1.
1908 in art
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February – The Ashcan School give their first and only exhibition, opening at the Macbeth Gallery in New York. March 20–May 2 – Salon des Indépendants in Paris gives rise to the term Cubism, may – Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky produces a color photographic portrait of Leo Tolstoy. July – Allied Artists Association holds its first exhibition, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, july 29 – The Whitworth Art Gallery building in Manchester is formally opened. November – Georges Braque exhibits at Daniel-Henry Kahnweilers Paris gallery, critic Louis Vauxcelles describes him as reducing everything, hugh Lane founds the Dublin City Gallery, the worlds first to display only modern art. Paul Ranson founds the Académie Ranson in Paris, the British Medical Association Building, London, designed by Charles Holden with eighteen controversial nude sculptures by Jacob Epstein, is completed. Wassily Kandinsky settles in the Bavarian town of Murnau am Staffelsee, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna rejects Adolf Hitlers application to study painting. Australian painter Arthur Streeton marries violinist Nora Clench, W. M. W. February 28 – William Coldstream, English realist painter. July 22 – Claire Falkenstein, American sculptor and painter, august 22 – Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer. August 28 Edith Tudor Hart, born Edith Suschitzky, Austrian-born photojournalist and communist agent in Britain, roger Tory Peterson, American naturalist, ornithologist, artist and educator. August 30 – Leonor Fini, Argentine surrealist painter, september 6 – Korczak Ziolkowski, Polish American sculptor. September 14 – Peter Watson, English arts benefactor October 1 – Nicholas Marsicano, October 21 – Jorge Oteiza, Spanish sculptor, painter, designer and writer. October 27 – Lee Krasner, American abstract expressionist painter, november 4 – EQ Nicholson, born Elsie Q. Myers, English textile designer and painter, november 19 – Gisèle Freund, born Gisela Freund, German-born photographer. December 3 – Victor Pasmore, English artist and architect, december 23 – Yousuf Karsh, Armenian-Canadian photographer. Myron Stout, American abstract painter Umaña, Colombian artist
2.
1908 in architecture
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The year 1908 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings. April 6 - The foundation stone of Knox College, Otago, is laid, St. Marys Church, Wellingborough, England, is designed by Ninian Comper. July 20 - Casa de Nariño, official residence of the President of Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia, the Gamble House in Pasadena, California, designed by Henry Mather Greene and Charles Sumner Greene. British Medical Association Building, London, designed by Charles Holden with sculptures by Jacob Epstein, is completed, St. Andrews United Church in Cairo, Egypt St. Patricks Church, Toronto, Canada. Sint-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk, Ostend, Belgium, designed by Louis Delacenserie, unity Temple, Oak Park, Illinois, United States, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Old Colony Club on Madison Avenue in New York City, designed by Stanford White of McKim, singer Building in New York City, designed by Ernest Flagg. It is the worlds tallest building for a year
3.
1908 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1908. March – Ezra Pound leaves America for Europe, in April, he moves to Venice, where in July he self-publishes his first collection of poems, A Lume Spento. In August he settles in London, where he will remain until 1920, june 18 – Mark Twain purchases a house in Redding, Connecticut. Summer – The Marlowe Society stages a production at the New Theatre, Cambridge, July – Katherine Mansfield moves to London, she will never return to her native New Zealand. September 30 – Maurice Maeterlincks The Blue Bird is premièred at Konstantin Stanislavskys Moscow Art Theatre, october 3 – The Avenida Theatre opens on Buenos Aires Avenida de Mayo with a production of Lope de Vegas El castigo sin venganza directed by María Guerrero. December – Ford Madox Hueffer begins publication of the literary magazine The English Review in London, yeats, produces its first publication, Poetry and Ireland, essays by W. B. Ethiopian linguist Afevork Ghevre Jesuss ልብ ፡ ወለድ ፡ ታሪክ ።, malay tale Hikayat Hang Tuah is first published, edited by Sulaiman bin Muhammed Nur and William Shellabear. Romanian writer Urmuz is known to be working on his manuscript stories, K. M. Forster – A Room with a View John Fox, Jr. Madero – La sucesión presidencial en 1910 Friedrich Nietzsche – Ecce homo, Wie man wird, was man ist Alfred R. M
4.
1908 in music
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This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1908. January 26 - Sergei Rachmaninoffs Symphony No.2 receives its première, march 15 - Maurice Ravels Rapsodie espagnole receives its première in Paris. April 11 - Spyridon Samarass opera Rhea is premiered in Florence September 19 - Première of Gustav Mahlers Symphony No.7 in Prague, november 18 - Release in France of the film The Assassination of the Duke of Guise with a score from Saint-Saëns. December 3 - Edward Elgars Symphony No.1 receives its première in Manchester, december 18 - Claude Debussys Childrens Corner receives its première in Paris. Anthony Maggio publishes a dance band orchestration of early Blues I Got The Blues in New Orleans, opera singer Amelita Galli marries the Marchese Luigi Curci, and acquires the name by which she becomes best-known. The ABCs of the U. S. A. w. m. George M. Cohan from the musical The Yankee Prince All For Love Of You w. Dave Reed m. Ernest R. Ball Any Old Port In A Storm w. Arthur J. Lamb m, kerry Mills Black And White Rag w. m. George Botsford Call Round Any Old Time w. m, Charles Moore & E. W. Rogers Consolation by Edward Madden Cuddle Up A Little Closer, Lovey Mine w. Otto Harbach m. Karl Hoschna Daisies Wont Tell w. m. Anita Owen Down Among The Sugar Cane w. Avery & Charles Hart m, cecil Mack & Chris Smith Down In Jungle Town w. Edward Madden m. Theodore F. Morse Dusty Rag m. May Aufderhelde The Fairest Of The Fair w. m, john Philip Sousa Feed The Kitty w. Ed Moran m. J. Fred Helf Fig Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin Gee But Theres Class To A Girl Like You w. m. W. R. Williams Golliwogs Cake Walk m. Claude Debussy Good Evening, C. W. Murphy & Will Letters. With new lyrics by William McKenna it was performed by Nora Bayes in the 1910 Broadway production of the musical The Jolly Bachelors Hoo-oo Aint You Calling Me w. m. Al Piantodosi & Halsey K. Mohr Im Glad Im Married w. Jack Norworth m. Albert Von Tilzer Im Looking For The Man That Wrote The Merry Widow Waltz w. Edgar Selden m. Kerry Mills The Longest Way Round Is The Sweetest Way Home w. Ren Shields m, kerry Mills Love Is Like A Cigarette w. Glen MacDonough m. Jean Schwartz Mephisto Rag by Anthony J. Stasny Mother Hasnt Spoken To Father Since w. William Jerome m, jean Schwartz My Brudda Sylvest w. Jesse Lasky m. Fred Fisher My Girls A Yorkshire Girl w. m, C. W. Murphy & Dan Lipton Now I Have To Call Him Father w. m. Charles Collins & Fred Godfrey The Old Time Rag w. Edward Madden m. Theodore Morse Pine Apple Rag by Scott Joplin Roses Bring Dreams Of You w. m. Herbert Ingraham She Sells Sea-Shells w. Terry Sullivan m. Harry Gifford Shine On Harvest Moon w. Jack Norworth m, Nora Bayes & Jack Norworth A Singer Sang A Song w
5.
Seibal
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Seibal, known as El Ceibal in Spanish, is a Classic Period archaeological site of the Maya civilization located in the northern Petén Department of Guatemala. It was the largest city in the Pasión River region, the site was occupied from the Preclassic Period through to the Terminal Classic, with a significant hiatus. The principal phase of occupation dates to the Late Preclassic, followed by a decline in the Early Classic, the dates on the stelae at Seibal are unusually late, with monuments still being dedicated after the Classic Maya collapse had engulfed most of the Petén region. Many of Seibals late monuments show artistic influence from central Mexico, Seibal was reduced to being a vassal state until the destruction of the Petexbatun kingdom in the late 8th century AD. In AD830 a new elite installed itself at the site with the arrival of Watul Chatel from Ucanal to the east. This new arrival reinvigorated Seibal and allowed it to last to the dawn of the 10th century, Seibal is a corruption of the Spanish word ceibal, meaning place where many ceiba trees grow. El Ceibal was the name of a camp near the ruins at the time of their discovery. The change in spelling originated with a publication by Teoberto Maler in 1908, Seibal is located on bluffs about 100 metres above the Pasión River, a major tributary of the Usumacinta River. About 100 kilometres downstream, the Pasión River joins with the Salinas River to form the Usumacinta, the site lies in the Petén department of northern Guatemala,16 kilometres east of the modern town of Sayaxché. Seibal lay 27 kilometres east of the Late Classic city of Dos Pilas and 100 kilometres south of Tikal, lake Petén Itzá lies 60 kilometres to the north of the ruins. Seibal lies among tropical rainforest on a plain that is intermittently hilly. Surveys have revealed an average of 436 structures per square kilometer in the site core, in the Early Classic the population suffered a severe decline, population is estimated to have dropped to 34% of peak population. This was followed by a crash to 14% of peak Preclassic population in the Early Postclassic prior to the complete abandonment of the site. The social stratification of Seibal was that of priest-kings, as well as nobility and elites living in the ceremonial center. During the 1964-68 excavations,34 of the 45 found burials were from the peripheral zone, all dates A. D. Seibal was first settled around 900 BC in the Preclassic Period. It reached its population in the Late Preclassic around 200 BC. Ceramics from the deep Middle Preclassic levels at Seibal belong to the little-known Real/Xe phase and this cache dates to approximately 900 BC. After the Real/Xe complex, came the Escoba period, dating to approximately 600CE-300CE, the ceramics between these two periods are similar, but Escoba ceramics are more extensive and stratigraphically separated
6.
Teoberto Maler
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Teobert Maler, later Teoberto was an explorer who devoted his energies to documenting the ruins of the Maya civilization. Teobert Maler was born in Rome to German parents and his father was a diplomat for the Duchy of Baden. Maler studied architecture and engineering in Karlsruhe, then at the age of 21 moved to Vienna where he took a job with architect Heinrich von Ferstel and he was eager to see more of the world and went to Mexico as a soldier with Emperor Maximilian. He rose from Cadet to Captain, after surrendering to the Mexican Republican forces, Maler opted to stay in Mexico rather than being exiled back to Europe. Maler later obtained Mexican citizenship and changed his first name to Teoberto, Maler developed interests in photography and in the antiquities of Mesoamerica. In 1876 he made detailed photos of the structures at Mitla, in the summer of the following year he moved to San Cristóbal de las Casas, and in July set out to visit the ruins of Palenque. While several accounts of the site had been published by this time, it was little visited. While Maler was there another visitor came to the ruins, Gustave Bernoulli, a Swiss botanist who shared his interest in Maya sites, Bernoulli confirmed Malers suspicion that there was much work that needed to be done to document the areas ruins. In the spring of 1878 Maler was obliged to return to Europe to settle his fathers estate, which was tied up in considerable legal difficulties. While the lawyers he hired sorted it out, Maler lived in Paris, in 1884 the estate was settled, with Maler inheriting a small fortune, and he returned to Mexico to devote himself to study of the Maya. He settled in Yucatán with small house in the town of Ticul, however he spent most of his time in the forests, accompanied by a few Maya to help clear the jungle from the ruins and carry Malers photographic equipment. He started off visiting major sites already well-known, such as Chichen Itza and Uxmal, at Chichen, he lived in the ruins for 3 months, and documented the site much more fully than had earlier visitors. Over the next years Maler also made investigations of many sites in the el Petén region of Guatemala. Maler became disgusted by the common practice of 19th century antiquarians. Maler noted the damage to the sites this often caused and he became dedicated to the notion that the ruins should be preserved intact, and wrote extensively to the Mexican government advocating that approach. Malers views are now considered ahead of their time, Maler realized the importance of publishing his investigations, but had somewhat mixed success. The Peabody Institute of Harvard University arranged to publish his reports starting in 1898, a series of important books resulted, but the relationship between Maler and the Peabody was strained. The Peabody ended their agreement with Maler in 1909, although it took them until 1912 to finish the publication of the material they had received from him, the books are still an important reference in Maya studies
7.
Avebury
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Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known sites in Britain, it contains the largest stone circle in Europe. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of importance to contemporary pagans. Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremony, the Avebury monument is a part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments nearby, including West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill. By the Iron Age, the site had effectively abandoned. During the Early Middle Ages, a village first began to be built around the monument, in the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods, local people destroyed many of the standing stones around the henge, both for religious and practical reasons. The antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley, however, took an interest in Avebury during the 17th century, archaeological investigation followed in the 20th century, led primarily by Alexander Keiller, who oversaw a project which reconstructed much of the monument. Avebury is owned and managed by the National Trust, at grid reference SU10266996, Avebury is respectively about 6 and 7 miles from the modern towns of Marlborough and Calne. Avebury lies in an area of chalkland in the Upper Kennet Valley which forms the catchment for the River Kennet and supports local springs and seasonal watercourses. The monument stands slightly above the landscape, sitting on a low chalk ridge 160 m above sea level, to the east are the Marlborough Downs. It is now listed as part of the Stonehenge, Avebury, the monuments are preserved as part of a Neolithic and Bronze Age landscape for the information they provide regarding prehistoric peoples relationship with the landscape. Radiocarbon dating and analysis of pollen in buried soils have shown that the environment of lowland Britain changed around 4250–4000 BCE. The change to an environment from damp, heavy soils and expanses of dense forest was mostly brought about by farmers, probably through the use of slash. Environmental factors may also have made a contribution, different species of snail live in specific habitats, so the presence of a certain species indicates what the area was like at a particular point in time. The history of the site before the construction of the henge is uncertain, evidence of activity in the region before the 4th millennium BCE is limited, suggesting that there was little human occupation. During this era, those living in Britain were hunter-gatherers, often moving around the landscape in small familial or tribal groups in search of food. The archaeologists Mark Gillings and Joshua Pollard suggested the possibility that Avebury first gained some sort of significance during the Late Mesolithic period. As evidence, they highlighted the existence of a posthole near to the southern entrance that would have once supported a large wooden post
8.
Samaria
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The name Samaria is derived from the ancient city of Samaria, the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel. Since 1967, Samaria has been used by Israeli officials to refer to the north of the West Bank, as the administrative Judea, Jordan ceded its claim to the area to the Palestine Liberation Organization in August 1988. In 1994, control of Areas A and B were transferred by Israel to the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian Authority and the international community do not recognize the term Samaria, in modern times, the territory is generally known as part of the West Bank. According to the Hebrew Bible, the Hebrew name Shomron is derived from the individual Shemer, in modern times, Samaria was one of six administrative districts of the Mandatory Palestine. The fact that the mountain was called Shomeron when Omri bought it may indicate that an earlier etymology of the name may be watch mountain. In the earlier cuneiform inscriptions, Samaria is designated under the name of Bet Ḥumri, but in those of Tiglath-Pileser III and later it is called Samirin, after its Aramaic name. To the north, Samaria is bounded by the Jezreel Valley, to the east by the Jordan Rift Valley, to the west by the Carmel Ridge, in Biblical times, Samaria reached from the sea to the Jordan Valley, including the Carmel Ridge and Plain of Sharon. The Samarian hills are not very high, seldom reaching the height of over 800 metres, samarias climate is more hospitable than the climate further south. The mountain ranges in the south of the region continue into Judaea without a clear division, according to the Hebrew Bible, the Israelites captured the region known as Samaria from the Canaanites and assigned it to the Tribe of Joseph. After the death of King Solomon, the tribes, including those of Samaria, separated from the southern tribes. Initially its capital was Tirzah until the time of King Omri, in 726–722 BC, the new king of Assyria, Shalmaneser V, invaded Canaan and besieged the city of Samaria. After an assault of three years, the city fell and much of its population was taken into captivity and deported, little documentation exists for the period between the fall of Samaria and the end of the Assyrian Empire. In the Bible, Samaria was condemned by the Hebrew prophets for its ivory houses, in 6 AD the region became part of the Roman province of Judaea, after the death of king Herod the Great. The New Testament mentions Samaria in Luke 17, 11–20, in the healing of the ten lepers. John 4, 1–26 records Jesus encounter at Jacobs Well with the woman of Sychar, in Acts 8,2 it is recorded that the early community of disciples of Jesus began to be persecuted in Jerusalem and were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached and healed the sick there, in the time of Jesus, Iudaea of the Romans was divided into the toparchies of Judea, Samaria, Galilee and the Paralia. Samaria occupied the centre of Iudaea, in the Talmud, Samaria is called the land of the Cuthim. The 1947 UN partition plan called for the Arab state to consist of several parts, as a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, most of the territory was unilaterally incorporated as Jordanian-controlled territory and was administered as part of the West Bank
9.
Harvard University
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Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, james Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College, Harvards $34.5 billion financial endowment is the largest of any academic institution. Harvard is a large, highly residential research university, the nominal cost of attendance is high, but the Universitys large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages. Harvards alumni include eight U. S. presidents, several heads of state,62 living billionaires,359 Rhodes Scholars. To date, some 130 Nobel laureates,18 Fields Medalists, Harvard was formed in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1638, it obtained British North Americas first known printing press, in 1639 it was named Harvard College after deceased clergyman John Harvard an alumnus of the University of Cambridge who had left the school £779 and his scholars library of some 400 volumes. The charter creating the Harvard Corporation was granted in 1650 and it offered a classic curriculum on the English university model—many leaders in the colony had attended the University of Cambridge—but conformed to the tenets of Puritanism. It was never affiliated with any denomination, but many of its earliest graduates went on to become clergymen in Congregational. The leading Boston divine Increase Mather served as president from 1685 to 1701, in 1708, John Leverett became the first president who was not also a clergyman, which marked a turning of the college toward intellectual independence from Puritanism. When the Hollis Professor of Divinity David Tappan died in 1803 and the president of Harvard Joseph Willard died a year later, in 1804, in 1846, the natural history lectures of Louis Agassiz were acclaimed both in New York and on the campus at Harvard College. Agassizs approach was distinctly idealist and posited Americans participation in the Divine Nature, agassizs perspective on science combined observation with intuition and the assumption that a person can grasp the divine plan in all phenomena. When it came to explaining life-forms, Agassiz resorted to matters of shape based on an archetype for his evidence. Charles W. Eliot, president 1869–1909, eliminated the position of Christianity from the curriculum while opening it to student self-direction. While Eliot was the most crucial figure in the secularization of American higher education, he was motivated not by a desire to secularize education, during the 20th century, Harvards international reputation grew as a burgeoning endowment and prominent professors expanded the universitys scope. Rapid enrollment growth continued as new schools were begun and the undergraduate College expanded. Radcliffe College, established in 1879 as sister school of Harvard College, Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. In the early 20th century, the student body was predominately old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, by the 1970s it was much more diversified
10.
John Garstang
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John Garstang was a British archaeologist of the ancient Near East, especially Anatolia and the southern Levant. He was the brother of Professor Walter Garstang, FRS. He was educated at Blackburn Grammar School and in 1895 he obtained a scholarship for Jesus College, while at Oxford, Garstang became interested in archaeology and conducted excavations at Ribchester. Encouraged to take up archaeology, Garstang excavated other Romano-British sites during his vacations from Oxford, after gaining a 3rd from Oxford in 1899, Garstang joined the team of Flinders Petrie at Abydos. He excavated various sites in the vicinity, including the discovery of the tombs at Beit Khallaf in 1901. In 1902 he carried out his first independent excavation in Egypt at Reqaqnah, the excavation was funded by an excavation committee, a group of wealthy donors who in turn would receive a selection of objects from Garstangs excavations in exchange for their patronage. Like Petrie before him, Garstang would continue to use Excavation Committees to fund his excavations for most of his career, in 1902, Garstang was also appointed the honorary reader in Egyptian archaeology at the University of Liverpool. In 1904, Garstang founded the Institute of Archaeology, which was affiliated with the University, from 1907-1941, Garstang was the first professorship in the methods and practice of archaeology at the University. On behalf of the Institute, Garstang excavated sites in Egypt, Sudan and he served as the Director of the Department of Antiquities in the British Mandate of Palestine between 1920-1926, and excavated at Ashkelon, 1920-1921. He was also the Head of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem and he also carried out a major excavation of Jericho from 1930-1936, funded by Sir Charles Marston. He taught at the Egyptology section of the Faculty of Arts when this was established in the 1920s, one of his students was Pahor Labib, late Director of the Coptic Museum, Cairo. From 1936 to the outbreak of World War II, Garstang excavated Yümük Tepe near Mersin, Garstang returned to Turkey after the War, and finished the excavation in 1948. In 1948, Garstang founded the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, a History of Blackburn Grammar School. El Arábah, a cemetery of the Middle Kingdom, survey of the Old Kingdom temenos, tombs of the third Egyptian dynasty at Reqâqnah and Bêt Khallâf. A Short History of Ancient Egypt, the Burial Customs of Ancient Egypt as illustrated by tombs of the Middle Kingdom, being a report of excavations made in the necropolis of Beni Hassan during 1902-3-4. The Land of the Hittites, an account of recent explorations and discoveries in Asia Minor, meroë, the city of the Ethiopians, being an account of a first seasons excavations on the site, 1909-1910. The Hittite Empire, being a survey of the history, geography and monuments of Hittite Asia Minor, the Foundations of Bible History, Joshua, Judges. The Heritage of Solomon, an introduction to the sociology of ancient Palestine
11.
Ulugh Beg Observatory
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The Ulugh Beg Observatory is an observatory in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Built in the 1420s by the Timurid astronomer Ulugh Beg, it is considered by scholars to have one of the finest observatories in the Islamic world. Some of the famous Islamic astronomers who worked at the observatory include Al-Kashi, Ali Qushji, the observatory was destroyed in 1449 and rediscovered in 1908. In 1420, the great astronomer Ulugh Beg built a madrasah in Samarkand, in 1424, he began building the observatory to support the astronomical study at the madrasah and it was completed five years later in 1429. Beg assigned his assistant and scholar Ali Qushji to take charge of the Ulugh Beg Observatory which was called Samarkand Observatory at that time and he worked there till Ulugh Beg was assassinated. Other notable astronomers made observations of celestial movements at the observatory, including Qāḍīzāda al-Rūmī, while working at the excavation site, Vyatkin found one of the most important astronomical instruments used at the observatory, a large arch that had been used to determine midday. A trench of about 2 metres wide was dug in a hill along the line of the Meridian, today, there is a circular base showing the outline of the original structure and the doorway leads to the remaining underground section of the Fakhrī sextant that is now roofed over. The sextant was 11 metres long and once rose to the top of the surrounding 3 storey structure although it was kept underground to protect it from earthquakes. Calibrated along its length, it was the worlds largest 90 degree quadrant at the time, with a radius of 40.4 metres. The radius of the arc was according to a trusted middle age Turkish astronomer approximately 50 metres and was said to be the same height as the dome of the Hagia Sofia mosque in Istanbul. Ptolemy has given them in a catalogue in the Almagest, the stars are distributed in six magnitudes, the largest are of the first and the smallest of the sixth magnitude. The larger number of the stars are within the figures, the others are in the neighborhood, abd-Al-Rahman-Sufi composed a treatise on the stars which all learned men have received with gratitude. Although the observatory was destroyed in 1449, scholarly astronomical study continued in Samarkand for some 75 years, the entrance of the observatory has been modified several times in recent years. Zīj-i Sultānī is a Zij astronomical table and star catalogue that was published by Ulugh Beg in 1437 and it was the joint product of the work of a group of Muslim astronomers working under the patronage of Ulugh Beg at the Samarkand observatory. These astronomers included Jamshīd al-Kāshī and Ali Qushji, among others, Beg determined the length of the tropical year as 365d 5h 49m 15s, which has an error of +25s, making it more accurate than Nicolaus Copernicus estimate which had an error of +30s. Beg also determined the Earths axial tilt as 23.52 degrees and it was more accurate than later measurements by Copernicus and Tycho Brahe, and it matches the currently accepted value precisely. The Ulug Beg Observatory Museum was built in 1970 to commemorate Ulug Begh, Ulug Begs Star Charts, the Zij-i Sultani are kept in the museum although they are copies, the original drawings were stolen from Uzbekistan by the British and are in Oxford, England. Ulughbek and his Observatory in Samarkand Fazlıoğlu İ, the Samarqand Mathematical-Astronomical School, A Basis for Ottoman Philosophy and Science
12.
Samarkand
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Samarkand, alternatively Samarqand or Samarcand, is a city in modern-day Uzbekistan and is one of the oldest inhabited cities in Central Asia. Prospering from its location on the Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean, at times Samarkand was one of the greatest cities of Central Asia, by the time of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, it was the capital of the Sogdian satrapy. The city was taken by Alexander the Great in 329 BC, the city was ruled by a succession of Iranian, Persian, and Turkic peoples until the Mongols under Genghis Khan conquered Samarkand in 1220. Today, Samarkand is the capital of Samarqand Region, and Uzbekistans second largest city, the city is noted for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study. In the 14th century it became the capital of the empire of Timur and is the site of his mausoleum, the Bibi-Khanym Mosque remains one of the citys most notable landmarks. The Registan was the ancient center of the city, the city has carefully preserved the traditions of ancient crafts, embroidery, gold embroidery, silk weaving, engraving on copper, ceramics, carving, and painting on wood. In 2001, UNESCO added the city to its World Heritage List as Samarkand – Crossroads of Cultures, the name probably originates in the Sogdian words asmara, stone, rock and kand, fort, town. Along with Bukhara, Samarkand is one of the oldest inhabited cities in Central Asia, archeological excavations held within the city limits as well as suburban areas unearthed evidence of human activity as early as 40,000 years old, in the late Paleolithic era. A group of Mesolithic era archeological sites were discovered at Sazagon-1, Zamichatosh, the Syob and Dargom canals, supplying the city and its suburbs with water, appeared around the 7th to 5th centuries BC. There is no evidence when Samarkand was founded. Researchers of the Institute of Archeology of Samarkand argue for the existence of the city between the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Samarkand has been one of the main centres of Sogdian civilization from its early days. By the time of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia it had become the capital of the Sogdian satrapy, Alexander the Great conquered Samarkand in 329 BC. The city was known as Maracanda by the Greeks, written sources offer small clues as to the subsequent system of government. They tell of an Orepius who became ruler not from ancestors, while Samarkand suffered significant damage during Alexanders initial conquest, the city recovered rapidly and under the new Hellenic influence flourished. There were also major new construction techniques, oblong bricks were replaced with square ones and superior methods of masonry, Alexanders conquests introduced into Central Asia classical Greek culture, at least for a time the Greek models were followed closely by the local artisans. After the Kushan era the city declined, it did not really revive until the 5th century, Samarkand was conquered by the Sassanians around 260 AD. Under Sassanian rule, the became an essential site for Manichaeism. After the Hephtalites conquered Samarkand, they controlled it until the Göktürks, in an alliance with the Sassanid Persians, the Turks ruled over Samarkand until they were defeated by the Sassanids during the Göktürk–Persian Wars
13.
Phaistos Disc
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The Phaistos Disc is a disk of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Phaistos on the island of Crete, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age. Now, the island of Crete is part of modern Greece, the disk is about 15 cm in diameter and covered on both sides with a spiral of stamped symbols. Its purpose and meaning, and even its original place of manufacture, remain disputed. This unique object is now on display at the museum of Heraklion. The Phaistos Disc captured the imagination of amateur and professional archaeologists, while it is not clear that it is a script, most attempted decipherments assume that it is, most additionally assume a syllabary, others an alphabet or logography. Although the Phaistos Disc is generally accepted as authentic by archaeologists and this grouping of four rooms also served as a formal entry into the palace complex. It was found in the cell of an underground temple depository. These basement cells, only accessible from above, were covered with a layer of fine plaster. Their content was poor in artifacts, but rich in black earth and ashes. In the northern part of the cell, in the same black layer. The Phaistos Disc is generally accepted as authentic by archaeologists, the assumption of authenticity is based on the excavation records by Luigi Pernier. This assumption is supported by the discovery of the Arkalochori Axe with similar. The possibility that the disc is a 1908 forgery or hoax has been raised by two scholars, according to a report in The Times the date of manufacture has never been established by thermoluminescence. In his 2008 review, Robinson does not endorse the forgery arguments and it will either confirm that new finds are worth hunting for, or it will stop scholars from wasting their effort. A gold signet ring from Knossos, found in 1926, contains a Linear A inscription developed in a field defined by a spiral—similar to the Phaistos Disc, a sealing found in 1955 shows the only known parallel to sign 21 of the Phaistos disc. This is considered as evidence that the Phaistos Disc is a genuine Minoan artifact. Yves Duhoux dates the disc to between 1850 B. C. and 1600 B. C. on the basis of Luigi Perniers report, jeppesen dates it to after 1400. Doubting the viability of Perniers report, Louis Godart resigns himself to admitting that archaeologically, best suggests a date in the first half of the fourteenth century B. C. based on his dating of tablet PH1
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La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1
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La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 is an almost complete male Neanderthal skeleton discovered in La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France by A. and J. Bouyssonie, and L. Bardon in 1908. The skeleton was about 40 years in age and is characterised by its loss of teeth, advanced resorption of bone in the mandible and signs of advanced arthritis. According to Stringer and Gamble, it is the best and only convincing example of a Neanderthal deliberate burial, the La Chapelle-aux-Saints specimen is typical of classic Western European Neanderthal anatomy. It is estimated to be about 60,000 years old, boules 1911 reconstruction of La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 depicted Neanderthals with a thrust-forward skull, a spine without curvature, bent hips and knees and a divergent big toe. This depiction fit in well with contemporary evolutionary scenarios in which Neanderthals were not considered to be ancestors of modern humans. In 1957, the remains were reexamined by Straus and Cave and these researchers depicted Neanderthal anatomy as being much more modern, in particular, their posture and gait was more or less identical to that of modern humans. This specimen had lost many of his teeth, with evidence of healing, all of the mandibular molars were absent and consequently, some researchers suggested that the Old Man would have needed someone to process his food for him. This was widely cited as an example of Neanderthal altruism, similar to Shanidar 1, List of fossil sites List of hominina fossils Media related to La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 at Wikimedia Commons
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Neanderthal
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Neanderthals, or more rarely Neandertals, were a species or subspecies of archaic humans in the genus Homo that became extinct about 40,000 years ago. Neanderthals and modern humans share 99. 7% of their DNA and are closely related. Neanderthals left bones and stone tools in Eurasia, from Western Europe to Central, from the 1950s to the early 1980s, however, Neanderthals were widely considered a subspecies of Homo sapiens and a minority of scholars still hold this view. Several cultural assemblages have been linked to the Neanderthals in Europe, the earliest, the Mousterian stone tool culture, dates to about 160,000 years ago. Late Mousterian artifacts were found in Gorhams Cave on the south-facing coast of Gibraltar, male Neanderthals had cranial capacities averaging 1600 cm3, females 1300 cm3, extending to 1736 cm3 in Amud 1. This is notably larger than the 1250–1400 cm3 typical of modern humans, males stood 164–168 cm and females 152–156 cm tall. Recent studies also show that a few Neanderthals began mating with ancestors of modern humans long before the out of Africa migration of present day non-Africans. Claims that Neanderthals deliberately buried their dead, and if they did, the debate on deliberate Neanderthal burials has been active since the 1908 discovery of the well-preserved Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 skeleton in a small hole in a cave in southwestern France. In 2013, scientists sequenced the genome of a Neanderthal for the first time. The genome was extracted from the bone of a 50. In 2016, elaborate constructions of rings of broken stalagmites made by early Neanderthals around 176,000 years ago were discovered 336 m inside Bruniquel Cave in southwestern France and this would have required a more advanced social structure than previously known for Neanderthals. Thal is a spelling of the German word Tal, which means valley. Nevertheless, Kings name had priority over the proposal put forward in 1866 by Ernst Haeckel, the practice of referring to the Neanderthals and a Neanderthal emerged in the popular literature of the 1920s. The German pronunciation of Neanderthaler or Neandertaler is in the International Phonetic Alphabet, in British English, Neanderthal is pronounced with the /t/ as in German, but different vowels. In laymans American English, Neanderthal is pronounced with a /θ/ and /ɔ/ instead of the longer British /aː/, during the early 20th century the prevailing view was heavily influenced by Arthur Keith and Marcellin Boule, who wrote the first scientific description of a nearly complete Neanderthal skeleton. During the 1930s scholars Ernst Mayr, George Gaylord Simpson and Theodosius Dobzhansky reinterpreted the existing fossil record, Neanderthal man was classified as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis - an early subspecies contrasted with what was now called Homo sapiens sapiens. The obviously unbroken succession of fossil sites of both subspecies in Europe was considered evidence that there was a slow and gradual evolutionary transition from Neanderthals to modern humans, contextual interpretations of similar excavation sites in Asia lead to the hypothesis of multiregional origin of modern man in the 1980s. Current scientific ideas hold that both evolved from a common African ancestor, Homo erectus
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La Chapelle-aux-Saints
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La Chapelle-aux-Saints is a commune in the Corrèze department in central France. Jean and Amédée Bouyssonie, as well as L and this discovery led to a controversy between adversaries and partisans for the existence of tombs during the Mousterian. Arguments for the existence of a tomb were the sleeping position of the body, archaeologists believe the Chapelle-aux-Saints cave wasn’t used as a habitat, but a place for funeral feasts. One year later, at the La Ferrassie site, another Neanderthal tomb was discovered which helped to confirm the practice of entombment among Neanderthals during the middle Paleolithic, during the French Revolution, the commune changed its name to La Chapelle-aux-Prés following a decree from the National Convention. Communes of the Corrèze department La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 INSEE
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France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
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Le Moustier
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Le Moustier is an archeological site consisting of two rock shelters in Peyzac-le-Moustier, a village in the Dordogne, France. It is known for a skull of the species Homo neanderthalensis that was discovered in 1909. The Mousterian tool culture is named after Le Moustier, which was first excavated from 1863 by the Englishman Henry Christy, the Le Moustier skull is estimated to be approximately 45,000 years old. Its characteristics include a nasal cavity and a somewhat less developed brow ridge and occipital bun. List of fossil sites List of hominina fossils Media related to Le Moustier at Wikimedia Commons
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Venus of Willendorf
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The Venus of Willendorf is an 11. 1-centimetre-high statuette of a female figure estimated to have been made between about 28,000 and 25,000 BCE. It is carved from a limestone that is not local to the area. The figurine is now in the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria, several similar statuettes and other forms of art have been discovered, and they are collectively referred to as Venus figurines, although they pre-date the mythological figure of Venus by millennia. It is believed that the figure was carved during the Paleolithic Period and this period of Prehistory started around 30,000 BCE. The purpose of the carving is the subject of much speculation, like many figurines, it probably never had feet and would not have stood on its own, though it might have been pegged into soft ground. Parts of the associated with fertility and childbearing have been emphasized. The figure has no face, her head being covered with circular horizontal bands of what might be rows of plaited hair or a type of headdress. The nickname, urging a comparison to the image of Venus, is now controversial. According to Christopher Witcombe, the identification of these figurines as Venus pleasantly satisfied certain assumptions at the time about the primitive, about women. Catherine McCoid and LeRoy McDermott hypothesised that the figurines may have created as self-portraits by women. Art of the Upper Paleolithic Venus of Hohle Fels Venus of Dolní Věstonice List of Stone Age art Venus figurines Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, Women in Prehistory, Venus of Willendorf
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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
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Prehistory
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Prehistory means literally before history, from the Latin word for before, præ, and Greek ιστορία. Neighbouring civilisations were the first to follow, most other civilisations reached the end of prehistory during the Iron Age. The period when a culture is written about by others, but has not developed its own writing is known as the protohistory of the culture. By definition, there are no records from human prehistory. Clear techniques for dating were not well-developed until the 19th century and this article is concerned with human prehistory as defined here above. There are separate articles for the history of the Earth. However, for the race as a whole, prehistory ends when recorded history begins with the accounts of the ancient world around the 4th millennium BC. For example, in Egypt it is accepted that prehistory ended around 3200 BC, whereas in New Guinea the end of the prehistoric era is set much more recently. The three-age system is the periodization of prehistory into three consecutive time periods, named for their respective predominant tool-making technologies, Stone Age Bronze Age Iron Age. The notion of prehistory began to surface during the Enlightenment in the work of antiquarians who used the word primitive to describe societies that existed before written records, the first use of the word prehistory in English, however, occurred in the Foreign Quarterly Review in 1836. The main source for prehistory is archaeology, but some scholars are beginning to more use of evidence from the natural and social sciences. This view has been articulated by advocates of deep history, human population geneticists and historical linguists are also providing valuable insight for these questions. Human prehistory differs from history not only in terms of its chronology, restricted to material processes, remains and artifacts rather than written records, prehistory is anonymous. Because of this, reference terms that use, such as Neanderthal or Iron Age are modern labels with definitions sometimes subject to debate. Palaeolithic means Old Stone Age, and begins with the first use of stone tools, the Paleolithic is the earliest period of the Stone Age. The early part of the Palaeolithic is called the Lower Palaeolithic, evidence of control of fire by early humans during the Lower Palaeolithic Era is uncertain and has at best limited scholarly support. The most widely accepted claim is that H. erectus or H. ergaster made fires between 790,000 and 690,000 BP in a site at Bnot Yaakov Bridge, Israel. The use of fire enabled early humans to cook food, provide warmth, Early Homo sapiens originated some 200,000 years ago, ushering in the Middle Palaeolithic
22.
Willard Libby
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Willard Frank Libby was an American physical chemist noted for his role in the 1949 development of radiocarbon dating, a process which revolutionized archaeology and palaeontology. For his contributions to the team that developed this process, Libby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960, during World War II he worked in the Manhattan Projects Substitute Alloy Materials Laboratories at Columbia University, developing the gaseous diffusion process for uranium enrichment. After the war, Libby accepted professorship at the University of Chicagos Institute for Nuclear Studies and he also discovered that tritium similarly could be used for dating water, and therefore wine. In 1950, he became a member of the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission and he was appointed a commissioner in 1954, becoming its sole scientist. He sided with Edward Teller on pursuing a program to develop the hydrogen bomb, participated in the Atoms for Peace program. Libby resigned from the AEC in 1959 to become Professor of Chemistry at University of California, Los Angeles, in 1962, he became the Director of the University of California statewide Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. He started the first Environmental Engineering program at UCLA in 1972, Willard Frank Libby was born in Grand Valley, Colorado, on December 17,1908, the son of farmers Ora Edward Libby and his wife Eva May. He had two brothers, Elmer and Raymond, and two sisters, Eva and Evelyn, Libby began his education in a two-room Colorado schoolhouse. When he was five, Libbys parents moved to Santa Rosa and he attended Analy High School, in Sebastopol, from which he graduated in 1926. Libby, who grew to be 6 feet 2 inches tall, independently of the work of George de Hevesy and Max Pahl, he discovered that the natural long-lived isotopes of samarium primarily decay by emission of alpha particles. Libby was appointed Instructor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California and he became an assistant professor of Chemistry there in 1938. He spent the 1930s building sensitive Geiger counters to measure weak natural and artificial radioactivity, in 1940, Libby married Leonor Hickey, a physical education teacher. They had twin daughters, Janet Eva and Susan Charlotte, who were born in 1945 and he joined Berkeleys chapter of Alpha Chi Sigma in 1941. That year he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, and elected to work at Princeton University, on December 8,1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II, Libby volunteered his services to Nobel Prize laureate Harold Urey. During his time in the New York City area, Libby was a resident of Leonia, over the next three years, Libby worked on the gaseous diffusion process for uranium enrichment. An atomic bomb required fissile material, and the fissile uranium-235 made up only 0.7 percent of natural uranium, the SAM Laboratories therefore had to find a way of separating kilograms of it from the more abundant uranium-238. Gaseous diffusion worked on the principle that a lighter gas diffuses through a faster than a heavier one at a rate inversely proportional to its molecular weight. But the only known gas containing uranium was the highly corrosive uranium hexafluoride, through 1942, Libby and his team studied different barriers and the means to protect them from corrosion from the uranium hexafluoride
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