Possible Temple of Demeter Discovered in Sicily

Archaeologists unearth temple to Demeter in Sicily

11 July, 18:17

Una delle statuette ritrovate
Source

ANSAmed) - Rome, July 11 - Archaeologists have discovered what may be among the oldest remains at the ancient site of Selinunte: an ancient temple.

Inside, fragments have been found that help explain the site's significance: an offering to Demeter, the goddess of grain and agriculture; a small flute, made of bone and dating to 570 BC; a small Corinthian vase.

These findings are critically important in helping archeologists to date the temple where they were found, to around the 6th century BC - possibly the oldest in the archaeological area of Selinunte in Sicily.

They've been unearthed in recent months by a team led by Clemente Marconi of New York University, working with the Department of Culture and Identity in Sicily and Selinunte Archaeological Park Together, they've also identified the remains of a central colonnade and nearby are pottery shards dated from around 650 BC, including a long vessel decorated with grazing animals.

The research confirms assumptions made about the history and age of temple.

Particularly significant, researchers say, was the discovery of the flute, which suggests musical performances and dances related to worship of the goddess Demeter, depicted on a series of Corinthian vases found in the area.

Researchers still hope to better understand the dimensions and the age of the temple, within the context of the full archeological site of Selinunte. (ANSAmed).

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA

Statue picture came from this article in Italian.  Who is She?  Is this an image of Demeter?  All the caption says (translated via Google Translate is "One of the statues found." 

The Peopling of America: Looking at Western Stemmed Points

This is a synopsis of recent research and current thinking on how various peoples arrived in the Americas, and when.  Stay tuned for further developments.  With new dating techniques now available and local colleges stepping up efforts to continue and begin new excavations in view of the federal government's massive budget cuts that formerly supported archaeological programs around the USA, I've no doubt we'll be reading about new insights and perhaps even paradigm shifts in dating.

Identity of First Americans Questioned

By Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer | LiveScience.com – Thu, Jul 12, 2012

Ancient stone projectile points discovered in a Central Oregon cave complex have cast new light on the identity of the first Americans.

While scientists agree they crossed the Bering Strait during an ice age, no one knows the identity of the first people to spread across the North American continent.

For some time, these first Americans were believed to have belong to a single group, called the Clovis culture, named for the New Mexican site where their distinctive, 13,000-year-old projectile points were first found.

However, some have questioned this theory, and these newly discovered projectile points, the sort of stone tips added to spears, appear to add weight to these questions.

These stone points, a type known as Western Stemmed points, are narrower and lack the distinctive flute, or shallow groove, found on Clovis points. Researchers believe the two types of points represent different technologies, produced by different cultures.

"This brings into focus the concept that other people or perhaps even multiple waves of people bringing other technologies were certainly involved in the first colonization [of the Americas]," said researcher Dennis Jenkins, an archaeologist at the University of Oregon, in a podcast issued by the journal Science, where the work is published. 

Dating these Western stemmed points accurately was key, since others like them have been found elsewhere; they are common on the U.S. West Coast and in the Great Basin of Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon and California.

These are generally believed to be younger than Clovis points. However, researchers have had difficulty finding materials that can be reliably dated at the Western Stemmed point sites, Jenkins said during a press conference yesterday (July 11).

Archaeologists often look at the decay of radioactive carbon atoms within organic material to determine its age. In Oregon's Paisley Caves, where the four new Western stemmed points showed up, the researchers found some of the ancient organic material they needed, most notably, in coprolites, or dried feces, carrying human DNA.

The coprolites appeared to have been left behind at about the same time as the nearby projectile points.

Radiocarbon dating put the coprolites and other organic samples located near the points at more than 13,000 years old. The team examined the sedimentary layers and the artifacts to determine if the sediment, and as a result the timeline preserved as new layers are laid down, had been disrupted or if the samples had been contaminated.

As a result, they determined that the projectile points — which were broken and appear to have been cast aside as garbage — were as old or older than Clovis points found elsewhere.

"The radiocarbon dates we got have answered the question, are Western stemmed points as old as Clovis. It's been debated since the 1970s, and we have established that fact beyond question," Jenkins said in the podcast. "It certainly reinforces or substantiates, if you will, the concept that there were multiple cultural influences here during the Pleistocene [when the Americas were first colonized]."

The research is detailed in Friday's (July 13) issue of the journal Science.

Sheboygan's Chess in the Park Hopes to Grow Future GMs

My chess buddy, Ellen Wanek!  Give a shout-out and a hearty round of applause, please!

Article from The Sheboygan Press Online

Of kings, queens and castles: Chess in the Park helps children improve game during summer

11:36 PM, Jul 13, 2012

There's no doubt in Ellen Wanek's mind the popularity of chess has grown in local schools.

So to continue students' excitement about the strategy-filled board game during the summer months, Wanek, the chess coach at four area schools, began a weekly club known as Chess in the Park. Each Monday from 6 to 8 p.m., elementary, middle and high school chess club members bring their families and friends to Vollrath Park to play chess.

Wanek — the chess coach at Lake Country Academy, Lincoln-Erdman Elementary School, Horace Mann Middle School and Sheboygan Christian School — said she promotes chess as much as possible because of the mental development it creates in children who play. She said research has shown that chess improves students' IQ, math skills, reading skills, critical thinking skills and it develops memory.

"But here's something really special," Wanek said. "Chess develops into your thinking that you actually think through the consequences of all your actions. At tournaments, when kids are under a lot of pressure, they're able to develop a sense of self-control and discipline, where they think through the consequences of a multitude of different choices. That's life-changing in the lives of children."

The large crowd (about 30 people usually play each week) at Chess in the Park this past Monday night included players of all ages, between 4 and 61 years old, and was a promising sight for local chess enthusiasts, like Plymouth High School chess coach Stephan Des Moulin.

"There's a lot of schools here in Sheboygan that are getting a good following in the chess clubs," Des Moulin said. "There are some pretty talented young players."

Students from all different schools have a chance to connect at Chess in the Park, along with their parents and siblings. Des Moulin said it's a good way to get kids to view chess as a fun activity, rather than a school-only activity.

(For instance:) Avinash Murthy, a 12-year-old seventh-grader at Lake Country Academy, has been playing chess since he was 3. His grandfather taught him how to play, and this past school year he played competitively as a part of his school's newly formed chess club.

2012 Milwaukee Summer Challenge

Hola darlings!  Taking place right now down at the Wyndham Milwaukee Airport Hotel on Layton just south of Howell Avenue -- a nice playing venue. 

To update, I visited the blog of my adopted chess club, Southwest Chess Club, and as of about 9:30 last night there were 61 pre-registered players.  When official play began this morning, there were 75 PLAYERS!  A fantastic walk-up registration the morning-of and a great turnout for this first-ever Milwaukee event. 

No official results posted yet.  It's going to be a long busy day for the organizers with rounds at 10:00 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.!  EEK! 

I'm not sure how this all works with prizes.  The prizes advertised were for a registration of 40 players.  Since there were nearly double that amount, what does that mean for prizes?  I've no idea.  I should ask! 

I am eager to see if any more chess femmes registered this morning.  I'll let you know as soon as I do.  Stay tuned for more...  Meanwhile, Ellen Wanek and I are mixing up our pawns in a game over at chess.com.  She snatched a pawn from me, curses!  But I have a few tricks up my sleeve, bwaahaahaa!  I won't go down without a nasty bloody fight, Ellen.  You may outrate me by 300 points, but you don't scare me at all.  Ha!  You're just too nice.

2012 Milwaukee Summer Challenge: Prize Update!

You read it here first!  (Sounds like an old International Chessoid headline!)  Yep, Goddesschess is giving an opportunity for some G-chess love to be spread among male and female players alike by increasing the kitty for Best Game Prizes.   More below --

Because we now know that there will not be at least two (or any) females competing in the Master/Expert section of the 2012 Milwaukee Summer Challenge, we have decided to allocate the $100 in prize money set aside for a chess femme prize in that Section as follows:

(1):  U-2000 Section, top female finisher prize is increased by $25 to $100
(2):  U-1500 Section, top female finisher prize remains at $50, and a second place prize of $25 is added
(3):  U-1000 Section, prize qualification ($25 for top female finisher) is reduced to two female players competing in the Section from three

$50 left over from the intended prize for a chess femme competing in the Master/Expert Section has been donated to the Best Game Prizes fund to increase it accordingly.  This is the original Best Game Prizes structure:

Best Game Prizes: Master/Expert Section $50; U2000 Section $25; and U1500 Section $25.)

We at Goddesschess hope that some chess femmes will submit their games - from whatever Section they play in - for consideration as a best game.  We all know that those male chess masters and experts play a lot of boring chess against each other - snore... even if no one is rude enough to mention that fact.  Oops.  Pretend you didn't just read that :)

2012 Milwaukee Summer Challenge

There's still time to register - you can register tomorrow prior to the tournament's start!  There has been a great turn-out for the premiere of this event.  Southwest Chess Club went out on a limb to put this together (they are not a large or particularly well-financed chess club, by any means!) and I'm so happy to see players coming out in support!  With this kind of participation, I hope we will see a 2013 Milwaukee Summer Challenge.

Milwaukee Summer Challenge, July 14-15, 2012

5SS; G/120 with 5 second delay; 4 Sections: Master/Expert (closed), U2000, U1500, and U1000.

Wyndham Milwaukee Airport Hotel, 4747 S. Howell Avenue, Milwaukee, 414-481-8000 (mention Southwest Chess Club for $79 room rate).

EF: $40 All Sections (except U1000); U1000 Entry Fee: $25; all $5 more after 7/11. Prizes based on 40 total entries.
Master/Expert (closed section): 1st-$300, 2nd-$200, 3rd-$100;
U2000: 1st-$150;
U1500: 1st-$80;
U1000: 1st-$50.

Reg: 8:30-9:30; Rds: Saturday, July 14: 10:00am, 2:30pm, and 7:00pm, Sunday July 15: 10:00am and 2:30pm. ENT: Allen Becker, N112 W17033 Vista Court, Apt. D, Germantown, WI 53022; Questions: TD Tom Fogec, 414-405-4207 (cell) (Best Game Prizes: Master/Expert Section $50; U2000 Section $25; and U1500 Section $25.)

REVISED BYE POLICY

You can take one 1/2 point bye in any round. You need to request the bye prior to the start of the tournament. All bye requests are irrevocable (you may not change your mind at a later time).

FLYER

Note: Anupama Rajendra, winner of the National All Girls Championship recently held in Chicago, has entered this weekend's event.

Goddess Chess Prizes for this event:

(1) in Master/Expert, $100 to top scoring female finisher provided at least 2 females play;

(2) in U2000, $75, to top scoring female finisher provided at least 2 females play;

(3) in U1500, $50, to top scoring female finisher provided at least 3 females play;

(4) in U1000, $25, to top scoring female finisher provided at least 3 females play;

There are no tie-breaks; if tie score the prize money is split; and

Must score a draw or win in any section to qualify for prize.

Many thanks to GM Susan Polgar's mighty blog for picking up the story and publishing it for Southwest Chess Club.

Whoop whoop whoop!  So happy about Anupama Rajendra coming to play at the Challenge! 

According to Southwest Chess Club's blog info (I'm writing this at 7:30 p.m. more or less, so there will probably be later updates), current registration:

Master/Expert:  11
U-2000:  22
U-1500:  19
U-1000:  8

Two Huang sisters are playing!  Two Ulrich sisters are playing!  A national female champion is playing! 

Stay tuned -- we're doing some tinkering with the prizes for the chess femmes, but we need to clear things with the organizers first!

Virgin Mary: Limited Time Only, Now Appearing in Tree

From the San Francisco Chronicle Online

Faithful see Virgin Mary in tree, flock to NJ city

Updated 02:58 p.m., Friday, July 13, 2012

WEST NEW YORK, N.J. (AP) — People are flocking to a tree in northern New Jersey where some say they see the image of the Virgin Mary.

Makeshift shrines have sprung up by the tree in West New York. People have been praying, crying and leaving flowers and candles as they look at the small opening where the bark was stripped away.

A fence and other barricades also have been set up around the tree, which is in a sidewalk along a commercial strip.

Newark Archdiocese spokesman Jim Goodness tells The Journal of Jersey City (http://bit.ly/ShP4sI) the image is likely "some discoloration that resembles Our Lady of Guadalupe."

___

Information from: The Jersey Journal, http://www.nj.com/jjournal

 

Some prior Virgin Mary sightings I've reported on -- a note -- Blogger changed its formatting protocols without telling anyone ahead of time in 2008, and so many of my prior posts that used to be perfectly formatted lost ALL of their formatting when the change-over was made.  There are just too many prior posts that have had their formatting destroyed to go back and try to fix them all -- I'm not even going to bother!  So, please bear with the block structure with no paragraph breaks or differentiation for different size/color/types of fonts, etc.


Virgin Mary Sightings to Be Investigated By Vatican
July 3, 2008

Virgin Mary in a Tree Trunk
August 28, 1008

Worship at Site of Virgin Mary Apparition Banned
February 5, 2009

Irish Spot Virgin Mary in Tree Stump, Oy Vey!
July 10, 2009

Donegal Shrine Virgin 'Comes to Life' (not a Virgin in a tree - a Virgin in a statue of the - Virgin!)
October 27, 2009

"Mother of God" Making Miracles Near Green Bay, Wisconsin
July 15, 2011

The Virgin seems to have an affinity for trees and tree stumps, doesn't she.  This could not possibly be because she was a goddess of nature for thousands of years before she was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church as its Mother of God  (Theotokos)-- surely not! 

Royal Mongolian Burial Discovered in Salt Mine

This was under "Latest News" at Minerva Online -- no date attached, so I really have no idea how current this story might be (possibly May, 2012):

Royal Mongolian mother and child found in salt mine

The mummified bodies of a Mongolian queen and her baby have been discovered in south-west Mongolia, in the territory of Bayankhongor, near the Chinese border. The bodies were recovered from a salt mine by a team of researchers from the National University of Mongolia after the possibility of burial sites in rock caves was raised by the governor of the local administrative district. It was feared that the caves, which contain rock salt, could be exploited by miners with detrimental effect on the integrity of the sites. Thought to belong to the Yuan Dynasty, the dominant power in Mongolia and northern China between 1271 and 1368, the cave contained the mummified woman, and a child wrapped in a sheepskin. The burial was identified as royal by the presence of numerous high-prestige objects including a royal headdress with copper and pearl ornamentation, copper earrings, a mirror and a comb. The remains of a woman, reckoned to be aged 60, with remnants of clothes, a belt buckle, and a wooden bow was also unearthed. Experts are currently working to stabilise and preserve the objects and with a view to showing them in the exhibition, Chinggis Khaan and Archaeological Discoveries of Mongolians, which will be held to celebrate the 850th birthday of Genghis Khan later this year in Kharkhoran Museum.

Alexander Ekserdjian

Oh please! Unless the rules of nature have changed drastically in about 500 years, no way was a 60 year old woman the mother of an "child" unless the child was at least 10 to 12 years old!  Give me a break! There is no way really, of knowing if there was even a relationship between the woman and the child unless/until DNA testing is done or some names are found or a couple of inscriptions that describe who the woman and child are.  For all we know at present, the child could have been a human sacrifice and the buried woman was never a mother at all!  Have they done a virginity check???  (That's a joke, people!)

Queen Victoria's Mysterious 'Inca' Crown

What a fabulous story! From Minerva Online

A gold crown presented to Queen Victoria in 1862 has always been thought of as a symbol of power from the Inca civilisation, but new research reveals that its origins may be even more intriguing.
Deborah Clarke of the Royal Collection, who began researching the crown's history in preparation for the exhibition Treasures from The Queen's Palaces, asked two experts at the British Museum to look at this extraordinary object. During testing and examination, it was established that the crown, excavated in Chordeleg in southern Ecuador in 1854 and later presented to Queen Victoria by the president of Ecuador, may not have been made by the Incas.

The crown was examined by Dr Colin McEwan, Curator for Latin American Collections, and Susan La Niece, Senior Metallurgist in the British Museum's Department of Conservation and Scientific Research. They came to the conclusion that the style of the crown and techniques used to make it indicate that it was probably fashioned by skilled metalsmiths belonging to the Cañari ethnic group in the Cuenca region of southern Ecuador, where it was found.

The Cañari ruled a powerful confederation that was not conquered by invading Inca armies until the mid-15th century – one of the last areas to be added to their empire.

Dr McEwan has determined that this crown is part of an impressive hoard that includes objects now held in the National Museum of the American Indian, in Washington DC .

He explained that the crown 'was clearly used by a person of high status as an emblem of lordly or royal authority, forming part of a suite of golden regalia, along with bracelets and anklets.

'Stylistic details suggest that the crown belongs to a pre-Inca Northern Andean gold-working tradition, which encompassed the coast and northern highlands of Peru and the southern highlands of Ecuador … the crown could have been worn by a Cañari lord well before the Inca invasion in the 15th century.

'The crown's spectacular gold plume, though, suggests a second theory: it may have been made by local Cañari craftsmen employed by their royal Inca conquerors. This plume was designed to shimmer and move, to catch and reflect the sunlight, like the feathered plumes that Inca royalty wore in their crowns; it would have been a symbol of solar power and the Incas' divine right to rule.

'It's a little bit of a detective story, and we have only one part of the jigsaw puzzle,' explains Dr McEwan. 'The plume raises the question of whether it was commissioned by the Incas and provides valuable clues to the relationship between the Inca and the Cañaris. The application of innovative analytical techniques such as XRF [a non-destructive X-ray technique used to analyse metals] here at the British Museum allows us better to understand the technology deployed to make the crown, and also now to compare it stylistically with other far-flung objects in other museum collections.

' We are planning a scientific paper that will finally reconnect the crown to the related body of objects from the same tradition for the first time.' Lindsay Fulcher

The crown is on show in Royal Collection Treasures from The Queen's Palaces at The Queen's Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh (0131 556 5100; www.royalcollection.org.uk)
until 4 November 2012.

9th Philadelphia International Open

June 29 - July 3, 2012
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
I could not find information at the official website to match-up with what was reported at The Week in Chess.  I trust TWIC:

77 players - TWIC only reported top finishers, so I do not have a complete player list.

Winner was GM Abhijeet Gupta (IND 2644) with 7.5/9 and a prize of $2,000.00.  Top finishing females as reported at TWIC:

16th: WGM Eesha Karavade (IND 2353), 5.5
17th: WGM Padmini Rout (IND 2345), 5.5
22nd: IM Tania Sachdev (IND 2417), 5.0
24th: IM Nisha Mohota (IND 2321), 5.0
35th: WIM Viktorija Ni (USA 2228), 4.5

40th World Open

July 2 - 8, 2012
Philadelphia, PA
Official website

There are several different sections and different playing schedules.  A large contingent of foreign players comes over every year, many from India, to take advantage of the overlap with the Philadelphia Open.  I'm only reporting the Open and top U-2400 female finishers, plus the final table from the Women's Championship.

In the Open, a GM norm was scored by IM Eesha Karavade!

The Open title was won by GM Ivan Sokolov after an Armageddon play-off with GM Alexander Shabalov.  Both players scored 7.0/9.  IM Eesha Karavade (IND 2343) finished in a very respectable 19th place overall in the Open with 6.0/9 and took home prize money of $636.25. 

I hope I didn't miss any chess femmes -- I see the following in the Open (final standings):

54th: FM Kassa Korley (USA 2298) 4.5
56th: WIM Viktorija NI (USA 2264) 4.5
64th: IM Tania Sachdev (IND 2394) 4.0
68th: WGM Anna Sharevich (BLR 2258) 4.0
70th: WIM Nadia Ortiz (COL 2230) 4.0
82nd: Sarah Chiang (USA 2102) 3.5
100th: Jennifer Acon (USA 1832) 2.5

In the U-2400 Section, top female finishers were:

5th: IM Nisha Mohota (IND 2376) 6.5, prize of $897.63
13th: WGM Padmini Rout (IND 2354) 6.0, prize of $70.34
16th: WIM Iryna Zenyuk (USA 2327) 6.0, prize of $70.34

There was a Women's Championship this year, and two of the lovely Ulrich sisters (I have met them at the Hales Corners Chess Challenges held in April and October every year in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) participated.  Here are the final standings:

World Open 2012 Standings – Women’s Championship

Final Standings

#	Name	Rtng	St	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Tot	Prize
1	Apurva Virkud	2020	MI	W16	W7	W4	D2	W3	W5	5.5	$500.00
2	Guijue Zhou	2260	CHN	W9	W6	D3	D1	W4	W7	5.0	$300.00
3	Jessica Regam	2021	PA	W10	W13	D2	W5	L1	W6	4.5	$200.00
4	WFM Anna Levina	2111	NY	W14	D5	L1	W7	L2	W8	3.5
5	WFM Danitza Vazquez Maccarini	1975	PR	W15	D4	W6	L3	D8	L1	3.0
6	Jennifer Acon	1923	CA	W12	L2	L5	W13	W11	L3	3.0
7	Rachel J Ulrich	1818	WI	W11	L1	W14	L4	W10	L2	3.0
8	Saithanusri Avirneni	1632	GA	H—	L9	W12	W11	D5	L4	3.0
9	Jayashree Sekar	1609	GA	L2	W8	L11	L15	W13	W12	3.0
10	Alisa Kikuchi	1335	NY	L3	D12	D13	W14	L7	W15	3.0	$220.00
11	Nancy R Guimaraes	unr.	NJ	L7	W16	W9	L8	L6	W14	3.0
12	Anne E Ulrich	928	WI	L6	D10	L8	W16	W15	L9	2.5	$190.00
13	Sheena Zeng	862	KS	B—	L3	D10	L6	L9	W16	2.5	$190.00
14	Samhitha Dasari	1365	GA	L4	W15	L7	L10	W16	L11	2.0
15	Srihitha Dasari	961	GA	L5	L14	W16	W9	L12	L10	2.0	$160.00
16	Christin Mitchell	1154	PA	L1	L11	L15	L12	L14	L13	0.0

2012 Russia v. China Match

Hola everyone!  This information from The Week in Chess:

RUS-CHN Classic Wom

Sun 1st Jul 2012

Mon 9th Jul 2012

St Petersburg

RUS

10 Players.

5 Rounds.

Schev

Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1)

RUS-CHN Classic Wom St Petersburg RUS Sun 1st Jul 2012 - Mon 9th Jul 2012 Leading Final Round 5 Standings:
Rk	Team	1	2	3	4	5	Pts
1	China	3	2	3½	3	3	14½
2	Russia	2	3	1½	2	2	10½

RUS-CHN Rapid Women

Sun 1st Jul 2012

Mon 9th Jul 2012

St Petersburg

RUS

10 Players.

10 Rounds.

Schev

Time Control: 15m+10spm

RUS-CHN Rapid Women St Petersburg RUS Sun 1st Jul 2012 - Mon 9th Jul 2012 Leading Final Round 10 Standings:
Rk	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pts
1	Russia	4½	4½	2	2½	3	2½	2	1½	3½	3	29
2	China	½	½	3	2½	2	2½	3	3½	1½	2	21

I don't have team make-up because the official website is only available in Russian and I don't have time to go hunting down the team lists.

Taliban Accused of Brutal Killing of Woman

Locals vow revenge for Afghan woman's execution

By Hamid Shalizi | Reuters – 2 hrs 54 mins ago

CHARIKAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Sayed Jalal furrowed his eyebrows in anger as he vowed to avenge the public execution of a woman in front of a large crowd not far from Kabul, brazen violence that spurred shock and sharp condemnation from Afghan authorities and the United States.

The Taliban denied involvement in the killing in Parwan province, in which an unnamed woman's head and body were riddled with bullets at close range in punishment for alleged adultery.

Authorities in Kabul directly blamed the Islamist group.  "We will take revenge for this. Their brutality and such inhumane acts are why we hate the Taliban," said the 42-year-old shopkeeper in Charikar, provincial capital of Parwan about 25 km (15 miles) south of Shinwari, where the killing took place.

The execution was recorded in a three-minute video, obtained by Reuters, which shows a woman in a shawl being repeatedly shot in front of around 150 men perched on a hill, who cheer and praise the attackers, calling them "mujahideen", a term the Taliban call themselves.

NATO's top commander in Afghanistan, U.S. General John Allen, called the killing "an atrocity of unspeakable cruelty".

Others in Charikar, from where a dirt road leads to Shinwari through rough terrain, lamented what they described as the Taliban's increasing sway over their once relatively peaceful area, about an hour's drive west from Kabul.

"The Taliban are creating fear and trying to rule us through terrorism but they will never succeed," said Charikar resident Najibullah, 30, prompting approving nods from a crowd of men who had formed around him in a busy outdoor market.

The Taliban dismissed the claims: "We have no operational update about this," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. Parwan's governor Basir Salangi said the Taliban carried out the killing in his province eight days ago.

Despite the presence of over 130,000 foreign troops and 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police, the Taliban have managed to resurge beyond their traditional bastions of the south and east, extending their reach into once more peaceful areas like Parwan.

"This was a brutal act against the Afghan people by the Taliban," Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said.

"They will be punished as they were punished 10 years ago and we will continue our struggle to eliminate them," he told Reuters, referring to their ousting from power in late 2001 by U.S.-backed Afghan forces after an austere five-year rule.

The condemnation came on the day of a major donors' summit in Tokyo, where $16 billion in development aid was pledged for Afghanistan over the next four years as they try to prevent it from sliding back into chaos once most foreign troops have left by the end of 2014.

In a declaration by summit participants, the importance of promoting women's rights was stressed repeatedly.

The U.S. embassy in Kabul, condemning the public execution in the "strongest possible terms", said the hard-won gains of Afghan women made in the last 10 years must be protected.

But Shah Jahan Yazdanparast, head of women's affairs in Parwan, which is connected to the Kabul ministry, said such naked violence as the woman's execution "will only increase our fear and concern as women in Afghanistan".

Afghan women have won back basic rights in education, voting and work since the Taliban were ousted from power but fears are mounting both at home and abroad that such freedoms could be traded away as Kabul seeks peace talks with the group.

"Afghan women and girls were looking to the international community to protect the progress they have made in the last decade and they have been let down," Oxfam Afghanistan's head of policy and advocacy, Louise Hancock, said on Sunday after the close of the Tokyo summit.

Violence against women has increased sharply in the past year, according to Afghanistan's independent human rights commission. Activists say there is waning interest in women's rights on the part of President Hamid Karzai's government.

Authorities blamed the Taliban for the stoning to death of a young couple in northern Kunduz province two years ago in a crowded bazaar, days after a pregnant widow was flogged and killed in western Baghdis province. The Taliban denied involvement.

(Additional reporting and writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Ananya Gupta: Rising Chess Star in India

From dnaindia.com

Eight-year-old making rapid strides in chess

Published: Saturday, Jul 7, 2012, 7:43 IST
By Namita Handa | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

Ananya Gupta is just like any other eight-year-old, who spends most of her morning in school, afternoon finishing her homework and in playing a sport in the evening. But unlike other girls of her age, she has already written herself into history by excelling in a cerebral sport, chess.

She has an outstanding Elo rating of 1431, making her the highest ranked chess girl in Mumbai among eight-year olds, second in Maharashtra, and fourth in India. The FIDE (world chess body) released the official rating list on July 1 2012 on www.fide.com.

Ananya took to the game when she was just four. “I would go to my friends’ house where we had chess classes. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to pursue it seriously,” said the student of DY Patil School.

Soon, she was being coached by South Mumbai Chess Academy’s senior trainer, G Nagesh. She is already participating in active chess tourneys across the country. “Last month, I played in the first PP Savani Fide International Rating Chess Tournament in Surat where I had defeated two rated players. I was also awarded the best in the U-8 category,” said Ananya.

Now, she is participating in the Maharashtra State U-11 Chess Championship in Nagpur. Ananya surprised the top-seed Aashna Gajaria of Mumbai, beating her in 37 moves in round three.

Chess, she says, runs in the family. “My father would also play chess during his childhood,” Ananya said. What is more, her father has never beaten her in chess, she reveals proudly. “I’m much better than him,” she chuckled, adding that aggression is in her style.“I always like to attack. Chess is a mind game. Moves are the only way to scare your opponents.”

For now, she’s eager to maintain her chess rating. “I must ensure I hold on to my rating,” said the eight-year-old.

What's Bill Clinton's Image Doing in Ancient Jewish Village?

Hmmm, and he's dressed up like Samson, too (as in "Samson and Delilah - yeah, that Delilah...)

Bill Clinton!  What the heck are you doing in Byzantine Israel?

Ancient Mosaic Depicting Fiery Bible Story Discovered

By Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer | LiveScience.com – Mon, Jul 2, 2012

A glittering mosaic of colored stones once decorated an ancient synagogue floor with scenes of the Biblical hero Samson getting revenge on the Philistines.

This newly excavated discovery in the ancient Jewish village of Huqoq not only depicts an unusual scene — Samson tying torches to foxes' tails in order to burn his enemies' crops — it's also remarkably high-quality, said dig archaeologist Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

In a mosaic, "the smaller the cubes, the finer the work," Magness told LiveScience. "Our cubes are very small and fine."

The mosaic decorates part of a synagogue dating back to about A.D. 400 to 500. So far, Magness and her team have excavated only part of the eastern wall of the structure, so they don't yet know how big the synagogue was. But the building appears to be made of large, "beautifully cut" blocks of stone, Magness said, suggesting an expansive structure.

The mosaic, which is incomplete, depicts several scenes. In one, two female faces flank a Hebrew inscription about rewards for people who perform good deeds. In the other, Samson, of the biblical story Samson and Delilah, ties torches to pairs of foxes, an event described in the Book of Judges in both the Christian and Hebrew Bibles. As the story goes, Samson falls in love with a woman of Philistine origin, a people who ruled the city-states of Gaza, Askelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath in the ancient Middle East. The Philistines are depicted as enemies of the Israelis in the Bible.

At his wedding feast with his Philistine bride, Samson taunts the Philistine groomsmen with a riddle they cannot possibly answer. [In other words, Samson is a real schmuck.] When his bride begs Samson for the solution and passes it on to her kinsmen, he kills 30 men from Askelon in a rage. When he returns home, he finds that his bride has been given to someone else. In revenge, Samson gathers pairs of foxes and ties their tails together with torches between them. He then looses 300 of the animals on the Philistines' fields, destroying their crops. [In other words, he goes running off in a snit fit, kills 30 men for no good reason other than he's a bully who thinks he is God's Gift, then comes back home and when his wife had rightfully left him, in yet another fit of rage he kills 300 foxes while simultaneously wiping out the harvest, thereby greatly offending the Goddess (who has a special connection with canines and growing crops).  Is it any wonder he was rendered powerless and blinded?  What an asshole!]

It's this scene that is depicted in the mosaic. It's an "unusual" subject, Magness said, because only two other synagogues have been found that depict Samson at all, much less a fiery scene of revenge. But one of the other ancient synagogues that does depict Samson is only a few miles from the newly excavated building, Magness said.

"It suggests that, for whatever reason, Samson was popular in the local area," she said.

The synagogue would have been the only house of worship in the village, Magness said. For a village synagogue, it's very fancy, suggesting that the village was an affluent place. That's interesting, Magness said, because the area was under the rule of Byzantine Christians at the time the synagogue was in use. Usually, this is seen as a time of oppression for Jewish peoples, but it seems that the residents of this particular village were doing well.

The archaeologists uncovered the mosaic last week. A student on his first dig was carefully scraping away at the dirt with a hoe when he felt the hard surface of the mosaic. He called Magness over, and they carefully excavated, brushing away dirt to reveal a colorful female face staring back at them, exposed to the light of day for the first time in 1,500 years.

"I think that was probably by far the most exciting moment I've had as an archaeologist in my life," Magness said.

What is a "Prohibition Device?"

This is just one mystery out of the following article:

From xinuanet.com

China's earliest wine unearthed in NW tomb

English.news.cn 2012-07-06 00:36:11 XI'AN, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Liquid inside an ancient wine vessel unearthed in Shaanxi province is considered to be the earliest wine in China's history, archaeologists told Xinhua Thursday. The wine vessel made of bronze was unearthed in a noble's tomb of the West Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC - 771 BC) in Shigushan Mountain in Baoji city. The liquid is likely the oldest wine discovered in China, said Liu Jun, director of Baoji Archaeology Institute, who is in charge of the project. The vessel, one of the six discovered in the tomb, could be heard to contain a liquid when it was shaken, Liu said. However, the cover of the vessel was pretty solid and there was no appropriate tools to open it at the excavation site, so the liquid remains a mystery, he said. During the Shang Dynasty (1600BC-1046BC), the dynasty before the Zhou Dynasty, wine became a symbol of corruption as Shang officials used to drink excessively, he said. The people of Zhou made "prohibition devices" to put on the table to remind people to drink in moderation, he said. A 95-centimeter-long and 21-centimeter-tall "prohibition device" was unearthed with the wine vessels on June 25 in the same tomb, which is the first of this kind unearthed in Baoji, he said. Many other bronze devices with inscriptions were unearthed on Thursday. The excavation work is still underway at the site and more bronze devices are expected to be discovered in the next couple of days. Editor: Mu Xuequan ****************************************************************************

A photograph of one of these "prohibition devices" would be useful, don't you think?  Geez!  What were they - gags made out of metal?  Come to think of it, we could use some of those in Washington, D.C.

The other mystery is why is the "oldest wine in China" only about 3000 years old?  Surely wine was being fermented long before the Shang Dynasty!  I believe wine was already already being made in the Middle East around 10,000 years ago -- I have a recollection of reading several articles many years ago that talked about the domestication and deliberate cultivation of grapes in the Lake Van region as early as 9000 BCE, and it didn't take long for the vines to make their way down the mountains in Armenia into the plains of the Middle East. 

Does the article actually mean to say that the wine discovered in the tomb was the first actual wine still in liquid form discovered?  That, in and of itself, is actually quite amazing, when you think about it!

Massive Looting of Archaeological Sites in the "New Egypt"

Awful, horrible, and disgusting.  There is no excuse of this kind of destruction - none, None, NONE!  For whatever reason, the government either cannot or will not provide guards for archaeological sites.  Thus, the new normal in Egypt is rampant destruction and looting of precious archaeological sites.  I'm sure we're only hearing about a fraction of what is actually going on, because for reasons of their own, the new "leaders" in Egypt are doing the old Death To America bullshit and therefore, in some areas, it has become downright dangerous to travel, let alone be a reporter of news to the west. 

I used to dream about visiting Egypt one day and taking a river cruise on the mighty Nile.  Not anymore.

I used to have respect for Egyptians -- not the leaders, I mean, the regular people of Egypt, who seemed to be proud of their ancient heritage and, by and large, caring of it.   Not anymore.

Sad.  So sad.  Once lost, the knowledge that is contained in situ at looted sites like El Hibeh is lost forever.  It cannot ever be put back to the way it was before.

Warning:  There are some shocking photographs in the article.  I chose not to put any of them here.  It makes me cry, this horrid descretion of a sacred place. 

From Popular Archaeology
July 6, 2012

Massive Looting and Destruction at Ancient Egyptian Archaeological Site

After the January 2011 revolution in Egypt, Professor and Archaeologist Carol Redmount of U.C. Berkeley began contacting friends and colleagues in the country to get some updates about their safety and welfare. In 2001, she and a team of archaeologists with the University had conducted excavations at the ancient site of El Hibeh about 180 miles south of Cairo, a site that evidenced occupation from Pharaonic times through the early Islamic periods. Their last season was completed in 2009, and for a variety of reasons they were not able to return. Now, there were concerns about the state of the archaeological remains at the El Hibeh site. She had been informed that there was extensive looting, and that the situation there was "very bad".

"Very bad" may have been an understatement. When she and a team finally returned to begin work at the site again in February, 2012, the scene was more than disheartening. They found hundreds of looters' pits, exposed tombs, destroyed walls, and even human remains, including remnants of dismembered mummies and strewn mummy wraps, littering the site like trash.

"The day before we were supposed to start work I received a phone call telling me that local Beni Suef security had yanked our permission to work", wrote Redmount in her Facebook account. "The upshot was that a local "gangster", whose name is known, from El Ogra, the village north of the site, had formed a sort of mafia focused on looting the site. This "criminal" is evidently a murderer who got out of prison after the revolution. His "gang" is looting the site non-stop, on a massive scale. When I returned to Cairo from our dig house........our van passed the site heading for the eastern desert highway, [and] we saw about ten men openly looting the mound and desert behind (we have pictures of some of them), with conveniently parked motorcycles nearby."

El Hibeh is not the only site in Egypt that has been subjected to looting and destruction during and since the revolution. There are a number of others. But El Hibeh is especially significant because it is one of the least disturbed sites of the Third Intermediate Period. It was built about 1070 BCE by the High Priests of Amun at Luxor/Thebes and was occupied for over 1,700 years through the Pharaonic, Ptolemaic, Roman, Coptic, and early Islamic periods.

“The damage was so severe to the site, and so ongoing, that I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try and do something,” she told NBC in an interview . “I just felt that if I didn’t come forward, there wasn’t going to be anything left.”

And come forward she did. Her interview was aired recently on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams, and she has established a Facebook page dedicated to getting the word out about El Hibeh's plight, as well as the plight of many other sites in Egypt facing the same threat. More than 1,700 people have joined the group, where Redmount and others have also posted hundreds of photographs illustrating the destruction and news about other threatened sites in Egypt and across the Middle East.

"We started the "Save Hibeh Egypt" facebook page because we are at our wits end as to what else to do........We are posting here pictures of the site, of looting, of articles regarding this issue........We must take action to save El Hibeh and hundreds of other sites like it that have been severely damaged as a result of [only] limited police protection since January 28, 2011."

More information, including photos, of the El Hibeh situation can be seen at the “Save El Hibeh Egypt” Facebook group".

Beautiful Backgammon Table

Hola darlings!

The weather here has finally broken, Thank Goddess!  I was up at the crack of dawn moving the sprinkler around out front, watering very thirsty trees and shrubs (grass out front is a lost cause -- it's straw color right now, sadly).

No rain, but the humidity disappeared like - POOF!  Then, while I was outside about 6:30 a.m., a breeze came up out of nowhere from the east -- off Lake Michigan!  It felt like Heaven!  That breeze has kept up all day, so despite yet more sun and temps in the high 80's, I hardly cracked a sweat today, except when I was lugging groceries up the hill from the Pick 'n Save three-quarters mile away.  Ahhhhhh, relief!  Tomorrow is supposed to be back to seasonal temperature normals, about a high of 80 degrees F!  Can hardly wait!  Right now it feels downright cool.  Still running around in shorts and sleeveless tee, and every window in the house is throw wide open and the front door, too!  I'll be able to cook tonight!   I actually have an appetite back!  I may even be able to sleep with a sheet on tonight, gasp!  And tomorrow, it's cut the grass time; that is, the few weeds out front that have survived, and the grass out back (where I've been regularly watering since the intense monstrous killer heat wave began three weeks ago and the rain stopped more than five weeks ago).  Tonight will drop into the mid-60's, great sleeping weather minus the high dew point! 

This afternoon I was making the rounds of some of my favorite decorating blogs, one of which is The Shabby Nest.  Every Friday Wendy (creator of The Shabby Nest, a very popular decorating blog) has a link party and other bloggers are free to link up to their own blog entries about projects, recipes, sewing, gardening, photography -- it's a pretty broad umbrella under which creativity is the common link.  Sometimes I come across a game-related project, and I've posted them here.  Today - another game-related project appeared, and it's gorgeous!

I am thinking that a great many of our readers here don't know much about "shabby chic," but it is a raging phenom in the world of decorating and has been for years, darlings!  While I do like some of the looks -- you know, sort of down-home cottagey and put-your-feet-up comfortable, not pretensious -- I confess I have a hard time wrapping my head around the work it takes to rehab some of the old pieces of furniture that the bloggers work on (nearly all of them are women) to get it looking all new and spiffy again, and then sanding the hell of it and banging it up and doing stuff with "dark wax" (sounds rather wicked, actually) just to TRY and make it look old and worn all over again! 

Anyway, I will let Suzan, the blogger at Simply Vintageous whose project this is, tell her own story.  Here is a photograph of her finished project and I - JUST - LOVE - IT! 

Photo from Simply Vintageous, all rights reserved. 

Makes me want to try my hand at a painting up a chessboard table, if I can get my hands on a suitable size end table.  Now wouldn't that be a hoot!  And no, darlings, I won't just glue down one of those cardboard folding chessboards on top of a table painted black and call it a day, although I may be sorely tempted to do so :)

P.S.  Congratulations to us!  We've passed 600,000 page views since our start at the end of April, 2007.  It's hard to believe more than five years have gone by...

1,100 Year Old Renovated Temple Rededicated

India has a very ancient and rich, multi-layered history but most of it is unknown to us in the West.  I'll bet just about everyone in this country (USA) knows what a mummy is, but how many know who Buddha is?  King Tut?  Sure - millions of us have heard about HIM!  But how many of us have heard about Kali Durga?  Check out this absolutely incredible and beautiful temple:

From The Times of India

Renovated 1,100-year-old Varadharaja Perumal temple in Kancheepuram consecrated
The writer has posted comments on this articleD MadhavanD Madhavan, TNN | Jul 5, 2012, 12.42PM IST

Sri Varadaraja Perumal Temple. Image from Travel Deals Finder.

KANCHEEPURAM: Thousands of residents in the temple town of Kancheepuram were a proud lot on Thursday as their restoration efforts along with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) came to fruition with the kumbhabishekam being performed at the 1,100-year-old Varadharaja Perumal Temple.

The consecration ceremony began at 11am and went on till 1 pm. Hundreds of devotees lined up for more than a kilometre on Gandhi Road, the busiest stretch in the town. The district administration had declared public holiday on Thursday for the kumbhabishekam.

On Wednesday, a similar kumbhabishekam and chariot procession was held at the famous Sri Kodanda Rama temple in Madurantagam, around 78km from Chennai. "It is a huge event in the temple town. Years of hard work had gone into its restoration. The temple is always a pride of Kancheepuram," said S Jeeva, a resident.

Said to be the second oldest temple in Kancheepuram after the Ekambaranathar temple which has more than a thousand ancient temples, the Varadharaja Perumal temple was built by the famous Chola king Raja Raja I in 1053AD (a year before king Raja Raja died). Later, the temple on 23 acres was expanded by subsequent Chola kings, including Kulottunga chola I and Vikrama chola.

Anticipating a Muslim invasion in 1688 AD, the local chieftain sent the main image of the deity to Udayarpalayam, now part of Trichy. It was brought back with great difficulty after the involvement of a local preceptor who enlisted the services of general Todarmal of Vijayanagara era. During British period, Robert Clive visited the temple for the Garuda seva festival and presented a necklace (now termed Clive Maharkandi) which adorns the deity during the special occasion every year.

The temple showcases the architecture of ancient Vishwakarma Sthapathis with three outer precincts namely Azhwar Prakaram, Madai Palli Prakaram and Thiru Malai Prakaram, 32 shrines, 19 vimanams, 389 pillared halls (most having the lion yali sculpture) and sacred tanks.

One of the most famous architectural pieces in the temple is the huge chain sculpted from a stone. There is a 100-pillared hall with sculptures depicting Ramayana and Mahabharata, a masterpiece of Vijayanagara architecture. "There are 362 inscriptions on the walls of the temple ranging from Cholas to Vijayanagara periods," said retired deputy superintendent of state archaeology department, K Sridharan.

Stolen Rare Codex Recovered

From BBC News

Santiago de Compostela Codex Calixtinus
5 July 2012 Last updated at 07:11 ET

Police in northern Spain have recovered one of the country's great cultural treasures - a 12th-Century religious manuscript stolen a year ago.

The Codex Calixtinus was found in a garage near Santiago de Compostela and four people were arrested over the theft from the city's cathedral.

The richly decorated book is considered the first guide for those following the ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago.

Police arrested a technician who worked at the cathedral and three relatives.

Christians believe the Santiago de Compostela cathedral to be the burial place of St James the Greater, one of Jesus's apostles.

The manuscript was found after the technician and three members of his family were arrested on Wednesday.

Besides the Codex, police also found other valuable old books stolen from the cathedral and at least 1.2m euros (£963,000) in cash.

A replica of the Codex is on display in a glass case at the cathedral.

Only a handful of people had access to the room in which the original was kept. It is thought to date from around 1150.

************************************************************

I don't remember if I reported the original story, and too tired tonight to do a search for it.  BBC conveniently provided a link to its original story on the theft:

7 July 2011 Last updated at 09:04 ET
Codex Calixtinus book 'disappears' from Spain cathedral

A hugely valuable illuminated manuscript has disappeared from the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, say police.

The Codex Calixtinus dates from the 12th Century and was compiled as a guidebook for medieval pilgrims following the Way of Saint James.

This is the oldest copy of the manuscript and is unsaleable on the open market.

Only a handful of people had access to the room in which it was kept.

This edition of the Codex Calixtinus is thought to date from around 1150.

Its purpose was largely practical - to collect advice of use to pilgrims heading to the shrine there. It also included sermons and homilies to St James.

On Wednesday afternoon, the book was reported missing from the room where it is kept.

"We are investigating its disappearance," a police spokeswoman said, according to AFP news agency.

"It is usually kept in a room to which only half a dozen people have access," she said.

The Codex is only brought out on special occasions, such as last year's visit of Pope Benedict, when it is closely guarded.

If the work has been stolen, it will be impossible to sell it on the open market, says the BBC's arts reporter Vincent Dowd.


More coverage that contains some interesting details:

From The Star Online

Thursday July 5, 2012

Rare Spanish codex found in garage after handyman arrested

MADRID: A medieval text stolen from the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in northwest Spain last year was found in a nearby garage on Wednesday, after police arrested a handyman - fired after 25 years at the cathedral - and three members of his family.

The Codex Calixtinus, a 12th century collection of sermons and liturgical passages, vanished last July from a safe deposit box in the cathedral, the end of the ancient pilgrimage route the Camino de Santiago.

Police said they had found the elaborately illustrated manuscript, a treasured part of Spain's cultural and religious heritage, in a garage near the Galician town.

The cathedral is the reputed burial place of Saint James the Greater, one of Jesus's twelve apostles who, according to tradition, went to Spain to preach Christianity.

The facsimile edition of the Codex Calixtino or Calixtinus Codex that was displayed at the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. The original of this priceless 12th-Century book disappeared from the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela a year ago in one of the country’s biggest ever art thefts.

The Codex tells the story of how the apostle's remains were transferred to Santiago de Compostela and details the various routes to the town - effectively a guide for early pilgrims.

Earlier dawn raids on properties connected to the detained former church handyman, his wife, son and another woman had led police to the discovery of at least 1.2 million euros, eight copies of the Codex and other ancient books that had also been stolen from the cathedral.

Officers also found documents and correspondence related to senior church figures and keys to various outbuildings. The cathedral's book of hours, a popular type of devotional book in the Middle Ages, was also recovered.

The main suspect, whom police have not named, is a man who was sacked after working for the cathedral as a freelance handyman and electrician for more than 25 years, police said in a statement.
He was made redundant after faking a work contract to make it look like he had permanent job, and claimed he was owed 40,000 euros for unfair dismissal, the police said. - Reuters