking the name of Christ, the scientists theorize. Goddio said, "It is very probable that in Alexandria they were aware of the existence of Jesus" and of his associated legendary miracles, such as transforming water into wine, multiplying loaves of bread, conducting miraculous health cures, and the story of the resurrection itself. While not discounting the Jesus Christ interpretation, other researchers have offered different possible interpretations for the engraving, which was made on the thin-walled ceramic bowl after it was fired, since slip was removed during the process. Bert Smith, a professor of classical archaeology and art at Oxford University, suggests the engraving might be a dedication, or present, made by a certain "Chrestos" belonging to a possible religious association called Ogoistais. Klaus Hallof, director of the Institute of Greek inscriptions at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy, added that if Smith's interpretation proves valid, the word "Ogoistais" could then be connected to known religious groups that worshipped early Greek and Egyptian gods and goddesses, such as Hermes, Athena and Isis. Hallof additionally pointed out that historians working at around, or just after, the time of the bowl, such as Strabon and Pausanias, refer to the god "Osogo" or "Ogoa," so a variation of this might be what's on the bowl. It is even possible that the bowl refers to both Jesus Christ and Osogo. Fabre concluded, "It should be remembered that in Alexandria, paganism, Judaism and Christianity never evolved in isolation. All of these forms of religion (evolved) magical practices that seduced both the humble members of the population and the most well-off classes." "It was in Alexandria where new religious constructions were made to propose solutions to the problem of man, of God's world," he added. "Cults of Isis, mysteries of Mithra, and early Christianity bear witness to this." The bowl is currently on public display in the exhibit "Egypt's Sunken Treasures" at the Matadero Cultural Center in Madrid, Spain, until November 15. © 2008 Discovery Channel

Goddess Chamunda Mata

Ohmygoddess! There evidently was a horrid stampede outside a temple in Jodhpur today that killed more than 150 people, and yet this article makes no mention of the victims other than to use an old myth as a possible explanation for the tragedy! Incredible, absolutely incredible. Here is the story, from The Telegraph of Calcutta Legend ‘back’ to claim young blood Sacrifice story on city lips RAKHEE ROY TALUKDAR Jaipur, Sept. 30: Jodhpur residents see in today’s stampede a parallel with the sacrifice of a young man that Chamunda Mata had, according to legend, demanded when her temple was built. Legend has it that when Rao Jodha, the Rajput ruler who built the city of Jodhpur, installed her idol in the temple in 1460, the goddess appeared in person and asked for bhakh (sacrifice). When the ruler and the priest asked what she wanted as sacrifice, the goddess is said to have asked for someone with 32 teeth intact. This was taken to mean a young man and the priest’s son, Mehran, was sacrificed, according to the legend. Mehrangarh Fort, where the temple is located, is said to be named after him. Since most of the 147 victims today were men between 15 and 25, local residents were talking of the legend of Mehran’s sacrifice. Rao Jodha had brought Chamunda Devi’s idol to Jodhpur from the Parihar capital of Mandore. The goddess was the deity of the Parihar dynasty founded by Harichandra in the sixth century, Mahendra Lalas, a long-time Jodhpur resident and AIR employee, said. The Parihars established the state of Marwar, with its capital in Mandore near Jodhpur, and ruled for more than six centuries. Goddess Chamunda’s blessings were thought to have brought luck to the Parihars, who ultimately lost control of Mandore to the Rathores in the 13th century. Rao Jodha of the Rathore line shifted his capital from Mandore to Jodhpur. He started building Mehrangarh Fort in 1459 and then thought of moving the deity, too, hoping she would bring him luck. Since then, Jodhpur residents revere Chamunda Mata and a visit during Navratri is thought to bring luck for the year ahead. A temple to another Rajput deity, Nagecha, also stands in the Mehrangarh campus but it is the Chamunda temple that draws the crowds, with queues more than 2km long during Navratri.

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Here is another news report about the same stampede - only passing mention of the victims, the focus is on more legends surrounding the Goddess!

Manmade - or Not?

Traces of Ancient Civilization Discovered in Chelyabinck Region (Russia) September 29, 2008 Amazing enormous constructions of stone - megaliths - some of them weighing up to 20 tons, were erected in the Isle of Vera, Lake Turgoyak of Chelyabinsk Region. Researchers have long tried to solve the puzzle of this enigmatic structure. Cooperation of archaeologists and divers has allowed finding out a lot of new things and create many more questions. “First divers went underwater around Turgoyak Lake and then we followed them” - scientist Stanislav Grigoryev says - “the greatest sensation was to see a megalith at the depth of about two meters under water surface. The point is it had been practically impossible to create it underwater. It means that in those times there was a neck of land here and the present day island was a peninsula. During close examination we found some parts that remind of hand-made blockwork”. Source: gzt.ru *********************************** I don't know - need more photographs and measurements. This could just be natural eroded rock formations, somewhat like the Grand Canyon, for instance. No age given, either.

Interesting Assessment of Ancient Greek Tales

An interesting perspective on the war-oriented characteristics of the ancient proto-Greek society portrayed in the ancient epics The Iliad and The Odyssey. Compare to this earlier post about a much later civilization, the Vikings. It's all about the women... Excerpted from Hidden histories 'The Odyssey' and 'The Iliad' are giving up new secrets about the ancient world By Jonathan Gottschall September 28, 2008 In his influential book, "Troy and Homer," German classicist Joachim Latacz argues that the identification of Hisarlik as the site of Homer's Troy is all but proven. Latacz's case is based not only on archeology, but also on fascinating reassessments of cuneiform tablets from the Hittite imperial archives. The tablets, which are dated to the period when the Late Bronze Age city at Hisarlik was destroyed, tell a story of a western people harassing a Hittite client state on the coast of Asia Minor. The Hittite name for the invading foreigners is very close to Homer's name for his Greeks - Achaians - and the Hittite names for their harassed ally are very close to "Troy" and "Ilios," Homer's names for the city. "At the very core of the tale," Latacz argues, "Homer's 'Iliad' has shed the mantle of fiction commonly attributed to it." But if the Trojan War is looking more and more like a historical reality, there is still the question of whether the poems tell us anything about the motives and thinking of the people who actually fought it. Do the epic time machines actually take us back to the Greek culture of the Late Bronze Age? It is almost certain that they do not. Homer's epics are a culmination of a centuries-long tradition of oral storytelling, and extensive cross-cultural studies of oral literature have established that such tales are unreliable as history. Homeric scholars believe that the epics were finally written down sometime in the 8th century BC, which means that the stories of Achilles and Odysseus would have been passed by word of mouth for half a millennium before they were finally recorded in what was, by then, a vastly changed Greek culture. Facts about the war and the people who fought it would have been lost or grossly distorted, as in a centuries-long game of "telephone." Scholars agree that the relatively simple and poor culture Homer describes in his epics is quite sharply at odds with the complex and comparatively rich Greek kingdoms of the Late Bronze Age, when the war would have taken place. But even if the epics make a bad history of Greece in 1200 BC - in the sense of transmitting names, dates, and accurate political details - scholars increasingly agree that they provide a precious window on Greek culture at about the time the poems were finally written down. Moses Finley, who believed that the epics were "no guide at all" to the history of the Trojan War, did believe they were guides to Homer's own culture. And by turning an anthropological eye to the conflicts Homer writes about, we are now learning far more about what that culture was really like. . . . Reconstructing a prehistoric world from literary sources is rife with complications. But there are aspects of life in the Homeric era upon which most scholars agree. Homer paints a coherent picture of Greek attitudes, ideology, customs, manners, and mores that is consistent with the 8th century archeological record, and holds together based on anthropological knowledge about societies at similar levels of cultural development. For instance, we can trust that the Greeks' political organization was loose but not chaotic - probably organized at the level of chiefdoms, not kingdoms or city-states. In the epics we can see the workings of an agrarian economy; we can see what animals they raised and what crops, how they mixed their wine, worshipped their gods, and treated their slaves and women. We can tell that theirs was a warlike world, with high rates of conflict within and between communities. This violence, in fact, opens an important window onto that world. Patterns of violence in Homer are intriguingly consistent with societies on the anthropological record known to have suffered from acute shortages of women. While Homeric men did not take multiple wives, they hoarded and guarded slave women who they treated as their sexual property. These women were mainly captured in raids of neighboring towns, and they appear frequently in Homer. In the poems, Odysseus is mentioned as having 50 slave women, and it is slave women who bear most of King Priam's 62 children. For every slave woman working a rich man's loom and sharing his bed, some less fortunate or formidable man lacks a wife. In pre-state societies around the world - from the Yanomamo of the Amazon basin to the tribes of highland New Guinea to the Inuit of the Arctic - a scarcity of women almost invariably triggers pitched competition among men, not only directly over women, but also over the wealth and social status needed to win them. This is exactly what we find in Homer. Homeric men fight over many different things, but virtually all of the major disputes center on rights to women - not only the famous conflict over Helen, but also over the slave girls Briseis and Chryseis, Odysseus's wife Penelope, and all the nameless women of common Trojan men. As the old counselor Nestor shouts to the Greek hosts, "Don't anyone hurry to return homeward until after he has lain down alongside a wife of some Trojan!" The war between Greeks and Trojans ends in the Rape of Troy: the massacre of men, and the rape and abduction of women. These events are not the rare savageries of a particularly long and bitter war - they are one of the major points of the war. Homeric raiders always hoped to return home with new slave-concubines. Achilles conveys this in his soul-searching assessment of his life as warrior: "I have spent many sleepless nights and bloody days in battle, fighting men for their women." Historical studies of literature are sometimes criticized for ignoring, or even diminishing, the artistic qualities that draw people to literature in the first place. But understanding how real history underlies the epics makes us appreciate Homer's art more, not less. We can see Homer pioneering the artistic technique of taking a backbone of historical fact and fleshing it over with contemporary values and concerns - the same technique used later by Virgil in "The Aeneid," by Shakespeare in his history plays, and by Renaissance painters depicting the Bible and classical antiquity. And understanding Homer's own society gives us a new perspective on the oppressive miasma of fatalism and pessimism that pervades "The Iliad" and, to a lesser but still palpable extent, "The Odyssey." While even the fiercest fighters understand that peace is desirable, they feel doomed to endless conflict. As Odysseus says, "Zeus has given us [the Greeks] the fate of winding down our lives in hateful war, from youth until we perish, each of us." A shortage of women helps to explain more about Homeric society than its relentless violence. It may also shed light on the origins of a tragic and pessimistic worldview, a pantheon of gods deranged by petty vanities, and a people's resignation to the inevitability of "hateful war." Jonathan Gottschall teaches English at Washington & Jefferson College. He is the author of "The Rape of Troy: Evolution, Violence, and the World of Homer," and he is currently at work on a novel of the Homeric age called "Odysseus, A True Story." © Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

New Artifact Found Near Bosnian "Pyramid"

The DailyGrail.com reported on this today, from Philip Coppens' website: September 29, 2008 A small pyramid for science, a big discovery for the Bosnian Pyramid (from Road News) An archaeological site in Donje Mostre, in the Bosnian Valley of the Pyramid, has unveiled a Neolithic artefact that has been dated to 6000-3000 BC. The discovery was made by students of the German University of Kiel on September 23, and was announced by Zilke Kujundžic, who is actually one of the main opponents to the pyramid project, having filed numerous petitions for the work to be stopped, claiming the entire project is a hoax. (Image from article). We need to specify she actually labelled the object a pyramid. The small ceramic pyramid – in some reports also referred to as a benben stone, because of apparent visual similarities with such stones in Egypt – is a major discovery, showing that local people, millennia ago, created ceramic objects in the shape of a pyramid. One can only wonder why, noting that Donje Mostre is also the location where giant rectangular stone blocks have been found, some of which are definitely manmade. Nevertheless, being the extreme (one might argue irrational) critic she is, Kujundžic has refused to admit she might be wrong, stating that the find is “not related” to the nearby pyramids. Meanwhile, Kujundžic was also accused of not having shared the discovery with the local Visoko museum. It is no doubt divine irony that some of the best archaeological evidence for the reality of the pyramids, has been unearthed by one of its fiercest opponents.

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Hmmmmm... I'm all for a more serious effort to investigate and excavate the "pyramid" shaped hill in Bosnia. On the other hand, showing us an artifact like this is distinctly NOT helpful, not even when publicized by Philip Coppens. First of all, assuming this artifact is not a fake plant, it's pretty damn obvious from the photograph that it was scrubbed clean. Sacrilege! Second, no word at all about it's relative dimensions, although we can see it's about hand size - but who's hand? Third, what are those imprints? Is that writing? Art work? If it is writing, what kind of writing? What the hell does it say? Any guesses? Fourth, no link was given to a press release in the Bosnian press or a linked citation to a place where we can find further information on this object. Where was the announcement made? On e-Bay? Fifth, the photo is blurred. I cannot help but wonder whether that was done on purpose! Sixth, why the 3,000 year spread in the age of the object? Surely the initial field reports could narrow down this date range by an examination of the strata surrounding the excavation. Ridiculous! This kind of flash and tease stuff does not help people interested in advancing a serious inquiry! Now, about ben ben stones, here's a quick summary from Wikipedia: The Benben stone, named after the mound, was a sacred stone in the solar temple of Heliopolis. It was the location on which the first rays of the sun fell. It is thought to have been the prototype for later obelisks, and the capstones of the great pyramids were based on its design. Their tips (pyramidia) were probably gilded. The phoenix, the benu bird, was venerated at Heliopolis, where it was said to be living on the Benben or on the holy willow. According to B. Kemp the connection between the benben, the phoenix and the sun may well have been based on alliteration: the rising, weben, of the sun sending its rays towards the benben, on which the benu bird lives. Utterance 600 of the Pyramid Texts speaks of Atum as you rose up, as the benben, in the Mansion of the Benu in Heliopolis (Hart, p.16). (Image from Paradigmshift, which has some interesting commentary and comparisons between the ancient Egyptian imagery and ancient Indian imagery of the creation myth; the stone is identified as a capstone found at Dashur and said to have been the capstone of the Bent Pyramid, no provenance given or where the photo was taken).

Auction Watch

What is this - one of only 64 known versions (tsk, tsk) of the painting "The Peaceable Kingdom" failed to sell at a recent Christie's auction (estimated value $4 million to $6 million USD). Are the uber rich feeling the pinch of the market crash, just like the rest of us poor schmucks whose 401(k) plans have tanked while the Wall Street Whizzes pissed all over us, laughing all the way to their numbered Swiss bank accounts? Ah, gee, poor babies. Even the Sackler Trust is divesting some of its fine collection - they say that it is to acquire capital in order to explore possible new purchases (ahem). Yeah, right. The world of Christie's and Sotheby's fine art and collectibles auctions are not for the likes of yours truly. But it's fun reading about them, sort of like reading about the discovery of new life on Venus or Pluto. From The New York Times Antiques Lions Gather With Lambs at Christie’s and Sotheby’s By WENDY MOONAN Published: September 25, 2008 At Christie’s and Sotheby’s It’s a big week for Edward Hicks at the auction houses. Christie’s had a version of his allegorical painting “The Peaceable Kingdom” (1835-40) for auction on Thursday. Estimated at $4 million to $6 million, it didn’t sell. On Friday Sotheby’s will have a smaller, earlier one, from the collection of Edward Peerman Moore, a naval commander in the Pacific theater in World War II who died in 1968, and his wife, Barbara Bingham Moore, who worked during the war as a decoder for the cryptography department of the Navy. She died this year. The 127-lot sale is expected to total $7 million. The Moores’ “Peaceable Kingdom” is dated 1829-30. On the painting’s left side Quakers hold banners proclaiming peace. On the right a sheep, fox, cow and leopard surround a child hugging a lion. (Later versions have more animals.) The picture has its original frame with an inscription in Hicks’s hand. “There are 64 known versions of the painting but only five with this particular composition, and two of them are in museums,” said Nancy Druckman of Sotheby’s. The Moore collection also features antiques from all the major colonial cabinetmaking centers. Highlights include, from Philadelphia, two sets of fine Queen Anne side chairs and a rare Queen Anne compass-seat footstool; from Massachusetts, a Chippendale mahogany chest-on-chest and Simon Willard wall clock; from New York, a spider-leg drop-leaf table; from Rhode Island, a Chippendale mahogany block-front desk and bookcase and several colorful maritime paintings by Thomas Chambers. (On Saturday the Philadelphia Museum of Art will open “Thomas Chambers, 1808-1869: American Marine and Landscape Painter.”) For Lot 20 Sotheby’s removed the upholstery from a Philadelphia wing chair, from around 1770, so collectors could study its serpentine frame and flaring wings. “People love to see the inside,” said Erik Gronning, an Americana specialist at Sotheby’s. “The chair is in amazing shape. There is no significant restoration.” He said it would have been considered a status symbol in its day: “It has bold claw feet, C-scroll arms, a high crest and strongly carved shells on the knees.” And, most important, it hasn’t been messed with. “Mrs. Moore left things as she found them, whatever condition they were in,” Mr. Gronning said. The estimate is $300,000 to $800,000. SACKLER’S CHINESE AT AUCTION Theow H. Tow, deputy chairman of Christie’s Americas and Asia, has announced an auction of 150 works of Chinese art from the Arthur M. Sackler collections in a single-owner sale at Christie’s in New York on March 18. Mr. Tow said the archaic jades, bronze vessels, ceramics, weapons, pieces of classical furniture and classical paintings had been in storage for years. “We have a good working relationship with the trustees of the Arthur M. Sackler Collections Trust, and we will be part of the process of picking which things go into the sale and which will be loaned to other institutions,” he said. The sale is expected to raise $4 million. Dr. Sackler (1913-1987), a New York research psychiatrist who made his fortune in medical advertising, medical trade publications and over-the-counter drugs, collected widely and developed a strong taste for Chinese art. He was also a philanthropist, endowing galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Princeton University, the Smithsonian and the Royal Academy in London. He established museums at Harvard and at Beijing University. The trust, which includes members of the Sackler family, said it was divesting “to consolidate and redefine their holdings of art from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections” and was “selling this particular group of objects in order to explore options to make appropriate acquisitions.” As a preview Christie’s is showing, by appointment, “Birds and Ducks,” a set of four large hanging scrolls by the painter Bada Shanren (1626-1705). Christie’s estimates the set will sell for $300,000 to $500,000. “Bada is widely known — the Met has a couple of his paintings — and our scrolls are in very good condition,” said Elizabeth M. Hammer, Christie’s specialist in Chinese paintings. “The ink is not very faded, and the scrolls are satin, so the color didn’t change.” A son and grandson of painters, Bada wanted to be a poet and painter, but as a member of the Ming imperial family, he had to flee to a monastery for safety when the Manchus took control in 1644. He served as a Buddhist priest for 30 years, then left the monastery to paint. He was eccentric, perhaps mad, which may or may not explain the purposeful ambiguity in his work. The scrolls at Christie’s depict lotus, plantain and bamboo in a rocky setting populated by birds in different poses. “Glaring eyes, the ‘white eyes’ of anger, stare out from fish, birds and animals,” Richard M. Barnhart writes about Bada’s style in “Master of the Lotus Garden: The Life and Art of Bada Shanren” (Yale University Press). “Fish are transformed into birds, rocks into lotus, ducks into plantain, and a bleak impassioned world of exiles in their own country is given form.” Mr. Barnhart continues: “Trees are stunted and broken, like men’s lives, and the lotus holds within itself virtue, redemption and rebirth in another realm.” Now widely admired in the West, Bada was only rediscovered by the Chinese after the fall of the Manchus in 1911. Mr. Barnhart called him a “major inspiration for Chinese masters of our time.”

Matilde of Canossa a/k/a Matilda of Tuscany

This image shows Matilde of Canossa (a/k/a Matilda of Tuscany), sometime during her life (1046-1115 CE) and some high bishop mucky-muck in the Roman Catholic Church sitting his bad old butt on the back of a dog. What a jerk!

The caption on this image says "Enrico IV invoca l’abate di Cluny e Matilde perché intervengano in suo favore presso Gregorio VII a Canossa. Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana."

 There were many very powerful women throughout history, and the late Middle Ages were no exception. Marilyn Yalom wrote about many of them in her informative and entertain book "The Birth of the Chess Queen." It's not explicitly stated in the article, but I presume (given the title below), that this is a precise of a new exhibit being shown at the Casa Del Mantegna in Mantua, Italy.

 From ArtDaily.org on September 21, 2008

  Matilde of Canossa: The Papacy and the Empire Opened at Casa del Mantegna MANTUA.- The two universal powers dominating Europe in the Middle Ages, the Empire and the Papacy, the bishops, the cities, the nobles, the peasants...

 An insight into the society of the first two centuries after the year 1000 has been provided casting new light on the life of Matilda of Canossa, “la comitissa” or “the Great Countess” who kept control of the key territories between Rome and the Alps, including those at the heart of the Padan plain crossed by the Po River and the lands along the Apennines.

 The strength and loneliness of this outstanding yet emblematic woman of this era may be the starting point for a line of reasoning leading to the discovery of a world of deep transformation through a suggestive visual narration unfolding into gemmed crosses, seals, tapestries, ivories, jewels, sculptures, altars, swords and tools from the Italian and European museums. Through a display of archaeological finds which have never been shown before, paintings depicting scenes of the world and, not least, agricultural tools, this exhibition provides a picture of the landscape and living environment in the eleventh and twelfth century, also revealing the remains of the Roman roads, the route along the Po River and its affluents providing a network of navigable waterways, and the mountain passes of the Alps and Apennines.

 Matilda of Canossa, an outstanding figure under many respects, albeit profoundly linked to her world — has been one of the more influential women of her age. She was the sole heiress of a great feudal dynasty and made crucial political decisions which contributed to signalling the end of an epoch and led to the rise of communal life, urban cities and individual freedom. The years running from Matilda’s birth in Mantua, possibly in 1046, to her death, in 1115, were marked by a ferment of revolutionary ideas underpinning the Church’s reforms, the struggle over investitures and the dispute between the Papacy and the Empire.

The blood relationship with the Imperial family, the marriage relationships with the Dukes of Lorraine and the House of Welf, the alliance with Pope Gregory VII, the contacts with the Abbot Hugh of Cluny and with Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, were the key factors making Matilda and her “court” the linchpin of military disputes, mediations, strategies and even episodes having a great symbolic impact, such as Henry IV’s penitence that moved the Pope to grant him absolution at the Castle of Canossa, in January 1077. In Matilda’s life, her personal vicissitudes, the two unhappy marriages and the death of her baby daughter intertwined with succession and political decisions.

By virtue of the unconditional support to the Papacy she is remembered, lonely and powerful, as a heroine of the Church of Rome deserving to be buried in St. Peter’s Basilica (after the transfer of her remains from the Polirone abbey church, where she decided to be buried). Yet, due to such backing, she became an easy target for calumny and allegations on her private life. However, an ambivalent myth was born and, growing through fascinating legends, celebrations and smear, it survived until this day.

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Hmmmm, sounds like I need to read up on this woman. You can find more information on the exhibit (there are three parts to it) and Matilda here.