Goddesschess News: GChess Sponsorships; Final Results:Tata Steel (Wijk aan Zee), Tradewise Gibraltar

Hola darlings!  I have news to catch-up for you, mea culpa.  

Goddesschess is once again sponsoring prizes for female chessplayers in the upcoming 2015 Grand Pacific Open.  This year's event (the 9th), will be held April 3 - 6, 2015 at the gorgeous Grand Pacific Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia.  It has been a multi-year pleasure working with the organizers of this fine event.  I think next year we'll increase the prizes in the hope of attracting more female players.

Goddesschess is also providing sponsorship for the 2015 Montreal Open Chess Championnat that is once again being shepherded by Bernard Ouimet and the Ahuntsic Chess Club. This was one of Mr. Don's favorite events and he loved attending the tournament to take photos and videos and interview players.  This year's event will take place September 11 - 13, 2015 in Montreal, Quebec at college Jean-de-Bre'beuf, an absolutely beautiful playing venue where the event has been hosted many times before.  My Goddesschess goal this year was to provide sponsorship to the top female players in Canada to come out and play at the Championnat in addition to providing prizes to the top-finishing female players, and invitations were sent out by the organizers.  I am happy to report that WIM Natalia Khoudgarian  (2294 CFC) accepted the invitation. The remaining invitees were not available due to prior commitments (college classes, other tournaments, personal matters).  The website has to be updated with respect to the Goddesschess prize structure, which shows the prizes we sponsored for the 2014 Championnat, that should be taken care of soon.  

On to a couple of big money Marquee international events:

2015 Tata Steel a/k/a Wijk aan Zee (I shall always think of it that way) is completed and I'm like two months late with the news - duh!  Well, I've been busy doing nothing since my retirement at the end of January, darlings :)

"Lavish" Celtic Tomb Uncovered in France

From The International Business Times.  More images of the site can be found at the link below.

France: Lavish 2,500-year-old Celtic prince's tomb unearthed is 'extraordinary' discovery

By Umberto Bacchi

March 5, 2015 15:42 GMT

French archaeologists have found what they say is the "extraordinary" tomb of a Celtic prince who lived some 2,500 years ago.

The burial site, which at 40m (130ft) of diameter is one of the largest from its period ever to be unearthed, was discovered in an industrial area near Troyes, about 150km south east of Paris.

Credit:  Dennis Gliksman, Inrap

A team with National Archaeological Research Institute (Inrap) that has been working on the site since October said it contained a remarkable amount of artefacts, some believed to be of ancient Greek and Etruscan origins.

The discovery was lauded by France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who tweeted his congratulations to Inrap.

The archaeologists said the number and value of riches interred with the deceased, who lays with his chariot at the centre of the burial mound, suggest he was a high ranked aristocrat from the so-called Hallstatt culture that dominated central Europe during the Early Iron Age.

"The tomb contains mortuary deposits of sumptuousness worth that of the top Hallstatt elites," Inrap said.

Those include a bronze wine cauldron decorated with relieves of Greek gods and Lions, and an amphora in ceramic adorned with images of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine.

"The period between the late 6th Century and the beginning of the 5th Century BC was characterised by the economic development of Greek and Etruscan city-states in the West, in particularly Marseille," Inrap explained.

"Mediterranean traders come into contact with the continental Celtic communities as they searched for slaves, metals and precious goods (including amber)."

Intriguing Theory About How Domestication of Wolves by "Modern Humans" Led to Extinction of "Neanderthals"

A continuation of exploring evidence that canines may have been domesticated by people more than 40,000 years ago.

I like this hypothesis of what may have led to the eventual "extinction" of Neanderthal people. Of course, Neanderthals are not really extinct because their DNA continues to exist in our so-called "modern" human DNA -- some 3% to 4% of shared genetic material that we KNOW came from cross-breeding in some "modern" human populations but not others because not all of us share this DNA imprint.  If the DNA of Neanderthal continues to exist in so-called "modern" human beings, I don't think the Neanderthals are extinct at all, do you?

Regardless, it means that so-called "modern" man wasn't the blood-thirsty murdering bastard then that he has, some would have us believe, morphed into today.  I leave you to judge...

Here's the article -- sensationalized, of course, because it's from The Daily Mail, but they do have a way of making obscure scientific hypotheses easily accessible to anyone who bothers to read about them:

Always a man's best friend: Dogs bred from wolves helped humans take over from Neanderthal rivals in Europe 40,000 years ago

• Neanderthals were wiped out after ancient humans arrived from Africa
• Scientists disagree on why - but top anthropologist may have the answer
• Dr Pat Shipman said we paired up with wolves in symbiotic partnership
• Wolves cornered prey and humans made the kill, sharing meat afterwards
• Neanderthals were then 'no match' for humans' superior hunting tactics

By Dan Bloom for MailOnline

Published: 04:13 EST, 1 March 2015 | Updated: 10:31 EST, 1 March 2015

It's thousands of years since mankind won dominance over nature, and we're still pretty proud. [Ridiculous for anyone to assert that mankind has any kind of dominance over nature - ha!  Just in the USA alone we have - oh, the Dust Bowl in the 1930's, the Mississippi River flooding during the 1970's, Hurricane Andrew in the 1990's, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, ongoing desertification of large swatches of the southwest USA that we have no way of combating let alone reversing -- oh the wheels of time just keep on turning...]

 

But a top researcher says we've been giving ourselves too much credit - because we were helped by our oldest friends. [Hell yeah we were.  There is a reason the Great Goddess is so closely associated with canines - duh.] 

 

Humans paired up with dogs as early as 40,000 BC, it is claimed, giving us such an advantage in hunting that it prompted the wipeout of our Neanderthal rivals.  The controversial theory has been put forward in a new book by leading anthropologist Pat Shipman of Pennsylvania State University.

She has challenged the common scientific view that wolves were only domesticated just over 10,000 years ago, after early humans had already asserted a strong foothold in Europe. [Oh please.  Anyone who keeps up with the latest archaeological news knows that humans domesticated canines in several waves over time beginning about 40,000 years ago.  But good for Dr. Shipman for getting good press for the hypothesis to at least start getting the Average Josephine thinking about such a thing.]

 

Instead, she said, humans began taming and breeding wolves - leading to the pets we know today - soon after they arrived on the continent from Africa up to 70,000 years ago.

At the time, our close genetic relatives the Neanderthals were dominant in Europe, fighting for survival as they hunted creatures such as woolly mammoths with primitive tools.

But soon afterwards the rival species died out, leaving a clear path for the homo sapiens that make up today's humans.

Strong rival theories of their demise include that Neanderthals, just like woolly mammoths, were unable to cope with the changing climate of the last ice age or that humans were better hunters. 

 

Dr Shipman, however, told The Observer: 'We formed an alliance with the wolf and that would have been the end for the Neanderthal.  Early wolf-dogs would have tracked and harassed animals like elk and bison and would have hounded them until they tired. Then humans would have killed them with spears or bows and arrows.

 

'This meant the dogs did not need to approach these large cornered animals to finish them off – often the most dangerous part of a hunt – while humans didn’t have to expend energy in tracking and wearing down prey. Dogs would have done that.  Then we shared the meat. It was a win-win situation."

 

Dr Shipman's theory, shared in her book The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction, was partly inspired by early dog remains.

 

She examined 33,000-year-old fossils of dogs found in Siberia and Belgium, and looked at how the shapes of their jaws and skulls were different from wild wolves.  Although they were far more similar to wolves than the pets of today, there were clear signs of domestication, she said - including shorter snouts, densely-packed teeth and wider jaws.

 

The theory is the latest in a long line about our prehistoric ancestors, many of which contradict each other.  Last year a study at the University of Tübingen in Germany claimed early humans emigrated from Africa far earlier than we first thought - and as many as 130,000 years ago. 

 

Another study at the University of Chicago said wolves began evolving into domestic dogs between 9,000 and 34,000 years ago, while a third study said dogs may not have evolved from wolves as we know them today at all.

2015 U.S. Women's Chess Championship

OHMYGODDESS!  I've totally let time overtake me but you know what, I'm on RETIREE TIME now, LOL!

The good news is that - I haven't missed it :)  The event takes place March 31 - April 14, 2015 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

You can watch live action and listen to the entertaining commentary and analysis on both the U.S. (Men's) and the U.S. Women's events at chesschamps, that will once again be presented by two-time U.S. women's chess champ IM Jennifer Shahade, GM Maurice Ashley and GM Yasser Seirawan.  What I REALLY love about this year is that I will be able to put them on live audio and not have to sneak quick listens through headphones and sneak clicks online to watch the live commentary and analysis at the office -- I can just turn on my computers throughout the house and watch and listen as I move from room to room!

Okay, enough of that.  Here's the line-up of this year's female contenders:

FM Alisa Melekhina 2320
WGM Katarina Nemcova 2356
WIM Viktorija Ni 2300
NM Apurva Virkud 2260
WIM Annie Wang 2266
WFM Jennifer Yu 2227
IM Nazi Paikidze 2342
WGM Rusudan Goletiani 2312
WGM Sabina Foisor 2371
WGM Anna Sharevich 2388
WGM Tatev Abrahamyan 2459
GM Irina Krush 2516

They're joking, right?

"Ciudad Blanca" Discovered in Honduras

Blockbuster news!  And - DUH - of COURSE the archaeologists were (for once) sensible in not disclosing the location of this incredible discovery.  Can you imagine the hoard of looters already tracking them down using both bribery and the most sophisticated technology available...

From Good Morning America

'Lost City': Honduras Expedition Team Discovers Untouched Ruins
By AVIANNE TAN

An expedition team of researchers has discovered the uncharted ruins of an unidentified culture's lost city in the heart of a Honduras rainforest.

The team ventured into the isolated, uninhabited area led by "long-standing rumors" it was the site of a fabled "White City" in the legend known as the "City of the Monkey God," National Geographic reported.

Expeditions to find the "White City," or "Ciudad Blanca," have been going on since the 1920s when explorers sought the mystical, Eden-like paradise described in indigenous stories as a place where natives were safe from Spanish conquistadors.

Legend had it that no one ever returns after getting there.

But the expedition team, made up of Americans and Hondurans, successfully returned from the site last Wednesday, National Geographic said.

Archaeologists surveyed and mapped the land that thrived a thousand years ago then vanished, and they discovered a large amount of stone sculptures that were untouched since the city was abandoned, the magazine added.

One of the most intriguing finds was what appeared to be the head of "a were-jaguar," showing a shaman in a spirit state, said Christopher Fisher, a Mesoamerican archaeologist on the team from Colorodo State University.

The team documented the artifacts at the site, but did not excavate them, National Geographic reported, adding that the location is not being revealed to protect the site from looters.

Archaeologists don't buy into the existence of one 'lost city' anymore, but do believe there are numerous lost cities that collectively represent something more important to them—a lost civilization, the magazine added.

Medieval Cemetery Uncovered During Paris Renovations

Hola darlings!

I have been officially retired since my last day of work on January 30, 2015. 

I took a nice long break to just do NOTHING AT ALL other than binge view Property Brothers and other home improvement and cooking shows online, LOL!  Oh, and cooking and eating, and making sure that my new tribe of squirrels are the fattest in Milwaukee County.  And a tribe they are, indeed; I've got probably 30 squirrels who visit regularly now, looking for hazelnuts and peanuts.  Me bad, I know, encouraging over-population of squirrels and it's costing a small fortune to keep myself in "nuts" -- but so much fun getting to know my new tribe of critters and they are so entertaining. I have a new "gimpy" squirrel who looked like he took the worse part of a bar fight (or a run-in with a car or predator), several pregnant females, a newly "down the tree" batch of fledglings, an oldster with white hair (the equivalent of a "grey haired" human) and one white opaque eye, and one totally blind squirrel whom I am not sure how he/she managed to survive, but has found its way to my yard somehow.  It's been rather difficult feeding it in all the snow we've had -- it cannot see the food I toss out into its pathway, it has to find it by blundering around until it stumbles across something, and even though I've gotten quite good at getting the nuts to land directly in front of the squirrel, often-times it just goes right over the nuts!  It's awful to watch, I want to rush out and put the nuts into its little paws, but know I cannot do that! 

I know I have a lot of catching up to do, but the new season premiere of Hell's Kitchen in on t.v. tonight and I won't be missing it, so I'll save starting my catch-up for tomorrow -- but it will be competing with searching for just the PERFECT final touches for my Mistress Bedroom make-over (area rugs and art work).  But I saw this article this evening and want to share it with you:

Hundreds of Medieval Bodies Found Under Paris Supermarket

By Tia Ghose 11 hours ago

More than 200 bodies were recently unearthed in several mass burials beneath a Paris supermarket.

The bodies, which were lined up head to feet, were found at the site of an ancient cemetery attached to the Trinity Hospital, which was founded in the 13th century.

Though it's not clear exactly how these ancient people died, the trove of bodies could reveal insights into how people in the Middle Ages buried their dead during epidemics or famine, the researchers involved said.

Supermarket renovations

The burials were discovered during renovations to the basement of the Monoprix Réaumur-Sébastopol supermarket, located in the second-arrondissement neighborhood of Paris. As workers lowered the floor level of the basement, they found a shocking surprise: the bodies of men, women and children, neatly arranged in what looked to be mass graves. [See Images of the Ancient Hospital Burials]

The site was once the location of the Trinity Hospital, which was founded in 1202 by two German noblemen. The hospital was conceived not just as a place to provide care for the sick, but also as one where weary pilgrims and travelers could rest and enjoy themselves, according to a 1983 presentation given at the French Society on the History of Medicine.

But in 1353, during the height of the Black Death, the hospital also opened a cemetery, which provided a lucrative side business for the religious folk who operated the hospital, according to the presentation. During that catastrophic period, hundreds of people a day died in the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, the city's oldest hospital, and burial space was tough to find in the crowded city. Occasionally, the overflow bodies were buried at the Trinity Hospital site, according to the presentation.

Mass death

So far, archaeologists have uncovered about eight mass burial pits on different levels of the site. Seven of those sites hold between five and 20 individuals, while the remaining pit contains more than 150 bodies, according to a statement about the findings.

The bodies were laid down methodically in neat rows, head to feet, with one burial extending beyond the boundaries of the excavation. The pits contain the skeletons of men and women, old and young, none of which show obvious signs of injury or disease.

Given the huge number of skeletons found, it seems likely the bodies were buried during some mass medical crisis, when too many people were dying at once to provide individual burials, the researchers note in the statement.

As a follow-up, the team plans to use radioactive isotopes of carbon (elements of carbon with different numbers of neutrons) to estimate when these people lived. By combining this data with ancient texts and maps of Medieval Paris, researchers hope to reveal how and when these people died.

In the 1500s, the Trinity Hospital converted to a site where little boys and girls trained as apprentices. By the 1700s, the site fell into disrepair. During the French Revolution, the hospital was destroyed and the remaining structures were turned into stables for animals, according to the presentation.

New York Blizzard -- 2015 Version

Hola everyone!

I'm far away from the blizzard zone, safe and sound in Milwaukee, where just a little snow is blowing around and the temperatures are in the 20's, not much wind today.  We may be about an inch of snow overnight.  I'll take it!

While checking out the latest weather and news on Snowmageddon in Manhattan, came across this absolutely hilarious photo -- LOVE IT!

Robert Burck, better known as the Naked Cowboy, plays his guitar in the middle of a snowy Times Square on Monday, Jan. 26, 2015. (David Handschuh/Yahoo News) Kelli Grant

I checked further - he's snug and warm in his designer undies:

David Handschuh/Yahoo News) Kelli Grant

Folks waiting to try to get into the Whole Foods Market -- I mean, really???  Doesn't ANYBODY in NYC listen to weather reports BEFORE a storm hits, or go to the market BEFORE it starts snowing...  Inside, hour-long check-out lines reported. They'll run out of food before they run out of people waiting to get inside. 

This is the scene outside the @WholeFoods in Union Square, NYC right now. Chaos. (photo by @acpants) #blizzardof2015

P.S. Countdown to Retirement: Five Days!

Hola darlings!

Totally forgot the entire point of the prior post, which was to add this great rock and roll yet meaningful song to the post.  Duh! Getting old and losing my memory sucks, darlings!  But I will blogger on...  Check out OWNER OF A LONELY HEART by the band YES.  If you cannot quite understand the lyrics because they're kind of smushed beneath the fabulous beat of the guitars and drums, the video's symbolism will speak to you and you can always find the lyrics online somewhere if you want further clarification. For me, the imagery within the video spoke volumes -- the perfect Epitaph to my working years.

Countdown to Retirement: Five Working Days!

Hola darlings!

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

I have been a very bad blogger, indeed.  So sorry.  But I've been busy.  You see, I've been spending a LOT of time planning out my GREAT ESCAPE FROM THE WORLD OF ASSHOLES!

I am very happy to announce that it has come to pass -- I am retiring from the legal world.  To sing Etta James' classic 'At Last..."

I was a very good girl, I was, I was.  I dutifully informed Human Resources on January 5 that I was retiring, and that afternoon I had a sit-down talk with the head of the Practice Group I work in to tell him that I was retiring.

I expected that it would be a Bomb dropped amidst the clink-clunk-clink workings of the firm, but I never dreamed it would turn into the NEUTRON BOMB that it ultimately became.

I am feeling sooooooooooo much justification, what else can I say, except ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING MY ASS OFF (ROFLMAO).

Suffice to say, I have lived through some very interesting times since January 5.  For one thing, I never knew until the past few weeks just how many people within the firm actually knew who I was.  Also, how many people actually appreciated the work I did, other than primary boss, who never did, he only had constant criticism and snide comments, and bad-mouthed me behind my back -- actually caught him at it the day before Christmas Eve, as I happened to overhear his conversation when I entered a stairwell going down to the main file room, and he and companion were coming down from an upper floor -- got an EAR-FULL, I did. It's irrelevant now what he said or why he said it.  Suffice to say that I had realized from Year 2 onward working for the Schmuck (off and on for the past 12 and 1/2 years) that he was the worst kind of male with pretensions to be a human being (he is not).  

I bided my time, learned more and more about investing, put as much funding as I could into my 401(k) and private investments and chose my investments very carefully, then chose an investment advisor the year I turned 60 to help me pull my plan together as I was too busy to pay as much attention as necessary to it.

I sold my big house earlier this year and downsized to a much smaller and less expensive home -- but at the time I was not yet contemplating retirement in 2015; rather, I was preparing for retirement in 2017.  Suffice to say certain things happened (including that overheard December 23rd conversation) that persuaded me it was better to get out as soon as I could.

I crunched my numbers several times.  I figured I would have enough to live on.  Not "high on the hog" as the old saying goes, but just fine.  I wouldn't be eating canned pet food (which - if you've noticed lately, has gotten quite expensive) or digging through the dumpsters outside fast food restaurants for scraps, trying to fight off much bigger homeless men for scraps of food. Not burning scavengered wood in a make-shift heater to keep the house warm, and risk dying by carbon-monoxide poisoning. Not living in no-light-bulb darkness with most of my appliances unplugged because I cannot afford the electric charges. Not being able to pay for my medical prescriptions (drugs), or afford a decent hair cut once every 2 months, or pay for hair-color to keep the grey hairs at bay ( I DETEST GREY HAIR).

My investment advisor crunched the numbers, too.  He's convinced that somehow if I should live to age 95 I'll have more than a million dollars in my investment pot. I don't believe it, but we've gone over his numbers twice now and they all work, so maybe he 's right and I'm just being uber-conservative.  LOL! That's funny - Jan, an uber-conservative at anything?  Whatever funds there are when I die will go into my Trust, dedicated to funding an annual women-only chess tournament in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that will bear both my surname  and the Goddesschess brand.

Hell, if I do well enough stock-picking (I seem to have a knack), maybe I'll be hosting at least one of those fancy-pants tournaments in my hometown before I die.

PROMISE once R DAY is here, while I've got loads of projects around this down-sized house that need time and attention, I'll be blogging regularly.  It's just that right now, during those two precious weekend days, there is SO much that needs to be taken care of, and some of it cannot be done online.  Today, for instance, I had to go to the clinic for my monthly blood draw to have my PRO-TIME or INR measured. June 2012 and have been poked regularly in my arms since then to get blood to measure the relative "thickness or thiness" of my blood.

It sucks! It entails a bus trip on two buses from my house to get to the clinic, or a long hike to a single bus ride.  On the weekends the bus service sucks (like one bus an hour), so I ended up walking 1.3 miles to the clinic after I got off the bus I caught 2 blocks away from my house.  And, unfortunately, when I was walking out of the clinic and toward a bus that would take me down to the bus stop to get home, the bus whizzed on by when I was about a block away.  No way to stop it, no way to catch it.  Ended up walking another 1.3 miles so I could catch the bus to take me back home.  I'm getting slower.  Used to be able to do that in about 15 minutes.  Today, it took me 23 minutes (I timed it).  This Old Grey Mare, She Ain't What She Used To Be.  Oh, crap.  Now you know how important a good hair dresser and hair coloring is!

2015 Wijk aan Zee is Coming!

Tata Steel is once again sponsoring a fabulous tournament at Wijk aan Zee.  The event, January 9 - 25, 2015.

The Masters Tournament features some of the best players in the world.  This year, the sole female representative is GM Hou Yifan of China, currently reigning women's world chess champion.  She's going to be facing off against some damn tough competition:

Name	Country	Rating	Position
GM	Carlsen, Magnus	NOR	2862	1	Photo
GM	Caruana, Fabiano	ITA	2820	2	Photo
GM	Aronian, Levon	ARM	2797	6	Photo
GM	Giri, Anish	NED	2784	7	Photo
GM	So, Wesley	USA	2762	10	Photo
GM	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	FRA	2757	13	Photo
GM	Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	POL	2744	15	Photo
GM	Radjabov, Teimour	AZE	2734	20	Photo
GM	Ding, Liren	CHN	2732	22	Photo
GM	Jobava, Baadur	GEO	2727	26	Photo
GM	Ivanchuk, Vasil	UKR	2715	33	Photo
GM	Hou, Yifan	CHN	2673	70	Photo
GM	Van Wely, Loek	NED	2667	81	Photo
GM	Saric, Ivan	CRO	2666	82	Photo

Average rating	: 2746
Category	: 20

FIDE-ratings of January 2015

Two women will also be facing off against much higher-rated competition in the Challengers Competition.  Personally, I'm going to be rooting for American GM Sam Shankland who, a few years back, after a disappointing finish at the U.S. Chess Championship, declared that he was retiring from chess.  He got his groove back, always a good thing.  Here's the line-up for the Challengers:

Name	Country	Rating
GM	Navara, David	CZE	2729	Photo
GM	Wei, Yi	CHN	2675	Photo
GM	Shankland, Sam	USA	2652	Photo
GM	Van Kampen, Robin	NED	2615	Photo
GM	l' Ami, Erwin	NED	2613	Photo
GM	Potkin, Vladimir	RUS	2608	Photo
GM	Saleh, Salem	UAE	2603	Photo
GM	Timman, Jan	NED	2593	Photo
GM	Michiels, Bart	BEL	2563	Photo
GM	Gunina, Valentina	RUS	2538	Photo
GM	Klein, David	NED	2517	Photo
IM	Sevian, Samuel	USA	2511	Photo
WIM	Haast, Anne	NED	2352	Photo
IM	Dale, Ari	AUS	2291	Photo

Average rating	: 2561
Category	: 13

FIDE-ratings of January 2015

Sustained Drought Led to Collapse of Ancient Mayan Civilization

We, the people, need to sit up and take notice of the current climate changes taking place, and somehow push and shove our governments into action!  I mean, really -- what do YOU think it's going to be like in your area of the world weather-wise in 20 years, heh?

December 29, 2014 (from Archaeology Magazine)

BELIZE’S BLUE HOLE YIELDS EVIDENCE OF DROUGHT IN MAYA WORLD

HOUSTON, TEXAS—New evidence from Belize’s Great Blue Hole strengthens the case that drought contributed to the collapse of Maya civilization. Earth scientist André Droxler of Rice University and his team drilled cores from the sediments of the Great Blue Hole, located near the center of Lighthouse Reef. “It’s like a big bucket. It’s a sediment trap,” Droxler told Live Science. The team also collected samples from Romboid Reef and analyzed their chemical composition, especially the ratio of titanium to aluminum. When rain is plentiful, titanium from volcanic rocks in the region is swept into streams and carried to the ocean. Low levels of titanium to aluminum suggest a period with less rainfall. Droxler’s team found that between A.D. 800 and 1000, when Maya civilization collapsed, there were only one or two tropical cyclones every two decades, rather than the usual five or six big storms. According to the new results, another major drought struck between 1000 and 1100, about the time of the fall of Chichen Itza. “When you have major droughts, you start to get famines and unrest,” Droxler explained. To read about a similar study, see "Long-Term Drought May Have Led to Fall of Harappan Civilization."

Ancient Underground City Discovered in Turkey

Reported at Hurriyet Daily News online:

New details emerge in massive ancient underground city discovery in Cappadocia

Erdinç ÇelikkanANKARA
December/30/2014

New details have been revealed about the massive ancient underground city discovered in Turkey’s Central Anatolian province of Nevşehir. 

The tunnels of the underground city are located under a conical-shaped hill and are wide enough for a car to pass through. 

Özcan Çakır, associate professor at the Geophysics Engineering department of the 18 March University and involved in the excavations of the underground city, said they believe the tunnels were used to carry agricultural products.

“We believe that people, who were engaged in agriculture, were using the tunnels to carry agricultural products to the city. We also estimate that one of the tunnels passes under Nevşehir and reaches a faraway water source,” said Çakır.

Being potentially the year’s biggest archaeological discovery, the area around the underground city in Nevşehir is best known world-wide for its Fairy Chimneys rock formations. 

“There is a fortress on top of a conical-shaped hill; it is alleged to belong to the Seljuks. We made geophysical measurements in an area of four square kilometers and the [underground] city was surrounding the fortress in circular forms,” said Çakır, adding that it seemed as though two-thirds of the fortress was carved by means of the tunnels. 

The underground city was discovered by a Turkey’s Housing Development Administration (TOKİ) urban transformation project. Some 1,500 buildings located in and around the Nevşehir fortress were demolished, and the underground city was discovered when the earthmoving to construct new buildings had begun.

Hasan Ünver, mayor of Nevşehir, said they were going to meet with the TOKİ head and make a plan regarding the underground city. 

“Some malevolent people began saying ‘history will be destroyed.’ The head of TOKİ will come after the New Year and new work will begin. We said, ‘Either you transfer the area to us and we conduct the cleaning and restoration work, or you transfer it to the ministry and they will conduct the work.’ We are at this stage in the process; no transfer to any institution has been made,” said Çakır. 

TOKİ Head Mehmet Ergün Turan had said after the initial discovery of the ancient city that the area would be preserved as an archaeological site.

“It is not a known underground city. There are tunnel passages several kilometers in length. We stopped the construction we had planning to do on these areas after the underground city was discovered,” Turan had said.

The city is thought to date back some 5,000 years and is located around the Nevşehir fortress. Escape galleries and hidden churches were also discovered inside the underground city.xxx

Another Treasure Trove Story - Doing Happy Dance!

This story comes out of western Russia.  I'm shocked the workers didn't make off with the precious items themselves. Hard times in Russia these days for the 99 percent since their Fearless Leader decided to piss off the civilized Western World by invading Ukraine.  But perhaps the Russian every-day people  fear Big Brother Putin more than they need to put food on their tables by risking selling antiquities on the black market.  Of course, we may never know just how much may have accidentally "disappeared" along the way...  There is only one photo in the article (copied below).

Story at RU Facts:

Under-cabinet director general of the Tver Museum found an ancient treasure

2014-12-30 12:21 PM |

Archaeologists have suggested that it hid in the earth noblewoman, hiding from the invasion of Batu

Archaeologists from Tver historical and archaeological research and restoration center, together with colleagues from the Institute of Archaeology RAS New Year’s Eve discovered during excavations in the building of the Tver Museum directly under the floor of the cabinet director.

Under the floor of the cabinet general director of the museum at a depth of 2 meters, archaeologists found a small hole, where he finds a treasure, closed at the top inverted small ceramic vessels.

- under a bushel was set precious holiday jewelry belonging to a noble Tver townswoman - said  Komsomolskaya, leader of the expedition of the Institute of Archaeology RAS Russia Alexander Khokhlov. - Several tens of objects made of silver filigree and granulation technique. Among them clasps (rings with mock delicate beads), probably decorated headdress, star and beam kolts, Ryasna and chain, which append to hats and going down, skirting the face of the owner. The structure of the necklace of large and medium-sized inflated silver beads, includes three large round pendants, medallions. Decoration hands served a large silver bracelet flap decorated with engraved ornaments in the form of wicker and zoomorphic images made using the technique of filigree and black.

Scientists are not looking for treasure specifically, they are usually carried out rescue excavations in connection with the restoration of the former real school, where today is located Tver State United Museum.

- probably at the time of danger to the entire city, mistress treasure could not find another safe place, - says Alexander Khokhlov. - And then could not return to their treasures. She probably died in the assault of the city has been stolen or in full. It could find a treasure in the 15th century, when the sites studied was carried out large earthworks on vase life and leveling the ground. But medieval diggers do not get to the treasure of some 10-15 centimeters [in depth beneath the surface].

Director of the Institute of Archaeology Nikolai Makarov, in turn, noted that such treasures are traditionally associated with the Mongol invasion of 1237-1238 years.

Although the composition of things makes it impossible to date them within a few years, the whole of their relationship with the Mongol defeat of Russian cities is not in doubt, the horizon of fire and destruction of the middle of the 13th century can be traced in many ancient cities. And this finding expensive jewelry, were part of the female attire boyar in Tver, one of the young cities of the North-Eastern Russia, it is important to characterize its early history, it is evidence of the presence status of the nobility in Tver in the early 13th century, - noted the significance of the finds for archaeologists Nikolai Makarov.

Love Me Another Treasure Trove Story!

Hola darlings!  Happy New Year to all of you, wherever you are.  May the Goddess bring you good health and good fortune in this year 2015.

It's snowing here today.  We had a mild December, for which I am grateful.  Now January is coming roaring in like a lion.  I've shoveled 2x in 2 days and I'm already worn out, LOL!  We're to get at least another 4 inches of snow over the next 24 hours.  Great, just great (NOT).  I won't have time to shovel tomorrow morning before I leave for work so that probably means more shoveling tonight before my favorite t.v. shows come on, and then shoveling more when I get home from the office tomorrow night.  YECH!  I did manage to capture snow actually falling in this photo taken from my patio door this morning:

It's already much deeper out there.  If you take a close look at the top "U-verse" wire running across the back of the yard, you'll see some of the snow is missing.  That thick wire is used by the squirrels as a highway, and as they traveled across and back today, the snow was knocked off.

Now you know I just love me treasure trove stories, and here's a new one for you:

From the Daily Record and Sunday Mail:

Ancient coins worth more than £1MILLION found buried in lead bucket in farmer's field

• Jan 01, 2015 19:42
• By Jack Evans

A HOARD of ancient coins worth more than £1MILLION has been found buried in a bucket in a farmer's field.  Amateur treasure hunters armed with metal detectors unearthed the rare Anglo Saxon coins near Aylesbury, Bucks., during a Christmas dig.

The stunning find is one of the most significant in Britain in recent years, say experts.  Over 100 people turned out to take part in the festive hunt and they were stunned to find the collection of more than 5000 silver coins, thought to be more than 1000 years old.

The perfectly preserved pieces, which feature the faces of Anglo Saxon kings, were in a lead bucket which was buried two feet underground.  The extremely rare coins could be worth more than £1million and Weekend Wanderers Detecting Club leader Pete Welch said the find was "very significant".

The recovered coins, all wrapped up and ready to be hauled off for inspection and valuation by
the experts.

Pete, 56, said: "They're like mirrors, no scratching, and buried really carefully in a lead container, deep down.  It looks like only two people have handled these coins. The person who made them and the person who buried them.

"Metal detecting is a bit random but most farms have a bit of history so you have a chance of finding something.  I think this was a case of you either move to the right or move to the left and on this case our member moved the right way. I'm just hoping that these coins will end up in a museum for the public to see. I wouldn't want to see them go to a private collector."

The discovery of a total of 5251 coins was made during the annual dig on December 21 on rural farmland the group had visited before. After they were found archaeologist Ros Tyrrell was called to help excavate them.

The coins are in "superb condition" and show the faces of some of the kings of England dating back 1000 years.  They include coins from the reigns of Ethelred the Unready (978-1016 AD) and Canute, or Cnut (1016-1035 AD).  Mr Welch believes the hoard is equal in importance to the Staffordshire Hoard of gold and garnets found by a metal detectorist in 2009.

He added: "We don't know how many variations of the coins there are and when we do we will know how significant the find is.  This would have been a huge amount of money in its day. One coin alone would have been a lot back then.

"Everyone dreams of a pot of gold. The reality is you spend most of your time digging up bits of junk.  This is the first of its kind since I've been running the club, which is 23 years."

A Bucks County Museum spokesman said: "This is one of the largest hoards of Anglo Saxon coins ever found in Britain.  When the coins have been properly identified and dated, we may be able to guess at why such a great treasure was buried."

He added that as the coins are precious metal over 300 years old they fall within the remit of the Treasure Act.

They will now be taken to the British Museum for conservation and identification before a coroner will decide whether they are legally treasure.  A museum will then be able to bid for the coins with the money from the sale being split between the land owner and the individual who made the discovery.

Is The Isleworth Mona Lisa Legit?

Allegedly painted 10 years before the Mona Lisa that hangs in the Lourve Museum, controversy surrounds this painting of a "younger" Mona Lisa:

The Earlier Mona Lisa depicts a woman in her 20s, so says the caption.



16 December 2014 Last updated at 05:13 ET

Disputed 'earlier Mona Lisa' goes on display in Singapore

A portrait of a younger Mona Lisa, which its owners claim was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci before his more famous version, has gone on display.

The painting is being exhibited in public for the first time in Singapore.

Its owners say expert tests and analysis confirm Da Vinci painted it 10 years before the better-known version.

But its authenticity is disputed. Da Vinci expert Martin Kemp said it was "just another copy of the Mona Lisa, an unfinished one, and no more than that".

Prof Kemp, emeritus professor of the history of art at Oxford University and the author of several books on Da Vinci, said: "The fact it's being shown in Singapore and is not getting an outing in a serious art museum [or] gallery is significant in itself.

The painting, he said, was "routine in handling". He continued: "Leonardo's landscapes always seethed with a sense of life. It's inert.

"The drapery is inert, and what Leonardo did was he could always give the sense that even something static like drapery had a life to it, a vitality and an inherent movement in it, and this is a heavy-handed, static picture."

But the Switzerland-based Mona Lisa Foundation, which manages the painting, says historical evidence, other expert opinions and carbon dating and further scientific tests point to its authenticity.

"We feel these latest discoveries and new scientific analysis just carried out leave little doubt that it is Leonardo's work," auctioneer and Mona Lisa Foundation vice-president David Feldman told the Reuters news agency.

"The vast majority of experts now either agree with us or accept that there is a strong case for our thesis."

The foundation says Da Vinci created the work in 1503, 10 years ahead of the Mona Lisa, but left it unfinished.

It was later acquired by an English aristocrat in the late 1770s.

The earlier Mona Lisa was discovered in 1913 by an art collector while visiting a British aristocrat in Somerset.

Taking it back to his studio in Isleworth, south west London, for restoration, it was the dubbed the Isleworth Mona Lisa for its close resemblance to Da Vinci's most famous painting, which hangs in The Louvre gallery in Paris.

The artwork will be on show until February at the Arts House in Singapore's Old Chambers of Parliament, before touring Hong Kong, China, South Korea and Australia.