FIDE Women's Grand Prix: Tashkent

Tashkent!  Brings to mind exotic open markets, the scent of spices, mysterious beauties and gorgeous fabrics.  I've never been there, but that is what the name conjures up.

This Women's Grand Prix began on September 17 and runs through October 5, 2013.  This event hosts some of the top female chessplayers in the world.  You can find lots of information and photographs at the official website. 

Here are the current standings:

Rank after round 8
Rank	SNo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pts	vict	SB.
1	2	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	IND	*	0.5	0.5		1		1	0.5	1	1	1		6.5	5	24,25
2	5	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	IND	0.5	*	0.5	1	0.5	1		0.5			1	0.5	5.5	3	22,25
3	3	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	UKR	0.5	0.5	*		0.5	0.5		1	0.5	1	1		5.5	3	21,25
4	8	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	GEO		0		*	0	1	1		1	0	0.5	1	4.5	4	13,50
5	11	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	CHN	0	0.5	0.5	1	*		1	1	0			0.5	4.5	3	17,75
6	10	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	RUS		0	0.5	0		*	0	0.5	1	1		1	4	3	12,00
7	7	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	CHN	0			0	0	1	*		1	1	0	0.5	3.5	3	10,75
8	4	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	BUL	0.5	0.5	0		0	Ѕ		*		0.5	0.5	1	3.5	1	12,50
9	6	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	UZB	0		0.5	0	1	0	0		*		0.5	1	3	2	10,25
10	12	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	RUS	0		0	1		0	0	0.5		*	0.5	1	3	2	9,25
11	1	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	ARM	0	0	0	0.5			1	0.5	0.5	0.5	*		3	1	10,50
12	9	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	KAZ		0.5		0	0.5	0	0.5	0	0	0		*	1.5	0	6,75

The Indian players are holding tight right now to the top two spots.  With three games to go, will Koneru and Dronavalli be able to hold off the competition?  They each have some tough games still to play. Dronavalli, a veteran at Women's Grand Prix events at her young age, will put up a strong fight to hold her position. It is my impression that she seems to play better when she feels her back is against the wall. Koneru is more of a puzzle.  She sometimes appears prone to nerves.  I'll be following toward the conclusion as time permits.

So, how did the women get to their current standings?  Here are round-by-round results:

Round 1 on 2013/09/18
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
1	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	½ - ½	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	12
2	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	1 - 0	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	11
3	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	½ - ½	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	10
4	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	1 - 0	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	9
5	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	1 - 0	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	8
6	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	0 - 1	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	7
Round 2 on 2013/09/19
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
12	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	0 - 1	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	7
8	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	1 - 0	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	6
9	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	½ - ½	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	5
10	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	½ - ½	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	4
11	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	½ - ½	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	3
1	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	0 - 1	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	2
Round 3 on 2013/09/20
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
2	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	1 - 0	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	12
3	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	1 - 0	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	1
4	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	0 - 1	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	11
5	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	1 - 0	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	10
6	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	1 - 0	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	9
7	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	0 - 1	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	8
Round 4 on 2013/09/21
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
12	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	1 - 0	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	8
9	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	½ - ½	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	7
10	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	1 - 0	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	6
11	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	½ - ½	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	5
1	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	½ - ½	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	4
2	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	½ - ½	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	3
Round 5 on 2013/09/23
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
3	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	1 - 0	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	12
4	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	½ - ½	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	2
5	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	1 - 0	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	1
6	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	1 - 0	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	11
7	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	1 - 0	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	10
8	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	1 - 0	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	9
Round 6 on 2013/09/24
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
12	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	1 - 0	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	9
10	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	0 - 1	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	8
11	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	1 - 0	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	7
1	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	½ - ½	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	6
2	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	½ - ½	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	5
3	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	1 - 0	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	4
Round 7 on 2013/09/25
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
4	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	½ - ½	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	12
5	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	½ - ½	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	3
6	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	0 - 1	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	2
7	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	0 - 1	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	1
8	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	0 - 1	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	11
9	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	0 - 1	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	10
Round 8 on 2013/09/26
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
12	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	0 - 1	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	10
11	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	½ - ½	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	9
1	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	½ - ½	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	8
2	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	1 - 0	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	7
3	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	½ - ½	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	6
4	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	½ - ½	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	5

Tomorrow is a rest day, play resumes on September 28th with these match-ups:

Round 9 on 2013/09/28
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
5	GM	Dronavalli Harika	2475	-	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2495	12
6	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2293	-	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2496	4
7	GM	Zhao Xue	2579	-	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2532	3
8	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2514	-	GM	Koneru Humpy	2607	2
9	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2307	-	GM	Danielian Elina	2470	1
10	WGM	Girya Olga	2439	-	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2535	11

Wolf Rites of Winter or You Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog...

While the findings are intriguing and the proposed explanation for them is compelling, what really struck me about this article was the archaeologists' and other specialists' on this dig willingness to look at information developed in specialties outside their comfort zone -- in this case, linguistics! 

From Archaeology Magazine Online

Archaeologists digging a Bronze Age site on the Russian steppes are using evidence from language and mythology to understand a remarkable discovery

By ERIC A. POWELL

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

 

Around 4,000 years ago, on the steppes north of the Black Sea, a nomadic people began settling down in small communities. Known today as the Timber Grave Culture, these people left behind more than 1,000 sites. One of them is called Krasnosamarskoe, and Hartwick College archaeologist David Anthony had big expectations for it when he started digging there in the late 1990s. Anthony hoped that by excavating the site he might learn why people in this region first began to establish permanent households. But he and his team have since discovered that Krasnosamarskoe has a much different story to tell. They found that the site held the remains of dozens of butchered dogs and wolves—vastly more than at any comparable site.

Nerissa Russell, the project’s archaeozoologist, says, “I remember saying early on in the dig that we were finding a lot of dog bones. But I had no idea how important they would turn out to be.” When the team got to work analyzing all the animal bones in the lab, they identified the remains of about 51 dogs and seven wolves, as well as six canines that could not be classified as either. At other Timber Grave sites, dog and wolf bones never make up more than 3 percent of the total animal bones found. At Krasnosamarskoe, they made up more than 30 percent. “I don’t know of any other site in the world with such a high percentage of dog bones,” says Russell. She and her team found that most of the dogs were unusually long-lived, up to 12 years old in some cases, which meant they were probably not raised for food. “Were they treasured pets, hunting dogs, or pariahs? We don’t know,” she says. “But they are so old that these were dogs that had been around for a while and had some kind of relationship to these people.”

Pieces of dog skull from the site were cut into small, standardized pieces that may have had ritual significance.

To add to the mystery, the bones were cut in unusual, systematic ways that did not resemble ordinary butchering practices. Snouts were divided into three pieces and the remainder of the skulls were broken down into geometrically shaped fragments only an inch long. No one would have made these cuts to simply get meat off the bones. [Might the meticulously cut-up skull bones have been used in some kind of divination ceremonies before being buried?  They rather remind me of ancient knucklebones.]

Anthony and his wife, archaeologist Dorcas Brown, knew it was a unique discovery. Brown, in particular, suspected the canines were probably sacrificed there as part of a ritual and decided to examine the research literature broadly on the subject of rituals involving dogs. What she discovered was that there was indeed a body of work on just such ancient practices. In an unusual move for prehistoric archaeologists, they decided to consult historical linguistics and ancient literary traditions to better understand the archaeological record. [But this was the key to understanding what they had excavated!]

They knew that the people who lived at Krasnosamarskoe almost certainly spoke an Indo-European language. This huge language family today consists of most of the European languages including English, and many spoken in Asia, such as Hindi. All these languages are “daughters” of one language, which was probably spoken on the Eurasian steppes between 4500 and 2500 B.C.. Historical linguists call it Proto-Indo-European (PIE). By comparing words across all the ancient and modern Indo-European languages, they have been able to reconstruct a great deal of the lexicon of this long-dead language. Not only have they reconstructed—and traced across these ancient Indo-European cultures—terms as varied as the words for bee, wheel, and snore, but linguists can also make inferences about these cultures from this vocabulary.

Despite the rich picture of ancient life that can be drawn of ancient life in this way, many archaeologists are hesitant to trust reconstructed PIE word roots and concepts. “This is the kind of information that prehistoric archaeologists would normally kill to have,” says Anthony, “but they generally distance themselves from Indo-European linguistics because they can’t really see how the two sets of data can be combined.” [Duh!] Anthony has spent much of his career trying to convince his colleagues that the efforts of linguists and mythologists shouldn’t be ignored. “I’m interested in combining linguistic and mythological evidence with archaeological evidence,” he says. “These roots contain information about kinship, systems of honor, systems of debt, lordship, and feasting. We ought to be mining this vocabulary to figure out what was going on in their minds.”

So, without consulting these linguistic sources, many archaeologists would have been satisfied simply knowing the dogs were sacrificed. But Brown and Anthony’s passion for bringing linguistic evidence to bear on archaeological discoveries made them go deeper. “I think it’s lucky that we were the ones who excavated the site,” says Anthony.


Brown continued to search the literature on Indo-European ceremonies for information on dogs that might yield clues about what kind of ritual was being practiced at the site. She found that historical linguists and mythologists have long linked dog sacrifice to an important ancient Indo-European tradition, the roving youthful war band.

In the ancient Celtic, Germanic, Greek, and Indo-Iranian traditions, young men often left their families to form warrior societies. “These were young guys on the edge of society who occasionally would steal cows, and you’d rather they were off stealing someone else’s cows,” says Anthony. “So they were expelled from their social groups and told to raid other communities.” In Germanic traditions, these bands of young warriors thought of themselves as wolf packs. A famous myth about the hero Siegfried has him donning a dog skin to go raiding with his nephew, whom he is training to become a warrior. In the Rigveda, an ancient Sanskrit text composed sometime before 1000 B.C., young men can only become warriors after sacrificing a dog at a winter ceremony and wearing its skin for four years, which they burn upon their return to society. [The Rigveda was compiled from extremely old oral tales -- just how far back they go I don't know but they certainly predate circa 1000 BCE]. 

The institution of youthful war bands that go on seasonal raids is so widespread in Indo-European cultures that historical linguists and mythologists concluded that it had to be a long-standing PIE tradition, and that these young men became warriors during a mid-winter ritual that involved dog sacrifice. Linguists even reconstructed the PIE word for these warrior bands: koryos. But, as with many reconstructed PIE words and ideas, physical proof that koryos actually roamed the Eurasian steppes thousands of years ago had been lacking. Anthony and Brown, however, because of the sheer number of dog and wolf bones at the site, strongly suspected Krasnosamarskoe might indeed be a site of one of these midwinter koryos initiations. But they needed to prove that this reconstructed tradition existed 4,000 years ago.

Once they sent the canine teeth from the site to archaeozoologist Anne Pike-Tay, who studies incremental growth bands on teeth to determine what season an animal died in, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. She was able to determine the season of death for 17 of the canines and found that 16 of them were killed in the wintertime. Cows sacrificed at the site, by contrast, were killed year-round. For Anthony and Brown, this was a powerful piece of evidence that koryos existed hundreds of years before they were first mentioned in the Rigveda.


Just as roving bands of youthful raiders played an important role in later Indo-European societies, Anthony thinks they would have been critical to the Timber Grave people. “It was an organized way of not just controlling potentially dangerous young men,” he says, “but it was a way of expanding and gaining wealth.” Indeed, Anthony thinks koryos could help explain why Indo-European languages spread so successfully. Previous generations of scholars imagined hordes of Indo-Europeans on chariots spreading their languages across Europe and Asia by the point of the sword. But Anthony thinks Indo-European spread instead by way of widespread imitation of Indo-European customs, which included, for example, feasting to establish strong social networks. The koryos could have simply been one more feature of Indo-European life that other people admired and adopted, along with the languages themselves. [Fascinating!]

Since he and Brown have begun following the linguistic trail of the koryos, Anthony has come across other puzzles in both the archaeological record and in texts that could potentially be solved in similar ways. In particular, he thinks a possible association of warrior bands with the number eight might be significant, since it occurs frequently. “In Iron Age Indian texts, boys are eight years old when they first begin training, then at 16 they are initiated into warriorhood,” says Anthony. “In the Siegfried myth,” he continues, “the hero tells his nephew not to call for him unless attacked by more than seven men ... which is eight.” At a 3,000-year-old Bronze Age tomb in Kivik, Sweden, stelae lining the inside of the grave chamber depict eight figures in hoods following a leader.

(© Christophe Boisvieux/Corbis)

Enigmatic stelae dating from about 1300 to 1000 B.C. were found in a tomb near Kivik, Sweden. One (second from left) may depict a long-standing Indo-European rite initiating boys into the warrior class. Along its bottom, eight hooded figures follow a leader. The number eight may have held some special significance to youthful Indo-European war bands.

“That could be a depiction of an initiation ceremony,” says Anthony. At a Celtic settlement in France that dates to about A.D. 100, eight horses and eight men were buried together. Perhaps, posits Anthony, koryos were ideally groups of eight young men, and that fundamental unit of warriors endured into later times.  [The significance of the number 8 -- for one thing, turned on its side, it is the symbol for "infinity"...]

Anthony is now looking ahead to a time when archaeologists will be willing to use linguistic and literary evidence to understand the prehistoric past in much more subtle ways than they do now. He notes, as an example, that koryos is not the only term for warrior band in reconstructed PIE. There is another word that was apparently used to refer to a larger group of warriors that included all the grown men of a community—surely a very different kind of grouping. “These kinds of distinctions,” he says, “are impossible to dig up with a trowel. We have only barely begun to use the information in the Proto-Indo-European vocabulary to understand the people who spoke it.”

Eric A. Powell is online editor at ARCHAEOLOGY.

 

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Want to read some interesting stuff about the number eight?  Check out:

September 8, 2007: 
The Eight:  The Attorney's Tale - as Told by Robespierre (from Katherine Neville's novel "The Eight")

There are several excerpts related to the number eight from Neville's novel.  The one cited above has a map drawing you may find of interest.

I've long been fascinated by the origins of words.  Tonight, for instance, while reading through this article once again and my eyes alighted upon koryos, a word came to mind: cur.  In English a "cur" is a derogatory term for a dog or canine often applied to undesirable types of males.  Out of curiosity (no pun intended, har!), I did a quick search for the origins of the word "cur" and found this at Wikipedia:

In general, modern contexts, the term Cur is a slang term for mongrel dogs with a distinct negative connotations. ...

The derivation of the word "cur" dates from the 13th century. It is thought to be short for the Middle English "curdogge", which derives from the word "curren", meaning "to growl".^[3] According to the Dictionary of True Etymologies the original root of the word may be Germanic, possibly from the Old Norse "kurra" meaning "to grumble".^[4] If so, the word may be onomatopoeic.

Another plausible derivation is the Gaelic word "cu" meaning "hound".

The article goes on to discuss specific American bred dogs who specialized in treeing their prey for their hunter-masters.  Remember an early hit recording by Elvis Presley called "Hound Dog?"  Some of the lyrics: "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog ... you ain't never caught no rabbit... ."  In the context of the origins of the song in the culture of the deep south of the United States, my guess is that this is a not particularly flattering reference to the specially bred "cur" dog who assists a hunter by "treeing" its prey, as opposed to a regular hunter's dog that would chase after and catch a ground-dwelling rabbit. 

I do not believe that the actual origins of the word cur date back only to the 13th century!  That is not nearly old enough.  Take a look at the closely-affiliated words from "sister" Indo-European languages: curdogge, derived from curren (curdogge from Middle English, a language originating from Germanic); and kurra (Germanic, possibly from Old Norse).  Does that ring any bells (Hint: One of the graphics in the article at Archaeology Magazine Online that is not included in this post is of a horned figure who is possibly Odin dancing with a warrior wearing a wolf mask -- how much more Norse can you get?) 

The reconstructed proto-Indo-European word for "dog" is something like *kuon.  We reconstruct this form from attested (actually recorded) forms like Greek kuon, Sanskrit shvan, and German hund by asking what proto-form would yield the attested forms after undergoing the sound changes observed in the various languages, and also taking into account changes in word-formation. The direct descendant of this word in English is hound. But at some point the common Germanic word for "dog" took on a more specialized meaning and was replaced, as the general term, by dog, a word whose origin we do not know.  Source. 

[About the Source: The origins of various words for "hound" from the P-I-E word *kuon are fairly attested and I copied the commentary here for convenience; the rest of the essay, I leave it to others to debate -- and the debate is still raging].  Interesting information about various derivatives for "dog" from the P-I-E word can be found here. 

One's imagination needn't run very far to identify the wolf-masked warrior/marauder, perhaps representative of one known to belong to a cult or group that sacrificed dogs and wolves during the winter -- possibly at a full moon near or around the Winter Solstice -- with the origins of werewolf legends.  Check out this post I did on January 29, 2010: The Wolf Moon.  Unfortunately, I did not cite a source for this particular full moon being called the Wolf Moon.  Bad Jan, bad Jan!  I found this reference tonight:  See the Farmer's Almanac for a North American explanation of where the term "Wolf Moon" came from. Yes, I certainly agree that it can be traced to North American native-American (Indian) tribal traditions, but perhaps they brought those old legends along with them as they cross from the Old World into the New World 14,000 or 15,000 or even more years ago. 

And that horned figure tentatively identified as the god Odin? I think it might actually be a representation of a horned Goddess, because horns were a symbol of goddesshood as well as godhood, a symbol of rulership and authority, at least as far back as Sumeria, and perhaps even older than that.  What about all of those female fertility figures, for instance, carved out of animal's antlers and horns???  Think about the underlying age of the symbolism, and how it may have become inherent in later representations of the Goddess.  I think those "horns" could also be serpents on her headpiece. How many horns have you seen that have heads and eyes and representations of mouths?

The headress worn by the figure could also represent a shamanic figure representing the Goddess. Because, with the exceptions of some switcheroos (as Isis called them), dogs were always companions of the Goddess. Where a dog is, the Goddess is never far away.

The ancient Egptians (of course!) give us Wepawet, a form of wolf/jackal/dog/man hybrid that dates back to pre-dynastic times.  I wrote about Wepawet in this post from December 29, 2009:  Wepawet --  Sacred Opener of the Way.  It just occurred to me tonight that the name of Wepawet may have eventually given us the term for a certain breed of dog -- the Whippet Hound, which bears an uncanny resemblance to some dogs depicted in paintings in early dynastic Egyptian tombs. 

As a final wrap-up for tonight (but by no means the end of this discussion), please check this out, I posted it back on December 27, 2009:  Dogs in Myth and Legend:

... in Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets:

Keres
Dog-faced Furies of the Earth Mother Demeter, giving rise to the Latin name of the same Goddess, Ceres. Like most other versions of the Great Goddess's death-hounds, the Keres visited battlefields and ate the dead to carry their souls to glory. They were another aspect of the frightening female psychopomps otherwise called Valkyries, dakins, harpies, Nekhbet-vultures, she-wolves, or sacred bitches.(1)

Notes:
(1) Larousse, 166.

Keres, an ancient Greek word for a DOG-FACED 'FURY' OF THE MOTHER/EARTH GODDESS CERES, whom we somehow ended up naming "cereal" after, and koryos, the reconstructed P-I-E word for those dog-packs of roving young men, who were raiders, marauders and, ultimately, became warriors, quite possibly after sacrificing their faithful canine companions who had travelled with them from boyhood to manhood.  Okay - is it only me?  Am I the only one to see the connections here?  For one thing, that's why I haven't eaten cereal since I was 13 years old and spent a lot of time reading ancient history texts in the local public libraries! 

Because of the unfortunate tendency in certain societies (India, for one, a definite P-I-E derived society) to prefer sons over daughters, it is quite possible that ancient nomadic tribes and later, those who more or less settled into tiny enclaves to begin animal husbandry and farming, found themselves with an excess of -- let's put it bluntly -- horny young men.  Now let me tell you, as we know today all too well, horny young men cause TROUBLE, and lots of it.  When there are not enough young women to go around to hook-up (modern terminology) with all those horny young men, all Hell Breaks Loose!

This is not a new phenomenon by any means, but we are so damn stupid, still, and we are so ignorant of our own long history as human beings, that we refuse to learn the lessons from the past -- and I'm not talking Nazi Germany, although that is a very good example, actually.. . And so we, as a world, just keep dealing with the same old problems over and over and over again.  Holy Hathor, how stupid can we get?  Okay, don't answer that...

Letting my imagination roam about a bit, here is a possible thesis: 

Initiation was  quite possibly over an eight-year period (age 8 to age 16) and the "packs" of boys who were sent off into the wilderness or otherwise banished from the homes and settlements into which they had been born were comprised of eight boys each.  But they were not sent out on their own.  They were under the leadership of a "werewolf" or shaman [some of whom might have been females] who would guide them and teach them the ways of how to survive in the wilderness, teach them discipline, and the concepts of honor, loyalty, brotherhood and, ultimately, manhood. 

What is the average number of wolves who run in a pack?  Don't know - do you? 

What about those carefully cut up pieces of canine skulls found buried at Krasnosamarskoe?  You know, back in the day (the way ancient days), some cultures called their board game pieces "dogs" or otherwise named their games after canines, such as the ancient Egyptian game "Hounds and Jackals."    What is that all about?  Is it so far fetched to see a connection between the ancient times of these "packs" of boys sent off to learn how to become disciplined men and warriors, who sacrificed their dogs (OH GODDESS!), the slicing and dicing up of their doggies' skulls (OH GODDESS!) into bits and pieces, and possibly doing divination with them by tossing them onto a grid drawn into the ground? 

Think about it.

Indian Culture to Convicted Rapist's Wife and Son: Go Die Already, We Don't Want to Feed You Anymore

From The Wall Street Journal Online

INDIA NEWS

September 23, 2013, 10:31 p.m. ET

In India, Rapist’s Wife Faces Harsh Judge: Tradition
In Conservative Hinterland, Women Without Husbands Face Destitution
By Krishna Pokharel and Aditi Malhotra

Akshay Kumar Singh and three other men were convicted this month of a crime that focused the world's attention on violence against women in India: the gang rape and killing of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus in December.

For the parents of the woman who died, the sentencing brought a measure of closure. For Ms. Devi, who is in her 20s, and her 2-year-old son, her husband's crime and punishment have opened up a chapter of profound uncertainty.

Ms. Devi expects to be cast out by her in-laws and face ostracism and destitution here in India's conservative hinterland—not because she is married to a convicted murderer, but because she is a woman without a husband. "As a widow, my honor will be lost forever," she says.

Her husband's relatives say they can't afford to feed her. Her parents say they are too poor to take her back. The customs of purdah practiced in the region make it almost impossible for her to work outside the home.

"I am not educated. Our traditions are such that I cannot even step out of the house," Ms. Devi said. "Who will earn money to feed me and my son?"

In the village where Ms. Devi lives in eastern Bihar state with her husband's family, women are kept veiled and largely secluded. They can't leave home without a male relative. Ms. Devi must wait until dark simply to go into the field behind her house to defecate.

"A woman going out for work is not in our tradition," says Vinay Singh, Mr. Singh's older brother. Ms. Devi's mother-in-law, Malati Devi, is blunter. "In our family, women die at home. They never venture outside," she says.

Such attitudes may seem out of character in a country that had its first female prime minister, Indira Gandhi, in the 1960s, and that today boasts high-profile women politicians and executives. But India's countryside, home to nearly 70% of its 1.2 billion people, can be a stifling place, where women live highly circumscribed lives and lack freedoms their urban, middle-class counterparts are starting to enjoy.

It can also be a hostile place. In villages crimes against women often aren't reported to police, and cases are settled by elders enforcing custom rather than law.

Ms. Devi's misfortune to be married to a notorious convict makes her situation seem extraordinary. But in fact, the basic difficulties she now faces are a reality of life in the Indian countryside. For the poorest, a single setback—loss of a breadwinner, lackluster crop, illness—can propel a family into crisis. For rural women, it can be especially dire.

Ms. Devi grew up in a small village about 80 miles from Karmalahang. Her family farms a one-acre plot in a perennially drought-stricken district of Jharkhand state. Ms. Devi says she is 21 years old, although school records in her home village give her age as 24.

She has three older sisters and a younger brother. She was pulled out of school after the sixth grade by her parents so she could cook and clean after her mother became ill. Her sisters all had either left home or were about to, and her parents decided it was more important for their son to be educated than a daughter.

Across India, literacy among women lags behind that of men. In rural areas, less than 60% of women can read, according to Indian census data, compared with 80% of men.

Ms. Devi says she can write her name and a few Hindi words, and read a bit. She knew from an early age, she says, what was expected of a woman: to raise children and take care of household tasks.

"I learned how I had to behave when I got married and went to my in-laws' house just by watching my mother," says Ms. Devi.

Her mother, Lilavati Devi, says she was a child when she was married to her husband, Raj Mohan Singh, who was a few years older. Now 60, Lilavati Devi has spent most of her adult life within the confines of her small, mud-walled home.

Many women in this part of India use Devi as their last name. The word means "goddess" in Hindi. But it isn't a sign of the relative status of women. "To us, husbands are our gods," says Sudha Devi, a government health worker in Karmalahang and no relation to Punita Devi. "We can't think of being equal."

Ms. Devi's parents arranged her marriage to Mr. Singh in 2010. The connection was made through a woman from a neighboring village who was married to one of Mr. Singh's older brothers.

"I wasn't forced into it, but it was a decision taken by my parents. This is how it works here in the countryside," Ms. Devi says. "In a woman's life, marriage and her husband are everything."

Both families belong to the relatively high-ranking Rajput caste and are farmers. "It was a fine match," says Lilavati Devi. In May 2010 she sent her daughter off with a simple dowry: a wooden bed and some kitchen utensils.

"I told her to live well and peacefully with her family—her new family," Lilavati Devi says.

The first two years of marriage went smoothly. Her husband Mr. Singh, 28, is the youngest of three brothers. So Ms. Devi settled into a household that included not just her parents-in-law, but also Mr. Singh's siblings and their wives and children.

Her new village, Karmalahang, is about 18 miles from the Grand Trunk Road, a commercial route since ancient times that connects Kolkata in eastern India to the Afghan capital of Kabul, and sits at the foot of the Kaimur Hills.

The mountains block water-laden air and create what is known as a rain shadow over Karmalahang, making farming for the 1,500 people here a precarious existence. That, combined with a lack of industry, drives many young men from the area to head to cities for jobs.

Mr. Singh and his brothers, none of whom finished high school, were no exception. From their earnings, each would send about $30 to $45 a month to support the extended family.

"I never asked him where he was or what he was doing," says Ms. Devi. "I knew he went to earn money."

In June 2011, Ms. Devi gave birth to a son. The child was prone to lung infections, but Mr. Singh's earnings were enough to pay for monthly doctor's visits and medicine.

During a visit home in August 2012, Mr. Singh brought his wife a mobile phone so they could speak while he was away. He said he had been working at a liquor store in the Jharkhand city of Dhanbad.

Before he headed out again—this time to Delhi—he gave her $20, which she used to buy a shirt for their son as well as fruit from the local market for the child, among other things.

Ms. Devi didn't see her husband again until December. The date is a matter of dispute. In an interview in early August, Ms. Devi and her father-in-law said Mr. Singh returned home on Dec. 21, a day after police had come looking for him in connection with the Dec. 16 gang rape in Delhi.

The crime was already making headlines across India. But Karmalahang has no electricity to power televisions, and newspapers aren't available here. When Mr. Singh came home, he "didn't look noticeably worried or tense," Ms. Devi says, though he had grown a beard.

Since then Ms. Devi and Mr. Singh's other family members have changed their account of his homecoming. They testified in court later in August that he actually returned to the village on Dec. 15, before the Delhi attack occurred. Mr. Singh's lawyer, A.P. Singh, no relation, made that the cornerstone of his defense.

The trial judge, Yogesh Khanna, rejected the alibi. In his judgment, he cited inconsistencies in the family's testimony, a contradictory version of events from the police and witnesses and physical evidence linking Mr. Singh to the crime scene—a bus on which he served as a helper.

Since Mr. Singh's December arrest, his family has been thrown into upheaval. His brothers, Vinay and Abhay, who had also been working around Delhi, left their jobs for three months to help out at home, straining household finances. The family's reputation has been damaged.

"They treat us as untouchables," says Abhay Singh, who works in a paint factory in a Delhi suburb.

"We have gone back from where we were, and from now on it will be an endless slide backwards," says Vinay Singh, who works in a textile-dying plant.

In April, Ms. Devi took an overnight train trip to New Delhi, her first visit to the capital, to see her husband in jail. When she caught her first glimpse of him through the glass partition in the visitors' area, she says, she started to cry.

"Keep yourself and the child well," Mr. Singh told her, according to Ms. Devi. She says he told her: "I will come home. I am innocent."

But without her husband's wages, Ms. Devi says, she hasn't been able to get medical treatment for her son. The child's diet is also suffering, as mother and child subsist on handouts from Mr. Singh's brothers and their wives.

"I feel weak," says Ms. Devi. "Nobody thinks well of a woman whose husband isn't with her for support."

Some people blame the December gang rape and similar attacks in part on a collision of traditional social expectations—commonplace in rural areas—and the modernity of India's cities, where rural migrant workers encounter the values of urbanites living by a different set of rules. During the brutal Delhi assault, for instance, the attackers accosted the woman and the young man she was with, asking why they were out together in the evening, the young man told the court.

Speaking about the events of that night, Ms. Devi says she doesn't understand how a woman could be out for the evening with a man who wasn't her husband.

That night, the two victims had been to a movie at an upscale shopping mall. They were attacked after they boarded a bus. The woman was raped and sexually assaulted with a metal bar, resulting in numerous injuries to her internal organs. The two were dumped, naked and bleeding, by the roadside. The young woman ultimately died of her injuries.

It is too simple to say, however, that there is an urban-rural values split. Mr. Singh's lawyer in New Delhi, A.P. Singh, said after Friday's sentencing that if his daughter insisted on having premarital sex, he would "burn her to death." When asked about the comments, he said "any Indian household in the right frame of mind" would feel the same about premarital sex.

A.P. Singh said he would appeal the guilty verdict against Ms. Devi's husband. That process could take years.

In a written statement from the convict, Mr. Singh, provided by his lawyer, he said of his wife: "She should be strong and fight. She should seek employment. I want her to live. I want her to educate our son and make him a good man. When he grows up, I want him to know the truth about me, that I am innocent."

But Ms. Devi herself worries that time is running out. Her in-laws, Sarju Singh and Malati Devi, say they don't have enough savings to continue supporting Ms. Devi and her son. Mr. Singh's brothers say their earnings are barely enough to support their own wives and children.

Using the cellphone her husband gave her last year, Ms. Devi calls her mother. "What can I do?" she asks, according to Lilavati Devi. Her mother, in tears, says she has no answer to give her.

"Had she been educated, she would have earned for herself," she says, sitting near a picture of her daughter, dressed in a green sari. In the photo, she is standing before a garden backdrop, wearing a half smile.

Ms. Devi's father, Raj Mohan Singh, says his daughter can't return to the home he and his wife share with their son's family. "We won't be able to look after her," he says. "Her brother can't support her, either. He isn't able to look after himself. How can he look after Punita?"

Ms. Devi doesn't know where to turn. "Is there anyone who is thinking of me?" she asked, crying after learning of the death sentence. "I am alive and I have a small child who is still breathing."
—Preetika Rana and Tripti Lahiri contributed to this article.

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There were so many horrific things in this article, I hardly know where to begin.  I feel so outraged about the treatment of this woman and her son at the hands of her own family - her own fricking family!  And they all are just shrugging and saying "oh well, too bad, so sad, go away somewhere and die quickly, please."  And you know what's going to happen to this woman if she doesn't "disappear", and maybe her son, too, she's going to die in an "accidental" kitchen fire, burnt to a crisp.  There are thousands of such "accidents" that occur in India every year.  None ever result in a conviction for murder.  Everyone will just shrug and say "oh well, too bad, so sad." 

Head of an Aphrodite Statue Uncovered in Southern Turkey

From the Deccan Herald
Tuesday 24 September 2013
News updated at 3:39 AM IST

Goddess Aphrodite statue unearthed in Turkey
New York, Sep 23, 2013, (PTI)

A life-sized marble head of Aphrodite - the goddess of love and beauty in Greek mythology - has been unearthed during excavations in Southern Turkey.

Archaeologists made the finding while uncovering an ancient pool-side mosaic at Antiochia ad Cragum (Antioch on the cliffs) on the Mediterranean coast.

Buried under soil for hundreds of years, the statue has some chipping on her nose and face, 'LiveScience' reported.

Researchers think her presence could shed light on the extent of the Roman Empire's wide cultural influence at the time of its peak.

The excavators had been looking for more parts of the largest Roman mosaic ever found in Turkey: a 150 square meters marble floor elaborately decorated with geometric designs, adorning a plaza outside a Roman bath.

During fresh excavations, they found the statue head lying face-down. The researchers think the marble head was likely long separated from its body; traces of lime kilns have been found near the site, suggesting many statues and hunks of stone would have been burned to be reused in concrete.

The presence of an Aphrodite sculpture suggests Greek and Roman influence had become mainstream in far-flung cities like Antiochia ad Cragum in the first and second centuries AD, the excavation's director Michael Hoff said.
Aphrodite's head is the first fragment of a monumental statue to be found at Antiochia ad Cragum over eight years of digging, Hoff, an art historian at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said.

"We have niches where statues once were. We just didn't have any statues," Hoff said.

"Finally, we have the head of a statue. It suggests something of how mainstream these people were who were living here, how much they were a part of the overall Greek and Roman traditions," said Hoff.

The researchers also found other traces of Roman influence, such as a second mosaic adorning a building that looks like it might be a temple.

The Fat Lady Sang...And I'm Shocked As Hell!

Hola, darlings!

Whew, cut the grass front AND back today, spray painted an old pink (ugh) and white lamp to use on my desk in the family room, and have laundry left to do...  Packers - what the hell?  Had the game in their back pockets at half-time and gave it away, duh. I did not watch the game on t.v. today, I listened to it on the radio as I was doing other things outside on the deck.  Glad I didn't watch!

I have been blogging at my decorating blog, yeah, I know, icky but tough titty, I enjoy it.  I get sick and tired of this chess stuff, sometimes, and I have a mantle/mantel to decorate for autumn that I'm itching to get to -- I'm thinking I will do that tomorrow night after work while I'm watching the season premiere of The Voice on NBC.  I believe the last two episodes from last season's Revenge are on t.v. tonight, woo woo!  Will be nice to refresh my memory prior to the season premiere, that I'm soooo looking forward to.  One of the best shows on t.v. and it's not just because I and about half a million other people want to get revenge on some schmuck or other, nope.  Not at all.  Ha, the very notion...planning, planning, planning...

About that Fat Lady, yeah, she sang the loser's lullaby to the lovely GM Anna Ushenina, who played well with the black pieces but couldn't do jack-crap with the white pieces, losing all three of her games with white!  What the hell is that all about?

GM Hou Yifan sexing it up for the Chinese cameras (not a Caucasian photographer
anywhere to be seen in the photos of the final round, at this event held in CHINA) prior to the start of
the final game.  I mean, come on, what real woman does this in full view of everyone prior to a game?
Leaves a bad taste, ick ick ick, in my mouth. I don't wonder why Ushenina looked mostly disgusted
in her photos throughout this match.
Check out the official website photos, very telling, for one who has eyes to see... 

As for GM Hou Yifan, I was shocked as hell that today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (my hometown newspaper) actually ran a piece on her winning of the women's chess champion title.  Holy Hathor!  Must have been a slow news day, maybe not enough people killed at that mall in Kenya by the Islamist pigs. The newspaper did not go so far, however, as to post the article online (I looked for it).  So few of us continue to subscribe to the actual PRINT newspaper these days some junior editor or other probably figured no one would know (or care) that the article was used as a filler and sure was not important enough to be put at the website online.  Yet more disgust from this chess femme. 

Congratulations to GM Hou, and I wish her luck in her studies at university.  I sincerely hope, GM Hou, that once you have your degree, you will get the hell out of the women's ratings ghetto and concentrate on moving up the ranks, the only ranks that count -- playing and defeating male players of equivalent or higher rating than you by declining to play in female-only events.  If you are as good a player as you think, you should be bored with that by now. 

From The Weak Week in Chess, always providing excellent tournament coverage:

WCh Women Taizhou
Ushenina, Anna	-	Hou, Yifan	0-1	41	E32	Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2
Hou, Yifan	-	Ushenina, Anna	½-½	33	B33	Sicilian Sveshnikov
Ushenina, Anna	-	Hou, Yifan	0-1	24	E32	Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2
Hou, Yifan	-	Ushenina, Anna	½-½	31	B90	Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Hou, Yifan	-	Ushenina, Anna	½-½	61	B90	Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Ushenina, Anna	-	Hou, Yifan	0-1	40	E17	Queens Indian
Hou, Yifan	-	Ushenina, Anna	1-0	40	B90	Sicilian Najdorf Variation

WCh Women Taizhou (CHN), 11 ix 2013
Name	Ti	NAT	Rtng	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Perf
Hou, Yifan	g	CHN	2609	1	½	1	½	½	1	1	.	.	.	5½	2730
Ushenina, Anna	g	UKR	2500	0	½	0	½	½	0	0	.	.	.	1½	2379

I want to know, how can Hou get such a performance rating by winning three games with white?  Is it just me, or is there something seriously wrong with the way the ratings system is working, when Ushenina gets downgraded for holding three games with black against a supposedly superior chessplayer???  If  Hou is a superior player, should her performance rating now reflect the supposed mediocrity of her opponent and drop down a couple hundred points?  And if Hou is so superior a player, should not Ushenina's performance rating be raised about 150 points to reflect the fact that she drew three games with the black pieces? That is difficult to do, n'est ce pas?  Why is she not getting any credit for this?  Inquiring minds want to know. 

I am happy that both ladies received a decent pay-off, in any event.  Not the millions that the men will receive when they play in THEIR championship, of course.  Tsk tsk.