Ancient Underground City Discovered in Turkey

Reported at Hurriyet Daily News online:

New details emerge in massive ancient underground city discovery in Cappadocia

Erdinç ÇelikkanANKARA
December/30/2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Treasure Trove Story - Doing Happy Dance!

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

Story at RU Facts:

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

2014-12-30 12:21 PM |

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Me Another Treasure Trove Story!

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

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

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

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

From the Daily Record and Sunday Mail:

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

• Jan 01, 2015 19:42
• By Jack Evans

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is The Isleworth Mona Lisa Legit?

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

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



16 December 2014 Last updated at 05:13 ET

Disputed 'earlier Mona Lisa' goes on display in Singapore

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Is Egypt Covering Up?

Holy Hathor. Check out this series of articles and YOU tell me if you don't think the Egyptian authorities are keeping this discovery ALL to themselves.  Good luck, dudes, trying to keep this one under your hats.  Bet the local antiquities raiders are already busy at work.  What do you suppose the odds are that the Egyptian government has plenty of armed troops guarding the" million mummies" site??? Ha!  Where is Zahi Hawass when we need him? 

At Live Science:

Million-Mummy Cemetery Unearthed in Egypt
by Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor   |   December 16, 2014 07:43am ET

TORONTO — She's literally one in a million.

The remains of a child, laid to rest more than 1,500 years ago when the Roman Empire controlled Egypt, was found in an ancient cemetery that contains more than 1 million mummies, according to a team of archaeologists from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

The cemetery is now called Fag el-Gamous, which means "Way of the Water Buffalo," a title that comes from the name of a nearby road. Archaeologists from Brigham Young University have been excavating Fag el-Gamous, along with a nearby pyramid, for about 30 years. Many of the mummies date to the time when the Roman or Byzantine Empire ruled Egypt, from the 1st century to the 7th century A.D. [See photos of the million-mummy cemetery]

And then this:

Fayoum antiquities official denies 'million mummies' reports
Head of Fayoum antiquities says that the million figure was a research estimate only
[I'm gagging on this one!]

Nevine El-Aref , Friday 19 Dec 2014

A local antiquities official told Ahram Online that news reports about "a million mummies" discovered by an American archaeological mission working close to Fayoum were false.

Ahmed Abdel-Aal, the head of the Fayoum antiquities authority, told Ahram Online that the million figure is an estimate, presented in research presented to an academic colloquium in Toronto last month by mission head Kerry Muhlestein, and not a concrete number.

Abdel-Aal said that the mission had been based in the Fag Al-Gamous area for 34 years, and during that time had stumbled upon torn textiles, and late period and Roman remains of human skeletons. “No mummies were found except one discovered in 1988 inside a wooden anthropoid coffin with a gilded mummy mask," he said.

Archaeologist Affifi Rohayem told Ahram Online that this kind of burial was common during the Roman period.

“I think the burials found in Fag Al-Gamous is one of those necropoli, but the mission does not know much about it,” he added.

The Egyptian antiquities ministry said earlier on Friday that it had decided to halt cooperation with the Brigham Young University mission because it had "published false news" and had broken the law by speaking directly to the press about a discovery without first getting ministry clearance.

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

Right...

… which resulted in the loss of the mission’s dig permit, apparently:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/118343/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Egypt-antiquity-ministry-slams-US-mission-after-mi.aspx
http://luxortimesmagazine.blogspot.ca/2014/12/mummy-curse-strikes-again-msa-stops-byu.html

While Explorator's comment implies that BYU's permit to dig has been cancelled (are the archaeologists and field crews being expelled or have they already been expelled from the country?), the articles it points to do not confirm that this is what, in fact, has happened.

So, what do you think?  I know what I think (isn't it clear?)

Saudi Female Drivers to be Tried in Terrorism Court

What a shit ass country, sheesh.  It makes me sick to my stomach that we do business with these religious nut cases on a daily basis.  I hope ALL Saudi men suffer unending nightMARES of the vagina dentata.   Check out the posted article.  There photographs and related videos. 

Saudi women drivers referred to terrorism court

By AYA BATRAWY December 25, 2014 2:50 PM

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Two Saudi women detained for nearly a month in defiance of a ban on females driving were referred on Thursday to a court established to try terrorism cases, several people close to the defendants said.

The cases of the two, Loujain al-Hathloul and Maysa al-Amoudi, were sent to the anti-terrorism court in connection to opinions they expressed in tweets and in social media, four people close to the two women told The Associated Press.

They did not elaborate on the specific charges or what the opinions were. Both women have spoken out online against the female driving ban. Activists say they fear the case is intended to send a warning to others pushing for greater rights. The four people spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of government reprisals.

The Specialized Criminal Court, to which their cases were referred, was established in the capital Riyadh to try terrorism cases but has also tried and handed long prison sentences to a number of human rights workers, peaceful dissidents, activists and critics of the government. For example, this year it sentenced a revered Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a vocal critic of the government, to death for sedition and sentenced a prominent human rights lawyer, Waleed Abul-Khair, to 15 years in prison on charges of inciting public opinion.

Human Rights Watch recently warned that "Saudi authorities are ramping up their crackdown on people who peacefully criticize the government on the Internet." It said that judges and prosecutors are using "vague provisions of a 2007 anti-cybercrime law to charge and try Saudi citizens for peaceful tweets and social media comments."

This was the first time women drivers have been referred to the court, activists said.

The detention of al-Hathloul, 25, and Maysa al-Amoudi, 33 — both arrested on Dec. 1 — has been the longest yet for any women who defied the driving ban. They were vocal supporters of a grassroots campaign launched last year to oppose the ban, and have a significant online following with a total 355,000 followers on Twitter for the two of them at the time of their arrest.

Though no formal law bans women from driving in Saudi Arabia, ultraconservative Saudi clerics have issued religious edicts forbidding women from taking the wheel, and authorities do not issue them driver's licenses. No such ban exists anywhere else in the world, even in other conservative Gulf countries.

The four people close to the women said their lawyers appealed the judge's decision to transfer their cases. An appeals court in Dammam, the capital of Eastern Province, is expected to decide on the referral in the coming days, they said.

Authorities have a history of clamping down on Saudi women who attempt to drive. In 1990, 50 women were arrested for driving. They had their passports confiscated and lost their jobs. More than 20 years later, a woman was sentenced in 2011 to 10 lashes for driving, though the king overturned the sentence.

Supporters of the current driving campaign delivered a petition to the royal court this month asking King Abdullah to pardon the two women.

Organizers behind the campaign, which began Oct. 26, 2013, say the ban on women driving underpins wider issues related to guardianship laws in Saudi Arabia that give men powerful sway over women's lives. One activist said the driving ban is also part of "a wider effort to quash any chances of raising the ceiling on civil liberties" in Saudi Arabia.

The two women appeared in court on Thursday for the second time in the eastern al-Ahsa region, where they were detained after driving to Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates.

Al-Hathloul was stopped by border guards and her passport was confiscated for more than 24 hours when she attempted to cross the border Nov. 30 with a UAE driver's license in an act of defiance.

Al-Amoudi, a UAE-based Saudi journalist, was stopped when she went to deliver food and a blanket to al-Hathloul at the border, activists and relatives said. The women were formally arrested on Dec. 1.

There has been no official Saudi comment on the arrests.

Al-Hathloul is in a correctional facility for juveniles and al-Amoudi is in a prison. Relatives say they have been allowed to see them for short supervised visits.

Archaeology Magazine's Top Ten Archaeology Discoveries of 2014

Under Stonehenge
Wiltshire, England

Seaton Down Hoard
Devon, England

Greece's Biggest Tomb
Amphipolis, Greece

Buddhism, in the Beginning
Lumbini, Nepal

Decoding Neanderthal Genetics
Jerusalem, Israel

Canada Finds Erebus
Victoria Strait, Canada

Sunken Byzantine Basilica
Lake Izlik, Turkey

Mummification Before the Pharaohs
York, England

Bluetooth's Fortress (no, not the WIFI thing)
Koge, Denmark

Naia - The 13,000 Year Old Native American
Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

According to the False Prophet Erdogan, Using Birth Control is Treason

Read it and weap.  Common sense is fast deserting the Earth and woe betide us, people.  Woe betide us.

Turkey's Erdogan says birth control 'treason' against Turkish lineage

Source: Reuters - Mon, 22 Dec 2014 14:53 GMT

Author: Reuters

ISTANBUL, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has described birth control as a form of "treason," saying it threatened the country's bloodline.

Erdogan urged a newly married couple at their wedding late on Sunday to have at least three children to help boost Turkish population figures, a common refrain from the president, who worries a declining birth rate may undermine economic growth. [Fact:  More often than not, a declining birth rate mirrors a decline in economic growth and shrinking prosperity of the middle class, not the other way around.  Doh.]

"For years they committed a treason of birth control in this country, seeking to dry up our bloodline. Lineage is very important both economically and spiritually," he told the couple after serving as their witness at the wedding. A video of the speech was posted on the mainstream Radikal news website.

Last month, Erdogan, a devout Muslim, said it was unnatural to consider women and men equal and said feminists did not understand the importance of motherhood. In 2012, he sought to effectively outlaw abortion, but later dropped the plan amid a public outcry.

Erdogan regularly faces criticism for an authoritarian style of rule after 11 years in power. [This is something much deeper than that -- the man obviously has penis issues.  Probably has nightmares about Vagina Dentata...]

Turkey's population growth has been slowing in recent years and the live-birth rate hovered at 2.07 percent last year, according to official statistics. (Reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Happy Winter Solstice, Whoop Whoop!

Hola darlings!

I am very happy today, and relieved too, because I know after today, and it's gloomy 4:00 p.m. darkness and plugging in the lights on the Christmas tree at 3:30 p.m., that the days will begin to get a little longer each day.  Whew!   It's been a dark, overcast, gloomy, foggy (!) November and December in southeastern Wisconsin -- crazy weather!  Little sunshine and even people who do not suffer from seasonal affective disorder were feeling it -- the constant gloom is wearing on the spirit.  It sure wore on me this year, geez!

Above is this year's version of the Xmas tree.  It has far LESS ornaments on it than I usually throw on because I was working against a time deadline to have things ready for the annual investment club gift exchange that is held at my house each year.  This year it was on December 7th -- very early, but it was the date that worked best for all of us during this holiday season.  I made up for the relative lack of glitz and shimmer on the tree by putting it elsewhere in my small living room.  Don't worry darlings, I will not bombard you with "decorating" pictures.  Next year I'll deck out the gigantic picture window behind the tree with hundreds of flashing lights and hope a jetliner doesn't mistake my house for a landing strip at Mitchell International Airport.

To me, Christmas is a festival of lights time of year.  We in the western tradition who live in the northern hemisphere tend to fill our houses up with lots of lights, glitz, glamour and glow, fighting a fierce battle against the ever-encroaching darkness. We gather around our hearths (real and artificial) and wrap ourselves in layers of wool, knits, fleece and fur to keep the cold at bay.  We eat more and pack on an extra layer of fat!  Gold and silver colors, candlelight, firelight and lots of shine and sparkle abound as we deck our halls for the end of year celebrations.  For myself, I am certain that this urge to surround ourselves with as much light and shine and glowy things as we can pack into our houses is a genetic response to the lack of sunlight we suffer through for weeks/months at a time during the winter.  Darkness and cold -- the eternal enemies.  For me, Winter Solstice marks a huge psychological sigh of relief and is cause for personal celebration, totally separate from any religious celebration(s) that others may be celebrating time of year.

Happy Winter Solstice!

The Mother Goddess in Her Queen of Heaven Dove Form

Hola darlings!

Soooo sorry for being absent for so long!  This new old house I downsized to is taking up way too much of my time -- but it's now all decked out for the holiday season and I am sitting back and enjoying it for the next few months.  I'll eventually get around to packing away all "Christmas" decor near the end of February :)

I celebrate the Winter Solstice (a/k/a the Festival of Lights, under its various names), not Christmas, per se, but since Christmas is a Christian expropriation of this ancient Goddess celebration (despite the Romans trying to turn it into a male god thing), I'll take it.  Check out my newest "Christmas" decoration -- the Queen of Heaven:

Do you see her?  She's a crowned dove, and I've got her up on the highest spot I could in the living room, where She is overlooking everything!  She is sparkly white with a gold crown.  I tried to get some close-ups but, frankly, I'm not very good at taking photos and my camera is nearly an antique now, purchased in 2005 (I use that, and my shaky hands, as excuses for crappy photos).  Here are a couple more looks at her, just because:

Please excuse the pea green "metallic" accent wall, I did not paint it that way, it came with the house.  It will disappear as if by magic during the spring of 2015 when I can once again have windows open to air-out paint fumes.

You probably already intuited that when I saw this beautiful crowned dove, I just had to buy her, because I was thinking of the entire criscrossed web of herstory, including: (1) the ancient bird (or eye) goddesses from prehistoric times:

Alabaster eye icon from Tel Brak

(2) the cross-cultural transfers that took place over thousands of years through migration and trade that transformed the ancient bird (or eye) goddesses into iconic goddesses such as Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte, Isis, Artemis, etc.:

Bird Goddess, predynastic Egypt, c.
4000-3500 BCE, Brooklyn Museum

Goddess Artemis in her "Lady of the Beasts"
form (notice the wings) and checkerboard
gown, from Francois Vase. c. 570-560 BCE Greece

(3) the Christian Church's transformation of the Mother Goddess into the Mother of God who was still, somehow, on a lesser footing worship wise than the god she gave birth to whom would not have existed, but for her, LOL!; and (4) those pesky Egyptian Coptic Christians, who keep materializing the Queen of Heaven every so often in the form of white doves flying around church steeples, just to remind everyone that Isis never dies, she just transforms herself into the latest version of goddess chic :)

"Virgin Mary" apparition with dove, appeared outside a
Coptic church, Cairo, Egypt, 1960s.

I am very much looking forward to December 21st, because after that day passes, the days will incrementally begin to get longer once again, and there will be more light.  I am, most definitely, a creature of the Light. So, during this period of celebration of the ancient Festival of Lights (in all of its various forms) which, in this Newton household, is about three months long, I wish you all blessings, joy and prosperity for the fast-approaching new year.  Meanwhile, I am eating too much rich food, drinking too much liquored-up egg nog, far too much wine and hot toddies, burning way too many candles and using far too much electricity lighting a ridiculous amount of Christmas lights around the home and thus contributing to the world's carbon footprint, and spending way too much money on gifts to charities and friends and chessly endeavors.  Oh well.  What the hell, why not!

Ancient Roman and Persian Glassware Found in Japanese Tomb

This is fascinating - and demonstrates once again the range of ancient trade.  The Nara tomb in which the glasssware was uncovered dates back to the 5th century CE (c. 400-500 CE).

See also article from August 1, 2014 regarding the Persian glass bowl (in full at bottom).

Article from The Ashahi Shimbun online:

Scientists: Glass dish unearthed in Nara came from
Roman Empire

November 13, 2014

By KAZUTO TSUKAMOTO/ Staff Writer

KASHIHARA, Nara Prefecture--A glass dish unearthed from a burial mound here is the first of its kind confirmed to have come to Japan from the Roman Empire, a research team said.

Provided by the Tokyo National Museum

A round cut glass bowl, discovered with the glass plate, was found to have originated in Sassanid Persia (226-651), the researchers said.

The dish and bowl were retrieved together from the No. 126 tumulus of the Niizawa Senzuka cluster of ancient graves, a national historic site. The No. 126 tumulus dates back to the late fifth century.

The researchers’ scientific studies show that fifth-century Japan imported glasswork, and that there was a wide range of trade between the East and the West.

“The dish was likely produced around the Mediterranean Sea and then transferred to Sassanid Persia,” said team leader Yoshinari Abe, an assistant professor of analytical chemistry at the Tokyo University of Science. “After it was painted there, the plate was probably taken to Japan.”

According to the team’s analysis, the chemical composition of the clear dark blue dish is almost identical to glasswork unearthed in the area of the Roman Empire (27 B.C.-A.D. 395).

Measuring 14.1 to 14.5 centimeters in diameter, the flat, raised dish is believed to have been created in the second century at the latest.

The dish has been designated a national important cultural property and is currently owned by the Tokyo National Museum.

The scientists used a special fluorescence X-ray device to analyze chemical elements in glass powder from the dish.

The chemical compositions of natron, a type of sodium mineral, as well as sand made of silica and lime, resemble those typically found in Mediterranean glasswork produced in the Roman Empire and the following Eastern Roman Empire period.

The team also conducted a fluorescence X-ray test on the dish using a high-energy radiation beam at the Spring 8 large synchrotron radiation facility in Sayo, Hyogo Prefecture. The test revealed antimony, a metallic element believed to be used in Rome until the second century.

The results mean that it took centuries for the dish to arrive in Japan and be buried in the grave after it was produced in Rome.

Abe and his colleagues also revealed that the chemical composition of the cut glass bowl is the same as that of glass fragments unearthed from the remains of a palace in the ancient Persian capital of Ctesiphon. The bowl is 8 cm in diameter, 7 cm tall and narrower in the upper part.

“Japan aggressively traded with other countries in the fifth century, and (the latest findings) show various elements were entering Japan at the time,” said Takashi Taniichi, a Silk Road archaeology professor at Sanyo Gakuen University. “Because the glass dish may have been transported via Central Asia, it is no wonder that there was a time lag (between its production and arrival in Japan).”

The team’s research results will be presented at a conference of the Association for Glass Art Studies, Japan, scheduled for Nov. 15 at the Tokyo University of Science in Shinjuku Ward.

The dish and bowl are on display at the Tokyo National Museum until Dec. 7.

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

Scientists: 5th-century glass bowl in Nara has origins
in ancient Persia

August 01, 2014By KAZUTO TSUKAMOTO/ Staff Writer

KASHIHARA, Nara Prefecture--A cut glass bowl excavated from a fifth-century burial mound in Nara Prefecture originated in ancient Persia, the first domestic glassware scientifically confirmed to have arrived from western Asia, researchers said.

Provided by the Tokyo National Museum

Led by Yoshinari Abe, assistant professor of analytical chemistry at the Tokyo University of Science, the research team used X-ray fluorescence analysis to determine the elemental composition of the inorganic materials of the 8-centimeter [3.14961 inches] cut glass bowl, which was found in the No. 126 Niizawa Senzuka mound in Kashihara.

The chemical composition was almost identical to that of glass shards excavated from the ruins of a palace from the Sasanian Empire (226-651) in present-day Iran and Iraq.

The glass bowl is on display at the Tokyo National Museum through Dec. 7.

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This is intriguing:  8 centimeters equals 3.14961 inches.  When I saw that number, I was immediately reminded of the perpetual number Pi, which starts out 3.14.  I can't help but wonder if this was an incorporation of the ancient "magical" number into solid form by the maker of the bowl?  We'll never know.  What we do know is that this bowl was TINY!  Used as a bowl for a cosmetic, perhaps?  

Ancient Roman Board Game Pieces Discovered in Kibyra Excavation (Turkey)

Story from Hurriyet Daily News:

Ancient game found in Roman era city

BURDUR - Anadolu Agency

Two game pieces from the Roman era 1,800 years ago have been found in the ancient city of Kibyra, in the southern Turkish province of Burdur’s Gölhisar district. [No photos of the pieces was provided; there is a generic photo of the layout of the ancient game carved in stone.]

“We don’t have too much information about this game but we believe that it was played by two people on squares … with dice,” Professor Ünal Demirer said, adding that the Roman-era game dated back 1,800-2,000 years ago at least.

The game was known as “Ludus duodecim scriptorium” or “XII scripta” (game of 12 markings).

Excavations in the ancient city are being conducted by Mehmet Akif Ersoy University’s (MAKU) Archaeology Department. 

Demirer said the works had been continuing since 2007 on the avenue of the ancient city’s agora, adding that the game pieces were also used for other purposes. 

“The game was found in the pool structure. We think that it was also used for another purpose. Because of its Latin name, we attribute the game to the Romans. It is like today’s Jacks. People spent time in the agora playing such games,” he said.

"Ludus duodecim scriptorum" was a board game popular during the time of the Roman Empire. The game tabula in Byzantium is thought to be a descendant of this game, and both are similar to modern backgammon. 

Very little information about specific gameplay has survived, though we know that it was played using three cubic dice, and each player had 15 pieces.

November/21/2014

1300 Year Old Egyptian Book of Spells Written in Coptic Translated

Story from Live Science:

Ancient Egyptian Handbook of Spells Deciphered

by Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor   |   November 20, 2014 07:37am ET

Researchers have deciphered an ancient Egyptian handbook, revealing a series of invocations and spells.

Among other things, the "Handbook of Ritual Power," as researchers call the book, tells readers how to cast love spells, exorcise evil spirits and treat "black jaundice," a bacterial infection that is still around today and can be fatal.

The book is about 1,300 years old, and is written in Coptic, an Egyptian language. It is made of bound pages of parchment — a type of book that researchers call a codex.

Photo by Ms. Effy Alexakis, copyright Macquarie University Ancient Cultures Research Centre

"It is a complete 20-page parchment codex, containing the handbook of a ritual practitioner," write Malcolm Choat and Iain Gardner, who are professors in Australia at Macquarie University and the University of Sydney, respectively, in their book, "A Coptic Handbook of Ritual Power" (Brepols, 2014).

The ancient book "starts with a lengthy series of invocations that culminate with drawings and words of power," they write. "These are followed by a number of prescriptions or spells to cure possession by spirits and various ailments, or to bring success in love and business."

For instance, to subjugate someone, the codex says you have to say a magical formula over two nails, and then "drive them into his doorpost, one on the right side (and) one on the left."

Rare Find: Female Mummy Still Wearing Her Jewelry

There's an article in Spanish at El Pais.  The article below is in English, from discovery.com:

Ancient Egyptian Mummy Wearing Jewels Found

NOV 21, 2014 03:47 PM ET // BY ROSSELLA LORENZI

Spanish archaeologists digging in Egypt have unearthed a female mummy still wearing her jewels.

The mummy’s jewels are collected together.  Credit: Manuel González Bustos/Thutmosis III Temple Project 

The mummy was discovered in the necropolis below the temple of Pharaoh Thutmosis III (1490-1436 B.C.), on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor (southern Egypt). The find dates to the Middle Kingdom (2137-1781 B.C.).

For nearly four millennia, the “Lady of the Jewels,” as the mummy was nicknamed, eluded tomb raiders, her sarcophagus trapped under a collapsed roof.

The archaeologists were cleaning and restoring several tombs in the necropolis that had been already looted in antiquity when they realized that in one of the chambers of tomb XIV, part of the roof had already collapsed before robbers entered it.

“A large boulder, which had fallen down before the tomb was looted, had crushed and buried a previously untouched coffin with all its content,” Egyptologists Myriam Seco, director of theThutmosis III Temple Project, said in a statement.

As Seco’s team removed the stone, they found a wooden sarcophagus and an utterly destroyed female mummy.

“She still wore the marvelous jewelry that was attached during the process of mummification,” Seco said.

Belonging to a higher social class, the woman, possibly in her 30s, was buried with a necklace in which semiprecious stones and gold plates alternate. A pendant in the form of a finely-wrought golden shell weighting over 20 grams was attached.

“Furthermore, she carried two golden bangles on her arms, each formed by two pieces of twisted wire, connected to each other and silver bracelets on both ankles,” Seco said.

While the golden shell and the two bangles were found in a perfect state of preservation, the silver ankle bracelets were very worn.

“These spectacular findings confirm that an elite necropolis is located under the mortuary temple of Thutmosis III. Wealthy and important individuals of the Middle Kingdom and their families were buried there,” Seco said.

Archaeological work at the temple began in 2008. The seventh season started last October and will run until mid-January.

Location of Burial Site of First Christian Martyr, Stephen, Discovered

Not so sure about this, as anyone could and would write anything back then, as well as now (easier than ever to propogate and perpetuate lies and garbage since the advent of the internet), and there are always some people who will believe whatever the "it" is, no matter what.  Here's the story:

BURIAL PLACE OF HOLY ARCHDEACON STEPHEN THE PROTOMARTYR DISCOVERED

Ramallah, November 13, 2014

During excavations near the Palestinian town of Ramallah archaeologists have discovered a greatest Christian relic – the burial place of Holy Archdeacon Stephen, the First Martyr for Christ, reports the Linga news portal.

Research in the Kharaba at Taiar village, which lies two kilometers west of Ramallah, carried out by the Palestinian and Israeli researchers have yielded unexpected results. Within the framework of a project by the University of Jerusalem for the discovery and restoration of antiquities, a group of archaeologists led by Dr. Salah al Hudeliyya has discovered ruins of an entire church complex that includes a temple of the Byzantine-Umayyad era as well as a Byzantine monastery.

According to a statement by Dr. al Hudeliyya, this find is of great value for Christians worldwide.

“Inside one of these churches we came across an inscription which indicates that this church had been built in honor of Holy Apostle and Archdeacon Stephen the Protomartyr, buried here in 35 AD,” the historian related.

The researcher has assured the local and Church authorities, whose representatives recently visited the newly discovered ruins, that the university, as before, will put all its resources and energy into implementation of the current project.

“There are five years left, and then the necessary research will be completed and this monument will be ready; it will surely become a pilgrimage site for believers from all over the world. Tourists will take advantage of the opportunity as well, because this site is a living example of continuity of the cultures of the Middle East region: here on the same site we can see the heritage of antiquity, early and late middle ages, Hellenistic, Byzantine, and Islamic cultures,” the archaeologist said in conclusion.

One fourth of the Kharaba at Taiar village belongs to the Church of Jerusalem, which the expert believes will make this settlement a suitable place for pilgrims.

Pravoslavie.ru

20 / 11 / 2014

Recep Tayyip Erdogan = Ted Cruz

Hola Darlings!

Can you believe this clown?  Well, you know, Mr. Erdogan should run for senator of Texas, he'd fit right it with a certain political party that shall remain unnamed (in order to protect the innocent) that purports to want to govern the United States of America.  Yeah, right.  He might even out-cruise Ted Cruz :)

The sophisticated, intelligent readers of the Goddesschess blog know this truth:  The Bigger The Lie, The More People Believe It...

Or, as P. T. Barnum famously once said, "There's a sucker born every minute."  Guess we have a hell of a lot more suckers in the USA than in Turkey (at present...)

Separated at Birth?

Mr. Cruz

Mr.Erdogan 

The Blue Star; the Red Star; similar hairlines; similar jowls; similar hand gestures; similar pinched noses and squinted eyes that are too close together on the face (give Erdogan extra points for larger, darker "bags" under his eyes); same STAY IN OFFICE AT ALL COSTS, AND F**K MY CONSTITUENTS IN ORDER TO DO IT attitude; both absolutely corrupted by power and their respective political systems.

Yep, separated at birth. The only difference that I can see is that Mr. Erdogan needs to discover the benefits of "Grecian Formula" FOR MEN ONLY. 

Erdogan slams ridicule of 'Muslims discovered Americas' claim

By Fulya Ozerkan November 18, 2014 2:17 PM

 

Ankara (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday hit back at ridicule of his claim that Islamic explorers discovered the Americas three centuries before Columbus, accusing his Muslim critics of lacking "self-confidence".

In an aggressive rebuttal of the criticism heaped in some quarters on his comments, Erdogan also suggested that the purported "discovery" of the Americas by Muslims should be taught in schools.

"A big responsibility falls on the shoulders of the national education ministry and YOK (higher education board) on this issue," Erdogan said at a ceremony in Ankara.

"If the history of science is written objectively, it will be seen that Islamic geography's contribution to science is much more than what's known," Erdogan said in televised comments.

Erdogan, a pious Muslim who has been in power for more than a decade, stirred up controversy on Saturday when he claimed the Americas were discovered by Muslims in the 12th century, nearly three centuries before Christopher Columbus.

He cited as evidence for his claim that "Columbus mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast."

On Tuesday, Erdogan insisted that "very respected scientists in Turkey and in the world" supported his claim.

"Some youth of our country have begun objecting to this without doing any research or paying attention to discussions. Not only youths but also some very senior figures have begun disputing it.
"Why? Because they still do not believe a Muslim can achieve this... They do not believe that their ancestors carried the ships over land to the Golden Horn," he said, referring to Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II's conquest of Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1453.

"They did not believe in the leaders who closed the Dark Ages and opened up the New Age. This is a lack of self-confidence."

- 'Whatever next?' -

His claim had been mercilessly mocked by some prominent columnists in the Turkish media.

"Now it should be the turn to correct other assumptions misunderstood by the world," wrote Mehmet Yilmaz of the Hurriyet daily with heavy sarcasm, suggesting that Erdogan's next idea maybe that a Muslim, rather than Isaac Newton, discovered gravity.

Devlet Bahceli, leader of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said Tuesday the controversy was a political manoeuvre devised by Erdogan to "cover up his faults", including corruption claims targeting his inner circle.

But pro-government media supported Erdogan's claim, saying world history for too long had been based on a distorted Western interpretation.

"If President Erdogan had not made the comments on the Americas' discovery, a big majority would have been unaware of the continent's discovery by the Muslims because Western sources wrote that it was Columbus who first set foot on America," Mehmet Seker wrote in the Yeni Safak daily.

"We had copied the translated (Western) information into our books." [HOLY HATHOR!  It's the end of the world as we know it!!!]

History books say that Columbus set foot on the American continent in 1492 as he was seeking a new maritime route to India. Some researchers also believe Vikings reached America before the end of the first millennium.

A tiny minority of Muslim scholars have recently suggested a prior Muslim presence in the Americas, although no pre-Columbian ruin of an Islamic structure has ever been found.

In a controversial article published in 1996, historian Youssef Mroueh refers to a diary entry from Columbus that mentions a mosque in Cuba. But the passage is widely understood to be a metaphorical reference to the shape of the landscape.