The Evolution of Language and Genes

With the advent of jet travel and especially the internet, language is changing at a rate undreamed of just 60 years ago by linguists and etymologists.  I have been fascinated by the origins of languages and their subsequent spread and mutation as the population of mankind grew larger and larger and spread across the globe.  It also saddens me greatly that languages are going extinct every year, and until recently little to nothing was done to capture and record these languages before the last speaker died.  We are so arrogant - and ignorant!  Language probably holds the key to many mysteries of our journey from past to present, and yet we pay no attention.

Geneticists Estimate Publication Date Of The 'Iliad'

Joel N. Shurkin, ISNS Contributor

Date: 26 February 2013 Time: 06:11 PM ET

(ISNS) -- Scientists who decode the genetic history of humans by tracking how genes mutate have applied the same technique to one of the Western world's most ancient and celebrated texts to uncover the date it was first written.

The text is Homer's "Iliad," and Homer -- if there was such a person -- probably wrote it in 762 B.C., give or take 50 years, the researchers found. The "Iliad" tells the story of the Trojan War -- if there was such a war -- with Greeks battling Trojans.

The researchers accept the received orthodoxy that a war happened and someone named Homer wrote about it, said Mark Pagel, an evolutionary theorist at the University of Reading in England. His collaborators include Eric Altschuler, a geneticist at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, in Newark, and Andreea S. Calude, a linguist also at Reading and the Sante Fe Institute in New Mexico. They worked from the standard text of the epic poem.

The date they came up with fits the time most scholars think the "Iliad" was compiled, so the paper, published in the journal Bioessays, won't have classicists in a snit. The study mostly affirms what they have been saying, that it was written around the eighth century B.C.

That geneticists got into such a project should be no surprise, Pagel said.

"Languages behave just extraordinarily like genes," Pagel said. "It is directly analogous. We tried to document the regularities in linguistic evolution and study Homer's vocabulary as a way of seeing if language evolves the way we think it does. If so, then we should be able to find a date for Homer."

It is unlikely there ever was one individual man named Homer who wrote the "Iliad." Brian Rose, professor of classical studies and curator of the Mediterranean section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, said it is clear the "Iliad" is a compilation of oral tradition going back to the 13th century B.C.

"It's an amalgam of lots of stories that seemed focused on conflicts in one particular area of northwestern Turkey," Rose said.

The story of the "Iliad" is well known, full of characters like Helen of Troy, Achilles, Paris, Agamemnon and a slew of gods and goddesses behaving badly. It recounts how a gigantic fleet of Greek ships sailed across the "wine dark sea" to besiege Troy and regain a stolen wife. Its sequel is the "Odyssey."

Classicists and archeologists are fairly certain Troy existed and generally know where it is. In the 19th century, the German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann and the Englishman Frank Calvert excavated what is known as the Citadel of Troy and found evidence of a military conflict in the 12th century B.C., including arrows and 5 feet of burned debris around a buried fortress. Whether it was a war between Troy and a foreign element, or a civil war is unknown, Rose said.

The compilation we know as the "Iliad" was written centuries later, the date Pagel is proposing.
The scientists tracked the words in the "Iliad" the way they would track genes in a genome.

The researchers employed a linguistic tool called the Swadesh word list, put together in the 1940s and 1950s by American linguist Morris Swadesh. The list contains approximately 200 concepts that have words apparently in every language and every culture, Pagel said. These are usually words for body parts, colors, necessary relationships like "father" and "mother."

They looked for Swadesh words in the "Iliad" and found 173 of them. Then, they measured how they changed.

They took the language of the Hittites, a people that existed during the time the war may have been fought, and modern Greek, and traced the changes in the words from Hittite to Homeric to modern. It is precisely how they measure the genetic history of humans, going back and seeing how and when genes alter over time.

For example, they looked at cognates, words derived from ancestral words. There is "water" in English, "wasser" in German, "vatten" in Swedish, all cognates emanating from "wator" in proto-German. However, the Old English "hund" later became "hound" but eventually was replaced by "dog," not a cognate.

"I'm an evolutionary theorist," Pagel said. "I study language because it's such a remarkable culturally transmitted replicator. It replicates with a fidelity that's just astonishing."

By documenting the regularity of the linguistic mutations, Pagel and the others have given a timeline to the story of Helen and the men who died for her -- genetics meets the classics.

Joel Shurkin is a freelance writer based in Baltimore. He is the author of nine books on science and the history of science, and has taught science journalism at Stanford University, UC Santa Cruz and the University of Alaska Fairbanks

Making a Difference: My Chess Buddy Ellen Wanek

I've written about Ellen Wanek before.  I met her at a Hales Corners Chess Challenge a few Challenges ago, and we hit it off immediately.  She's beautiful, and gracious, and so kind, and just has this effervescent personality that draws people to her.  You know how some people just have an aura about them?  Ellen has that kind of aura.  I am so happy to have met her. 

Ellen teaches kids how to play chess at Sheboygan area schools and has been a driving force behind getting a "Chess in the Park" program going in Sheboygan, too.  So glad to see Ellen - and her work - getting publicity!  And I'm so happy to read about more Wisconsin women getting actively involved in bringing chess to children - and to everyone. 

From The Sheboygan Press

Check mates: Students make their moves in chess tournaments
February 25, 2013
By Kali Thiel

Editor’s note: This is one in an occasional series of articles about Sheboygan-area residents who are going the extra mile to make Sheboygan and beyond a better place.

If you see a car around town with a “Chess Nut” vanity plate, it’s likely Ellen Wanek’s.

Wanek, 61, devotes much of her retired life to the game of chess. She’s a coach at four Sheboygan schools, she privately teaches about 10 students every week and she helps out at many of the area’s weekend chess tournaments.

“The woman is addicted to chess,” said Al Wanek, Ellen’s husband.

Wanek isn’t alone. There’s a growing interest in chess that’s sweeping across Sheboygan County schools. And on Saturday, nearly 200 area youth competed in the annual Acuity Chess Invitational put on by Acuity and the Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation.

Shawn Chrisman, director of the Acuity tournament, said more than 15 Sheboygan County schools were represented at the weekend tournament and he estimated around 400 youth in Sheboygan County are active in chess in some fashion.

The Acuity Invitational is one of about 10 tournaments offered in Sheboygan County from November to March each year. A few years ago, there weren’t even half that many though, said Katie Delahunt, WSCF board member.

When Delahunt moved to the Sheboygan area about eight years ago from Milwaukee, she said she was amazed that Sheboygan didn’t have many chess tournaments. Her children had been active in chess at their previous school and she missed having that opportunity for them.

“In Milwaukee, chess was a huge thing,” Delahunt said. “You played chess during the lunch hour or after school. Some schools were very elaborate and they even hired experts to coach. They’d bring in experts from Russia that are top players worldwide.”

Delahunt, the Sheboygan/Kohler Municipal Court judge, said she was instrumental in getting tournaments started in Sheboygan about six years ago and ever since then, chess has really taken off.

“The thing with tournaments is it motivates (the students),” Delahunt said. “The kids who are in a club then have a purpose.”

Wanek said she became involved with chess tournaments after volunteering for one at what was then Holy Name School about four years ago, and she’s been hooked ever since.

“When I saw this type of chess tournament with so many children, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I was just loving every minute of it,” Wanek said. “I have just really been giving my life to this the last few years through scholastic chess because I can see it just benefitting so many different areas of people’s lives.”

Among the numerous benefits chess offers, Wanek said it can boost IQ, promote creative thinking, improve teens’ decision-making skills and it can even help prevent dementia.

Delahunt said she likes that chess provides a different way for students to get involved at school.

“For kids who aren’t maybe basketball players or who don’t have another activity to do during the winter, it’s something great for them to do,” she said. “And they really enjoy it and it gets them focused and they learn how to win and lose. There are just so many benefits.”

The tournament at Acuity is unique in that it is the only area tournament that is free. Most tournaments charge $10 or so per competitor.

“It brings more kids out who have never played in a tournament before,” said Chrisman. “A lot of parents think, OK if this is a free tournament then I’ll try it out and as long as I know my kid likes it, I’ll spend that time.”

New to the Acuity Invitational this year was Random Lake seventh-grader Alexander Jentsch. Even though Jentsch said he’s been playing chess since about second grade, this was the first year he participated in tournaments.

Jentsch said he likes playing chess because it “keeps your brain working.”

His mom, Sheila Jentsch, said that even though she can’t play chess very well, she likes it because her son likes it, which is why she got permission from the Random Lake schools administration to start a chess club next year.

“Right now (my son) is the only one going to tournaments,” she said. “But I know there are other kids who play chess so I’m trying to get a group going.”

It was just last year that Lake Country Academy, Horace Mann Middle School, Lincoln Erdman Elementary, the Mosaic School and Grant Elementary/ESAA got clubs started. They already had a combined total of nearly 100 kids in the Acuity tournament this year.

Three of those schools — Horace Mann, Lincoln-Erdman and Lake Country — are Wanek’s proteges. She also coaches at Sheboygan Christian School.

“Having this in place as an educational tool is phenomenal, but the personal life values and training that this gives goes beyond even that,” Wanek said.

“It has been just an absolute wonderful time for my life. Here I am, I’m older, and instead of becoming a couch potato, this has just been a whole new horizon to really give your life to and I think it’s a worthwhile mission because these children are really being blessed by it,” she said.


Other blog posts about Ellen Wanek:

May 1, 2011:  Chess Queen, Ellen Wanek, Chess Coach
October 22, 2011:  Hales Corners Chess Challenge XIV (some photos)
April 22, 2012:  Hales Corners Chess Challenge XV (some photos - I was off my water pill and look horrid and bloated in all of the photos taken during this time; less than 2 months laters my heart problems revealed themselves, but in this event I won my first and only tournament game!)
June 28, 2012:  Sheboygan's Chess in the Park
July 14, 2012:  Of Kings, Queens and Castles -- Chess in the Park helps children improve game during the summer

Judit Polgar's Latest Book

Reported at Chessbase News (you can read the full review there):

GM Judit Polgar, 2011 World Cup, sporting her favorite
animal print - leopard! 

Judit Polgar: How I beat Fischer's record
05.02.2013– It is not often that we review books, but some simply call for attention. Such as this one by the strongest female in chess history, which was given to us by Judit during the London Chess Classic. We have known her since early childhood, and followed her career. The book was a trip down memory lane. We are pleased to share with you a sample chapter and a wonderfully annotated game.

Judit Polgar is one of the most celebrated chess players in the world, and as a woman competing in a male-dominated game, her achievements are unparalleled. It is not often that an active world-class player goes to the trouble of writing a highly personal account of their life and chess career, but now, with the help of the British publisher Quality Chess, the strongest female player of all time has made just such a gift to the chess world.

“I started flirting with the idea of publishing a collection of my best games a long time ago. For years, I was aware that the moment when I could fulfil my dream was far away. As a professional player, I spent most of my time and energy playing in tournaments and training, so each time the idea of my book popped up, I had to say to myself “Later, later...””

So writes Judit Polgar in the preface of her new book, How I Beat Fischer’s Record. The first in a three-part series, it documents her early life and chess development, spanning a period from the early 1980s up to 1991. The latter was the year in which she made history by achieving the grandmaster title approximately one month younger than Bobby Fischer.

Will any chess femme take her place?  Beth Harmon, where are you when we need you???  I don't expect to see one in what's left of my lifetime.

Snow Day Trick

Hola darlings!

It's a snow day at Maison Newton toda.  The snow started coming down about 2:30 p.m. yesterday and its still snowing hard out there now.  With winds out of the northeast (off Lake Michigan) of 20 to 35 mph there has been drifting even though the snow is wet and heavy.  The temperatures are mild, hovering around 32 degrees F.  This is one of those stealth blizzards...

I got up extra early this morning and took a look outside, and listened to the traffic reports on the radio.  Highways in bad shape, city of Milwaukee schools closed!  Straight snow fall around here, I'd say 8 inches of wet very heavy snow, and it's compacting even as I sit here and type this -- not good.  I have drifts up to 5 feet high.  So much for the forecasters' predictions that "the wet heavy snow won't drift much."  HA!  I have a good 18 inches of snow to shovel through in my driveway to make an 18 inch wide path from my front porch to the road.  Ain't happening until the snow stops (it shows no signs of doing so), and will take hours to do, as I can only shovel for 10 minutes at a time, then take a 30 minute break, monitoring my breathing and pulse the entire time.  I wasn't kidding when I wrote about having a bad heart.  Mr. Don's killed him, I'm not going to let mine kill me by being foolish trying to clear a path on my 30 foot long driveway. 

I've got a 3 foot high barrier of snow boulders at the base of the driveway caused by the plow coming through the subdivision a couple of times.  Since I got up before 6:30 a.m. another couple of inches have fallen, and its still going (may stop at noon).  Just piling up more and more and more, so I can count on the plow coming through at least once and possibly twice to pile up yet more snow boulders at the foot of my driveway.  By the time this is over I may have a five foot high wall of snow boulders to burrow through in order to get to the road.  Yep, ain't going anywhere today. 

One of the Ladies of the Bus sent me this interesting trick this morning.  See if you can figure it out!  I did after doing the trick twice, and saying to myself "you know this can't be real, figure it out, Woman!"  I'm that proud of myself, too, for doing so, LOL!

Woogie Card Trick 
 

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!

 

Good luck. After you have thought about this for a while, pass it on to those

poor unsuspecting friends you just love to pull something over on.

The 'Le Woogie' Card Trick. Performed by: Le Woogie

Pick one of the following cards. Don 't click on it; just keep it in your head.

 

 

scroll down when you have your card,

Think about your card for 20 seconds in front of Le Woogie.

 

Le Woogie will attempt to read your mind!

Scroll down after 20 Seconds




The Great Le Woogie Has Removed Your Card!

SCARY ISN'T IT. Now scroll up and do it again, this will freak you out!

The Latest on Egyptian Blue

Ancient "Egyptian blue" pigment points to new telecommunications, security ink technology
February 20, 2013

A bright blue pigment used 5,000 years ago is giving modern scientists clues toward the development of new nanomaterials with potential uses in state-of-the-art medical imaging devices, remote controls for televisions, security inks and other technology. That's the conclusion of an article on the pigment, Egyptian blue, in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. 

Hieroglyphics from the Tomb of Nebamun: The wall paintings in this tomb use Egyptian blue, considered humanity's first synthetic pigment, which new research shows could be used in new nanomaterials
 

Tina T. Salguero and colleagues point out that Egyptian blue, regarded as humanity's first artificial pigment, was used in paintings on tombs, statues and other objects throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. Remnants have been found, for instance, on the statue of the messenger goddess Iris on the Parthenon and in the famous Pond in a Garden fresco in the tomb of Egyptian "scribe and counter of grain" Nebamun in Thebes. They describe surprise in discovering that the calcium copper silicate in Egyptian blue breaks apart into nanosheets so thin that thousands would fit across the width of a human hair. The sheets produce invisible infrared (IR) radiation similar to the beams that communicate between remote controls and TVs, car door locks and other telecommunications devices.

"Calcium copper silicate provides a route to a new class of nanomaterials that are particularly interesting with respect to state-of-the-art pursuits like near-IR-based biomedical imaging, IR light-emitting devices (especially telecommunication platforms) and security ink formulations," the report states. "In this way we can reimagine the applications of an ancient material through modern technochemical means."

 More information: Article: Nanoscience of an Ancient Pigment, Journal of the American Chemical Society.


See also The Mail Online, Talk like an Egyptian: Ancient paint used to decorate Pharoahs' tombs is set to be the basis of telecommunication devices, February 22, 2013

3-D Image of the World's Oldest Die

Ancient icosahedron: 3D printing ressurrects the world’s
oldest die

Feb. 19, 2013 (4:52 pm) By: Graham Templeton

While it’s unlikely that the ancient Egyptians had anything like Dungeons and Dragons (Sarcophagi and Serpents?), we’ve never been shy about misappropriating the discoveries of pre-Christian Pharaohs. Why start now? A few months ago the internet became aware of a 20-sided die carved in serpentine and dated to the first few centuries BC. Inlaid with ancient Greek symbols, it was almost certainly used for gambling and/or simple games of chance, but it was quickly heralded as the originator of the critical hit. Forget 20s — a true gamer rolls Kappas.

Now, the inevitable: a 3D-printable model of the die makes it attainable by those of us without a professional art thief on retainer. Starting at $17 and ranging to over $300, depending entirely on the materials and finishing used, this die is sure to spice up any friendly dungeon-crawl.

It is also, unfortunately, likely to confuse any such gathering of the nerds, as it features the same Ptolemaic symbols as the original. Unless you’re willing to incorporate yet another chart into your role-playing sessions, this one will likely stay on the shelf as a display.

The confluence of nerd interests, increasingly medieval printing materials, and the simplicity of a die’s design has actually led to quite a number of stylistically ancient dice. It turns out that almost any primary sold can look ruggedly ancient when made out of pitted steel.

The thorn dice have attracted a fair amount of attention, as heavy metal steampunk or caltrops D4; the sheer variety of the die designs out there should threaten the dice-making industry.

Tang Dynasty Maids Cemetery Uncovered in Xi'an

Palace maids cemetery unearthed in NW China

Updated: 2013-02-26 15:38

(Xinhua)

XI'AN - A public cemetery uncovered in the city of Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, was used for maids of the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), an archaeologist told Xinhua Tuesday.

A dozen tombs, located in the west of the thousands-year-old city, were found in April, 2012, Liu Daiyun, a Shaanxi Archeology Research Institute researcher said.

Since then, the tombs have been examined.

"The structures of the tombs in this region are similar, and they have obvious characters of the Tang Dynasty. According to the epitaph of a 70-year-old maid, we deduced that the place was a public cemetery for maids of the imperial palace," Liu said.

Archaeological data showed the maids were buried individually. Archaeologists said that the epitaphs of each maid showed a specific and strict hierarchy in the imperial palace.

"There are two types of maids according to the epitaphs. Five of them died of old age, and the rest were "Wanggongni" -- maids who became nuns because the emperor they served died before them," Liu said.

Archaeologists also excavated a variety of funerary objects in the tombs, including lacquer, bronze, stone wares, animal figures and bronze waistbands.

"The discovery provides significant objects and literal materials for those researching the political system, lives, funeral customs and women in the palace of Tang Dynasty," Liu added.

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

Holy Shi Wang-mu!  So, once a female went into service for the Emperor, she was there until she died or the Emperor died first, and then she was sequestered away as a nun in a Buddhist retreat somewhere?

WSCF 8th Annual All Girls Tournament

Hola darlings!

Blizzard here tonight, it's awful out there.  In my email a notice this evening from the Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation:

8th Annual All GirlsTourament At Cardinal Stritch April 13th

The annual All Girls chess tournament will be held this year at Cardinal Stritch College in Fox Point. What is special this year is that there is a fund drive to make the tournament free for all students. Organizers are planning for between 150 and 200 girls from across the state. If the fund drive reaches its goal the tournament will be free for all. Each participant will recieve a t-shirt and a $5 food voucher. Eligible partipants will be able to compete for $1000 in scholarships and 28 trophies in four divisions. Complete information can be found on the informational flyer . Check out further information and if you can, make a donation.  Every little bit helps!   To date close to $1300 has been raised toward the $7000 goal.

This is a great event for our local chess femmes and, indeed, girls come from all over Wisconsin and elsewhere to compete. 

It would be FABULOUS if the fund-raising goal is reached that will enable each girl to play for free!  Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

Is that you, Arsenoe?

One archaeologist thinks she has found the remains of Cleopatra's younger half-sister.

Article at newobserver.com

Archaeologist: Bones found in Turkey are probably those of Cleopatra's half-sister

Published: February 24, 2013

 

By John Bordsen

Long-buried bones and a missing monarch. Add some historical notoriety and modern technology and you have a heck of a captivating, science-driven story.

Just this month, it was announced that bones found under a parking lot in Leicester, England, belonged to King Richard III. DNA evidence, according to the lead archaeologist at the excavation, proved this “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

For Hilke Thur, a Vienna-based archaeologist at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, a similar quest awaits empirical closure. The locale is more exotic – western Turkey – and the evidence is much more difficult to analyze: The bones in question are a bit more than 2,000 years old.

She will cover this and other aspects of her work in a March 1 lecture at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh.

The title: “Who Murdered Cleopatra’s Sister? And Other Tales from Ephesus.”

In a recent interview, Thur discussed…

What took her to Ephesus
“I’m an architect as well as an archaeologist, and Ephesus – a large and important city on the coast of Asia Minor centuries before it became part of the Roman Empire – has long been one of the biggest archaeological sites. It is the main excavation of the Austrian Archaeological Institute.

“I was a student when I started working there in 1975, and have based a great deal of my career around the site. From 1997 to 2005, I was assistant director of the Ephesus excavations.

“An English engineer directed the first archaeological digs there in 1869, but since 1895, only Austrian-led projects have permission to do that, though Turks sometimes have excavations. I’d like to add that it’s quite an international team there, with researchers from all over the world.

“My specialty is interpreting buildings and monuments. The excavations of one monument, The Octagon, began in 1904. In 1926, a grave chamber was found inside The Octagon. The skeleton inside it has been interpreted to be that of a young woman about age 20.”

What thickened the plot

“When I was working with the architecture of The Octagon and the building next to it, it wasn’t known whose skeleton was inside. Then I found some ancient writers telling us that in the year 41 B.C., Arsinoe IV – the half-sister of Cleopatra – was murdered in Ephesus by Cleopatra and her Roman lover, Marc Antony. Because the building is dated by its type and decoration to the second half of the first century B.C., this fits quite well.

“I put the pieces of the puzzle together.”

The eight-sided clues

“In antiquity, ordinary people were not buried within the city. That privilege was only for special people – those with an aristocratic background, or people who did special things for their city. So the body must have belonged to a special person. Also, the skeleton was of a woman.

“Then there is the shape of the building. While The Octagon exists only as ruins today, its pieces have been photographed. The images were digitized and ‘virtually rebuilt’ on a computer. The shape of the building, an imperial grave monument [how do we know it is an imperial grave monument?], resembles the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The lighthouse, destroyed centuries ago, was built at Alexandria, on the Egyptian coast, by the Ptolemy dynasty from which Cleopatra and Arsinoe IV were descended.

“The center portion of the lighthouse tower was octagonal, which was quite unusual at the time.”

Forensic evidence

“The site of The Octagon has a grave chamber. It was opened in 1926, but the opening was very small, and no one entered it until later on.

“The skull had been removed for tests; it disappeared in Germany during World War II. But there are photos of the skull, and notes written down by those who examined it.

“In 1985, the back side of the chamber became accessible, and I re-found the skeleton – the bones were in two niches. The body was removed and examined. The bones were found to be those of a woman younger than 20 – 15 or 16, perhaps.

“The revised age was used for arguments against my theory of the body belonging to Arsinoe IV, but those arguments didn’t find anything to disprove my theory.

“This academic questioning is normal. It happens. It’s a kind of jealousy.”

What would prove her theory

“They tried to make a DNA test, but testing didn’t work well because the skeleton had been moved and the bones had been held by a lot of people. It didn’t bring the results we hoped to find. [What results did it bring?]

“I don’t know if there are possibilities to do more of this testing. Forensic material is not my field.

“One of my colleagues on the project told me two years ago there currently is no other method to really determine more. But he thinks there may be new methods developing. There is hope.”  

**************************************************************************A fascinating story!  Here is a little more about the Octogon at Ephesus and the Princess Arsinoe IV (lots of information online about this interesting tomb, but not much more about Arsinoe IV.  Historians do not even know when she was born.  Guess the Ptolemys did not keep good birth records): The Octogon, Tomb of the Ptolemaic Arsinoe IV  (a site that appears to be a tourist promotion for the city of Ephesus).  Note the last sentence at of this article:  in 41 BC, at Cleopatra's instigation, Mark Antony ordered her executed on the steps of the temple. She was given an honorable funeral and a modest tomb.  I couldn't help but notice the contrast between the description of the tomb by the archaeologist who has spent so many years studying it (an imperial grave monument) and the description quoted above (a modest tomb).  Of course, I suppose one does not necessarily refute the other; after all, the tomb could have been imperial but modest at the same time, right? 

 The photo above is of a reconstruction of the Octogon at Ephesus from the Ephesus Museum in Vienna, Austria, taken from Harvard University's library online service.   And from Tynedalehouse.com, a long article discussing the pros and cons for views taken over the years that the remains in question are, or are not, those of Arsinoe IV, which also provides further background information on Arsinoe IV.  Fascinating reading! 

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/02/24/2697973/archaeologist-says-bones-found.html#storylink=rss#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/02/24/2697973/archaeologist-says-bones-found.html#storylink=rss#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/02/24/2697973/archaeologist-says-bones-found.html#storylink=rss#storylink=cpy

Anne Ulrich Wins 2012 Junior Grand Prix Title

What wonderful news!  Anne Ulrich has taken first place in the 2012 Final Chess Magnet Junior Grand Prix Top Standings.  Here are the top 10:

ID	Name	State	JGP Points	Events
13498420	ULRICH, ANNE E	WI	12607	14
14640907	HOFFMAN, EVAN	CA-S	11549	21
14898470	MADDEN, KERRIGAN	CA-S	10137	23
13258867	ABE, MAHIRO	NY	9255	11
14472386	PATEL, ADVAIT	WV	7690	22
14117950	YU, JENNIFER R	VA	7516	18
14143035	ASARIA, DANIAL	CA-S	7267	11
14547128	KOBLA, VISHAL	VA	7266	14
13999045	LIANG, AWONDER	WI	6926	9
14836268	PROLEIKO, JULIAN	MO	6924	11

As you can see, Anne won by a little more than 1,000 points!  I met Anne at one of the Hales Corners Chess Challenges.  She and her sisters, Rachel and Susan, have participated in several of the Challenges.

I was not able to locate a list of prior USCF Junior Grand Prix winners, so I cannot be 100% certain that Anne Ulrich is the first female to win this title, but I think it likely she may be.  Congratulations to Anne!

2013 Reykjavik Open

Hola!

The 2013 Reykjavik Open is taking place February 19 - 27, 2013.

There are several chess femmes playing in this event (227 registered players).  Here are the top females by rating:

37

WGM

Huang Qian

CHN

2478

0

w

41

WGM

Tan Zhongyi

CHN

2466

0

w

43

IM

Krush Irina

USA

2460

0

w

48

WGM

Guo Qi

CHN

2431

0

w

U18

53

IM

Guramishvili Sopiko

GEO

2414

0

w

61		WGM	Wang Jue	CHN	2375	0	w	U18
62		WGM	Mammadova Gulnar	AZE	2369	0	w

65

WGM

L'ami Alina

ROU

2362

0

w

67

WGM

Kashlinskaya Alina

RUS

2350

0

w

U20

Current standings, after R5:

28 WGM

Tan Zhongyi

w

CHN

2466

0

3.5

14.0

9.5

10.25

2486

5

3.5

3.00

0.50

10

5.0

30

WGM

Huang Qian

w

CHN

2478

0

3.5

14.0

9.5

9.75

2441

5

3.5

3.38

0.12

10

1.2

33

WGM

Guo Qi

U18

w

CHN

2431

0

3.5

13.5

9.5

9.50

2536

5

3.5

2.47

1.03

10

10.3

39

WGM

Wang Jue

U18

w

CHN

2375

0

3.5

13.0

8.5

7.25

2382

5

3.5

3.07

0.43

15

6.4

44

WGM

L'ami Alina

w

ROU

2362

0

3.5

12.0

7.5

8.25

2254

4

2.5

2.78

-0.28

15

-4.2

52		WGM	Cherednichenko Svetlana		w	UKR	2307	0		3.5	11.0	7.5	8.25	2276	4	3	2.79	0.21	15	3.2
53		WGM	Mamedjarova Turkan		w	AZE	2280	0		3.5	11.0	7.0	6.50	2271	5	3.5	3.08	0.42	15	6.3

63

IM

Guramishvili Sopiko

w

GEO

2414

0

3.0

13.0

9.0

8.00

2330

4

2

2.22

-0.22

10

-2.2

66

WGM

Mammadova Gulnar

w

AZE

2369

0

3.0

12.5

8.5

6.75

2352

5

3

2.83

0.17

15

2.5

68

WGM

Saduakassova Dinara

U16

w

KAZ

2312

0

3.0

12.5

8.5

6.25

2364

5

3

2.34

0.66

15

9.9

2000 Year Old Caucasus Burial Yields Treasure

Story from Live Science

Treasure-Filled Warrior's Grave Found in Russia

Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor

Date: 20 February 2013 Time: 01:36 PM ET

 

 

 

Hidden in a necropolis situated high in the mountains of the Caucasus in Russia, researchers have discovered the grave of a male warrior laid to rest with gold jewelry, iron chain mail and numerous weapons, including a 36-inch (91 centimeters) iron sword set between his legs.

 

That is just one amazing find among a wealth of ancient treasures dating back more than 2,000 years that scientists have uncovered there.

 

Among their finds are two bronze helmets, discovered on the surface of the necropolis. One helmet (found in fragments and restored) has relief carvings of curled sheep horns while the other has ridges, zigzags and other odd shapes.

 

Although looters had been through the necropolis before, the warrior's grave appears to have been untouched. The tip of the sword he was buried with points toward his pelvis, and researchers found "a round gold plaque with a polychrome inlay" near the tip, they write in a paper published in the most recent edition of the journal Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia.

 

The remains of three horses, a cow and the skull of a wild boar were also found buried near the warrior.

"These animals were particularly valuable among barbarian peoples of the ancient world. It was [a] sign of [the] great importance of the buried person, which was shown by his relatives and his tribe," wrote team member Valentina Mordvintseva, a researcher at the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology, in an email to LiveScience. The animal bones and pottery remains suggest that a funeral feast was held in his honor.

Without written records it is difficult to say exactly who the warrior was, but rather than ruling a city or town, "he was rather a chief of a people," Mordvintseva said.

The necropolis is located near the town of Mezmay. Grave robbers discovered the site in 2004 and rescue excavations began in 2005.

Who used the necropolis?

Based on the artifacts, researchers believe the warrior's burial dates back around 2,200 years, to a time when Greek culture was popular in west Asia, while the necropolis itself appears to have been in use between the third century B.C. and the beginning of the second century A.D.

Researchers were careful to note that the artifacts cannot be linked to a specific archaeological culture. Mordvintseva points out that "this region is very big, and not sufficiently excavated," particularly in the area where the necropolis is located. "[I]t is situated high in mountains. Perhaps the population of this area [had] trade routes/passes with Caucasian countries — Georgia, Armenia etc.," Mordvintseva writes in the email.

While the people who used the necropolis were clearly influenced by Greek culture, they maintained their own way of life, said Mordvintseva. "Their material culture shows that they were rather very proud of themselves and kept their culture for centuries."

Gold treasures

This way of life includes a fondness for gold-working. The warrior's burial included more than a dozen artifacts made of the material. Perhaps the most spectacular find was a gold fibula-brooch with a rock crystal at its center. Although the brooch was only 2.3 by 1.9 inches (5.8 by 4.8 centimeters), it had several layers of intricately carved decorations leading toward the mount.

"Inside the mount a rock-crystal bead has been placed with a channel drilled through it from both ends," the researchers write.

The team was surprised to find that two of the warrior's swords (including the one pointing toward his pelvis) had gold decorations meant to be attached. In one case a short 19-inch (48.5-cm)-long iron sword had a gold plate, with inlayed agate, that was meant to adorn its sheath. Until now, scholars had never seen this type of golden sword decorations in this part of the ancient world, the researchers write. The "actual fact that these articles were used to decorate weapons sets them apart in a category all of their own, which has so far not been recorded anywhere else ..."

 

Chess for Kids 4th Annual All Girls Tournament (Sonoma County, CA)

From pressdemocrat.com

Girls chess tournament draws 40 competitors

Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 6:12 by Extra.Credit

 

Forty girls participated in the fourth annual all-girls chess tournament for kindergarten through eighth graders on Feb. 9.

Competitors were grouped according to age and skill level.

Winners were:

Joy Sun, Oceana Sipila and Kailli Golden, all from Instilling Goodness Elementary in Talmage in Mendocino County; Haley Joerger and Caitlyn Carnahan from Strawberry Elementary in Santa Rosa, Katie Thurman and Jade Schottstaedt from St. Vincent de Paul Elementary in Petaluma, Maya Kull from Mary Collins Elementary in Petaluma, Katelyn Kenneally from Hahn Elementary in Rohnert Park, Ava Kane from Penngrove Elementary, Josephine Hoagland from Hidden Valley Elementary in Santa Rosa, Sascha Chavez from Austin Creek Elementary in Santa Rosa and Maile Neargarder from Apple Blossom Elementary in Sebastopol.

The tournament raised $860 for “Girls on the Run,” an afterschool program focusing on healthy living and self esteem for girls.

The club will host its fifth annual Scholastic Chess Tournament for boys and girls on May 11 at Strawberry Elementary School, 2311 Horseshoe Dr., in Santa Rosa. For registration information, go to www.chessclubforkids.com

2013 Grand Pacific Open

Hola darlings!

Goddesschess, among others, is once again providing sponsorship for this great Open in British Columbia held over the Easter holiday (March 29 - April 1, 2013).  It attracts a large contingent of Canadian and American players, including chess femmes, and the larger portion of our sponsorship money is dedicated to prizes for them.  More information and register online!

WGM Kateryna Rohonyan is registered to play in this year's GPO!  Rohonyan has a FIDE rating of 2296.  Now a resident of Seattle, Washington, she has played in several Washington State Chess Championships, and participated in the 2007, 2008 and 2010 U.S. Women's Chess Championships. 

At 2012 Canadian Open

During part of her chess career, Rohonyan played in college as the recipient of a chess scholarship, moving to the US in 2004.   She participated for several years in the U.S. Chess League, and has played in a FIDE Women's World Chess Championship.  She was also a member of the bronze-medal winning U.S. Women's Chess Olympiad Team in 2008. 

These days Rohonyan makes her living in the computer software industry and playing competitive chess has devolved to a lesser role in her life.  It is therefore wonderful to see Rohonyan registered for the 2013 Grand Pacific Open!  Rohonyan's last FIDE-rated event was the August, 2012 Canadian Open in Victoria, BC, where she scored 5.0/8. 

Not sure of the count of chess femmes at this time - I saw 5 names (in addition to Rohonyan) that I identified as chess femmes - there may be more but sometimes I'm not so good with names :)  As of February 19th, 61 players pre-registered.  Keeping fingers crossed for a great turn-out of chess femmes. Goddesschess prizes are awarded in addition to any other prizes that a female player may win:  $80, $70, $60, $50, $40.

What Killed Anna Maria de Medici?

From Archaeology Magazine
February 14, 2013

Cause of Death Sought for Anna Maria de Medici

Frans van Douven, Doppelbildnis Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz und
Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici (1708)

MANNHEIM, GERMANY—Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, the last of the powerful Medici family, died in 1743 after a long and painful illness. It had been thought that she suffered from syphilis or breast cancer, but newly released photographs of her remains, taken in 1966 after severe flooding in Florence, show her skeleton to be mostly intact, thus ruling out late-stage syphilis. Biological anthropologist Albert Zink of the European Academy of Bolzano, Italy, will analyze a bone sample collected in 1966. “Full DNA sequence information may allow us to identify any susceptibility genes for breast cancer, but we don’t yet know if the sample is of sufficient quality for this since the tomb environment had been very damp,” he said.

Rare Treasures Found in Bronze Age Dartmoor Burial

From BBC News Online
17 February 2013 Last updated at 22:43 ET

'Amazing' treasures revealed in Dartmoor bronze age cist

A rare and "amazing" burial discovery dating back 4,000 years has been described as the most significant find on Dartmoor and has given archaeologists a glimpse into the lives of the people who once lived there.

The discovery of the White Horse Hill cist has increased the number of bronze age beads
found on Dartmoor from eight to more than 150, including two amber beads

The discovery of a bronze age granite cist, or grave, in 2011 in a peat bog on White Horse Hill revealed the first organic remains found on the moor and a hoard of about 150 beads.

As the National Park's archaeologists levered off the lid they were shocked by what lay beneath.

The park's chief archaeologist, Jane Marchand, said: "Much to our surprise we actually found an intact cremation deposit [human bones] which is actually a burial alongside a number of grave goods.

"What was so unusual was the survival of so many organic objects which you never usually get in a grave of this period, they've long since rotted away."

Amongst the grave goods was an animal pelt, containing a delicate bracelet studded with tin beads, a textile fragment with detailed leather fringing and a woven bag.

Ms Marchand said: "The whole thing was actually wrapped up in an animal pelt of fur. As we lifted it up very carefully a bead fell out and the thrill of realising that actually this is a proper burial, this is a bead which belonged to a burial.

"That's what's so exciting, you wouldn't expect to find any archaeology somewhere like this stuck out on this peak hag. You'll never be able to top this ever."

Despite there being about 5,000 remnants of buildings and 200 burial cists on Dartmoor the moor has offered up few of its secrets.

English Heritage archaeologist Win Scutt said: "A lot of it's to do with robbing, some people have actually robbed the stone, some have robbed the artefacts.

"But the biggest loss we've got is all the organic stuff, the bones have all been dissolved by the acid soil up here. The flowers, the gifts of drink and food which would have gone in, most of their life was organic, it was stuff that would rot away.

"If we could get the perishable items, the organic materials, it would really shine a big light into pre-history."

This discovery has provided a rare glimpse into history with an ear stud or libret found in the bag while it was being examined at the Wiltshire Conservation Lab.

Ms Marchand said: "I don't remember studs being recorded at any other excavation from this period. I've worked on Dartmoor for over 20 years and never anticipated getting anything like this.

"It's just amazing, it suddenly brings them to life and actually you feel much closer to them because this is someone who likes their jewellery, I like jewellery, and actually you can identify with that side of things.

"We're only at the beginning really I just can't wait for the results to start coming in."

How long have we used body paint and tatoos?

Hola darlings!  I've been wanting to post items, but there has not been much lately that I've deemed of sufficient interest, ach!  But this article is interesting, if perhaps reaching too far into the realms of speculation -- ha ha, that's funny, coming from me :) 

I'm a little familiar with some of the discoveries at Blombos cave(s).  I recall reading some years ago about the discovery of tiny marine shells with delicately pierced holes through them -- for what purpose?  The guess was that they may have been strung on something and used as necklaces or perhaps bracelets, although they might also have been stitched somehow to clothing directly as a talisman or decoration.  One can speculate endlessly, of course!  The ochre may have been used to "paint" the dead to assist them on their journey to the after-life; perhaps it was used for other purposes -- what if it was offered to the sea gods, for instance, in payment for taking bounty from the sea?  What if only shamans could "wear" it?  We don't know, and we probably never will know.

The Blombos cave(s)' oldest discoveries date back perhaps 100,000 years ago.  Far later in man's history, there is plenty of evidence that ancient Egyptian women possibly used some form of tatooing, or maybe body paint (?), to accentuate their pubic area.  I don't specifically recall seeing any images of ancient Egyptian men similarly adorned but that's not to say it isn't out there.  In between 100,000 years ago and 5,500 or so years ago is a LONG time.  People all over the place were tatooing and/or painting themselves.  Check out some of the fascinating images at Wikipedia's entry "The History of Tatooing."  See also:

Smithsonian online:  Tatoos: The ancient and mysterious history, January 1, 2007.
PBS.org:  Skin Stories - the Art and Culture of Polynesian Tatoo
National Geographic Magazine: Tatoos - Pigments of the Imagination, December 2004.

Popular Archaeology
Volume 9, December 2012
Skin Decoration Goes Way Back, Suggests Researcher
(Online February 16, 2013)

About 1.5 to 2 million years ago, early humans, according to the prevailing view of most paleoanthropologists and archaeologists, evolved into nearly hairless primates to more efficiently sweat away excess body heat. But later, according to Penn State anthropologist Nina Jablonski in a report to the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, humans may have begun to decorate skin to increase attractiveness to the opposite sex and to express, among other things, group identity.

Over thousands of years, humans used their skin as canvases of self-expression in a variety ways, including permanent methods such as tattooing and branding, as well as temporary, including cosmetics and body painting, according to Jablonski. But the determination of when this practice began to occur is somewhat more elusive than estimating the time when humans as primates actually began to lose their hair. "We find a lot of evidence of when humans began to lose hair based on molecular genetics," said Jablonski. But studying skin itself is difficult because it can be preserved only for a few thousand years, as opposed to bones, which fossilize and last millions of years. Nevertheless, while it is difficult to know when humans began to decorate their skin, some of the earliest preserved skin shows signs of tattooing, maintains Jablonski.

Decades of research in caves in Europe and South Africa, among other places, have evidenced the manufacture and use of ancient pigments by early modern humans, particularly as media for creating wall paintings. Many scientists suggest that the pigments were also used for body decoration, and the practice could go as far back as more than 100,000 years. A recent discovery of a prehistoric "workshop" in the South African cave of Blombos, for example, evidenced the manufacture of ochre in a cave where there was no evidence of any wall painting. The "workshop", consisting of abalone shells where ochre was stored and processed, combined with fat, crushed bone, quartz and charcoal to produce a pigment compound that was possibly used as paint for painting, decoration and skin protection, was dated to about 100,000 years BP. The dating corresponds to a time when early modern humans were thought to be on the threshold of thinking and expressing themselves in symbolic ways and laying the foundations for art and language.

But as ancient as body painting and tattooing could be, Jablonski makes the point that the age-old craft has implications for understanding the nature and behavior of modern humans today, as well. "We can paint a great design on our bodies and use those designs to send all sorts of messages or express group memberships," said Jablonski. "Usually it is something with deep meaning. When I talk to people about their tattoos they tell me they've spent months or years choosing a design that is incredibly meaningful and salient to them."

Hales Corners Chess Challenge XVII

It's coming up fast, darlings!

It's the 17th edition of the Hales Corners Chess Challenge put together by my adopted chess club, the Southwest Chess Club. 

Saturday, April 13, 2013

 

VENUE:  Comfort Suites Milwaukee Airport Hotel—6362 S 13th St—Oak Creek, WI—414-570-1111

TWO SECTIONS:  Open and Reserve (U1600)

FORMAT:  Four Round Swiss System -- Four games in one day, USCF rated

TIME CONTROL:  Game in 60 Minutes; 5 second delay

ENTRY FEE:  $40 Open; $30 Reserve. 
Both sections $5 more after April 10, 2013

Comp Entry Fee for USCF 2200+: Entry fee subtracted from any prizes won

SITE REGISTRATION:   8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

ROUNDS:  10 am -- 1 pm -- 3:30 pm -- 6 pm

Full details and registration form. 

Goddesschess is sponsoring special prizes for the chess femmes that are awarded in addition to any other prizes.  Open:  $40 per win, $20 per draw.  Reserve:  $20 per win, $10 per draw.  The top finishing female in each section will also receive a gift bag from Goddesschess. 

Taklimakan Desert Yields Fabulous Buddhist Ruins

Awesome!  From cntv.cn  Thre is a video but I was not able to embed it, I could not get the code to work right.  So, check out the video at the link (click on the title below).

Buddhist ruins discovered in Taklimakan desert

02-17-2013 08:37 BJT

 

The ruins of a Buddhist temple dating back 1,500 years ago have been discovered in China's largest desert--the Taklimakan in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The findings offer valuable research material for historians studying the development of Buddhism in China.

These historic findings shed light on the development of Buddhism in China. In total there are more than 3,000 pieces of relics. The most eye-catching are the mural paintings. They are executed in a Greco-Buddhist art style, which was seldom seen after the 6th century.

Archaeologist Dr. Wu Xinhua said, "It’s very unique. We’ve never come across such mural paintings in this area before. You can see the fusion of Western and eastern cultures alongside the spread of Buddhism in ancient China."

The treasures are all from a Buddhist temple located in the southern Taklimakan Desert. Excavation was completed in June last year. Experts believe the temple dates back to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, about 1,500 years ago.

Dr. Wu said, "The hall is the largest of its kind found in the Taklimakan Desert since the first archaeologist came to work in the area in the 20th century. The structure of the temple is very unique. We believe it is one of the earliest Buddhist temples in China."

The temple has become the point of convergence for scholars studying how Buddhism arrived in China from India, and its early development in the country.

Program Reconstructes Ancient Languages

From Berkeley U news.

Scientists create automated ‘time machine’ to reconstruct ancient languages
By Yasmin Anwar, Media Relations | February 11, 2013

BERKELEY —
Ancient languages hold a treasure trove of information about the culture, politics and commerce of millennia past. Yet, reconstructing them to reveal clues into human history can require decades of painstaking work. Now, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have created an automated “time machine,” of sorts, that will greatly accelerate and improve the process of reconstructing hundreds of ancestral languages.

In a compelling example of how “big data” and machine learning are beginning to make a significant impact on all facets of knowledge, researchers from UC Berkeley and the University of British Columbia have created a computer program that can rapidly reconstruct “proto-languages” – the linguistic ancestors from which all modern languages have evolved. These earliest-known languages include Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Afroasiatic and, in this case, Proto-Austronesian, which gave rise to languages spoken in Southeast Asia, parts of continental Asia, Australasia and the Pacific.

 ”What excites me about this system is that it takes so many of the great ideas that linguists have had about historical reconstruction, and it automates them at a new scale: more data, more words, more languages, but less time,” said Dan Klein, an associate professor of computer science at UC Berkeley and co-author of the paper published online today (Feb. 11) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research team’s computational model uses probabilistic reasoning – which explores logic and statistics to predict an outcome – to reconstruct more than 600 Proto-Austronesian languages from an existing database of more than 140,000 words, replicating with 85 percent accuracy what linguists had done manually. While manual reconstruction is a meticulous process that can take years, this system can perform a large-scale reconstruction in a matter of days or even hours, researchers said.
Not only will this program speed up the ability of linguists to rebuild the world’s proto-languages on a large scale, boosting our understanding of ancient civilizations based on their vocabularies, but it can also provide clues to how languages might change years from now.

“Our statistical model can be used to answer scientific questions about languages over time, not only to make inferences about the past, but also to extrapolate how language might change in the future,” said Tom Griffiths, associate professor of psychology, director of UC Berkeley’s Computational Cognitive Science Lab and another co-author of the paper.

The discovery advances UC Berkeley’s mission to make sense of big data and to use new technology to document and maintain endangered languages as critical resources for preserving cultures and knowledge. For example, researchers plan to use the same computational model to reconstruct indigenous North American proto-languages.

Humans’ earliest written records date back less than 6,000 years, long after the advent of many proto-languages. While archeologists can catch direct glimpses of ancient languages in written form, linguists typically use what is known as the “comparative method” to probe the past. This method establishes relationships between languages, identifying sounds that change with regularity over time to determine whether they share a common mother language.

"To understand how language changes -- which sounds are more likely to change and what they will become -- requires reconstructing and analyzing massive amounts of ancestral word forms, which is where automatic reconstructions play an important role," said Alexandre Bouchard-Côté, an assistant professor of statistics at the University of British Columbia and lead author of the study, which he started while a graduate student at UC Berkeley.
The UC Berkeley computational model is based on the established linguistic theory that words evolve along the branches of a family tree – much like a genealogical tree - reflecting linguistic relationships that evolve over time, with the roots and nodes representing proto-languages and the leaves representing modern languages.

Using an algorithm known as the Markov chain Monte Carlo sampler, the program sorted through sets of cognates, words in different languages that share a common sound, history and origin, to calculate the odds of which set is derived from which proto-language. At each step, it stored a hypothesized reconstruction for each cognate and each ancestral language.

“Because the sound changes and reconstructions are closely linked, our system uses them to repeatedly improve each other,” Klein said. “It first fixes its predicted sound changes and deduces better reconstructions of the ancient forms. It then fixes the reconstructions and re-analyzes the sound changes. These steps are repeated, and both predictions gradually improve as the underlying structure emerges over time.”

You can find the technical paper here.

Argument for Nefertiti as Tutankhamun's Mother

Tut's DNA analysis is back in the news, and interesting it is.

From phys.org

A different take on Tut: Egyptian archaeologist shares theory on pharaoh's lineage

February 12, 2013 by Alvin Powell

In recent years, DNA analysis has shed light on the parents of Egypt's most famous pharaoh, the boy king Tutankhamun, known to the world as King Tut. Genetic investigation identified his father as Akhenaten and his mother as Akhenaten's sister, whose name was unknown.    

French Egyptologist Marc Gabolde offered a different interpretation of the DNA evidence on Thursday. Speaking at Harvard's Science Center, Gabolde said he's convinced that Tut's mother was not his father's sister, but rather his father's first cousin, Nefertiti.

Nefertiti was already known to be Akhenaten's wife and in fact the two had six daughters. Gabolde believes they also had a son, Tutankhamun, and that the apparent genetic closeness revealed in the DNA tests was not a result of a single brother-to-sister mating, but rather due to three successive generations of marriage between first cousins.

"The consequence of that is that the DNA of the third generation between cousins looks like the DNA between a brother and sister," said Gabolde, the director of the archaeological expedition of Université Paul Valery-Montpellier III in the Royal Necropolis at el-Amarna. "I believe that Tutankhamun is the son of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, but that Akhenaten and Nefertiti were cousins."

Gabolde's talk, "Unknown Aspects of Tutankhamun's Reign, Parentage, and Tomb Treasure," was sponsored by Harvard's Semitic Museum and the Harvard Department of Anthropology. It was hosted by Peter Der Manuelian, the Philip J. King Professor of Egyptology.

Tutankhamun was a pharaoh some 3,300 years ago. He was made pharaoh at age 8 or 9 and ruled for about 10 years. In his talk, Gabolde covered some of the scarce known details of his life and his burial.

Tut's tomb, Gabolde said, was not intended as such. The real—and undiscovered—tomb, he said, was probably under construction when he died at 19, and is likely somewhere in the Valley of Kings, on the Nile. The place where he was actually buried was probably not intended for a royal burial but hurriedly prepared when Tut died unexpectedly, most likely of an infection that took hold when he broke his leg.

"Nobody could imagine he would die so young," Gabolde said.

Other details of Tut's life, which Gabolde has pieced together from carved images and inscriptions, include a military campaign in Syria, in which he likely didn't personally take part. Tut also was interested in Nubia, a region in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Inscriptions on a fan that belonged to Tut showed him hunting ostriches, whose feathers were used to make the fan. In addition, Gabolde said, a staff found in Tut's tomb had inscriptions that showed it was made of a tall reed, cut by Tut himself in a city on the Nile delta.

 Gabolde also traced an ornament that was found with Tut when he was discovered in 1922, but had since disappeared. Gabolde said he believes the golden hawk-head clasp, part of a broad collar worn by Tut, is in a private collection, sold by Tut discoverer Howard Carter to pay for surgery later in his life. The rest of the broad collar was stolen during World War II, Gabolde said.