A Checkerboard-Patterned Stud and Gold Serpents

Part of the magnificent and unprecented find called the Staffordshire Hoard.

I have found references in several articles to five "mysterious" small gold serpents that archaeologists cannot figure out - what they mean, what they may have been a part of.  See, for instance, this comment from an Art Daily article:  Gems to be displayed for the first time include a delicate filigree gold horse’s head and gold snakes that have left experts baffled as to what they could have been used for . . .

I wasn't able to locate a photograph online of any of these serpents.  I want to see the five little gold serpents!  Are they game pieces?  Pieces off a horse tackle?  Jewelry?

While searching for images of the serpents, I found this lovely little item from the Hoard, described as a millefiori stud.

Millefiori (literally "thousand flowers"), dates back to Roman times.  I wonder if the archaeologists will be able to pinpoint the date this lovely piece was created?  There is ongoing discussion about when the Hoard was put into the ground; and, of course, even if a date can be agreed upon for that event, individual items that make up the Hoard may be much older than 650-750 CE.

What a beautiful piece! And fascinating. For instance, notice the markings around the large inner border marked out in gold - not all of the lines are straight, and there is a distinct pattern in these lines, set at 90 degrees to each other, dividing the circle into four equal parts. 

The inner-most pattern of the black/gold/white millefiori checkerboard pattern consists of a 3x3 square with curved edges to fit into the circular pattern; the outside frame increases the size of the "square" to 4x4.  I was reminded of the oldest magic square known in history - from ancient China, the Lo Shu magic square that sums to 15 in all directions. 

The center of the Lo Shu is the number 5, and we are reminded of that number (the number of the sacred spiral seen repeatedly in nature) by the five black rectangles that make up center of the millefiori design; the number 5, which in Chinese lore is considered "masculine," is complemented by four white rectangles, four being an even number and therefore considered "feminine" by the Chinese.  Ultimately, though, the black/white checkerboard pattern is balanced to at - 8 white and 8 black, a perfect reflection of the ancient Taoist principle of yin/yang. 

The overall design of the Staffordshire Hoard stud reminds me of an ancient Chinese boardgame - liubo.  I know it sounds crazy -but look at all of the elements of the millefiore stud and compare it to this standard liubo board configuration from Wikipedia commons.  The "V"s in the four corners, facing outward; the "L"s on the center of each of the four sides; and four "T"s centered around the perimeter of the innermost space.  This inner center space could well be the ancestor of the "palace" in the later game of xiang qi, and in some versions of the ancient liubo, was a pool where fish cavorted - a sacred pool, perhaps? It is not known what role the "fish" played in liubo, only that they were sometimes "caught."

A c. 400 BCE serpent-overlaid liubo board.  You'll notice that the "V"s and the "L"s are there in their traditional places - but it's very hard to see any "T"s  amid the inner markings, although suggested by the twisting bodies of the numerous serpents and three horizontally-laid out grid marks.  Interesting.  A variation on a theme...

Just what are those markings on the inner border around the black and white checkered millefiore stud?  Could those possibly be representations of "L"s from a liubo board?

Preserving Cypriot Maronite Arabic (CMA)

From the cyprus-mail.com
Bringing back to life an ancient language
February 07, 2010
By Sebastian Heller

A COMMUNITY living in northern Scandinavia may hold the key to how the Maronites can save their ancient language which dates back to biblical times.

Cypriot Maronite Arabic (CMA) is a distinct language composed of a mixture of Arabic and Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ and his disciples, but its use has been in decline for more than 30 years.

A seminar in Nicosia this weekend will look at ways to reverse this trend by focusing on the lessons learnt from the Sami community in far northern Scandinavia.

“The situation of the Maronite community in Cyprus is very similar to the situation of the Sami 30 years ago, where they were being assimilated by the dominant Norwegian group,” said Costas Costantinou, a professor from the University of Keele who has helped organise the workshop.

The Sámi, more commonly known as Lapps, initially faced conditions and challenges very similar to those of the Maronite community in Cyprus. Consequently the workshop is intended “To see what wisdom, what good practice can be taken from their case, as their example is very successful,” said Costantinou.

The total size of the Maronite community in Cyprus numbers around 5,500, and around 1,000 of them speak CMA. Traditionally, only the Maronites from the occupied village of Kormakitis spoke the language. Members of the community from the other Maronite villages - Asomatos, Karpasia and Ayia Marina - are all Greek speakers. Following the 1974 invasion, the majority of the Maronites from Kormakitis moved south and the language went into sharp decline.

“Up until the present day, it was exclusively from the home that we would learn the language. In the past, when we were in our villages, the whole context supported it, it was easy to speak our language,” said Peppinos Moussas, a Maronite currently living in Nicosia, “Afterwards, once we were scattered, it was difficult.”

Nowadays, large efforts are being made on a social level, and in an organised way, to rejuvenate the language and culture particularly for those under the age of 30.

Following a number of Council of Europe resolutions and recommendations, in November 2008 the Republic of Cyprus formally declared to the Council of Europe that it recognises CMA as a minority language. As a result “the state has various legal responsibilities from now on to protect the language,” said Moussas.

Like the Sami, who 30 years ago were in the position where the dominant Norweigian majority was trying to assimilate them into their culture, language and society, the Maronites do not want to be viewed as a “religious group” but as a “community”.

“There have been repeated calls from our representative, Mr Hadjiroussos, for us to recognised as such,” said Giorgos Skordis, a Maronite who co-ordinates the Xki Fi Sanna (Speak Our Language) educational programme involving approximately 30 students. He emphasised that the Maronites, though they have developed alongside the mainstream population for centuries (since the 7th century AD) have a different history, different heritage, religion and, of course, a distinct language.

“The existence of CMA provides the ‘hard fact’ that Maronites are a national minority with a distinct ethnic identity, not merely a ‘religious group’ that is compelled to affiliate to either the Greek or Turkish Cypriot community as provided by Article 2 of the 1960 Cypriot Constitution,” noted Costantinou in his article “The Protection and Revival of Cypriot Maronite Arabic” produced for the Peace Research Institute Oslo centre which is organising this weekend’s workshop.

The Xki Fi Sanna initiative is co-funded by the European Economic Area countries of Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein and Switzerland (90 per cent of the cost) and the Republic of Cyprus (10 per cent).

Why Deciphering Ancient Scripts Matters

How come dudes like Lord Mandelson never eliminate their own jobs???

From the guardian.co.uk
Writing off the UK's last palaeographer
The decision by a London university to axe the UK's only chair in palaeography has been met by outrage from the world's most eminent classicists. John Crace on why the study of ancient writings matters – and why history will be lost without it
John Crace The Guardian, Tuesday 9 February 2010

Dry, dusty and shortly to be dead. Palaeographers are used to making sense of fragments of ancient manuscripts, but King's College London couldn't have been plainer when it announced recently that it was to close the UK's only chair of palaeography. From ­September, the current holder of the chair, Professor David Ganz, will be out of a job, and the subject will no longer exist as a separate academic discipline in British universities. Its survival will now depend entirely on the whim of classicists and medievalists studying in other fields.

The decision took everyone by ­surprise. "It was only recently that Rick Trainor [the principal of King's] was calling the humanities department [to which palaeography is attached] the jewel in the university's crown," says Dr Mary Beard, professor of ­classics at Cambridge University. "There had been a complete overhaul of ­minority disciplines in the mid-1990s, so there was consensus that everything had been pared down to the bare minimum."

How things change. With Lord Mandelson – in his incarnation as secretary of state for business, industry and skills – now imposing a minimum 10% cut in spending throughout higher education, universities are looking to slash and burn departments. And esoteric subjects such as palaeography are easy targets; they attract comparatively few students and, most importantly, comparatively little in the way of research grants – the only way the past few governments have measured a subject's worth.

But if Trainor was hoping palaeography would do the decent thing, he badly misjudged the situation. Professor Ganz – the fourth person to have held the chair since it was endowed in 1949 – didn't roll over and die quietly. "On the assumption that this means the end of the chair of palaeography, I am having to fight for my subject," he says, "and I have been deeply moved by the level of support from friends, many of whom I have never met."

That's pretty much all Ganz is saying for now – but, having initially raised a very restrained, academic form of hell, others are now doing the talking for him. A Facebook page to save the chair has more than 4,000 members, and many of the world's most distinguished classicists have petitioned King's to ­reconsider its position. Even his ­students are stepping in to defend him. "Without a palaeography professor such as David Ganz, not only will King's be sorely deprived of a basis on which to teach almost every other university discipline," says Alexandra Maccarini, "but the study of humanities everywhere will suffer from the absence of a devoted specialist in the subject."

In its strictest sense, palaeography is the study of ancient manuscripts whereby scholars can read texts – often partial, as many exist only in fragments – and localise and date handwriting accurately. This may sound arcane, and to some extent it is. But it is also the building block of all classical and ­medieval scholarship. According to Ganz: "Anyone who goes into a ­university library will within a week find an ancient manuscript that no one has yet properly understood."

"It is academic forensic science," agrees Dr Irving Finkel, assistant keeper in the department of the ­Middle East at the British Museum. "Many of the printed texts we use today – be they the Bible, Livy's poems or Shakespeare's plays – do not come from a single text. They are a collation of various manuscripts that may have been altered by scribes over time. A palaeographer can help determine which is likely to be the most authentic.

"It's about understanding the codes, the signs and the ligatures [common abbreviations] that were in use at different periods of a language's evolution, so you can interpret words that may have been rubbed away and see what may have been added at a later date."

Academics, of course, enjoy a good squabble, so it's hard to get universal agreement on what does and doesn't fall within palaeography's reach. For some it includes major finds such as the Rosetta Stone, from which ­hieroglyphics were first decoded, and Linear B, the ancient Minoan script translated by Michael Ventris. ­Others insist that, as they were carved in stone, they fall within epigraphy. Some restrict ­palaeography to merely classical texts; others include medieval and Renaissance texts.
Either way, the point is much the same. It's not just that we wouldn't have a clue what the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Cyrus Cylinder (over which the British Museum and the Iranian government are currently locking horns) actually mean without palaeography; we wouldn't know how to evaluate their historical importance. Multiply this by every fragment and every hand-written folio, and the history of the world begins to be up for grabs.

"Palaeography is not simply an arcane auxiliary science," says Professor Jeffrey Hamburger, chair of medieval studies at Harvard University. "It is as basic to the training and practice of ­historians as mastery of Dos or Unix might be to a computer scientist.

Not that palaeography has the answer to everything. No one has still made head or tail of Linear A (dating back to around 1900BC), and the Indus ­Valley script of the third millennium BC is still a mystery. But just days before King's made the announcement, its sister London institution, University College, was boasting how two of Ganz's former students, Dr Simon ­Corcoran and Dr Benet Salway, had pieced together 17 fragments of parchment that form an important ­Roman law code – believed to be the only original evidence yet discovered of the Gregorian Codex (a collection of constitutions upon which a substantial part of most modern European civil law ­systems are built) that had been thought lost for ever.  [Image at top: both sides of the Phaistos Disk - still undeciphered.]


Giving up on palaeography is like giving up on art, history and culture. It's like deciding we know all we want to know about the past, so we're not going to bother to find out any more: "It's not as if we can come back to it in 15 years' time if we then decide there's enough money," says Beard. "Palaeography can't be taught in an online tutorial; it's a skill handed down from one academic to another. If King's does go through with its decision, it's the end of the subject in this country."

Reading the past: What palaeographers have done for us

Dead Sea Scrolls

A collection of about 900 documents on parchment and papyrus, ­written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, ­dating from about 150BC to AD70. Discovered between 1947 and 1956 in 11 caves on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. The earliest surviving ­examples of Biblical texts.

Indus Valley Script

More than 600 symbols have been found – primarily on seals – belonging to the Indus Valley civilisation of 3,000BC. Most inscriptions are only four or five symbols in length. The longest is 26 symbols. Scholars have yet to decode them, though it hasn't stopped them arguing whether it does actually constitute a genuine language.

Rosetta Stone

Technically one for epigraphers, but many palaeographers claim it for themselves. The stone, discovered by the French in 1799, contained three parallel texts – hieroglyphs, demotic and Greek – and was the key that ­enabled scholars to decode ­hieroglyphics for the first time.

Beowulf

The most important work in Anglo-Saxon literature, the Old-English epic poem of 3,182 lines is known from a single manuscript that is estimated to date from AD1000. The manuscript has crumbled over time and scholars are still working on its preservation and revealing lost letters of the poem.

Oxyrhynchus Papyri

A collection of documents from the Ptolemaic and Roman eras excavated from the old rubbish mounds of Oxyrhynchus, an ancient Egyptian site thought so unimportant it was left almost untouched for centuries. Extracts from the plays of Menander and the Gospel of St Thomas are among the most important finds.

Water Route Between Oceans in Nicaragua?

This is interesting, and seems feasible.

From newkerala.com
Explorer finds evidence of ancient waterway linking Atlantic to Pacific

London, Feb 13 : An explorer claims to have found evidence of an ancient water route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which existed hundreds of years before the Panama Canal was conceived.

Hailed by some as the eighth wonder of the world, the Panama Canal is a water passage between the Atlantic and Pacific.

Now, according to a report in The Times, Colonel John Blashford-Snell, an explorer, has claimed to have found evidence of another, more ancient, water route between the oceans — one that existed hundreds of years before the Panama Canal was conceived.

Several hundred miles to the north-west, in Nicaragua, the route — which involves rivers, a lake and flood plains — was discovered by Blashford-Snell, who was out on an expedition.

"With effort it is navigable. But it is going to need more investigation," said the veteran explorer.

He is now planning another expedition to discover whether it is really possible to take a boat from one coast to the other without touching land.

If so, it will prove something remarkable: that the ancient maps which show a passage between the two oceans — and which have long been dismissed as fanciful — had a greater claim to accuracy than was realised.

A 1774 map by Thomas Kitchin, for example, appears to show a channel that would allow boats to pass between the oceans. [Note: I could not locate a 1774 Kitchin map of Central America online, this one is dated 1777, from Altea Gallery.]

Colonel Blashford-Snell's expedition set out to find evidence that a canal once existed in Nicaragua.

No records of such a canal exist, although there were plans for a Nicaragua canal before the argument for Panama won the day.

Whether Colonel Blashford-Snell found evidence of ancient canals is arguable, but the case for a natural water passage is strong, according to the explorer.

Colonel Blashford-Snell, who spent two weeks in Nicaragua last month with a team of four, said he found places where the head waters of different river systems — one flowing east into the lake, another flowing west into the Pacific — were only a few hundred yards apart.

The seemingly unanswerable question, however, was how to get from one river to the other.

Then, by chance, he met a local fisherman who helped him to unlock the puzzle.

Mariano Hernandez told them he had made the journey from the centre of the isthmus between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific down to the lake to go fishing — a journey made possible during the rainy season when the land turns into a lake up to 2m deep.


--ANI

Aeroflot 2010

Chess femme standings Tournament B after 7 Rounds (55 players):

1 WFM Mammadova, Gulnar Marfat q w 6.0 AZE F 2221 2644 (outstanding!)
22 WIM Kharashuta, Ekaterina w 4.0 RUS F 2270 2297
25 WIM Ghader Pour, Shayesteh w 4.0 IRI F 2187 2333
36 WIM Tarasova, Viktoriya w 3.0 RUS F 2290 2208
37 WGM Chasovnikova, Eugenia w 3.0 RUS F 2251 2292
52 WFM Cheremnova, Tamara w 2.0 RUS F 2260 2107

More results as they become available.

Cotroceni 2010

Thanks to current Women's World Chess Champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk's chessblog.com for information about this closed tournament in Romania.

The official website is sort of a mess on my web browser.  It's also in Romanian, but by scrolling around I figured out what was what - sort of. There are photographs of the chess femmes participating:

IM Khotenashvili Bela GEO 2461
IM Muzychuk Mariya UKR 2447
IM Foisor Cristina-Adela ROU 2440
IM Repkova Eva SVK 2434
IM Melia Salome GEO 2431
IM Peptan Corina-Isabela ROU 2411
IM Turova Irina RUS 2386
IM Gara Anita HUN 2370
IM Vajda Szidonia HUN 2369
WGM Cosma Elena-Luminita ROU 2332

Here are standings after Round 4 from http://www.chess-results.com/:

Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3
1 IM Melia Salome GEO 2431 3,0 5,25 0,0 2
2 IM Vajda Szidonia HUN 2369 2,5 4,25 0,0 1
3 WGM Cosma Elena-Luminita ROU 2332 2,5 4,00 0,0 1
4 IM Peptan Corina-Isabela ROU 2411 2,0 5,00 0,0 0
5 IM Gara Anita HUN 2370 2,0 3,75 0,0 1
6 IM Turova Irina RUS 2386 2,0 3,50 0,0 0
7 IM Repkova Eva SVK 2434 1,5 3,25 0,0 0
IM Foisor Cristina-Adela ROU 2440 1,5 3,25 0,0 0
9 IM Muzychuk Mariya UKR 2447 1,5 2,75 0,0 0
10 IM Khotenashvili Bela GEO 2461 1,5 2,50 0,0 1

Annotation:
Tie Break1: Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break variable
Tie Break2: The results of the players in the same point group#results against
Tie Break3: The greater number of victories

I picked up on this event while reading GM Kosteniuk's blog not only because it is one of the relatively rare female-only invitationals but also because IM Salome Melia is playing in it. She has been performing excellently in 2010: she won the Georgian national women's chess championship, then tied for first place in the strong Women's Tournament at the Moscow Open, and now she is holding first place in this event.  You go, girl!

Georgian Women's Chess Championship

Results table from http://www.chess-results.com/

IM/WGM Salome Melia won the championship with 10/13.  She followed up by tying for first place in the Women's C Group at the Moscow Open.  Way to go!

Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 1 IM Melia Salome GEO 2431 10,0 57,25 8
2 IM Khurtsidze Nino GEO 2414 9,5 56,00 8
3 IM Lomineishvili Maia GEO 2371 8,5 47,50 6
4 WIM Mikadze Miranda GEO 2326 7,5 45,75 4
5 WGM Tsereteli Tamar GEO 2403 7,5 40,75 4
6 IM Khotenashvili Bela GEO 2461 7,0 37,25 6
7 WIM Arabidze Meri GEO 2282 7,0 35,25 5
8 WGM Batsiashvili Nino GEO 2309 6,5 45,50 5
9 IM Khukhashvili Sopiko GEO 2438 6,5 36,00 5
10 WIM Tsatsalashvili Keti GEO 2312 6,5 34,00 4
11 IM Purtseladze Maka GEO 2306 5,0 27,50 2
12 GM Dzagnidze Nana GEO 2506 4,0 27,25 3
13 WIM Gavasheli Ana GEO 2204 3,5 14,50 2
14 WIM Khurtsilava Inga GEO 2303 1,0 6,50 1

I haven't met IM Melia but one of our number, Don McLean, has, when he covered the 2009 Montreal Open Chess Championship in September 2009.  Montreal fell in love with Melia, and she fell in love with Montreal.  Goddesschess had a part in bringing about her appearance in Montreal - her first trip to North America, in fact!  She finished in second place, just behind Montreal favorite IM Jean Hebert.  We are hoping she will be able to come back to Montreal to defend her title as Woman Chess Champion of Montreal at the 2010 Tournament. 

Article at Goddesschess by Don McLean

Photo by Don McLean - Salome Melia (left) and Lee Mei Chen, taken outside the playing venue of the 2009 Montreal Open Chess Championship

For a list of blog posts regarding the 2009 Montreal Open Chess Championship, please click on the label below.

Some Awwwwwwww Photos of a Cat and a Deer Hanging Out Together

So cool!  Not sure when these were taken - perhaps last fall?  The grass is green and no snow to be seen but there are leaves on the ground.  Taken in (I believe) Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Posted at the website where I found it on January 19, 2010.  There are more photos at the link.

Ancient Trade: Bronze Age Wreck Discovered Off Coast of Devon

Article from the telegraph.co.uk
Bronze Age shipwreck found off Devon coast
One of the world's oldest shipwrecks has been discovered off the coast of Devon after lying on the seabed for almost 3,000 years.
By Jasper Copping
Published: 9:00PM GMT 13 Feb 2010

The trading vessel was carrying an extremely valuable cargo of tin and hundreds of copper ingots from the Continent when it sank.  Experts say the "incredibly exciting" discovery provides new evidence about the extent and sophistication of Britain's links with Europe in the Bronze Age as well as the remarkable seafaring abilities of the people during the period.

Archaeologists have described the vessel, which is thought to date back to around 900BC, as being a "bulk carrier" of its age. The copper and tin would have been used for making bronze – the primary product of the period which was used in the manufacture of not only weapons, but also tools, jewellery, ornaments and other items.

Archaeologists believe the copper – and possibly the tin – was being imported into Britain and originated in a number of different countries throughout Europe, rather than from a single source, demonstrating the existence of a complex network of trade routes across the Continent.

Academics at the University of Oxford are carrying out further analysis of the cargo in order to establish its exact origins. However, it is thought the copper would have come from the Iberian peninsular, Alpine Europe, especially modern day Switzerland, and possibly other locations in France, such as the Massif Central, and even as far as Austria.

It is first time tin ingots from this period have ever been found in Britain, a discovery which may support theories that the metal was being mined in the south west at this time.

If the tin was not produced in Britain, it is likely it would have also come from the Iberian peninsular or from eastern Germany.

The wreck has been found in just eight to ten metres of water in a bay near Salcombe, south Devon, by a team of amateur marine archaeologists from the South West Maritime Archaeological Group.

In total, 295 artefacts have so far been recovered, weighing a total of more than 84kg. The cargo recovered includes 259 copper ingots and 27 tin ingots. Also found was a bronze leaf sword, two stone artefacts that could have been sling shots, and three gold wrist torcs – or bracelets.

The team have yet to uncover any of the vessel's structure, which is likely to have eroded away. However, experts believe it would have been up to 40ft long and up to 6ft wide, and have been constructed of planks of timber, or a wooden frame with a hide hull. It would have had a crew of around 15 and been powered by paddles.

Archaeologists believe it would have been able to cross the Channel directly between Devon and France to link into European trade networks, rather than having to travel along the coast to the narrower crossing between modern day Dover and Calais.

Although the vessel's cargo came from as far afield as southern Europe, it is unlikely it would have been carried all the way in the same craft, but in a series of boats, undertaking short coastal journeys.

The wreck site is on part of the seabed called Wash Gully, which is around 300 yards from the shore. There is evidence of prehistoric field systems and Bronze Age roundhouses on the coast nearby and it is thought the vessel could have sunk while attempting to land, or could have been passing along the coast.

The coastline is notoriously treacherous and there is a reef close by which could have claimed the vessel.

The recovery work took place between February and November last year but the discovery was not announced until this month's International Shipwreck Conference, in Plymouth.

The finds have been reported to both English Heritage and the Receiver of Wreck, which administers all shipwrecks. The artefacts are due to be handed over to the British Museum next week. They will be independently valued and the museum will pay the team for the items.

Mick Palmer, chairman of the South West Maritime Archaeological Group, said: "For the British Isles, this is extremely important. This was a cargo trading vessel on a big scale. There is more down there and we will carry on searching for it. We anticipate a lot more will be found."

Dave Parham, senior lecturer in marine archaeology at Bournemouth University and a member of the team, said: "What we are seeing is trade in action. We are not stuck with trying to work out trade based on a few deposits across a broader landscape. We are looking at the stuff actually on the boat being moved.

"Everything that is in the ship sinks with it and is on the seabed somewhere. What you would call this today is a bulk carrier. It was carrying what was for the time a large consignment of raw materials."

Dr Peter Northover, a scientist at the University of Oxford who has been analysing the find, said: "These are the produce of a multitude of countries, scattered right around Europe, up and down the Atlantic coast and inland. It came from a combination of places. It is showing the diversity of the trade.

"Metal traders and workers would have traded parcels of metal with each other. The metal would have moved in steps, along networks of contacts exchanging metal as and when they need it."

Dr Stuart Needham, a Bronze Age archaeologist, said: "This is genuinely exciting. Everyone knows that man has been walking around on land since time immemorial, but I think people now will be surprised to know how much they were plying the seaways at this time, up and down the Atlantic seaboard and across the Channel.

"There's a complex lattice of interactions across Europe happening throughout this period. A lot of stuff may have moved across land, but it is eminently possible at this stage that there were quite sophisticated maritime networks with specialist mariners – people who know how to read the tides and the stars and who are not just casually going out on the sea to do some deep sea fishing.

"If you have got specialist mariners plying the Atlantic seaways, there is every possibility they could be picking up material in different locations and stockpiling it.

"The mainstay of this exchange network might have been a number of vessels undertaking short journeys. It doesn't mean there weren't occasional vessels and people going longer distances."

One other Bronze Age vessel has previously been found near Salcombe, where just 53 artefacts were recovered. Another eight Bronze Age items have also been found at a third nearby spot, indicating another possible wreck.

The only other Bronze Age wrecks found in the UK have been located on land, or on the foreshore, at Dover and North Ferriby, on the Humber. Ben Roberts, Bronze Age specialist at the British Museum, said: "It is an incredibly exciting find. What we have here is really, really good evidence of trade. We don't get many shipwreck sites.

"It is very rare to get a snapshot of this level of activity. It is very possible there were also animals and people going across the Channel too. We hardly ever get to see evidence of this cross Channel trade in action. It is a huge amount of cargo."

Aeroflot 2010

Chess femme standings after Round 5:

A1 Group (80 players):
49 GM Kosintseva, Tatiana w 2.5 RUS F 2515 2635
59 GM Hou, Yifan w 2.0 CHN F 2590 2534 (photo)
64 IM Kosintseva, Nadezhda w 2.0 RUS F 2533 2580
66 GM Sebag, Marie w 2.0 FRA F 2510 2540
67 IM Javakhishvili, Lela w 2.0 GEO F 2493 2538

A2 Group (66 players):
21 IM Harika, Dronavalli w 3.0 IND F 2471 2505
40 IM Ovod, Evgenija w 2.5 RUS F 2415 2477
41 WGM Savina, Anastasia w 2.5 RUS F 2407 2503
47 IM Romanko, Marina w 2.0 RUS F 2433 2392
48 IM Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina w 2.0 RUS F 2428 2386
58 WGM Bodnaruk, Anastasia w 1.5 RUS F 2372 2306
65 WGM Pourkashiyan, Atousa w 1.0 IRI F 2306 2193
66 WGM Karavade, Eesha w 0.5 IND F 2405 2061

After 6 Rounds B Group (55 players):
3 WFM Mammadova, Gulnar Marfat q w 5.0 AZE F 2221 2600

21 WIM Kharashuta, Ekaterina w 3.5 RUS F 2270 2292
23 WIM Ghader Pour, Shayesteh w 3.5 IRI F 2187 2336 (photo)
36 WIM Tarasova, Viktoriya w 2.5 RUS F 2290 2204
46 WGM Chasovnikova, Eugenia w 2.0 RUS F 2251 2239
53 WFM Cheremnova, Tamara w 1.5 RUS F 2260 2074

After 6 Rounds C Group (72 players):
11 WFM Nikolaeva, Alexandra w 4.0 RUS F 2193 2164

16 Rjanova, Valerya w 4.0 RUS F 2105 2187
17 WFM Aghasiyeva, Fidan Aydin qi w 4.0 AZE F 2084 2164

Friday Night Miscellany

Hola, darlings!

What an exhausting week.  I'm soooo glad that damned 30 hour long snow storm visited out east.  Maybe now people in Baltimore, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. will understand just a wee bit more what we people in Milwaukee (where???) go through from November through May, ever single fricking year. 

Tragedy today at Whistler, the Winter Olympics site for luge and many other alpine sports of 2010.  On a trial run, near the end of the course, a luger from the Republic of Georgia was, in the blink of an eye, flung off his sled and crashed into an unpadded metal pole.  Medical team rushed in but it was all for naught.  I do not know what the young, unfortunate luger died from, but at this point it seems to me that he died at the scene of the accident - he never stood a chance after hitting that pole at 90 miles per hour. 

Very disturbing, I read reports earlier today (after the death of the Georgian luger, who was only 21 years old) for the first time in popular news, that several other lugers throughout prior practice runs this week had also crashed, although no one (evidently) sustained any serious injuries.  Is this luge course too deadly to race on? 

I'm missing most of the Opening Ceremonies on NBC tonight, doing other things, which I will report on in due time.  No matter what the Olympic organizeres do tonight, whipped up at the last moment because, surely (one hopes), no one ever plans for a tragic death of an athelete - I prefer not to watch.  For many years before experiencing menopause (the BIG M), my emotions were, more often than not, very close to the surface; anything could set me off.  These days, despite now being past the BIG M since (more or less), 2001, those emotions are closer to the surface than ever.  I'm like a live volcano, apt to destroy an entire civilization with no warning.  It's best I do not watch something that would bring those volatile emotions to the surface.

I'll save myself for the figure skating...

The organizers ain't fooling around  -- we get a good dose of the Drama Queens, the Men - early on!  Whoa!  I love it!  Here is the schedule:

14 Feb 7:30pm Pairs Short Program

15 Feb 8:00pm Pairs Free Skating
16 Feb 7:15pm Men Short Program

See what's going on - the organizers in cohoots with the network get the Chinese, who will win the pairs competition, out of the way right away, so nobody remembers them at the end of the Olympics, except 1.1 billion other Chinese. 

The figure-skating men are the stars this year!  I can hardly wait to see what costume Johnny Weir decides upon at the last second (since his U.S. Championship long program costume trimmed with "white fur" meant to represent angels' wings was smashed down by PETA and their supporters), and what excuse he will bring forth to cover up what I am expecting will be yet another sub-par performance.  Did you miss the bus again, Johnny?  Dude, retire already, and try to sell those ridiculous "designs" of yours in the real world once you are no longer an "Olympian."  Hey - The Wall Street Journal gave you  and your designs great print coverage today.  Go with it, baby. Elvis Stoiko has declared that macho-men must reign on the ice in order to save the sport for future generations.  And as much as I enjoy watching you skate (and fail to make crucial jumps, unfortunately) for your gorgeous musical interpretation and emotive ability, you are just well, too outre for me.

Evan L - can't grow a decent beard to save his life.  I don't think, frankly, he has what it takes to win the big Gold. But, darling, hey - surprise me.

Brian J - love ya, darling, but you're too short for NBC's ideal male figure-skater so you won't make it in the end.

Current Canadian Skater - I believe Elvis did not comment on you.  Darling, isn't that the kiss of death?

Winner - someone from Asia.

Women's figure skating - no brainer.  Someone from Asia.  I am personally rooting for an excellent and stand-on-her-feet performance from USA's Nagai and perhaps a 4th place finish (but I'm not holding my breath).  Flatt will be flat.  She won't fall, but she won't inspire, either. She doesn't have that "it" factor.  But I think she will make an excellent contestant on "The Apprentice." 

Ice dancing?  Who knows, LOL!  The former old Soviet system of slowly-ever-so-slowly-over-10-years-trudging-up-the-international-ladder to eventually make it into the top ten, and then the top six, and then the top four, and then then top three... was being severely undermined by other non-Soviet teams and the Americans (gasp!) before the advent of the new scoring system.    So - we'll see ---

The new scoring system is as full of shit as the old scoring system. But at least under that system, EVERYONE in the audience knew just exactly what judge gave what skater(s) what score of 6.0 or under under the dual components of "technical" and "artistic."  Bias, if it existed, was clear to see.  But this new scoring system - totally designed to obfuscate and prevent the audience from seeing what any individual judge has posted as his or her scores. As I understand it - correct me if I'm wrong - one total composite score for "technical" and "artistic" is posted and, more importantly, NO ONE CAN TELL WHAT JUDGE POSTED WHAT SCORES.  This is a system RIFE for corruption, if it has not already been riddled with it! 

Okay, now it is shortly after 9:00 p.m. my time and the "march" of Olympians from various countries continues, broadcast by NBC worldwide (I assume).  Personally, I think the entire thing should have been cancelled and, instead, the atheletes should have marched into the arena holding candles, silent, mourning, for the loss of the life of the 21-year old Georgian luger earlier today.  Now, what I'm seeing on t.v. and listening to the commentary, it's just absolutely disgusting.  As if nothing happened  as if no one was killed for such a silly-ass stupid sport.  This sucks.  This really sucks.

I'll stick to chess, darlings.

Queen's Helps Produce Archaeological 'Time Machine'

An appropriately misleading title right from the press release.  This has nothing to do at all with the Queen f England (she's the only Queen who comes to mind when I see the word) which, when I first read it, thought she mighgt have given a DNA swab or something like in order to better match the bones of ancestors and such!  LOL!

Nah, no such thing.  But this is interesting news.  There is now or soon will be a new scale of calibrating carbon-14 dating that goes back to 50,000 years.  This isn't the place to get into a discussion about all the problems associated with carbon-14 dating (actually, the problems associated with most dating methodologies).  Here is the article about the new carbon dating "calibration curve."  Oh please - why couldn't they call it something in plain English that everyone will understand? 

I read the article and I'm not reassured that despite the improvements it is now an accurate dating mechanism.  But I'm hoping this new one is more accurate than what's been used for the past - just how long has carbon-14 dating been around???

Press release from Queen's University Belfast
Queen's helps produce archaeological 'time machine'
Researchers at Queen's University have helped produce a new archaeological tool which could answer key questions in human evolution.

The new calibration curve, which extends back 50,000 years is a major landmark in radiocarbon dating-- the method used by archaeologists and geoscientists to establish the age of carbon-based materials.

It could help research issues including the effect of climate change on human adaption and migrations.

The project was led by Queen's University Belfast through a National Environment Research Centre (NERC) funded research grant to Dr Paula Reimer and Professor Gerry McCormac from the Centre for Climate, the Environment and Chronology (14CHRONO) at Queen's and statisticians at the University of Sheffield.

Ron Reimer and Professor Emeritus Mike Baillie from Queen's School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology also contributed to the work.

The curve called INTCAL09, as just been published in the journal Radiocarbon. It not only extends radiocarbon calibration but also considerably improves earlier parts of the curve.

Dr Reimer said: "The new radiocarbon calibration curve will be used worldwide by archaeologists and earth scientists to convert radiocarbon ages into a meaningful time scale comparable to historical dates or other estimates of calendar age.

"It is significant because this agreed calibration curve now extends over the entire normal range of radiocarbon dating, up to 50,000 years before today. Comparisons of the new curve to ice-core or other climate archives will provide information about changes in solar activity and ocean circulation."

It has taken nearly 30 years for researchers to produce a calibration curve this far back in time.

Since the early 1980s, an international working group called INTCAL has been working on the project.

The principle of radiocarbon dating is that plants and animals absorb trace amounts of radioactive carbon-14 from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere while they are alive but stop doing so when they die. The carbon-14 decays from archaeological and geological samples so the amount left in the sample gives an indication of how old the sample is.

As the amount of carbon -14 in the atmosphere is not constant, but varies with the strength of the earth's magnetic field, solar activity and ocean radiocarbon ages must be corrected with a calibration curve.

Most experts consider the technical limit of radiocarbon dating to be about 50,000 years, after which there is too little carbon-14 left to measure accurately with present day technology.

Oooooohhhh, the Beyatches Be Out!

Oh those figure-skating prima-donnas! The Olympics hasn't even started and already the beyatches are at it, slinging mud at the judges and at each other!

And it ain't the ladies.  It's the dudes!

Is the international skating union paying these guys to create this kind of press?  Whatever - I'm sure the people who run the thing are secretly rubbing their hands together in glee!  Not since Nancy and Tonya has so much shit been slung at so many different targets!  I love it!  LOL!

First up, Evgeny Plushenko of Russia, who retired in 2006 after winning Olympic gold.  He quit one of the ice shows to try for an Olympic come-back. I'm reading that he's the favorite to win gold again.  Really?  If that's the case, then in my opinion the fix is in.

Plushenko started it all by flinging some shit at French medal threat Brian Joubert, claiming that Joubert got marked more favorably by the judges at the European championships for "transitions" between elements even though, so says Plushenko, they both did the same transitions.  Which is to say - none whatsoever.  Oh those naughty naughty boys - getting by on their quad jumps and not much else, although Joubert is, in my opinion, much cuter and has a better overall presentation and appearance on the ice.

Meow, Evegeny.

Then, the head of the French figure skating federation had to put his two francs into the discussion, by claiming that the "North American" judges were conspiring to keep the Europeans out of the medals at the Olympics.  Those Frenchies, they just do not know when to keep their lips zipped.  He could have just let Plushenko shoot himself in the foot with his, frankly, smarmy and self-serving accusations, but noooooo.

Enter Jamie Sale.  She and partner (now husband David Pelletier), skating for Canada, were first awarded Olympic silver for their fabulous routine that brought the house down. Amid subsequently proven accusations of a fix by - are you ready for this - the Russian and French judges - Sale and Pelletier were awarded a dual gold medal for their performance.  She says that Plushenko has benefited under the old and new systems by receiving high marks when he did not earn them, and he is a hypocrite to complain.

Now Canadian figure-skating star Patrick Chan, who has thrived under the new scoring system, has shown his claws to Plushenko and, in a glancing blow, to Joubert.  This is great stuff:

From AFP Report at Yahoo Sports:  Patrick Chan Blasts 'Old' Plushenko
February 11, 2009

VANCOUVER (AFP) - World silver medallist Patrick Chan dubbed his Olympic rival Yevgeny Plushenko as ‘old’ as the Canadian teenager insisted his style of skating was the one of the future.

The 19-year-old found himself at the centre of a row amid allegations of North American lobbying against European figure skaters ahead of the men’s figure skating event in Vancouver.

Chan is bidding for Canada’s first men’s figure skating gold but he is up against European rivals including Plushenko and Brian Joubert of France, who are renowned for their quadruple jumps which he does not possess as he focuses more on transitions and step sequences which are rewarded highly under the new judging system.

And allegations of American lobbying erupted after it emerged that Joe Inman, a veteran US Olympic level skating judge, sent e-mails to judges and officials reminding them to mark presentation scores accurately.

Inman sent the e-mails after he heard that Plushenko had said after winning a sixth European title that both he and former world champion Joubert do not have any transitions moves linking elements together because they focus on their jumps, implying how could they be awarded marks for something they do not do.

Chan refused to be drawn into the controversy, but said he believed that the style of skating of 27-year-old Russian Plushenko, who has returned to competition in a bid to defend his Olympic title, was out of date.

“For me the transitions are one of the most important things in a programme, otherwise it’s very boring to watch,” he said.

“Above all in a programme like the Phantom of the Opera which I do for the long programme. It’s important to have good transitions to interpret the music with unique footwork.

“I love the new system, it’s a great way to promote an all around skater especially a skater like me,” said Chan.

“He’s (Plushenko) confident that the quad will really help him, that he doesn’t need transitions. He’s old, I can’t tell him it’s not good.

“I think we’ll start seeing more skaters like me in future generations.”

Chan believes that Plushenko and Joubert will try and intimidate him with the quad in practice ahead of the competition.

“Of course they’ll (Plushenko and Joubert) do it in practice and will nail it on front of me,” he said.

“It’s totally normal that’s why the Olympics are so special. I’ll only use that to feed the fire and focus on what I can do.

“It’s going to be exciting to see what Plushenko has up his sleeve.

“We’re all a bunch of great skaters. It’s whoever who can grasp that moment on that Tuesday and Thursday.”

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

Most ridiculous statement in this article: Chan refused to be drawn into the controversy... . Yeah, right.  If Chan was trying to avoid controversy, he shouldn't have said that because Plushenko is old (implying set in his ways, stuck in the old system and perhaps, even, doddering and drooling),he wouldn't listen to Chan's opinion that he (Plushenko) can no longer get by on his quads: “He’s (Plushenko) confident that the quad will really help him, that he doesn’t need transitions. He’s old, I can’t tell him it’s not good."

Take that, Evgeny.

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

What should happen - but we know it never will - is that the international skating union or federation, or whatever it's called, sanctions Plushenko for his comments which are quite transparently an attempt to influence the outcome of the men's figure-skating competion.  I mean, come on, dude.  If you were so fricking good, you would keep your stupid mouth shut and let your skating do all the talking necessary.  But noooooooo.  What is totally pathetic is that you will get away with it because everyone except Jamie Sale is afraid of the frigging Russians - perhaps because they fear a nuclear-poisoned pellet being slipped into their orange juice at breakfast one morning? 

What did Plushenko really hope to gain by shooting off his mouth?  If he doesn't win the gold, he can claim bias.  If he wins the gold, no one is going to take that medal seriously, they will see it as the judges caving in to pressure.  Plushenko and his really stupid handlers have put him into a no-win situation.  Gee, couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

More on the ice-poop scandal:

On Inman's email from that bastion of fair and unbiased reporting, the New York Daily News, February 11, 2010

Judges accused of bias against European figure skaters
Medal contenders Joubert, Plushenko at centre of uproar over judge's e-mails
BEVERLEY SMITHVANCOUVER— From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010 03:11AM EST

Aeroflot 2010

Aeroflot has started.  As in previous years, many of the players from the Moscow Open are now playing in the gigantic Aeroflot (not so much the ladies).

In Group A1, five of the 80 players are chess femmes.  Here are their rankings after R2:

30 IM Kosintseva, Nadezhda w 1.5 RUS F 2533 2837 +0.80 1 ½

31 GM Kosintseva, Tatiana w 1.5 RUS F 2515 2831 +0.83 1 ½
64 GM Hou, Yifan w 0.5 CHN F 2590 2453 -0.35 0 ½  (78th place with 4.0 in Moscow Open A)
74 GM Sebag, Marie w 0.5 FRA F 2510 2411 -0.25 0 ½
75 IM Javakhishvili, Lela w 0.5 GEO F 2493 2444 -0.11 ½ 0
 
Here are the chess femmes plahing in Group A2 (eight out of 66), and their rankings after R2:
 
13 IM Harika, Dronavalli w 1.5 IND F 2471 2548 +0.19 ½ 1
20 WGM Savina, Anastasia w 1.5 RUS F 2407 2707 +0.79 1 ½
42 IM Romanko, Marina w 1.0 RUS F 2433 2470 +0.10 0 1
45 IM Ovod, Evgenija w 1.0 RUS F 2415 2482 +0.19 0 1
46 WGM Bodnaruk, Anastasia w 1.0 RUS F 2372 2469 +0.26 1 0
51 IM Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina w 0.5 RUS F 2428 2233 -0.51 0 ½
60 WGM Pourkashiyan, Atousa w 0.5 IRI F 2306 2267 -0.09 ½ 0 (35th place with 5.0 in Moscow Open C)
64 WGM Karavade, Eesha w 0.0 IND F 2405 1723 -0.85 0 0

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Annual Appeal

I have to say, the Met sure does hire the most charming fund-raisers, LOL!  Last year I talked to a fellow with a decided British accent and he listened with sympathy to my tale of hearing critters in the attic - that was a few days before the exterminator came.  Thankfully no critters (mice) since then, keeping me up with their scampering about on the other side of the ceiling above my bed!  Tonight I answered the phone and it was a fellow who transplanted himself from New York (still has a trace of accent) to LA - poor fellow.  We had a lovely chat about the crappy weather and the earthquake that happened about 80 miles to the south which was also felt here, 4.3 on the Richter scale, about 4 a.m.  I was blissfully unaware - it was one of the times I was actually sleeping during what was otherwise a restless night, waking up what seemed like every 60 to 90 minutes. 

New York transplant man was calling about the Met's Annual Appeal, and he recommended that I do a search at the Met website for Joan of Arc, which was a painting he saw during his last (recent) visit home to NYC.  He said it looks just like a photograph.  He saw it on the second floor, and he was shocked when I told him during my four previous visits to the Met (maybe it's only three, two in 2006 and one in 2009?) I've never made it into the actual parts of the museum where the paintings are!  I've spent the bulk of my time on the first and second floor antiquities sections!

I did make a pledge, but I had intended to do so this year anyway, without any call from a charming man.  But it sure was nice to get that call.  I wonder - do they maintain files on their members - "Jan Newton.  Female of a 'certain age.'  Good for $50 a year plus her annual membership renewal of $50; likes to speak to charming gentlemen."  LOL! 

I believe this is the painting of which he spoke and I do think it looks very  much like a photograph - except for those spirit 'saints' sort of hanging around in the background.  Could have been demons, for all we know.  Poor Joan, she didn't know the difference.  And in the end, it didn't make any difference.  In the face of her incredible power to inspire an entire army, the powers that be at the time were not about to let her stick around to perhaps challenge them in the not-too-distant-future.  They would have got rid of Joan one way or another - but to discredit her as a 'heretic' and then burning her to death - ahhh, now that was just too good a denouement for certain assholes to resist.  Sort of reminds me of what is going on in Iran and China today, with the latest crop of people tagged as "dissidents."

Joan of Arc, 1879

Jules Bastien-Lepage (French, 1848–1884)
Oil on canvas
100 x 110 in. (254 x 279.4 cm)
Signed, dated, and inscribed (lower right): J.BASTIEN-LEPAGE / DAMVILLERS Meuse / 1879
Gift of Erwin Davis, 1889 (89.21.1)

Storm Photos

I was greeted with a great deal of shoveling out this morning - views from my front door.  In order to get to work, I had to get to get to the road.  The snow was too deep to trudge through, I had to shovel my way to the road.  Sigh. Oh, my aching shoulders. 

This was on top of the shoveling I did yestereday morning and afternoon, in a vain attempt to keep the path to the road clear.  You can see the drift marks and just barely make out the line where the path I had previously shoveled stopped - about 3 feet wide.  At the end of the drive, you can just make out the sort of bumpy looking snow - that's all the snow the plow crapped up into my driveway - four feet tall and four feet deep into my 30 foot long drive. 

I will be shoveling for the rest of the week.  Tonight when I got home from work, I did an aerobic 30 minutes worth of huffing and puffing, flinging heavy shovels-ful of snow over first one should and then the other.  The sun was out today so things kind of compressed and got heavier than yesterday.  I widened my path to 4 feet wide (more or less) and finished carving out the gigantic boulder that the plow had deposited on the edge of the driveway, and I started carving out a place to shovel up into the other side of the drive toward the garage.  I will mark the boundary of the other side of the driveway and then clear out toward the middle.  The snowbank on the south side of the drive is much lower than that on the north - I won't have to throw the snow up as high to get it out of the way :)  I should be finished by Sunday when the ladies come for an investment club meeting. 

Hell, it could be a lot worse - I could be living in Philly or Washington, D.C.

Russian Archaeologists Gain Access to Tomb of Princess of Ukok

The translation of this article into English is not the clearest - but I believe it is saying that after a long-time ban, Russian archaeologists will now once again be allowed access to the tomb where the Princess of Ukok's remains were discovered back in 1993.  She has also been called the "Ice Princess, " the "Altai Princess" and the "Siberian Ice Maiden" in news reports and articles.

Archeologists Conquer Lands of Princess of Ukok
February 8, 2010

Russian archeologists have gained removal of the ban on diggings of tumuli in Altai Republic, where the mummy of Princes of Ukok was discovered in 1993.

The mysterious find is about 2.5 thousand years old. Local dwellers proclaimed the Princess of Ukok the progenitress of the people and demanded not to touch “their” tomb. Scientists, in their turn, insisted that the mummy is a find of world significance and has nothing to do with the local dwellers.

The removal of the improper ban was prompted by the situation, when another Novosibirsk archeological expedition had to give up excavations in that corner of Altai. Archeologists addressed Rosohrankultura, and its representatives in their turn approached prosecutor’s office.

The Princess of Ukok is presently kept in the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography Institute of Siberian Branch of RAS.

Source: infox.ru

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Evidently a controversy between the Republic of Russia and the Republic of Altai has existed since the remains of the 'Princess of Ukok' were removed to a museum in Russia.  Some background information about the discovery of the tomb is provided in this 2005 article from Pravda:

The mummy was discovered by an archaeological expedition of Novosibirsk scientists headed by doctor of historical sciences Natalia Polosmak in the early 90th years. Excavations were carried out at Ak-Alakha tract on the Ukok plateau located in the south of the Mountainous Altai. The plateau borders on Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan. Later academician Vyacheslav Molodin discovered one more mummy at this same place, a male warrior. As scientists claim, the mummies were contained in Scythian burial places made in 4-5th centuries B.C. At that time it was a so-called period of "Pazyryk culture" in Altai.

The mummies remained preserved due to the permafrost. Scientists insist on continuation of the excavations as interdisciplinary researches indicate possible warming of the climate as a result of which thawing of ice lenses will occur. At present there is even data showing in which exactly barrows on Ukok plateau ice is still existent.

However, the indigenous population of Altai extremely negatively regarded the fact that scientists managed to find the mummies. Amid the Altai intellectuals, they started to assert that Ukok plateau had always been considered a sacred place for altaians and they knew about the burial place for the woman since in the unearthed barrow "princess Kadyn" had lied whom shamans had been worshipping for millennia.

Today, a powerful movement has emerged in Altai aimed at claiming the mummy back to its ‘native land”. Among supporters of this idea, however, there are two directions. One suggests simple returning it to Altai and exposing the mummy in Mountainous Altai Museum. Others demand to re-bury "princess". For the last ten years supporters of the mummy's returning were constantly sending appeals to authorities with requests for solving the problem. Still the latest actual form of address has beaten all records by amount of people who had signed it.

Novosibirsk archeologists repeatedly declared that they are not against transferring of the mummy to Gorno-Altaisk. Special expensive equipment is necessary to preserve it though, which the Altai museum doesn't possess.

After an earthquake in September of 2003 in Altai, epicenter of which was around 100-150 kilometers from Ukok plateau, local residents began to claim that this act of nature was the result of disturbing the burial place of "princess Kadyn" who now revenges on people.

Check out this January 25, 2008 blog post by Dmitri Minaev at De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis, for a different perspective on the controversy.

From the "Official Portal of the Altai Republic," this description of the woman's burial:

In 1990-1995, South Altai troop of the North Asia complex expedition of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences conducted research at the Alpine plateau Ukok, situated near the Chinese, Mongolian and Kazakh borders. In the course of excavations of o­ne of the mounds of Ak-Alakh sepulchre, a unique burial of a woman was discovered.

Her remains were found lying in a wooden framework (3,3m х 2,3 m) made of larch and rough-hewed smoothly from inside. The framework was set at the bottom of the sepulchral pit. The whole space of the sepulchral cell - right from the ceiling made of eleven closely fitted logs down to the very bottom - was filled with ice. A linen - several strips of black felt sewed together - was spread instead of a floor right over the previously laid out pebbles. There was a massive trough in the southern corner of the sepulchre. Its lid was hammered in by copper nails with round heads. Leather ornaments presented as figures of deer were found in the trough as the ice inside of it melted. There were dishes with food near the trough. Two flat-bottomed ceramic jugs, destroyed by ice, lied o­n the floor. Pieces of meat remained lying o­n the dishes. There was even an iron knife stuck into a piece of meat, the handle of the knife representing symmetrically arranged effigies of the upper part of a wolf's snout with Capricorn's horns. Thus, wolf's sharp-toothed jaws appeared to be the center of the composition adorning the handle.

Six horses [WOW!] were laid in the northern part of the sepulchral pit just like in all other Pazyryk burials. Horses' hair, plaited tails, wooden harness ornaments, components and felt covers of saddles were preserved.

The woman was lying o­n her right side in a sleeping pose with her legs bent slightly in her knees and hands crossed o­n her belly; she was lying over double-folded thick strip of felt, her head o­n a felt pillow-bolster. She was covered with a fur counterpane with appliques representing vegetable ornament, made of golden foil.

Her clothes were well preserved. All seams of her ample silk yellowish shirt with long sleeves covering her fingers were trimmed with thin red cord, while its hem, neck, the edges of the sleeves and the center of the shirt were decorated with a red ribbon; her lengthy two-colored (red and white) woolen skirt had a thick red belt wound of woolen thread; o­n her legs she had long white felt stockings decorated with patterns of felt appliques in the upper part.

The dead woman had her personal things in the sepulchre. A mirror in the form of a square piece of bronze plate framed by a round wooden setting with a handle and with a deer effigy cut o­n its back side, laid over the skirt near the woman's left hip. The polished surface of the bronze plate was rubbed with mercury, which not o­nly made the surface shine, but also imparted the plate with the properties of a real mirror. The amulets - beads, bronze pendants - were threaded and tied together. There was also a "vanity case" - horse hair brush; some spread out blue and green powder-like substance - vivianite - a mineral used in manufacturing of blue paint; components of a peculiar pencil - a rod made of iron rings where vivianite served as a slate. Such pencil could be used for ritual face painting. There was also a stone saucer with coriander seeds.

It is obvious, that this is a sepulcher of an outstanding woman. The spacious sepulchral cell, body embalming and the body's laying over a decorated trough, the six horses with extremely beautiful and recherche harness - all these speak for the fact that this was a wealthy woman of a special society position.

The woman's shirt may be considered the real evidence of her wealth and high social status - a real value for the Pazyryks: it could be come across o­nly in "tsar" mounds. It is noteworthy, that it was the first time when Pazyryk clothing made of silk was discovered. According to ethnographic sources, the difference in clothing between the rich and the poor among Pazyryk cattle-breeders was very often reflected in the materials used.

The Ukok young woman had tattoos o­n her arms - from shoulders down to her wrists. There are also tattoos o­n some phalanxes of her hands. The blue-color "pictures" can be quite distinctly seen o­n her white skin, but they preserved o­nly o­n her left hand, while there are o­nly fragments of tattoos o­n her right wrist and thumb.

Her right shoulder bears an effigy of a fantastic animal - a deer with gryphon's beak, and horns of a deer and a Capricorn. The horns are decorated with gryphons' heads, the latter can also be seen at the back of the animal, whose body is depicted "twisted". Below there is an effigy of a ram in the same pose with his head thrown back; closed jaws of a spotted ounce with long and twisted tail are depicted at the ram's hoofs.

There are some signs indicating that the dead woman, buried by her fellow-tribesmen with such profound respect, was remarkable for a certain gift that she possessed. This does not obligatory imply that she was a shaman or a priestess. The young woman could be a healer, a story-teller, a fortune-teller. In the ritual practice of Sayan Altai, there are known over 30 titles for various specialists - those possessing certain secret knowledge - who always existed behind shamans serving an obligatory background for them.

More information, including a photograph of the body, at Wikipedia.  The tatoos on the lady's arm in the photo are quite discernible.

Taiwan Celebrates Chinese New Year with "Eye-Dotting" Ceremony

From thestar.com.my
Monday February 8, 2010

Dragons and lions come alive at eye-dotting ceremony
GEORGE TOWN: With a thundering roll of drums and cymbals, a huge group of “dragons” and “lions” came “alive” at the Goddess of Mercy Temple. The event – a grand eye-dotting ceremony to usher in the Year of Tiger.

It was a sight to behold as the coterie of 26 lions and two dragons slowly formed a circle and bowed in homage to a statue of the deity.  (Photo: A group of 26 lions and two dragons paying homage to the Goddess of Mercy at the temple in Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling in Penang during a grand ‘eye-dotting ceremony’. Several different kinds of lions performed amid a thunderous roar of drums and cymbals to start the Chinese New Year festivities. GOH GAIK LEE / The Star)
The “heavenly creatures” included five lions bearing the Hokkien head patterns from Taiwan and a dragon with the design of lotus flower on its body.

Tourists and children were seen chattering with excitement and snapping pictures during the ceremony.

Among them was seven-year-old Law Ee Jie, who appeared fascinated to witness such a grand “reunion” of lion and dragon dances.

“I have never seen so many lion heads for an eye-dotting ceremony and it is simply beautiful,” he said.

The ceremony for the animals was performed by state Tourism Deve­lopment and Culture Committee chairman Danny Law.

Penang Ching Xing Sports Gymnasium secretary Jeffrey Goh Thian Hooi said the event traditionally symbolised the animals “coming alive” before being used for performances during their house-to-house visits to bring good luck and prosperity.

“This is the first time we have brought along all our dragon and lion dance heads for a grand eye-dotting ceremony and we are planning to do it every year,” he said.

Senior instructor Kok Siew Hong said the troupe charged between RM600 and RM2,000 for their performances, depending on the type of function they are booked for.

“Many hope the lion dances can ‘roar’ for better luck this year. Our troupes have been fully booked since a month ago,” he said.

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The Goddess of Mercy is Kwan Yin (also Kuan Yin, Guanyin -- Goddess of Compassion and Healing).

What is an eye-dotting ceremony?  I found some fascinating information.  It is based in Taoist tradition.  In essence, it is a ceremony that brings life force and power to a statue or another object (such as a lion costume -- see below) - it actually represents the "birth" of the object into the world!  According to this description of a recently-enacted ceremony (January, 2010), a special red-colored ointment, the color associated with life, is used to dot the statue in a ceremony designed to "invite" the spirit and soul of the god or goddess into the statute.  Without the ceremony, the statue has no life and no power and, therefore, cannot hear one's prayers and supplications.

I cannot help but feel that it may be a very ancient practice.  The use of red ochre, for instance, on objects and in cave paintings that date back into neolithic times, is often associated with fertility and birth.  Perhaps the ancient "Opening of the Mouth Ceremony" used to "open" a mummified person so that his or her ba and ka could easily travel back and forth from the body to the outside world shares an archaic common source with the eye-dotting ceremony practiced in Taoism, rooted in traditions that date back to shamanistic practices long before writing was invented in China. 

Check out this description of an eye-dotting ceremony to awaken the spirit within a new "lion" - a costume used by dancers in ceremonial dances:  Han Shou Tang Lion Dance: Eye Dotting Ceremony - Hoi Gong. 

New Southern Chinese Lions must be initiated through a traditional ceremony called the Hoi Gong (eye opening/dotting). A new lion should not be used if it has not been through the Hoi Gong ceremony. According to the tradition of the lion dance, if the lion is used at any kind of event without being initiated or awakened, it will bring misfortune and bad luck.

"Dotting the Eye" refers in particular to the Chinese tradition of painting in the eye of the Chinese lion before the start of the lion dance to awaken the spirit of the lion. Hoi Gong is a traditional ceremony to awaken a new lion, or from a more traditional viewpoint, bring down the spirit of the lion from the heaven and give it life. This ceremony signifies the existence or birth of a new lion into the world.Interestingly, the description of this ceremony focuses on - literally - "dotting the eye" - that is, painting in an iris on an eyeball -- a practice the author traces to these stories from Chinese history:

"Eye Dotting" Origin Of The Tradition
(Chinese Text from Ming Pao Daily, Translated by E. Hou)

It is generally believed that the tradition of "eye-dotting" originated from two Chinese stories concerning painting pictures.

During the Eastern Jin Dynasty [314-420 A.D.] a painter named Gu Kai Zhi was famous for painting portraits. However, he had a strange habit of leaving the eyeballs out, even for several years. When he was asked why, he said, "The most life-like strokes of a subtle portrait come from the eyes."

When a painter called Zhang Seng Yu was designated to paint a mural for the An Le Monastery in Nanjing during the Southern Dynasty [420-589 A.D.], people found that all the dragons on the wall-paintings lacked pupils in their eyes. When the Abbot invited him to add the pupils, Zhang replied, "It must not be done, otherwise they will fly away from the wall and into the sky." The Abbot was not convinced and had the pupils painted in. Eventually those dragons with eyeballs painted on them emerged and flew away, while those without stayed on the wall - This is the origin for the Chinese proverb "Draw the dragons, dot the eyes."

When we dot the eyes for dragon boats, lion dance or masks, the meaning is the same: We draw the eyes, we give them life.

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An old Yiddish proverb tells us "The eyes are the mirror of the soul."  Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson's take on this ancient wisdom - "The eyes indicate the antiquity of the soul."

Eyes reflect internal and imputed sources of power. Only think about some of the expressions we know today and the context in which they are used -- "who blinked first" -- "staring someone down" -- giving someone a "hard stare," a "look that could kill." And we've probably all heard about someone getting "the evil eye." There was a very good reason for not looking into the eyes of the Medusa...

Eyes can also invite and seduce. A man will certainly have a different reaction to seeing an attractive young lady staring at him as to, say, a tatooed homey with a gold-plated toothpick dangling on his lip. Well, usually...

Here is what Barbara Walker has to say about the Eye in The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets:

The All-Seeing Eye of ancient Egypt once belonged to the Goddess of truth and judgment, Maat.(1) The Mother-syllable Maa meant "to see"; in hieroglyphics it was an eye.(2)

A late text transferred the All-Seeing Eye to a male god, Horus, and the common symbol came to be known as the Eye of Horus, also representing the phallus as the "One-Eyed God." Yet the same Eye was incongruously described as a female judge: "I am the all-seeing Eye of Horus, whose appearance strikes terror, lady of Slaughter, Mighty One."(3) [sounds like the fearsome lion-headed goddess, Sekhmet, to me] The Eye whose appearance strikes terror was the original prototype of the evil eye which, like the petrifying glance of Medusa, was usually associated with women and was feared by simple folk everywhere, up to the present day.

Staring idols of the Neolithic "Eye Goddess" have been found throughout Mesopotamia. [Image - note below].  In Syria she was known as the Goddess Mari, whose huge eyes searched men's souls.(4)

Ayin was the "eye" in the Hebrew sacred alphabet, possibly derived from Aya, the Babylonian Creatress.(5) Islamic Arabs diabolized her and corrupted her name into Ayin, spirit of the evil eye. Moslem Syrians called her Aina Bisha, the eye-witch.

Like Moslems, Christians diabolized the female spirit of the All-Seeing Eye. Old women were credited with the ancient Goddess's power to "overlook" - to curse someone with a glance. Judges of the Inquisition so greatly feared the evil eyes of their victims that they forced accused witches to enter the court backward, to deprive them of the advantage of a first glance.(6)

Oddly enough, remedies for the evil eye were often female symbols. Necklaces of cowrie shells, those ubiquitous yonic symbols, were and are valued in India as charms against the evil eye. The triangle or Yoni Yantra, representing the vulva, is similarly used in India, Greece, and the Balkans. Northern Indian farmers protect crops from the evil eye by hanging Kali's symbol of a black pot in the field. In 18th-century England, the classic witch's familiar, a black cat, was supposed to afford protection; and sore eyes could be cured by rubbing with a black cat's tail.(7) In addition there were many signs, gestures, and other kinds of counter-spells to be used as instant remedies if one suspected having been "overlooked."

It seems men were very much averse to meeting a direct glance from a woman. In the most patriarchal societies, from medieval Japan to Europe, it was customary to insist that "proper" women keep their eyelids lowered in the presence of men. In 19th-century Islamic Iran, it was believed that every woman above the age of menopause possessed the evil eye. Old women were not permitted in crowds attending public appearances of the Shah, lest his sacred person be exposed to an old woman's dangerous look.(8)

Any person invested with spiritual powers, however, could be credited with the power to curse with a look. Several popes were reputed to be bearers of the evil eye or jettatura. Pope Pius IX (d. 1878)was a famous jettatore. Pope Leo XIII, his successor, was said to have the evil eye because so many cardinals died during his reign.(9) [or maybe he just had them poisoned to get rid of them, ahem].

Notes:
(1) Budge, G.E. 1, 392.
(2) Budge, E.I., 55.
(3) Cavendish, P.E., 167.
(4) Neumann, G.M., 111-12 pl. 87.
(5) Assry. & Bab. Lit., 133-34.
(6) Lea unabridged, 831.
(7) Gifford, 79-81.
(8) Gifford, 47.
(9) Budge, A.T., 365.

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Goddesses and eyes and lions, oh my!  It is, perhaps, no coincidence that the "eye-dotting" ceremony for the lions and dragons reported in the article at the beginning of this post was held within the precincts of a Goddess's sacred Temple. The associations of Goddess and lion, and Goddess with eye, pre-date writing.

Note from above: Alabaster Eye Idol, British Museum. From Tell Brak, north-eastern Syria, about 3500-3300 BC

What is that symbol on top of the pyramid on the flip side of a U.S. dollar bill?  Yep - it's the All-Seeing Eye!  Notice the rays shooting out from it, denoting both divinity/godhood and light - i.e., enlightenment. Sounds like a segueway into Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol!" Hey, the Masons would not have lasted this long if they didn't have at least some things right... Annuit Coeptis...

From the British Museum
Faience wedjat eye
Egypt, Third Intermediate Period, 1069-945 BC

An Egyptian healing symbol

The wedjat is associated with Horus, the god of the sky, who was depicted as a falcon or as a man with a falcon's head. In a battle with Seth, the god of chaos and confusion, Horus lost his left eye. But the wound was healed by the goddess Hathor and the wedjat came to symbolise the process of 'making whole' and healing - the word wedjat literally meaning sound. [cf. the Goddess Kwan Yin]  The left eye of Horus also represented the moon. The waxing and waning in the lunar cycle therefore reflected Horus losing and regaining his sight. [Moon = multi-cultural goddess symbol -- think crescent Moon and "horns."]

The first use of a wedjat eye as an amulet was when Horus used one to bring Osiris back to life. Their regenerative power meant that wedjat eye amulets were placed in mummy wrappings in great numbers. Faience is a type of ceramic, commonly used to make amulets.

But, of course, what the Eye Giveth, the Eye Can Taketh Away...
Check out Nazar Boncugu -- a classic response, creating an eye talisman to ward off the effects of the Evil Eye.

Snow Day!

The first large storm of 2010 is upon us.  It started snowing some time after I went to bed last night and there was probablyh 3 to 4 inches of snow on the ground when I got up at 6 a.m.  The storm is supposed to last until 3 a.m. Wednesday, dumping anywhere from 10 to 14 inches of snow.  Not a problem necessarily for the plows to keep the roads more or less clear but - the winds are coming too.  By some time this afternoon, wind chills will drop into the single digits with winds gusting up to 30 mph.  As the snow is light and fluffy that means drifts and white-out conditions.  Already, with winds at around 15 mph the snow is swirling around and leaving bare spots on neighboring roofs.  That snow always seems to somehow end up in my driveway! (Photo: My backyard at 7:20 a.m. - the sky is heavy grey and the world looks grey because of the small rapidly falling snow all around.  Now it's blowing too - I got a couple face-fulls of snow blown off the roof when I was out shoveling the deck in the dark at 6:30.  Yech!)

I'm taking a snow day.  It's snowing about an inch an hour right now, that is serious snowing!  Being a veteran of past storms I've opted to avoid the 3/4 mile walk to the bus stop with snow blinding me and half smothering me all the while.  It would be downright dangerous coming home later today, because sidewalks will not have been cleared yet - that means walking in the roads in conditions where drivers might not actually see me until it was too late.  No thanks!

I cleared the deck before 6:30.  This photo is the deck (you can barely see the pitter-patter of little squirrel feet) about 40 minutes after shoveling it off - the deck is hardly visible.  In a little while I will pull on my high boots, bundle up and make a path from the front door to the road - which I cannot see at the moment despite the plows coming through about 5:30 a.m.  My hope is to periodically go out and shovel during the day and tonight to keep a path open.  No way will I be able to keep up shoveling the entire drive, I'm not even going to try, not until the snow stops and the winds die down.

Happily I did stop at the Pick 'n Save last night and was surprised that it was not busy at all! I thought it would be another mob scene like it was Sunday afternoon, a couple of hours before Superbowl started.  Geez!  I have supplies laid in so I'm hunkering down - ahhhh, I feel a nap in my near future...  And I have a new book to crack open -

10:05 a.m. Update:
I shoveled a pathway from the from door to the road in three separate shifts between 8:45 and 9:30.  The plow was working on the road in front of my house as I was out working.  For the time being, at least, I have a clear path about 3 feet wide down to the road - until the plow comes through again and the drifts fill it up.  Already they are forming...