1.
1st millennium BC
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The 1st millennium BC encompasses the Iron Age and sees the rise of many successive empires, and spanned from 1000 BC to 1 BC. The Neo-Assyrian Empire develops, followed by the Achaemenids, in Greece, Classical Antiquity begins with the colonization of Magna Graecia and peaks with the rise of Hellenism. The close of the sees the rise of the Roman Empire. In South Asia, the Vedic civilization blends into the Maurya Empire, the early Celts dominate Central Europe while Northern Europe is in the Pre-Roman Iron Age. In China, the Spring and Autumn period sees the rise of Confucianism, towards the close of the millennium, the Han Dynasty extends Chinese power towards Central Asia, where it borders on Indo-Greek and Iranian states. The Maya civilization rises in Central America, while in Africa, Ancient Egypt begins its decline, rise of the Nubian Empire, the religions of Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism develop. Graeco-Roman Europe, India and China see the rise of literature, world population greatly increases in the course of the millennium, reaching some 170 to 400 million people at its close depending on the estimates used. Qin built and unified various sections of the Great Wall of China, Qin built Qin Shi Huangs Mausoleum guarded by the life-sized Terracotta Army. Late 3rd century BC or 2nd century BC—Veiled and masked dancer is made and it is now kept at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Genius of China,3000 years of science, discovery, New York, Simon and SchusterBased on the works of Joseph Needham Zimmer, Heinrich, Joseph Campbell, ed. Philosophy of India, London, E. C.4, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, Not in copyright
2.
11th century BC
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The 11th century BC comprises all years from 1100 BC to 1001 BC. Although many human societies were literate in this period, some of the individuals mentioned below may be rather than historically accurate. 1089 BC, Melanthus, legendary King of Athens, dies after a reign of 37 years and is succeeded by his son Codrus,1069 BC, Ramses XI dies, ending the Twentieth Dynasty. He is succeeded by Smendes I, who founds the Twenty-first Dynasty,1068 BC, Codrus, legendary King of Athens, dies in battle against Dorian invaders after a reign of 21 years. Athenian tradition considers him the last King to have absolute power. Modern historians consider him the last King whose life account is part of Greek mythology and he is succeeded by his son Medon. 1050 BC, Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant from Israel in battle,1048 BC, Medon, King of Athens, dies after a reign of 20 years and is succeeded by his son Acastus. 1046 BC, King Wu of Zhou overthrows the last Shang Dynasty King Di Xin,1044 BC, On the death of Smendes I, king of Egypt, he is succeeded by two co-regents, Psusennes I and Neferkare Amenemnisu. 1042 BC, King Cheng of Zhou succeeds King Wu as ruler of the Zhou Dynasty in China, C.1040 BC, David, King of Israel, is born. 1039 BC, Neferkare Amenemnisu, king of Egypt, dies, C.1020 BC, Destruction of Troy VIIb2. 1026 BC, Saul the King becomes the first king of the Israelites,1020 BC, King Kang of Zhou succeeds King Cheng as ruler of the Zhou Dynasty in China. 1012 BC, Acastus, King of Athens, dies after a reign of 36 years and is succeeded by his son Archippus,1003 BC, David succeeds Saul the King. 1000s BC, Earliest evidence of farming in the Kenya highlands, C.1000 BC, Latins arrive in Italy. C.1000 BC, Archaeological evidence obtained from inscriptions excavated in 2005 dates the Tamil language, see, List of sovereign states in the 11th century BC
3.
9th century BC
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The 9th century BC started the first day of 900 BC and ended the last day of 801 BC. It was a period of change for several civilizations. In Africa, Carthage is founded by the Phoenicians, in Egypt, a severe flood covers the floor of Luxor temple, and years later, a civil war starts. It is the beginning of the Iron Age in Central Europe, with the spread of the Proto-Celtic Hallstatt culture,895 BC, Death of King Xiao of Zhou, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China. 894 BC, King Yi of Zhou becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty of China,892 BC, Megacles, King of Athens, dies after a reign of 30 years and is succeeded by his son Diognetus. 891 BC, Tukulti-Ninurta II succeeds his father Adad-nirari II as king of Assyria,889 BC, Takelot I succeeds his father Osorkon I as king of Egypt. 884 BC, Ashurnasirpal II succeeds his father Tukulti-Ninurta II as king of Assyria,879 BC, Death of King Yi of Zhou, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China. 878 BC, King Li of Zhou becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty of China,874 BC, Osorkon II succeeds Takelot I as king of the Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt. 874 BC, Ahab becomes king of Kingdom of Israel,872 BC, Parshvanatha, 23rd Tirthankara of Jainism was born. 872 BC, An exceptionally high flood of the Nile covers the floors of the Temple of Luxor,865 BC, Kar Kalmaneser was conquered by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III. 864 BC, Diognetus, Archon of Athens, dies after a reign of 28 years and is succeeded by his son Pherecles,860 BC, The kingdom of Urartu is unified. 858 BC, Aramu becomes king of Urartu,858 BC, Shalmaneser III succeeds Ashurnasirpal II as king of Assyria. 854/3 BC, Battle of Karkar—An indecisive engagement between Assyrian king Shalmaneser III and an alliance of the king of Damascus and lesser powers including the prince of Tyre. 850 BC, Takelot II succeeds Osorkon II as King of Egypt,850 BC, The Middle Mumun Pottery Period begins in the Korean peninsula. 845 BC, Pherecles, Archon of Athens, dies after a reign of 19 years and is succeeded by his son Ariphron,842 BC, Shalmaneser III devastates the territory of Damascus, Kingdom of Israel and the Phoenician cities send tribute. 841 BC, Death of King Li of Zhou, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China,841 BC, Records of the Grand Historian regards this year as the first year of consecutive annual dating of Chinese history. 840 BC, Gopala Dynasty started in Nepal, first dynasty to rule in a country named Nepal despite its present geographical boundaries,836 BC, Shalmaneser III of Assyria leads an expedition against the Tabareni. 836 BC, Civil war breaks out in Egypt,827 BC, King Xuan of Zhou becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty of China
4.
10th century BC
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The 10th century BC started the first day of 1000 BC and ended the last day of 901 BC. This period followed the Bronze Age collapse in the Near East, the Greek Dark Ages which had come about in 1200 BC continued. The Neo-Assyrian Empire is established towards the end of the 10th century BC, in Iron Age India, the Vedic period is ongoing. In China, the Zhou Dynasty is in power, the European Bronze Age continued with Urnfield culture. Japan was inhabited by an evolving hunter-gatherer society during the Jomon period,1000 BC, India—Iron Age of India. Iron Age kingdoms rule India—Panchala, Kuru, Kosala, Videha are Janapada states,993 BC, Amenemope succeeds Psusennes I as king of Egypt. 993 BC, Archippus, Archon of Athens dies after a reign of 19 years and is succeeded by his son Thersippus,984 BC, Osorkon the Elder succeeds Amenemope as king of Egypt. 982 BC, The end of first period by Sau Yungs concept of the I Ching,978 BC, Siamun succeeds Osorkon the Elder as king of Egypt. 967 BC, Solomon becomes king of the Israelites, according to the Books of Kings,967 BC, Tiglath-Pileser II becomes King of Assyria. 965 BC, David, king of the ancient Israelites, died,962 BC, Solomon becomes king of Israel, following the death of his father, King David. 959 BC, Psusennes II succeeds Siamun as king of Egypt,957 BC, Solomon completes the construction of the First Temple in Jerusalem. C.953 BC, Alternative date to the Founding of Rome,952 BC, Thersippus, King of Athens dies after a reign of 41 years and is succeeded by his son Phorbas. 947 BC, Death of King Mo of Zhou, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China,946 BC, King Gong of Zhou becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty of China. 945 BC, Egypt, Psusennes III dies, the last king of the Twenty-first Dynasty, Shoshenq I succeeds him, the founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty. 935 BC, Death of King Gong of Zhou, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China,935 BC, Death of Tiglath-Pileser II king of Assyria. 934 BC, King Yi of Zhou becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty of China,925 BC, Solomon, king of the ancient Israelites, died. C.925 BC, Partition of ancient Israel into the Kingdoms of Judah,924 BC, Osorkon I succeeds his father Shoshenq I as king of Egypt. 922 BC, Phorbas, Archon of Athens, dies after a reign of 30 years and is succeeded by his son Megacles,912 BC, Adad-nirari II succeeds his father Ashur-Dan II as king of Assyria
5.
Late Bronze Age collapse
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The palace economy of the Aegean Region and Anatolia that characterised the Late Bronze Age broke down to the isolated village cultures of the Greek Dark Ages. In the first phase of period, almost every city between Pylos and Gaza was violently destroyed, and many abandoned, examples include Hattusa, Mycenae. A very few states, particularly Assyria and Elam, were largely unaffected by the Bronze Age collapse. Before the Bronze Age collapse, Anatolia was dominated by a number of Indo-European peoples, Luwians, Hittites, Mitanni, and Mycenaean Greeks, together with the Semitic Assyrians, and Hurrians. From the 17th century BC, the Mitanni formed a ruling class over the Hurrians, similarly, the Hittites absorbed the Hattians, a people speaking a language that may have been of the North Caucasian group or a Language Isolate. Hattusas, the Hittite capital, was burned, abandoned, karaoğlan, near the present day city of Ankara, was burned and the corpses left unburied. Many other sites that were not destroyed were abandoned, the Hittite Empire was destroyed by the Indo-European-speaking Phrygians and by the Semitic-speaking Aramaeans. Troy was destroyed at least twice, before being abandoned until Roman times, other groups of Indo-European warriors followed into the region, most prominently the Lydians, the Cimmerians, and Scythians. The Semitic Arameans, Kartvelian-speaking Colchians, and Hurro-Urartuans also made an appearance in parts of the region, during the reign of the Hittite king Tudhaliya IV, the island was briefly invaded by the Hittites, either to secure the copper resource or as a way of preventing piracy. Shortly afterwards, the island was reconquered by his son around 1200 BC, some towns show traces of destruction at the end of LCII. Whether or not this is really an indication of a Mycenean invasion is contested, originally, two waves of destruction in c.1230 BC by the Sea Peoples and c.1190 BC by Aegean refugees have been proposed. The smaller settlements of Ayios Dhimitrios and Kokkinokremnos, as well as a number of sites, were abandoned. Kokkinokremos was a settlement, where various caches concealed by smiths have been found. That no one returned to reclaim the treasures suggests that they were killed or enslaved. Recovery occurred only in the Early Iron Age with Phoenician and Greek settlement and these sites in Cyprus show evidence of the collapse, Palaeokastro Kition Sinda Enkomi Ancient Syria had been initially dominated by a number of indigenous Semitic-speaking peoples. The East Semitic speaking Eblaites, the Canaanites language speaking Amorites, Syria during this time was known as The land of the Amurru. Levantine sites previously showed evidence of links with Mesopotamia, Egypt. Evidence, at Ugarit, shows that the destruction there occurred after the reign of Merneptah, the last Bronze Age king of the Semitic state of Ugarit, Ammurapi, was a contemporary of the Hittite king Suppiluliuma II
6.
Near East
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The Near East is a geographical term that roughly encompasses Western Asia. Despite having varying definitions within different academic circles, the term was applied to the maximum extent of the Ottoman Empire. The term has fallen into disuse in English and has replaced by the terms Middle East. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines the region similarly, but also includes Afghanistan while excluding the countries of North Africa and the Palestinian territories. Up until 1912 the Ottomans retained a band of territory including Albania, Macedonia and Southern Thrace, the Ottoman Empire, believed to be about to collapse, was portrayed in the press as the sick man of Europe. The Balkan states, with the exception of Bosnia and Albania, were primarily Christian. Starting in 1894 the Ottomans struck at the Armenians on the grounds that they were a non-Muslim people. The Hamidian Massacres aroused the indignation of the entire Christian world, in the United States the now aging Julia Ward Howe, author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, leaped into the war of words and joined the Red Cross. Relations of minorities within the Ottoman Empire and the disposition of former Ottoman lands became known as the Eastern Question and it now became relevant to define the east of the eastern question. In about the middle of the 19th century Near East came into use to describe part of the east closest to Europe. The term Far East appeared contemporaneously meaning Japan, China, Korea, Indonesia, near East applied to what had been mainly known as the Levant, which was in the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Porte, or government. Those who used the term had little choice about its meaning and they could not set foot on most of the shores of the southern and central Mediterranean from the Gulf of Sidra to Albania without permits from the Ottoman Empire. Some regions beyond the Ottoman Porte were included, one was North Africa west of Egypt. It was occupied by piratical kingdoms of the Barbary Coast, de facto independent since the 18th century, formerly part of the empire at its apogee. Iran was included because it could not easily be reached except through the Ottoman Empire or neighboring Russia, in the 1890s the term tended to focus on the conflicts in the Balkan states and Armenia. The demise of the man of Europe left considerable confusion as to what was to be meant by Near East. It is now used only in historical contexts, to describe the countries of Western Asia from the Mediterranean to Iran. There is, in short, no universally understood fixed inventory of nations and they appear together in the journals of the mid-19th century
7.
Iron Age
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The Iron Age is an archaeological era, referring to a period of time in the prehistory and protohistory of the Old World when the dominant toolmaking material was iron. It is commonly preceded by the Bronze Age in Europe and Asia with exceptions, meteoric iron has been used by humans since at least 3200 BC. Ancient iron production did not become widespread until the ability to smelt ore, remove impurities. The start of the Iron Age proper is considered by many to fall between around 1200 BC and 600 BC, depending on the region, the earliest known iron artifacts are nine small beads dated to 3200 BC, which were found in burials at Gerzeh, Lower Egypt. They have been identified as meteoric iron shaped by careful hammering, meteoric iron, a characteristic iron–nickel alloy, was used by various ancient peoples thousands of years before the Iron Age. Such iron, being in its metallic state, required no smelting of ores. Smelted iron appears sporadically in the record from the middle Bronze Age. While terrestrial iron is abundant, its high melting point of 1,538 °C placed it out of reach of common use until the end of the second millennium BC. Tins low melting point of 231, similarly, recent archaeological remains of iron working in the Ganges Valley in India have been tentatively dated to 1800 BC. By the Middle Bronze Age, increasing numbers of smelted iron objects appeared in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, African sites are turning up dates as early as 1200 BC. Modern archaeological evidence identifies the start of iron production in around 1200 BC. Between 1200 BC and 1000 BC, diffusion in the understanding of iron metallurgy and use of objects was fast. As evidence, many bronze implements were recycled into weapons during this time, more widespread use of iron led to improved steel-making technology at lower cost. Thus, even when tin became available again, iron was cheaper, stronger, and lighter, and forged iron implements superseded cast bronze tools permanently. Increasingly, the Iron Age in Europe is being seen as a part of the Bronze Age collapse in the ancient Near East, in ancient India, ancient Iran, and ancient Greece. In other regions of Europe, the Iron Age began in the 8th century BC in Central Europe, the Near Eastern Iron Age is divided into two subsections, Iron I and Iron II. Iron I illustrates both continuity and discontinuity with the previous Late Bronze Age, during the Iron Age, the best tools and weapons were made from steel, particularly alloys which were produced with a carbon content between approximately 0. 30% and 1. 2% by weight. Steel weapons and tools were nearly the same weight as those of bronze, however, steel was difficult to produce with the methods available, and alloys that were easier to make, such as wrought iron, were more common in lower-priced goods
8.
Greek Dark Ages
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Around then, the Hittite civilization suffered serious disruption and cities from Troy to Gaza were destroyed. Following the collapse, fewer and smaller settlements suggest famine and depopulation, in Greece, the Linear B writing of the Greek language used by Mycenaean bureaucrats ceased. The decoration on Greek pottery after about 1100 BC lacks the figurative decoration of Mycenaean ware and is restricted to simpler,900 BC onwards, and evidence has emerged of the new presence of Hellenes in sub-Mycenaean Cyprus and on the Syrian coast at Al Mina. The Mycenaean civilization started to collapse from 1200 BC, made a conspiracy in their islands. All at once the lands were on the move, scattered in war, no country could stand before their arms…. Their league was Peleset, Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denyen and Weshesh, a similar assemblage of peoples may have attempted to invade Egypt twice, once during the reign of Merneptah, about 1208 BC, and again during the reign of Ramesses III, about 1178 BC. Writing in the Linear B script ceased particularly because the economy had crashed. The population of Greece was reduced, and the world of organized state armies, kings, officials, most of the information about the period comes from burial sites and the grave goods contained within them. The fragmented, localized and autonomous cultures of reduced complexity are noted for such diversity of their cultures in pottery styles, burial practices. The pottery style, Proto- Geometric signaled the loss of previous designs that were more complex and these newer designs were simpler, including only lines and curves, signaling a simplified society. Generalizations about the Dark Age Society are generally considered false, because the various cultures throughout Greece cannot be grouped into a large Dark Age Society category. Tholos tombs are found in early Iron Age Thessaly and in Crete but not in general elsewhere, there was still farming, weaving, metalworking and pottery but at a lower level of output and for local use in local styles. Better glazes were achieved by higher temperature firing of clay, however, the overall trend was toward simpler, less intricate pieces and fewer resources being devoted to the creation of beautiful art. From 1050, many local iron industries appeared, and by 900. Cyprus was inhabited by a mix of Pelasgians and Phoenicians, joined during this period by the first Greek settlements. Together with distinctively Greek Euboean ceramic wares, it was exported and is found in Levantine sites, including Tyre. Cypriot metalwork was exchanged in Crete and it is likely that Greece during this period was divided into independent regions organized by kinship groups and the oikoi or households, the origins of the later poleis. Excavations of Dark Age communities such as Nichoria in the Peloponnese have shown how a Bronze Age town was abandoned in 1150 BC, at this time there were only around forty families living there with plenty of good farming land and grazing for cattle
9.
Neo-Assyrian Empire
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The Neo-Assyrian Empire was an Iron Age Mesopotamian empire, in existence between 911 and 612 BC. The Assyrians perfected early techniques of imperial rule, many of which became standard in later empires, the Neo-Assyrian Empire succeeded the Old Assyrian Empire, and the Middle Assyrian Empire of the Late Bronze Age. During this period, Aramaic was also made a language of the empire. Upon the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC, the empire began to due to a brutal. In 616 BC, Cyaxares king of the Medes and Persians made alliances with Nabopolassar ruler of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, Assyria was originally an Akkadian kingdom which evolved in the 25th to 24th centuries BC. The urbanised Akkadian speaking nation of Assyria emerged in the mid 21st century BC, during the 20th century BC, it established colonies in Asia Minor, and under the 20th century BC King Ilushuma, Assyria conducted many successful raids against the states of the south. Ashur-uballit extended Assyrian control over the farming lands of Nineveh. Tiglath-Pileser controlled the caravan routes that crossed the fertile crescent from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. Much campaigning by Tiglath-Pileser and succeeding kings was directed against Aramaean pastoralist groups in Syria, by the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the Aramaean expansion had resulted in the loss of much Assyrian territory in Upper Mesopotamia. After the death of Tiglath-Pileser I in 1076 BC, Assyria was in decline for the next 150 years. The period from 1200 BC to 900 BC was an age for the entire Near East, North Africa, Caucasus, Mediterranean and Balkan regions, with great upheavals. Adad-nirari II and his successors campaigned on a basis for part of every year with an exceptionally well-organized army. He subjugated the areas previously under only nominal Assyrian vassalage, conquering and deporting Aramean and Hurrian populations in the north to far-off places. Adadinirari II then twice attacked and defeated Shamash-mudammiq of Babylonia, annexing an area of land north of the Diyala river. He made further gains over Babylonia under Nabu-shuma-ukin I later in his reign and he was succeeded by Tukulti-Ninurta II in 891 BC, who further consolidated Assyrias position and expanded northwards into Asia Minor and the Zagros Mountains during his short reign. The next king, Ashurnasirpal II, embarked on a vast program of expansion, during his rule, Assyria recovered much of the territory that it had lost around 1100 BC at the end of the Middle Assyrian period. Ashurnasirpal II also campaigned in the Zagros Mountains in modern Iran, repressing a revolt against Assyrian rule by the Lullubi, the Assyrians began boasting in their ruthlessness around this time. Ashurnasirpal II also moved his capital to the city of Kalhu, the palaces, temples and other buildings raised by him bear witness to a considerable development of wealth and art
10.
Vedic period
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The Vedic period was the period in Indian history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed. During the early part of the Vedic period, the Indo-Aryans settled into northern India, scholars consider Vedic civilisation to have been a composite of the Indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures. The end of the Vedic period witnessed the rise of large, around the beginning of the Common Era, the Vedic tradition formed one of the main constituents of the so-called Hindu synthesis. The commonly proposed period of earlier Vedic age is dated back to 2nd millennium BCE, after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which ended c.1900 BCE, groups of Indo-Aryan peoples migrated into north-western India and started to inhabit the northern Indus Valley. The knowledge about the Aryans comes mostly from the Rigveda-samhita, which was composed between c and they brought with them their distinctive religious traditions and practices. The Vedic beliefs and practices of the era were closely related to the hypothesised Proto-Indo-European religion. According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the zone between the Zeravshan River and Iran. It was a mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements. At least 383 non-Indo-European words were borrowed from this culture, including the god Indra, Indra was the subject of 250 hymns, a quarter of the Rig Veda. He was associated more than any other deity with Soma, a stimulant drug probably borrowed from the BMAC religion and his rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers. These migrations may have been accompanied with violent clashes with the people who inhabited this region. The Rig Veda contains accounts of conflicts between the Aryas and the Dasas and Dasyus, the Rig Veda describes Dasas and Dasyus as people who do not perform sacrifices or obey the commandments of gods. Their speech is described as mridhra which could variously mean soft, uncouth, hostile, other adjectives which describe their physical appearance are subject to many interpretations. Internecine military conflicts between the tribes of Vedic Aryans are also described in the Rig Veda. Most notable of such conflicts was the Battle of Ten Kings, which took place on the banks of the river Parushni. The battle was fought between the tribe Bharatas, led by their chief Sudas, against a confederation of ten tribes— Puru, Yadu, Turvasha, Anu, Druhyu, Alina, Bhalanas, Paktha, Siva, Vishanin. Bharatas lived around the regions of the river Saraswati, while Purus, their western neighbours. The other tribes dwelt north-west of the Bharatas in the region of Punjab, division of the waters of Ravi could have been a reason for the war
11.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
12.
Zhou dynasty
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The Zhou dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang dynasty and preceded the Qin dynasty. This period of Chinese history produced what many consider the zenith of Chinese bronze-ware making, the dynasty also spans the period in which the written script evolved into its almost-modern form with the use of an archaic clerical script that emerged during the late Warring States period. He even received sacrifice as a harvest god, the term Hòujì was probably an hereditary title attached to a lineage. Jus son Liu, however, led his people to prosperity by restoring agriculture and settling them at a place called Bin, tai later led the clan from Bin to Zhou, an area in the Wei River valley of modern-day Qishan County. Taibo and Zhongyong had supposedly fled to the Yangtze delta. Jilis son Wen bribed his way out of imprisonment and moved the Zhou capital to Feng, the Zhou enfeoffed a member of the defeated Shang royal family as the Duke of Song, which was held by descendants of the Shang royal family until its end. This practice was referred to as Two Kings, Three Reverences, according to Nicholas Bodman, the Zhou appear to have spoken a language not basically different in vocabulary and syntax from that of the Shang. A recent study by David McCraw, using lexical statistics, reached the same conclusion, the Zhou emulated extensively Shang cultural practices, perhaps to legitimize their own rule, and became the successors to Shang culture. At the same time, the Zhou may also have connected to the Xirong, a broadly defined cultural group to the west of the Shang. According to the historian Li Feng, the term Rong during the Western Zhou period was used to designate political and military adversaries rather than cultural. The proto-Zhou were first located in the Shaanxi-Shanxi highland, where they absorbed elements from the Guangshe culture, King Liu moved his people to the lower Fen Valley and to the western bank of the Yellow River, where they resumed agriculture. His son Qing Jie, led the Zhou to the valley of the Jing River. They stayed there until Dan Fu moved again to the Wei Valley in order to avoid incursion by the Rongdi nomads. During this period, the Zhou mingled with the Qiang people, in all these stages, the advanced Shang bronze culture constantly imparted its influence on the Zhou. The Qi area was the region in all these influences would come to fruition. The contact among the proto-Zhou, the native Shaanxi Longshan, the Qiang, King Wu maintained the old capital for ceremonial purposes but constructed a new one for his palace and administration nearby at Hao. Although Wus early death left a young and inexperienced heir, the Duke of Zhou assisted his nephew King Cheng in consolidating royal power. Wary of the Duke of Zhous increasing power, the Three Guards, Zhou princes stationed on the eastern plain, to maintain Zhou authority over its greatly expanded territory and prevent other revolts, he set up the fengjian system
13.
Bronze Age Europe
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The European Bronze Age is characterized by bronze artifacts and the use of bronze implements. The regional Bronze Age succeeds the Neolithic and it starts with the Aegean Bronze Age in 3200 BC, and spans the entire 2nd millennium BC in Northern Europe, lasting until c.600 BC. The Aegean Bronze Age begins around 3200 BC when civilizations first established a trade network. This network imported tin and charcoal to Cyprus, where copper was mined and alloyed with the tin to produce bronze, Bronze objects were then exported far and wide, and supported the trade. Isotopic analysis of the tin in some Mediterranean bronze objects indicates it came from as far away as Great Britain, the Minoan civilization based from Knossos, Crete, appears to have coordinated and defended its Bronze Age trade. One crucial lack in this period was that modern methods of accounting were not available, the eruption of Thera, which according to archaeological data occurred in c.1500 BC, resulted in the decline of the Minoan. This turn of events gave the opportunity to the Mycenaeans to spread their influence throughout the Aegean, around c.1450 BC, they were in control of Crete itself and colonized several other Aegean islands, reaching as far as Rhodes. Thus the Mycenaeans became the dominant power of the region, marking the beginning of the Mycenaean Koine era, a highly uniform culture that spread in mainland Greece and the Aegean. Their syllabic script, the Linear B, offers the first written records of the Greek language, Mycenaean Greece was dominated by a warrior elite society and consisted of a network of palace states that developed rigid hierarchical, political, social and economic systems. At the head of this societies was the king, known as wanax, the Maykop culture was the major early Bronze Age culture in the North Caucasus. Some scholars date arsenical bronze artifacts in the region as far back as the mid-4th millennium BC, the Yamna culture was a late copper age/early Bronze Age culture dating to the 36th–23rd centuries BC. The culture was nomadic, with some agriculture practiced near rivers. Parallels with the Afanasevo culture, including provoked cranial deformations, provide a link to the East and it was preceded by the Yamna culture and succeeded by the western Corded Ware culture. The Catacomb culture in the Pontic steppe was succeeded by the Srubna culture from c. the 17th century BC. Some very rich burials, such as the one located at Leubingen with grave gifts crafted from gold, all in all, cemeteries of this period are rare and of small size. The Unetice culture is followed by the middle Bronze Age Tumulus culture, in the eastern Hungarian Körös tributaries, the early Bronze Age first saw the introduction of the Makó culture, followed by the Otomani and Gyulavarsánd cultures. The late Bronze Age Urnfield culture is characterized by cremation burials and it includes the Lusatian culture in eastern Germany and Poland that continues into the Iron Age. The Central European Bronze Age is followed by the Iron Age Hallstatt culture, in northern Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, Bronze Age cultures manufactured many distinctive and artistic artifacts
14.
Urnfield culture
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The Urnfield culture was a late Bronze Age culture of central Europe. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were buried in fields. The Urnfield culture followed the Tumulus culture and was succeeded by the Hallstatt culture, linguistic evidence and continuity with the following Hallstatt culture suggests that the people of this area spoke an early form of Celtic, perhaps originally proto-Celtic. It is believed that in areas, such as in southwestern Germany, it was in existence around 1200 BC. As the transition from the middle Bronze Age to the Urnfield culture was gradual, the Urnfield culture covers the phases Hallstatt A and B in Paul Reineckes chronological system, not to be confused with the Hallstatt culture of the following Iron Age. This corresponds to the Phases Montelius III-IV of the Northern Bronze Age, whether Reineckes Bronze D is included varies according to author and region. The Urnfield culture is divided into the following sub-phases, The existence of the Ha B3-phase is contested, as can be seen by the arbitrary 100-year ranges, the dating of the phases is highly schematic. The phases are based on changes, which means that they do not have to be strictly contemporaneous across the whole distribution. All in all, more radiocarbon and dendro-dates would be highly desirable, the Urnfield culture grew from the preceding tumulus culture. The transition is gradual, in the pottery as well as the burial rites, in some parts of Germany, cremation and inhumation existed simultaneously. Some graves contain a combination of tumulus-culture pottery and Urnfield swords or tumulus culture incised pottery together with early Urnfield types, in the North, the Urnfield culture was only adopted in the HaA2 period. 16 pins deposited in a swamp in Ellmoosen cover the whole range from Bronze B to the early Urnfield period. This demonstrates a considerable ritual continuity, in the Loire, Seine and Rhône, certain fords contain deposits from the late Neolithic onwards up to the Urnfield period. The origins of the rite are commonly believed to be in Hungary. The neolithic Cucuteni-Trypillian culture of modern-day northeastern Romania and Ukraine were also practicing cremation rituals as early as approximately 5500 BC, some cremations begin to be found in the Proto-Lusatian and Trzciniec culture. The Urnfield culture was located in an area stretching from western Hungary to eastern France, metalwork is commonly of a much more widespread distribution than pottery and does not conform to these borders. It may have produced at specialised workshops catering for the elite of a large area. Important French cemeteries include Châtenay and Lingolsheim, an unusual earthwork was constructed at Goloring near Koblenz in Germany
15.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
16.
Hunter-gatherer
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A hunter-gatherer is a human living in a society in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, in contrast to agricultural societies, which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was humanitys first and most successful adaptation, occupying at least 90 percent of human history, following the invention of agriculture, hunter-gatherers who did not change have been displaced or conquered by farming or pastoralist groups in most parts of the world. Only a few contemporary societies are classified as hunter-gatherers, and many supplement their activity with horticulture and/or keeping animals. In the 1970s, Lewis Binford suggested that humans were obtaining food via scavenging. Early humans in the Lower Paleolithic lived in forests and woodlands, which allowed them to collect seafood, eggs, nuts, and fruits besides scavenging. Rather than killing large animals for meat, according to this view and this hypothesis does not necessarily contradict the scavenging hypothesis, both subsistence strategies could have been in use – sequentially, alternating or even simultaneously. It remained the only mode of subsistence until the end of the Mesolithic period some 10,000 years ago and this specialization of work also involved creating specialized tools such as, fishing nets, hooks, and bone harpoons. The transition into the subsequent Neolithic period is defined by the unprecedented development of nascent agricultural practices. Agriculture originated and spread in different areas including the Middle East, Asia, Mesoamerica. Forest gardening was also being used as a production system in various parts of the world over this period. Forest gardens originated in prehistoric times along jungle-clad river banks and in the wet foothills of monsoon regions, in the gradual process of families improving their immediate environment, useful tree and vine species were identified, protected and improved, whilst undesirable species were eliminated. Eventually superior introduced species were selected and incorporated into the gardens, many groups continued their hunter-gatherer ways of life, although their numbers have continually declined, partly as a result of pressure from growing agricultural and pastoral communities. Many of them reside in the world, either in arid regions or tropical forests. Areas that were available to hunter-gatherers were—and continue to be—encroached upon by the settlements of agriculturalists. In the resulting competition for use, hunter-gatherer societies either adopted these practices or moved to other areas. In addition, Jared Diamond has blamed a decline in the availability of wild foods, as the number and size of agricultural societies increased, they expanded into lands traditionally used by hunter-gatherers. As a result of the now near-universal human reliance upon agriculture, archaeologists can use evidence such as stone tool use to track hunter-gatherer activities, including mobility. Most hunter-gatherers are nomadic or semi-nomadic and live in temporary settlements, mobile communities typically construct shelters using impermanent building materials, or they may use natural rock shelters, where they are available
17.
Pharaoh
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The word pharaoh ultimately derive from the Egyptian compound pr-ˤ3 great house, written with the two biliteral hieroglyphs pr house and ˤ3 column, here meaning great or high. It was used only in larger phrases such as smr pr-ˤ3 Courtier of the High House, with specific reference to the buildings of the court or palace. From the twelfth dynasty onward, the word appears in a wish formula Great House, may it live, prosper, and be in health, but again only with reference to the royal palace and not the person. During the reign of Thutmose III in the New Kingdom, after the rule of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period. During the eighteenth dynasty the title pharaoh was employed as a designation of the ruler. From the nineteenth dynasty onward pr-ˤ3 on its own was used as regularly as hm. f, the term, therefore, evolved from a word specifically referring to a building to a respectful designation for the ruler, particularly by the twenty-second dynasty and twenty-third dynasty. For instance, the first dated appearance of the pharaoh being attached to a rulers name occurs in Year 17 of Siamun on a fragment from the Karnak Priestly Annals. Here, an induction of an individual to the Amun priesthood is dated specifically to the reign of Pharaoh Siamun and this new practice was continued under his successor Psusennes II and the twenty-second dynasty kings. Shoshenq I was the successor of Siamun. Meanwhile, the old custom of referring to the sovereign simply as pr-ˤ3 continued in traditional Egyptian narratives, by this time, the Late Egyptian word is reconstructed to have been pronounced *par-ʕoʔ whence Herodotus derived the name of one of the Egyptian kings, Φερων. In the Bible, the title also occurs as פרעה, from that, Septuagint φαραώ pharaō and then Late Latin pharaō, both -n stem nouns. The Quran likewise spells it فرعون firawn with n, interestingly, the Arabic combines the original pharyngeal ayin sound from Egyptian, along with the -n ending from Greek. English at first spelt it Pharao, but the King James Bible revived Pharaoh with h from the Hebrew, meanwhile in Egypt itself, *par-ʕoʔ evolved into Sahidic Coptic ⲡⲣ̅ⲣⲟ prro and then rro. Scepters and staves were a sign of authority in ancient Egypt. One of the earliest royal scepters was discovered in the tomb of Khasekhemwy in Abydos, kings were also known to carry a staff, and Pharaoh Anedjib is shown on stone vessels carrying a so-called mks-staff. The scepter with the longest history seems to be the heqa-scepter, the earliest examples of this piece of regalia dates to pre-dynastic times. A scepter was found in a tomb at Abydos that dates to the late Naqada period, another scepter associated with the king is the was-scepter. This is a long staff mounted with an animal head, the earliest known depictions of the was-scepter date to the first dynasty
18.
Psusennes I
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Psusennes I was the third pharaoh of the 21st Dynasty who ruled from Tanis between 1047 –1001 BC. He was the son of Pinedjem I and Henuttawy, Ramesses XIs daughter by Tentamun, professor Pierre Montet discovered pharaoh Psusennes Is intact tomb in Tanis in 1940. However, the kings magnificent funerary mask was recovered intact, it proved to be made of gold and lapis lazuli and held inlays of black and white glass for the eyes and eyebrows of the object. Psusennes Is mask is considered to be one of the masterpieces of the treasure of Tanis and is housed in Room 2 of the Cairo Museum. It has a width and height of 38 cm and 48 cm respectively. The pharaohs fingers and toes had been encased in gold stalls, the finger stalls are the most elaborate ever found, with sculpted fingernails. Each finger wore a ring of gold and lapis lazuli or some other semiprecious stone. A cartouche on the red outer sarcophagus shows that it had originally made for Pharaoh Merenptah. Psusennes I, himself, was interred in a silver coffin which was inlaid with gold. Since silver was considerably rarer in Egypt than gold, Psusennes Is silver coffin represents a sumptuous burial of great wealth during Egypts declining years. Dr. Douglass Derry, who worked as the head of Cairo Universitys Anatomy Department, examined the remains in 1940. Psusennes Is precise reign length is unknown because different copies of Manethos records credit him with a reign of either 41 or 46 years. Some Egyptologists have proposed raising the 41 year figure by a decade to 51 years to closely match certain anonymous Year 48. Jansen-Winkeln notes that in the first half of Dyn, hence, two separate Year 49 dates from Thebes and Kom Ombo could be attributed to the ruling High Priest Menkheperre in Thebes instead of Psusennes I but this remains uncertain. Psusennes Is reign has been estimated at 46 years by the editors of the Handbook to Ancient Egyptian Chronology. During his long reign, Psusennes built the walls and the central part of the Great Temple at Tanis which was dedicated to the triad of Amun, Mut. Bob Brier, Egyptian Mummies, Unraveling the Secrets of an Ancient Art, William Morrow & Co, ad Thijs, The Burial of Psusennes I and “The Bad Times” of P. Brooklyn 16.205, ZÄS96, 209–223 Jean Yoyotte, Secrets of the Dead episode, The Silver Pharaoh
19.
Pierre Montet
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Jean Pierre Marie Montet was a French Egyptologist. Montet was born in Villefranche-sur-Saône, Rhône, and began his studies under Victor Loret at the University of Lyon and he excavated at Byblos in Lebanon between 1921 and 1924, excavating tombs of rulers from Middle Kingdom times. The latter tomb contained a gold bracelet of Osorkon I, Takelots father and he also found the fully plundered tomb of Osorkon II as well as the partly plundered tomb of this kings son, Prince Hornakht. The start of World War II in Western Europe in May 1940 stopped all work at Tanis. However, after the war, Montet resumed his activities at Tanis and proceeded to uncover the tomb of General Wendjebauendjed. During his academic career, he served as Professor of Egyptology at the University of Strasbourg from 1919 to 1948 and then at the Collège de France and he died in Paris on June 19,1966. Montet believed that his excavations at Tanis had uncovered Pi-Ramesses, after his death, Austrian Egyptologist Manfred Bietak discovered that although Montet had discovered Pi-Ramesses stonework at Tanis, the true location of the ancient city lay some 30 km to the south. Montet can be credited, however, as the discoverer of the city of Pi-Ramesses
20.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
21.
Panchala
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Panchala was an ancient kingdom of northern India, located in the Ganges-Yamuna Doab of the upper Gangetic plain. During Late Vedic times, it was one of the most powerful states of the Indian subcontinent, by the c. 5th century BCE, it had become an oligarchic confederacy, considered as one of the solasa mahajanapadas of the Indian subcontinent. After being absorbed into the Mauryan Empire, Panchala regained its independence until it was annexed by the Gupta Empire in the 4th century CE, the Panchalas occupied the country to the east of the Kurus, between the upper Himalayas and the river Ganges. It roughly corresponded to modern Budaun, Farrukhabad and the districts of Uttar Pradesh. The country was divided into Uttara-Panchala and Dakshina-Panchala, the northern Panchala had its capital at Ahichatra, while southern Panchala had it capital at Kampilya or Kampil in Farrukhabad district. The famous city of Kanyakubja or Kannauj was situated in the kingdom of Panchala, the Panchala janapada is believed to have been formed by multiple janas. The Shatapatha Brahmana suggests that Panchala was the name of the Krivi tribe. The later Vedic literature uses the term Panchala to describe the close associates of the Kurus, the Mahabharata sometimes mentions the Srnjayas as a tribe or a family among the Panchalas, sometimes uses the two terms as synonyms, although it also mentions the two separately at some places. According to the political scientist Sudama Misra, the name of the Panchala janapada suggests that it was a fusion of five janas, ray Chaudhuri theorized that these five clans were the Krivis, the Turvashas, the Keshins, the Srinjayas, and the Somakas. The names of the last two clans, the Somakas and the Srinjayas, are mentioned in the Mahabharata and the Puranas. King Drupada, whose daughter Draupadi was married into the Pandavas, originally a monarchical clan, the Panchalas appear to have switched to republican corporation around 500 BCE. The Buddhist text Anguttara Nikaya mentions Panchala as one of the sixteen mahajanapadas of the c. 6th century BCE, the 4th century BCE Arthashastra also attests the Panchalas as following the Rajashabdopajivin constitution. Panchala was annexed into the Magadha empire during the reign of Mahapadma Nanda in the mid-4th century BCE, numismatic evidence reveals the existence of independent rulers of Panchala during the post-Mauryan period. Most of the coins issued by them are found at Ahichatra, the reverse bears depictions of the deities or sometimes of their attributes, whose names form a component of the issuers names. Shaunakayaniputra Vangapala, ruler of Ahichatra, whom Vaidehiputra Ashadhasena mentioned as his grandfather in his Pabhosa inscription, is identified with king Vangapala, the name of Damagupta is also found on a clay sealing. The last independent ruler of Ahichatra was probably Achyuta, who was defeated by Samudragupta, after which, the coins of Achyuta found from Ahichatra have a wheel of eight spokes on the reverse and the legend Achyu on the obverse. Kuru Kingdom Vedic period Painted Grey Ware culture Mahajanapadas Mahabharata Coins of Panchala janapada Coins of Post-Mauryan Panchala Kingdom Panchal Details from IGNCA
22.
Kuru Kingdom
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However, traditions and legends about the Kurus continued into the post-Vedic period, providing the basis for the Mahabharata epic. The Kurus figure prominently in the later Rigveda, the Kurus here appear as a branch of the early Indo-Aryans, ruling the Ganga-Jamuna Doab and modern Haryana. The focus in the later Vedic period shifted out of Punjab, into the Doab, the increasing number and size of Painted Grey Ware settlements in the Doab area shows this. These developments resulted in the enlargement of certain settlements such as Hastinapur. These settlements slowly began to acquire characteristics of towns, the Kuru tribe was formed, in the Middle Vedic period, as a result of the alliance and merger between the Bharata and Puru tribes. With their center of power in the Kurukshetra region, the Kurus formed the first political center of the Vedic period, the first Kuru capital was at Āsandīvat, identified with modern Assandh in Haryana. Later literature refers to Indraprastha and Hastinapura as the main Kuru cities, the Atharvaveda praises Parikshit, the King of the Kurus, as the great ruler of a thriving, prosperous realm. Other late Vedic texts, such as the Shatapatha Brahmana, commemorate Parikshits son Janamejaya as a conqueror who performed the ashvamedha. The Kurus declined after being defeated by the non-Vedic Salva tribe, in the post Vedic period, the Kuru dynasty evolved into Kuru and Vatsa janapadas, ruling over Upper Doab/Delhi/Haryana and lower Doab, respectively. The Vatsa branch of the Kuru dynasty further divided into branches at Kaushambi, the tribes that consolidated into the Kuru Kingdom or Kuru Pradesh were largely semi-nomadic, pastoral tribes. However, as settlement shifted into the western Ganges Plain, settled farming of rice, Vedic literature of this time period indicates the growth of surplus production and the emergence of specialized artisans and craftsmen. Iron was first mentioned as śyāma ayas in the Atharvaveda, a text of this era, another important development was the fourfold varna system, which replaced the twofold system of arya and dasa from the Rigvedic times. The Brahmin priesthood and Kshatriya aristocracy, who dominated the arya commoners, Kuru kings ruled with the assistance of a rudimentary administration, including purohita, village headman, army chief, food distributor, emissary, herald and spies. They extracted mandatory tribute from their population of commoners as well as from neighboring tribes. They led frequent raids and conquests against their neighbors, especially to the east, to aid in governing, the kings and their Brahmin priests arranged Vedic hymns into collections and developed a new set of rituals to uphold social order and strengthen the class hierarchy. High-ranked nobles could perform very elaborate sacrifices, and many rituals primarily exalted the status of the king over his people, the ashvamedha or horse sacrifice was a way for a powerful king to assert his domination in northern India. The epic poem, the Mahabharata, tells of a conflict between two branches of the reigning Kuru clan possibly around 1000 BCE, however, archaeology has not furnished conclusive proof as to whether the specific events described have any historical basis. The existing text of the Mahabharata went through many layers of development, within the frame story of the Mahabharata, the historical kings Parikshit and Janamejaya are featured significantly as scions of the Kuru clan
23.
Kosala
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Kosala was an ancient Indian kingdom, corresponding roughly in area with the region of Awadh in present-day Uttar Pradesh. It emerged as a state during the late Vedic period. However, it was weakened by a series of wars with the neighbouring kingdom of Magadha and. The Kosala region had three cities, Ayodhya, Saket and Shravasti, and a number of minor towns as Setavya, Ukattha, Dandakappa, Nalakapana. According to the Puranas and the Ramayana epic, Ayodhya was the capital of Kosala during the reign of Ikshvaku, Shravasti is recorded as the capital of Kosala during the Mahajanapada period, but post-Maurya kings issued their coins from Ayodhya. The mention of Kosala is not found in the early Vedic literature and it is mentioned as a region in the later Vedic texts of the Satapatha Brahmana and the Kalpasutras. In the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Puranas the ruling family of the Kosala kingdom was descended from king Ikshvaku, the Puranas give lists of kings of the Aikhsvaka dynasty from Ikshvaku to Presenajit Dhaka. According to the Ramayana, Rama ruled the Kosala kingdom from his capital, a Buddhist text, the Majjhima Nikaya mentions Buddha as a Kosalan and Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism taught in Kosala. In the time of king Mahakosala, the neighboring kingdom of Kashi had become an integral part of the Kosala kingdom. Mahakosala was succeeded by his son Pasenadi and he was a follower of Buddha. During his absence from the capital, his minister Digha Charayana raised his son Vidudabha Virudhaka to the throne, not much later, the Kosala kingdom was absorbed into its expanding neighbor, the Magadha kingdom. The Ikshvakus were the clan of Kosala. They were defeated by Ajatashatru of the Haryanka dynasty and it is assumed that during the Mauryan reign, Kosala was administratively under the viceroy at Kaushambi. The Sohgaura copper plate inscription, probably issued during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya deals with a famine in Shravasti, the Yuga Purana section of the Garga Samhita mentions about the Yavana invasion and subsequent occupation of Saket during the reign of the last Maurya ruler Brihadratha. The names of a number of rulers of Kosala of the period are known from the square copper coins issued by them. The rulers are, Muladeva, Vayudeva, Vishakhadeva, Dhanadeva, there is no way to know whether king Muladeva of the coins is identifiable with Muladeva, murderer of the Shunga ruler Vasumitra or not. King Dhanadeva of the coins is identified with king Dhanadeva of Ayodhya inscription, in this Sanskrit inscription, King Kaushikiputra Dhanadeva mentions about setting a ketana in memory of his father, Phalgudeva. In this inscription he claimed himself as the sixth in descent from Pushyamitra Shunga, Dhanadeva issued both cast and die-struck coins and both the types have a bull on obverse
24.
Kingdom of the Videhas
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Videha was an ancient kingdom in Vedic India established by King Janaka and based in Mithila, India. The kingdoms trans-boundary is presently located in Mithila region of Northern Bihar of India, according to the sacred Ramayana, the capital of Videha kingdom is mentioned as Mithila. During the late Vedic period, Videha became one of the political and cultural centers of South Asia, along with Kuru. Raychaudhuri suggests 14th- to 8th-century BCE range, while Witzel suggests c.900 to 500 BCE for the Brahmanas, the Vedic school of Aitareyins probably moved to Videha and other centers of scholarship, during the late Vedic period. The region and culture of Videha is often mention in Hindu literature, the texts mention the idea of royal dynasty and the tradition of philosopher-kings who renounce, with examples including Nami, Janaka and other kings. King Nimi or Nami of Videha is included as the 21st of the twenty four Tirthankaras in Jainism, towards the end of the Vedic period, Videha likely became part of the Vriji confederation and subsequently into the Magadha empire. The Videha kingdom is mentioned in the Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata. In the Ramayana, Sita is the princess from Videha, who marries Rama creating an alliance between the kingdoms of Kosala and Videha, the capital of Videha was in Janakpur, a town presently located in Southern Nepal
25.
Janapada
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The Janapadas were the realms, republics and kingdoms of the Indian Vedic period late Bronze Age into the from about 1200 BCE to the 6th century BCE. Concluding with the rise of sixteen Mahajanapadas, most of the states were annexed by more powerful neighbours. The Sanskrit term janapada is a compound term, composed of two words, janas and pada. The word pada means foot, from its earliest attestation, the word has had a meaning of realm, territory. Linguist George Dunkel compares the Greek andrapodon slave, to PIE *pédom fetters, Sanskrit padám, usually taken to mean footprint, trail, diverges in accent from the PIE reconstruction. For the sense of population of the land, padasya janas, a primary meaning of place of the people, janasya padam, would not explain why the compound is of masculine gender. An original dvandva land and people is conceivable, but a dual inflection would be expected, literary evidence suggests that the janapadas flourished between 1500 BCE and 500 BCE. The earliest mention of the term occurs in the Aitareya. In the Vedic samhitas, the term denotes a tribe. The janas were headed by a king, the samiti was a common assembly of the jana members, and had the power to elect or dethrone the king. The sabha was an assembly of wise elders, who advised the king. The janas were originally semi-nomadic pastoral communities, but gradually came to be associated with specific territories as they became less mobile, various kulas developed within the jana, each with its own chief. Gradually, the necessities of defence and warfare prompted the janas to form military groupings headed by janapadins and this model ultimately evolved into the establishment of political units known as the janapadas. While some of the janas evolved into their own janapadas, others appear to have mixed together to form a common Janapada, according to the political scientist Sudama Misra, the name of the Panchala janapada suggests that it was a fusion of five janas. Some janas mentioned in the earliest texts do not find a mention in the later texts, Misra theorizes that these smaller janas were conquered by and assimilated into the larger janas. Janapadas were gradually dissolved around 500 BCE and their disestablishment can be attributed to the rise of imperial powers within India, as well as in the Northwest of South Asia by foreign invaders. The Janapada were highest political unit in Ancient India during this period these polities were usually monarchical, the head of a kingdom was called a or king. A chief or priest and a or commander of administrating the army who would assist the king, there were also two other political bodies, the thought to be a council of elders and the a general assembly of the entire people
26.
Amenemope (pharaoh)
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Usermaatre Amenemope was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 21st Dynasty. A probable son of Psusennes I and his queen Mutnedjmet, Amenemope succeeded his fathers long reign after a period of coregency. This coregency has been deduced thanks to a linen bandage mentioning a. king Amenemope, which has been reconstructed as king Amenemope, Year 49. Kitchen refers to the existence of Papyrus Brooklyn 16, during his reign as Pharaoh, Amenemope claimed the title of High Priest of Amun in Tanis as Psusennes also did before him. Apart from his Tanite tomb and the aforementioned Theban burials, Amemenope is a poorly attested ruler and he continued with the decoration of the chapel of Isis Mistress of the Pyramids at Giza and made an addition to one of the temples in Memphis. All versions of Manethos Epitome reports that Amenophthis enjoyed 9 years of reign, neither children nor wives are known for him, and he was succeeded by the seemingly unrelated Osorkon the Elder. According to the analysis of his skeleton performed by Dr. Douglas Derry and it seems that the king suffered a skull infection which likely developed into meningitis and led to his death. His undisturbed tomb was rediscovered by French Egyptologists Pierre Montet and Georges Goyon in April 1940, Montet had to stop his excavation until the end of World War II, then resumed it in 1946 and later published his findings in 1958. When the excavators entered the burial chamber, they argued that it was originally made for queen Mutnedjmet. On the mummy were found two gilt funerary masks, two pectorals, necklaces, bracelets, rings and a cloisonné collar, four of these items bore the name of Psusennes I. The funerary masks depict the king as young, although Goyon stated that at the moment of discovery the masks had an expression of suffering and pleading, the mummy and funerary goods are now in Cairo Museum. La Découverte des trésors de Tanis, hornung, Erik, Krauss, Rolf, Warburton, David A. eds. The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt
27.
History of Egypt
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The history of Egypt has been long and rich, due to the flow of the Nile river, with its fertile banks and delta. Its rich history also comes from its inhabitants and outside influence. Much of Egypts ancient history was a mystery until the secrets of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered with the discovery, the Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing. The Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the other Seven Wonders, is gone, the Library of Alexandria was the only one of its kind for centuries. Human settlement in Egypt dates back to at least 40,000 BC with Aterian tool manufacturing, Ancient Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh of the First Dynasty, Narmer. Predominately native Egyptian rule lasted until the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire in the sixth century BC, the Ptolemies had to fight native rebellions and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its final annexation by Rome. The death of Cleopatra ended the independence of Egypt resulting in Egypt becoming one of the provinces of the Roman Empire. Roman rule in Egypt lasted from 30 BC to 641 AD, in 1517, Ottoman sultan Selim I captured Cairo, absorbing Egypt into the Ottoman Empire. Egypt remained entirely Ottoman until 1867, except during French occupation from 1798 to 1801, starting in 1867, Egypt became a nominally autonomous tributary state called the Khedivate of Egypt. However, Khedivate Egypt fell under British control in 1882 following the Anglo-Egyptian War, after the end of World War I and following the Egyptian revolution of 1919, the Kingdom of Egypt was established. While a de facto independent state, the United Kingdom retained control over affairs, defense. British occupation lasted until 1954, with the Anglo-Egyptian agreement of 1954, President Gamal Abdel Nasser introduced many reforms and created the short-lived United Arab Republic. His terms also saw the Six-Day War and the creation of the international Non-Aligned Movement and he led Egypt in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to regain Egypts Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967. This later led to the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty, recent Egyptian history has been dominated by events following nearly thirty years of rule by former president Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian revolution of 2011 deposed Mubarak and resulted in the first democratically elected president in Egyptian history, unrest after the 2011 revolution and related disputes led to the 2013 Egyptian coup détat. There is evidence of petroglyphs along the Nile terraces and in desert oases, in the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishermen was replaced by a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 6000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River, where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. By about 6000 BC, a Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley, during the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt
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Osorkon the Elder
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Aakheperre Setepenre Osorkon the Elder was the fifth king of the twenty-first dynasty of Ancient Egypt and was the first Pharaoh of Libyan origin. He is also known as Osochor, following Manethos Aegyptiaca. Osorkon the Elder was the son of Shoshenq A, the Great Chief of the Ma by the latters wife Mehtenweshkhet who is given the title of Kings Mother in a document. Osochor was the brother of Nimlot A, the Great Chief of the Ma, and Tentshepeh A the daughter of the Great Chief of the Ma and, thus, young argued that this king Aakheperre Setepenre was the unknown Osochor. This hypothesis was not fully accepted by all Egyptologists at that time, since none of the other kings named Osorkon had a mother named Mehtenweshkhet, it was conclusively established that Aakheperre Setepenre was indeed Manethos Osochor, whose mother was Mehtenweshkhet. The Lady Mehtenweshkhet A was also the mother of Nimlot A, Great Chief of the Meshwesh and, thus, in 1999 Chris Bennett made a case for a Queen Karimala known from an inscription in the temple of Semna being his daughter. She is called both Kings Daughter and Kings Wife and her name suggests she may have been Libyan. Given the date of the inscription, she might have been the queen of either king Siamun or king Psusennes II and this would lead to the attribution to his throne name Aakheperre both the epithets Setepenre and Setepenamun. Osorkon the Elders reign is significant because it foreshadows the coming the Libyan Twenty-second dynasty and he is credited with a reign of six years in Manethos Aegyptiaca and was succeeded in power by Siamun, who was either Osorkons son or an unrelated native Egyptian
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Monarch
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A monarch is the sovereign head of state in a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power in the state, alternatively, an individual may become monarch by conquest, acclamation or a combination of means. A monarch usually reigns for life or until abdication, if a young child is crowned the monarch, a regent is often appointed to govern until the monarch reaches the requisite adult age to rule. A monarch can reign in multiple monarchies simultaneously, for example, the monarchy of Canada and the monarchy of the United Kingdom are separate states, but they share the same monarch through personal union. Monarchs, as such, bear a variety of titles — king or queen, prince or princess, emperor or empress, archduke, duke or grand duke, Prince is sometimes used as a generic term to refer to any monarch regardless of title, especially in older texts. A king can also be a husband and a queen can be a kings wife. If both people in a reign, neither person is generally considered to be a consort. Monarchy is political or sociocultural in nature, and is associated with hereditary rule. Most monarchs, both historically and in the present day, have been born and brought up within a royal family, different systems of succession have been used, such as proximity of blood, primogeniture, agnatic seniority, Salic law, etc. In an elective monarchy, the monarch is elected but otherwise serves as any other monarch, historical examples of elective monarchy include the Holy Roman Emperors and the free election of kings of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In recent centuries, many states have abolished the monarchy and become republics, advocacy of government by a republic is called republicanism, while advocacy of monarchy is called monarchism. A principal advantage of hereditary monarchy is the continuity of national leadership. In cases where the monarch serves mostly as a ceremonial figure real leadership does not depend on the monarch, a form of government may in fact be hereditary without being considered monarchy, such as a family dictatorship. Monarchies take a variety of forms, such as the two co-princes of Andorra, positions held simultaneously by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Urgel and the elected President of France. Similarly, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia is considered a monarch despite only holding the position for five years at a time, hereditary succession within one patrilineal family has been most common, with preference for children over siblings, sons over daughters. Other European realms practice one form or another of primogeniture, whereunder a lord was succeeded by his eldest son or, if he had none, by his brother, the system of tanistry was semi-elective and gave weight also to ability and merit. The Salic law, practiced in France and in the Italian territories of the House of Savoy, in most fiefs, in the event of the demise of all legitimate male members of the patrilineage, a female of the family could succeed. Spain today continues this model of succession law, in the form of cognatic primogeniture, in more complex medieval cases, the sometimes conflicting principles of proximity and primogeniture battled, and outcomes were often idiosyncratic
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Shao Yong
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Shao is considered one of the most learned men of his time. Unlike most men of stature in his society, Shao avoided governmental positions his entire life. He wrote a treatise on cosmogony, the Huangji Jingshi. He was born in 1011 in a known as Hengzhang county to Shao Gu. Shaos mother, Li, was a devout practitioner of Buddhism. This link with Buddhism proved to be an influence on Shaos thought throughout his life. Shao Yongs first teacher was Shao Gu, his father and this was common practice in the familial environment of China at the time. Shao Gu was a scholar in philology and his influence can be discerned in Shaos literary works, guided by his father, he studied the Six Confucian classics intensively at a young age. Shao also sought out the scholarship of private schools, many of which were run by monks, around 1020, the Shao family moved to Gongcheng county. Shortly after his mothers death in 1032 or 1033, Shao met his most important teacher, Li Zhicai. Li was a pupil of ancient prose specialist Mu Xiu. Under Mu Xiu, Li had studied the I Ching extensively, Shao was a member of a group of thinkers who gathered in Luoyang toward the last three decades of the 11th century. This group had two primary objectives, one of these was to draw parallels between their own streams of thought and that of Confucianism as understood by Mencius. Secondly, the men set out to undermine any links, real or otherwise, other loosely connected members of this so-called network of thinkers include, Cheng Yi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Hao and Zhou Dunyi. Central to each of these men was the ancient text I Ching, the way in which Shao studied this ancient text, however, differed from the other members. During the Song Dynasty, there were two approaches in I Ching studies. Together with the majority of scholars, the members of the group took the yili xue approach. The other approach, taken by Shao alone, was the xiangshu xue approach, an approach to I Ching divination known as Mei Hua Yi has been attributed to him
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I Ching
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The I Ching, or Classic of Changes, is an ancient divination text and the oldest of the Chinese classics. The I Ching uses a type of divination called cleromancy, which produces apparently random numbers. Four numbers,6 to 9, are turned into a hexagram, the hexagrams themselves have often acquired cosmological significance and paralleled with many other traditional names for the processes of change such as yin and yang and Wu Xing. The core of the I Ching is a Western Zhou divination text called the Changes of Zhou, various modern scholars suggest dates ranging between the 10th and 4th centuries BC for the assembly of the text in approximately its current form. It is possible that other systems existed at this time. The name Zhou yi literally means the changes of the Zhou dynasty, the changes involved have been interpreted as the transformations of hexagrams, of their lines, or of the numbers obtained from the divination. Feng Youlan proposed that the word for changes originally meant easy, as in a form of divination easier than the oracle bones, there is also an ancient folk etymology that sees the character for changes as containing the sun and moon, the cycle of the day. Modern Sinologists believe the character to be derived either from an image of the sun emerging from clouds, the Zhou yi was traditionally ascribed to the Zhou cultural heroes King Wen of Zhou and the Duke of Zhou, and was also associated with the legendary world ruler Fu Xi. The Zhou yi itself does not contain this legend and indeed says nothing about its own origins, the Rites of Zhou, however, also claims that the hexagrams of the Zhou yi were derived from an initial set of eight trigrams. During the Han dynasty there were various opinions about the relationship between the trigrams and the hexagrams. The basic unit of the Zhou yi is the hexagram, a composed of six stacked horizontal lines. Each line is broken or unbroken. The received text of the Zhou yi contains all 64 possible hexagrams, along with the name, a short hexagram statement. The book opens with the first hexagram statement, yuán hēng lì zhēn, edward Shaughnessy describes this statement as affirming an initial receipt of an offering, beneficial for further divining. The word zhēn was also used for the divine in the oracle bones of the late Shang dynasty. It also carried meanings of being or making upright or correct, the names of the hexagrams are usually words that appear in their respective line statements, but in five cases an unrelated character of unclear purpose appears. The hexagram names could have been chosen arbitrarily from the line statements, the line statements, which make up most of the book, are exceedingly cryptic. Each line begins with a word indicating the number, base,2,3,4,5, top
