Carved Marble Sphinx Uncovered in Tang Dynasty Tomb in Northwest China

Hola darlings!

I thought this was interesting.  My first thought was that perhaps the tomb was occupied by persons closely related to the Tocharians either by kinship or by trade.

The marble sphinx unearthed in a tomb in NW China  [Credit: Xinhua]

The marble sphinx unearthed in a tomb in NW China  [Credit: Xinhua]

The photos above are from Archaeology News Network.  Here is the Xinhua article:

Rare marble sphinx unearthed in NW China

English.news.cn   2015-12-15 15:07:18

YINCHUAN, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- A rare well-preserved marble sphinx carving has been unearthed in a tomb in northwest China dating back more than 1,000 years, said Chinese archeologists on Tuesday.

The delicately-carved sphinx statue is 36 cm high with 21 cm long and 13 cm wide base. It has a human face with a bulge on the head and a sitting lion body.

The sphinx statue was excavated in November along with eight warrior, horse, camel and lion carvings in the tomb in Guyuan City, Ningxi Hui Autonomous Region.

The tomb was one of the 29 ancient graves in the area which archeologists have excavated this year to pave way for the construction of a local water plant. More than 150 funeral items, such as carvings, pottery, bronze and iron wares, have been unearthed from the graves so far.

The sphinx statue, made of white marble according to preliminary research, was intact except for minor damage in the middle of the face.

These nine marble carvings showed excellent craftsmanship, said Fan Jun, head of the excavation team of the Ningxia Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute.

According to an epitaph, the tomb housed Liu Jun and his wife, who lived during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

"The style carvings had features from the west and are considered rare for ancient Chinese tombs during that period," said Fan. The white marble material was also rarely seen in north China, he added.

The excavations will help scientists better understand freight transport during the Tang Dynasty, said Fan.

Ningxia was along the ancient Silk Road trade route.

The original half-human, half-lion Sphinx, is believed to have been built by Egyptians 5,000 years ago. The statue is 73 meters long and 21 meters high. It sits on the west bank of the Nile River near the great pyramids of Giza to the west of Cairo.

Editor: An

Truth or Fraud: "Roman Sword" Found Off Coast of Oak Island in Nova Scotia

Okay, is it just me being overly suspicious because right now on the History Channel is a TV series about treasure hunting on Oak Island in Nova Scotia - treasure that has been variously ascribed to the Templars, pirates, the Spanish Conquistadors, and in last week's episode, the Aztecs!  Now, lo and behold, a Roman sword discovered an unspecified number of years ago has been brought to light by an heir of the alleged original finder.  Hmmm.....  Aha!  I knew it!  After posting the above I found this article that announces the discovery of the "Roman sword" is explicitly linked to the show about Oak Island currently being run on The History  Channel.

From Yahoo News

Ancient Sword ‘Could Prove Romans Discovered America Before Columbus’

6 hours ago

An ancient sword found in water near Oak Island in Nova Scotia offers proof the Romans found America, a researcher has claimed.  If true, the sword - found by fishermen in shallow waters - would rewrite history, with Roman explorers having found America a millennia before Columbus.

Investigator J Hutton Pulitzer claims the sword is a ‘smoking gun’ - although many archaeologists are not as convinced.  Pulitzer says, ‘Some years ago, a man and his son were scalloping off Oak Island, which sees them hang rake-like object off the back of their boat. When they brought this up, the sword came up with it.

‘The father kept it for decades, and when he died it went to his wife, then his daughter. Then when she died many years later it went to her husband. It was he who came forward to the island and said ‘I think you should know about this and where it was found.’

Pulitzer claims that forensic analysis of the sword shows that it is Roman - and rubbishes claims that it was brought there by later visitors.

He now wants to explore what he claims is a Roman shipwreck in the same waters.

Pulitzer says, ‘The shipwreck is still there and has not been worked. We have scanned it, we know exactly where it lays, but it will be a touchy thing for the Nova Scotia government to allow an archaeological team to survey it. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is Roman.

‘I think this is the single most important discovery for the Americas - an event that will re-write history. This is a gunshot to be heard around the world. It changes all of our history on this side of the pond.’***************************************************************************************************************
 Aha!  I knew it!  After posting the above I found this article that says the discovery of the "Roman sword" is explicitly linked to the show about Oak Island currently being run on The History  Channel.  This photo of the alleged Roman sword superimposed over an air shot of Oak Island is from that article:

I have been watching the show.  The originators of the show are milking it for all it's worth, and I can't blame them, really, since I imagine it has been very expensive bringing in all the digging equipment and technical people they've had going over the island with a fine tooth comb trying to find ANY evidence of treasure.  I don't think there is diddly squat buried there, but it does make for a rip-roaring good review of history :)
Some folks have suggested that Oak Island is shaped like an elephant:  

Hmmm, well maybe a pygmy elephant with no hind legs.

Sad News

It is with heavy heart that I report sad news received today about the death of Janet Ulrich, one of the most wonderful and uplifting women it was ever my pleasure and privilege to have met.  Janet lost a battle, as her husband, Jim, put it, after being checkmated by cancer.

I met Janet only a few times at tournaments here in Milwaukee held by my adopted Southwest Chess Club.  She emanated joy, love, and a light-filled, glowing energy from every fiber of her being.  When we were able to meet, we didn't just chat, we talked about everything and anything for hours on end, and although we came from very different walks of life and backgrounds, I felt in Janet a kindred spirit.  I think perhaps she made everyone she met feel that same way.  I will miss her enormously and I grieve for her loss and for her family's loss. Besides her husband, Jim, Janet leaves four children, all of whom are chessplayers:  Thomas, Anne, Rachel, and Susanna.

Visitation and funeral will be held on Saturday, December 12, 2015 at St. Matthew Lutheran Church, 129 South Mason Street, Appleton, Wisconsin, visitation between 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., funeral mass at 11:00 a.m.

Obituary.

In the arms of the angels
Far away from here
I will lay myself down
Where the air is so clear
I will lay myself down
Upon golden angels' wings
And in the arms of the angels
I will find some comfort there.

Spittle-Drooling Gutter Slime Running for Republican Presidential Nomination

How do I really feel about 2016's crop of Republican/Tea Party/Nazi presential wannabes?  If you haven't figured it out yet, you shouldn't be here reading this blog, darlings!  Not even the Idiot Bloviator Cruz's statements today about global climate change being based on "psuedo-science" could displace the Big Mouth Kewpie Doll With Bad Hair from the front pages.

Cover page of The New York Daily News, courtesy of Vox.

Stone Carving Represents Herod's Temple

From The New York Times

A Carved Stone Block Upends Assumptions About Ancient Judaism

By ISABEL KERSHNERDEC. 8, 2015

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — The carved stone block is about the size of an occasional table. It has held its secrets for two millenniums. Whoever engraved its enigmatic symbols was apparently depicting the ancient Jewish temples.

But what makes the stone such a rare find in biblical archaeology, according to scholars, is that when it was carved, the Second Temple still stood in Jerusalem for the carver to see. The stone is a kind of ancient snapshot.

And it is upending some long-held scholarly assumptions about ancient synagogues and their relationship with the Temple, a center of Jewish pilgrimage and considered the holiest place of worship for Jews, during a crucial period, when Judaism was on the cusp of the Christian era.

Known as the Magdala Stone, the block was unearthed in 2009 near the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, where a resort and center for Christian pilgrims was going to be built. Government archaeologists are routinely called in to check for anything old and important that might be destroyed by a project, and in this case they discovered the well-preserved ruins of a first-century synagogue and began excavating.

Yael Yolovich/Israel Antiquities Authority

"Shadow Painting" Discovered Under Mona Lisa

Hola!  The lovely lady is back in the news.  This is pretty interesting, but really, it is not that uncommon for "under paintings" or even entirely different paintings to have been discovered underneath the top-most layer of old paintings.  This is garnering more than the usual attention, though, because - well - it IS the Mona Lisa :)

Hidden portrait 'found under Mona Lisa', says French scientist

By Roya NikkhahBBC News

• 8 December 2015

An image of a portrait underneath the Mona Lisa has been found beneath the existing painting using reflective light technology, according to a French scientist.

Pascal Cotte said he has spent more than 10 years using the technology to analyse the painting.  He claims the earlier portrait lies hidden underneath the surface of Leonardo's most celebrated artwork.  A reconstruction shows another image of a sitter looking off to the side.

The Louvre Museum has declined to comment on his claims because it "was not part of the scientific team".

Instead of the famous, direct gaze of the painting which hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, the image of the sitter also shows no trace of her enigmatic smile, which has intrigued art lovers for more than 500 years
.
But Mr Cotte's claims are controversial and have divided opinion among Leonardo experts.

The scientist, who is the co-founder of Lumiere Technology in Paris, was given access to the painting in 2004 by the Louvre. [What?  It has taken 11 years to come out with this news???]

He has pioneered a technique called Layer Amplification Method (LAM), which he used to analyse the Mona Lisa.  It works by "projecting a series of intense lights" on to the painting, Mr Cotte said. A camera then takes measurements of the lights' reflections and from those measurements, Mr Cotte said he is able to reconstruct what has happened between the layers of the paint.

The Mona Lisa has been the subject of several scientific examinations over more than half a century. More recent techniques include infrared inspections and multi-spectral scanning.

But Mr Cotte has claimed his technique is able to penetrate more deeply into the painting.  He said: "We can now analyse exactly what is happening inside the layers of the paint and we can peel like an onion all the layers of the painting. We can reconstruct all the chronology of the creation of the painting."

'Shatter many myths'

Leonardo is believed to have worked on the painting between 1503 and 1517 while working in Florence and later in France.

There has long been debate about the Mona Lisa's identity. But for centuries, it has been widely believed that she is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant.

But Mr Cotte has claimed his discoveries challenge that theory. He believes the image he has reconstructed underneath the surface of the painting is Leonardo's original Lisa, and that the portrait named Mona Lisa for more than 500 years is, in fact, a different woman.

He said: "The results shatter many myths and alter our vision of Leonardo's masterpiece forever.  When I finished the reconstruction of Lisa Gherardini, I was in front of the portrait and she is totally different to Mona Lisa today. This is not the same woman."

He also claims to have found two more images under the surface of the painting - a shadowy outline of a portrait with a larger head and nose, bigger hands but smaller lips. And he says he has found another Madonna-style image with Leonardo's etchings of a pearl headdress.

Veterans' Day: The Story Behind An Old Grave

Hola everyone.  A serious family illness situation has been occupying my time and sucking up most of my energy for some time now.  But I wanted to post this in honor of our veterans, those living and those who are no longer with us.

On a lovely autumn day about six weeks ago (it's hard to keep track of the time these days, they all seem to blend into each other in non-ending exhaustion, duty and worry) I met a couple of friends whom I used to work with years ago, and we had lunch.  Afterwards, one of the friends and I took a ride to the Veterans' cemetery at Wood (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) where her father, a WWII vet, and her mother, are buried.

It is a beautiful, serene and tranquil place in the midst of a busy city, unfortunately intersected by an eight lane expressway that goes right past Miller Park (baseball park)!  But even that monstrosity cannot disrupt the peace one feels amid the acres of carefully tended grass, trimmed around the gravestones, and trees turning reds, yellows, and oranges against a cloudless bright crisp blue sky.

My friend showed me her parents' graves, and we paid homage.  Then we took a slow walk through the neatly arranged rows of gravestones, lined up like soldiers in formation.  It was truly moving.  We stopped along our way to read the names on the stones.  Some stones were so worn we could no longer make out any details.  I learned that the Veterans Administration does have a program to replace worn out gravestones with new ones, but due to budget cuts much of that program has been ground to a halt.  How sad!

One gravestone, in particular, caught my attention.  My friend snapped a few photos of it with her cell phone:

  This is the grave of Private Abraham Bailey, who served in Captain William Richardson's Co. of the Pennsylvania Militia in the War of 1812.  He died on May 31, 1884.

We wondered:  What was a man who served in the Pennsylvania Militia doing buried in a Veterans' cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin?  Had he moved here after the War of 1812, perhaps when Wisconsin was a newly opened territory, or perhaps when Wisconsin became a state in 1848?  The mystery intrigued us.  Who was this man, buried in the oldest grave in this section (at least of the stones we could read).

We talked about checking to see if we could find out more.  Both of us have accounts at Ancestry.com.  So, after I go home, I got to work.  Later my friend and I emailed back and forth to share our findings.

This is what we learned about Abraham Bailey, who served in the War of 1812 on behalf of the United States.

Abraham (also known as Abram B.) Bailey, was born on March 30, 1795 (or 1796) in Pennsylvania, where he lived for most of his life before relocating, near the end of his long life, to the Veterans' Home and Hospital at Wood, Wisconsin, in 1882.  He died at Wood at the age of 88 years, and he was buried there.

Abraham served in the Pennsylvania Militia between September 18, 1814 to December 15, 1814, when the war ended.  Before and after the war, he made his living as a stone mason.

On September 20, 1837 in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Abraham married Martha Gaskill Seaman, the daughter of Theophila Gaskill and Nathaniel Seaman.  Martha was born in Pennsylvania (or possibly in New York), on September 7, 1801 and she died on December 22, 1881.

At some point after 1850 or 1855, Abraham received a warrant from the U.S. Government for "bounty land" as a result of his service in the War of 1812.  I don't know where the land was located, but it appears, judging from the notation in the upper right hand corner on the document below, that he received rights to 160 acres:

Bounty land was typically land in "the public domain" which at the time meant territory in lands acquired by the United States government for settlement and expansion, such as the Louisiana Territory.  For example, some 5 million acres were set aside as bounty land in Illinois territory before it became a state.  It doesn't appear that Abraham Bailey moved to begin a new homestead on his bounty land; more likely, he sold his land warrant for cash to either an outright purchaser or a land speculator.

I found the couple in the United States Census Records for 1850 (Delaware County, PA), 1860 (Chester County, PA), 1870 (Chester County, PA) and 1880 (Burlington County, NJ).  No children were listed on any of these census records.  Martha and Abraham had no children as far as I was able to determine.  I could find no records but that does not prove there were no children born to the couple, who may have been born but died in the times between the U.S. Censuses.

We know these few bare facts, but we know nothing of the man, the woman, the couple, their lives together.  What did they look like?  What were they like?  Were they happy?

Abraham Bailey's record from the Veterans' Home and Hospital is on the right.  A life reduced to a few sentences:

In the midst of WWII, Abraham Bailey's gravestone at Wood was replaced in 1942 - the document above is the replacement request.

Private Abraham Bailey, on behalf of a grateful nation, my friend Ann and I salute you, and all those who served and are serving their country. Thank you.

DNA Gives Clues to the Settling of the Americas

Hola darlings!

I'm still with you.  No time at present to blog due to pressing familial issues, but I wanted you to check out this article from The New York Times:

DNA of Ancient Children Offers Clues on How People Settled the Americas

Carl Zimmer

October 26, 2015

Researchers have long wondered how people settled the Americas, particularly the path they took to the new territory and the timing of their expansion. Until recently, archaeologists studying these questions were limited mostly to digging up skeletons and artifacts.

But now scientists have begun extracting DNA from human bones, and the findings are providing new glimpses at the history of the first Americans.  On Monday, researchers at the University of Alaska and elsewhere published an important addition to the growing genetic archive.

In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers reported that they had recovered DNA from two skeletons of children who lived in Alaska 11,500 years ago. The genetic material is not only among the oldest ever found in the Americas, but also the first ancient DNA discovered in Beringia, the region around the Bering Strait where many researchers believe Asians first settled before spreading through North and South America.

The archaeological site, near Upward Sun River, was discovered in 2010. Excavations there have revealed that between 13,200 and 8,000 years ago, people visited during the summer, catching salmon and hares. They built tentlike structures where they made fires and slept.

In 2011, archaeologists discovered cremated bones on a hearth at the site. Research revealed that the bones belonged to a 3-year-old child. Below the hearth, the team discovered a burial pit containing the skeletons of two other children.

One of the buried children was an infant who died a few months after birth; the other was likely a late-term fetus. After the baby and the fetus died, their bodies were carefully laid atop a bed of red ocher, surrounded by antlers fashioned into hunting darts.  “These things we hardly ever find — it’s a very rare window into the worldview of these people,” said Ben A. Potter, an archaeologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who has led the research at Upward Sun River.

Oriental Institute Puts Select Photos From Its Archives Online

Absolutely fascinating, darlings!  The Oriental Institute has made some  photo archives from various expeditions to the Middle East available online.  Add this to your list of research resources.

ORIENTAL INSTITUTE PHOTO ARCHIVES - Selected Photos

A Review of What We Know About Ancient Human "Species Interbreeding" (as the scientists call it, what bunk!)

Hola darlings!

A fundamental tenet of biology teaches us that like breeds with like.  As our technology continues to improve and we continue to dig more deeply into our human origins and people aren't afraid to toss off preconceived notions and never stop asking "but what about this? What about that?", I think all the crap some of learned in school (and some people still believe) about "ape men" and the classic Darwinian take on "evolution" is a bunch of baloney.  Now, on to the article at Phys Org - and do try to ignore the silly title:

How a one night stand in the Ice Age affects us all today

October 8, 2015 by Darren Curnoe, The Conversation

Over the past half decade, ancient DNA research has revealed some surprising aspects to our evolutionary history during the past 50,000 years.  Perhaps the most startling of these has been the extent to which the ancestors of living people across the planet interbred with other closely related species of human.

But where in the world did these cross-species matings occur? Which archaic species were involved? Just how much of the human genome comprises DNA from these archaic relatives?And what impact did interbreeding have on our evolution and general biology as a species?

These are questions are the core of current research into interbreeding as revealed by DNA sequences obtained from fossils in Europe and Asia, as well as from comparisons with the genomes of living people.

Hales Corners Chess Challenge XXII!

Where did my summer go?  October is upon us and with October comes the semi-annual Hales Corners Chess Challenge tournaments, held in October and April each year.

October 2015 is no exception.  This year's great Hales Corners Challenge will be held on Saturday, October 17, 2015, at the beautiful Olympia Resort in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.  Hang on to your hats, darlings! Goddesschess has changed things up a bit this Challenge in the prize structure, woo woo!

Goddesschess has sponsored prizes since Challenge VIII, Holy Hathor!  Now here we are at Challenge XXII, and my cohort in Goddesschess, Georgia "Isis" Albert, and I have cooked up some new things for this Challenge to encourage our local and regional chess femmes to come on out and play!

Important to know:  As always, Goddesschess prize money is in addition to any other prizes you may win.

First off, we are beginning a new prize offering:  PERFECT SCORE PRIZE (female players only).  Any female player who wins all four of her games in each of the Open and Reserve sections will receive $80 and $40, respectively.  No limit on the number of perfect game scores, chess femmes!  So if all of you should begin to channel vibes from GM Judit Polgar - well, Georgia and I certainly would be gob-smacked and have to open up the Goddesschess wallet a little bit more, and we would LOVE to do so just for you!

You may already know that while I haven't sat down and done the math for hundreds of tournaments held across the country comparable in scale to the Hales Corners Challenges each year, I am pretty darn sure that our female player participation rate in the Challenges is among the top in the country, if not the highest.  My cohort in Goddesschess and I want to keep that momentum going, thus the Perfect Score Prize.

We've also shaken things up a little bit this year by offering a higher pay-off for wins and draws earned by female players in the Open Section.  We think it's high time some of you spread your wings a little bit wider and ventured into the Open Section instead of staying in the safe confines of the Reserve Section.  Come on chess femmes - give it a try.  We want to pay you more, more, more! We won' go bankrupt - pinky promise.  Chess femmes playing in the Open will now earn Goddesschess prize money of $50 per win, and $25 per draw.  Female players in the Reserve Section will win $20 per win and $10 per draw.

As we have for many years, Goddesschess will also pay the entry fee of the top finishing female player in each of the Open and Reserve Sections to the next Hales Corners Challenge.

This being the October Challenge, it is once again time to remember our dearly departed Mr. Don McLean, long-time webmaster, correspondent, writer and master researcher for Goddesschess, who passed away on October 12, 2012.  Don loved chess.  He couldn't play worth a damn, just like I can't, so we enjoyed many head-butting games OTB, LOL!  Oh, the stories I could tell you about some of those games, oh my :)  We honor Don in October with special prizes to spread the love to the chess dudes: $100 to the top finishing male player in the Open, and $50 to the top finishing male player in the Reserve. There are all sorts of tie-breaks that I do not understand in the least, so only one player in each section walks away with the top prize -- NO SPLITS, OUCH!

Come on out and play, chess femmes, please.  Do Georgia and I proud!  Let's break a record for female participation in Challenge XXII!  Let's shoot for the stars.

You can find further tournament information at the Southwest Chess Club website and their blog.

Please come on out, support us, and have fun, everyone.  Good luck, and we're rooting for the chess femmes :)

2015 FIDE Women's Grand Prix: Monaco

Hola!

One of my favorite players, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, is playing in this Grand Prix, along with some of the best chessplayers in the world (all female), a truly stellar line-up of chess talent.  What's not to love?

Official website.  Photo gallery, extensive information on games/rounds, live video including live broadcast of games.

Here are the standings after 6 rounds, Holy Hathor!

FIDE Women Grand Prix 2015-16
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Ranking Crosstable after Round 6
Rank	SNo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts	Res.
1	8	GM	Hou Yifan	2671	CHN	4½	0
2	6	GM	Koneru Humpy	2578	IND	4½	0
3	3	GM	Muzychuk Mariya	2528	UKR	4½	0
4	5	GM	Cramling Pia	2513	SWE	3½	0
5	4	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2525	RUS	3½	0
6	10	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2500	BUL	3	0
7	7	WGM	Pogonina Natalija	2445	RUS	3	0
8	2	GM	Zhukova Natalia	2485	UKR	3	0
9	9	IM	Skripchenko Almira	2441	FRA	2	1
10	12	GM	Muzychuk Anna	2549	UKR	2	0
11	1	IM	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	2402	IRI	1½	0
12	11	GM	Dzagnidze Nana	2573	GEO	1	0

Here is the schedule for the remainder of the tournament:

October,10 201515:00 Round 7
October,11 201515:00 Round 8
October,12 201515:00 Free Day
18:30 Reception of the Minister of State
October,13 201515:00  Round 9
October,14 201515:00Round 10
October,15 201511:00 Round 11
17:00 Closing Ceremony

Round 7 Match-Ups tomorrow (U.S. Central Time Zone, games begin 3:00 p.m.):

Round 7 on 2015/10/10 at 15:00
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
4	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2525	-	GM	Muzychuk Anna	2549	12
5	GM	Cramling Pia	2513	-	GM	Muzychuk Mariya	2528	3
6	GM	Koneru Humpy	2578	-	GM	Zhukova Natalia	2485	2
7	WGM	Pogonina Natalija	2445	-	IM	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	2402	1
8	GM	Hou Yifan	2671	-	GM	Dzagnidze Nana	2573	11
9	IM	Skripchenko Almira	2441	-	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2500	10

I wish all of the chess femmes bon chance.

Hola darlings!

I'm still alive and kicking, just been busy with other projects and the summer social scene.  In SE Wisconsin we must get things in while the weather cooperates, because Goddess knows once winter hits some time in (I hope late) November I'll be mostly at home for 6 months.  I've got another visit with Isis in Las Vegas coming up in mid November and I don't want my flight to be grounded by bad weather.  I'm gambling that a blizzard won't hit on either my trip out or my trip back and that the weather in Vegas holds in the mid-70's during the day while I'm there.  It is, of course, a craps shoot, har :)  

Got an email about this new exhibit at the World Chess Hall of Fame (seems I missed the announcement about them dropping "Museum" out of their title) and it sounds pretty cool.  If you are in the St. Louis area, or are planning a visit soon, worth checking out:

Ladies’ Knight: A Female Perspective on Chess

Opening Reception Thursday, October 29 | 6 - 8 p.m.
 

Ladies’ Knight: A Female Perspective on Chess examines how a game often dominated by men inspires contemporary women artists. The exhibition presents works by artists Crystal Fischetti, Debbie Han, Barbara Kruger, Liliya Lifanova, Goshka Macuga, Sophie Matisse, Yoko Ono, Daniela Raytchev, Jennifer Shahade, Yuko Suga, Diana Thater, and Rachel Whiteread. Their diverse interpretations of the game range from the playful and feminine to the serious and encourage dialogue about subjects like crime, language, peace and conflict, and inequality. 

Opening Reception
Thursday, October 29, 2015
6 - 8 p.m.
6:30 p.m. Remarks by Shannon Bailey, Chief Curator, World Chess Hall of Fame


Free and open to the public. 

Complimentary valet. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.
RSVP to Erica Kelly at events@worldchesshof.org

Delayed Maleness

Article at The Washington Post online.

The mysterious village where girls turn into boys

By Justin Wm. Moyer September 22 at 5:15 AM

It sounds like the plot of a “Twilight Zone” episode, an Ursula K. Le Guin story, or the Pulitzer Prize winning 2002 novel “Middlesex”: There’s a place where, when girls hit puberty, they turn into boys. Such a plot would prove rich territory — or a landmine — for anyone interested in how gender and sexuality develop.

“Think of the scientific possibilities!” Slate wrote in 1997. “Finally, we could tease apart nature and nurture and see whether men and women differed because of how they were brought up as children.”

Yet, this place — Salinas, a small village in the Dominican Republic — actually exists. And though scientists have been aware of the genetic mutation that causes this curious condition for decades, the little-known, but extensively documented, story is the subject of a new BBC piece called “The Extraordinary Story of the Guevedoces.”

The translation of “guevedoce”: “penis at 12.”

“I never liked to dress as a girl and when they bought me toys for girls I never bothered playing with them,” Johnny, formerly Felicita, told the BBC. “When I saw a group of boys I would stop to play ball with them.”

Johnny is not alone. As first observed by a Cornell University researcher in the 1970s, one in about 90 children in and around Salinas are affected by the mutation, which leads to low levels of an enzyme called 5-α-reductase that typically spurs growth of the penis in utero. In guevedoces, this growth is delayed until puberty. And, after their transformation, many of the newly minted boys prove heterosexual.

“So the boys, despite having an XY chromosome, appear female when they are born,” the BBC explained. “At puberty, like other boys, they get a second surge of testosterone. This time the body does respond and they sprout muscles, testes and a penis.”

Some guevedoces are tormented — called “nasty things, bad words,” as one told the BBC.

“When she turned five I noticed that whenever she saw one of her male friends she wanted to fight with him,” the mother of Carla — “on the brink of changing into Carlos” at 7, as the BBC put it — said. “Her muscles and chest began growing. You could see she was going to be a boy.”

Though the case of the guevedoces, for some researchers, showed that nature is more important than nurture in directing sexuality, an American pharmaceutical company by the name of Merck took the research to an unexpected place. Guevedoces generally have small prostates. If 5-α-reductase could be blocked by a drug, could prostate growth in adult men be inhibited?

Yes, Merck decided. The company developed the drug finasteride, more commonly known as Propecia, now used to treat male pattern baldness and benign prostate growth.

Some men reported the drug had strange effects on their sex drive.

“I’d be with a sexy woman, and there was just no interest at all on my part,”one patient said in 2011. “If anything, it was almost like I felt mild repulsion.”

But the guevedoces were not just of interest to Big Pharma. In a 1998 report,the Hastings Center, devoted to ethical issues in medicine, discussed how the very concept of a third sex had changed the vocabulary and mindset of Salinas when it comes to gender.

“The sexually ambiguous child is born not into a world divided up into male and female, but into a world divided into male, female, and guevedoce,” the report read. “Different concepts, different facts of nature.”

“I love her however she is,” Carla’s mother told the BBC. “Girl or boy, it makes no difference.”