1.
5th millennium BC
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The 5th millennium BC saw the spread of agriculture from Western Asia throughout Southern and Central Europe. Urban cultures in Mesopotamia and Anatolia flourished, developing the wheel, copper ornaments became more common, marking the beginning of the Chalcolithic. Animal husbandry spread throughout Eurasia, reaching China, world population grew slightly throughout the millennium, possibly from 5 to 7 million people
2.
3rd millennium BC
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The 3rd millennium BC spans the years 3000 through 2000 BC. This period of time corresponds to the Early to Middle Bronze Age, in which imperialism, or the desire to conquer, grew to prominence in the city-states of the Middle East, the civilization of Ancient Egypt rose to a peak with the Old Kingdom. World population is estimated to have doubled in the course of the millennium, the Bronze Age occurred roughly between 3000 BC and 2500 BC. Along with this came the first appearances of mega architecture, imperialism, organized absolutism, the civilizations of Sumer and Akkad in Mesopotamia became a collection of volatile city-states in which warfare was common. Uninterrupted conflicts drained all available resources, energies and populations, in this millennium, larger empires succeeded the last, and conquerors grew in stature until the great Sargon of Akkad pushed his empire to the whole of Mesopotamia and beyond. It would not be surpassed in size until Assyrian times 1,500 years later, in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, the Egyptian pyramids were constructed and would remain the tallest and largest human constructions for thousands of years. Also in Egypt, pharaohs began to themselves as living gods made of an essence different from that of other human beings. Even in Europe, which was still largely neolithic during the same period, in the Near East and the Occident during the 3rd millennium BC, limits were being pushed by architects and rulers. Towards the close of the millennium, Egypt became the stage of the first popular revolution recorded in history. This dynasty was later to become involved with a wave of nomadic invaders known as the Amorites, certain 4th millennium BC events were precursors to the 3rd millennium BC, c.3700 BC, Lothal Advanced Civilization in India. C.3650 BC–3000 BC, Minoan culture appeared on Crete, C.3200 BC/3100 BC, Helladic culture and Cycladic culture both emerge in Greece. The 3rd millennium BC included the key events, c.3000 BC. C.3000 BC, Nubian A-Group, Ta-Seeti kingdom came to an end, C.3000 BC–2000 BC, Vessels from Denmark are made, they are now at National Museum, Copenhagen. C.2890 BC, Second Dynasty of Egypt, reign of Hotepsekhemwy, syria, Foundation of the city of Mari. Semitic tribes occupy Assyria in northern part of the plain of Shinar, phoenicians settle on Syrian coast, with centers at Tyre and Sidon. Beginning of the period of the Sage Kings in China, also known as the Three Sovereigns, C.2879 BC, Rise of the Văn Lang Kingdom and the Hồng Bàng Dynasty in northern Viet Nam. C.2800 BC–2700 BC, Harp Player, from Keros and it is now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Iran, Creation of the Kingdom of Elam, germination of the Bristlecone pine tree Methuselah about 2700 BC, one of the oldest known trees still living now
3.
40th century BC
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During the 40th century BC, the Near East and southeastern Europe were in the Chalcolithic period, transitional between the Stone and the Bronze Ages. Northwestern Europe was in the Neolithic, China was dominated by the Neolithic Yangshao culture. The Americas were in a phase of transition between the Paleo-Indian to the Meso-Indian stage and this century started in 4000 BC and ended in 3901 BC. Near East In Predynastic Egypt, the El Omari culture arose during this period, start of the Naqada culture in Egypt. In Mesopotamia, the Uruk period began, Europe The Linear Pottery culture gives way to the Funnelbeaker culture in the north. In the Pontic steppe, the Dnieper–Donets and Sredny Stog cultures flourish, early Jōmon period begins on the islands of Japan. C.4000 BC, More than 100 dwellings surrounding a community center, a cemetery, susa is a center of pottery production, c. potters wheel in Mesopotamia. Approximate time of the construction of the Merheleva Ridge complex, megalithic monuments are constructed in Brittany, Portugal, central and southern France, Corsica and Great Britain. Metallurgy during the Copper Age in Europe, clay pots and vats discovered at a sprawling cave system in southern Armenia near the border with Iran shows signs of an organized effort to press and distill grapes. Bede began his history of the world with 3952 BC, in their ceremonial or commemorative proceedings, Freemasons add 4000 years to the current Anno Domini calendar year and append Anno Lucis to the year
4.
36th century BC
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Beginning of the construction of the megalithic Ggantija temple complex in Malta. Colombia, first rupestrian art at Chiribiquete, in Egypt, evidence found of mummification around this time at a cemetery in Nekhen. Fortified town at Amri on the west bank of the Indus River, baden culture Funnelbeaker culture Boian culture, Phase IV or Spanţov Phase Chasséen culture Pfyn culture Cucuteni-Trypillian culture Beginning of Wartberg culture First known use of tin. Evidence of bronze for this date has found in Thailand. Excavations of the Bat Cave in Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico in 1948 and 1950 discovered ears of popcorn dated to circa 3600 BC
5.
35th century BC
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The 35th century BC in the Near East sees the gradual transition from the Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Proto-writing enters transitional stage, developing towards writing proper, wheeled vehicles are now known beyond Mesopotamia, having spread north of the Caucasus and to Europe. The civilization used a form of the Indus signs, the so-called Indus script. Only approximate dating is possible for mid-4th millennium artifacts. Kish tablet Bronocice pot Ginger The Sahara desert starts to form from semi-arid savannah, C.3500 BC, First known zoo at Hierakonpolis. C.3400 BC, Sumerian temple record keepers redesign the seal in the form of a cylinder. C.3500 BC, Pictographic proto-writing starts developing towards writing proper in Sumer, C.3500 BC, The first monument of which there is still a trace is built on the Hill of Tara, the ancient seat of the High King of Ireland. C.3500 BC, Tin is discovered, see, List of sovereign states in the 35th century BC
6.
33rd century BC
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The 33rd century BC is a century which lasted from the year 3300 BC to 3201 BC. Major climate shift possibly due to shift in solar activity,3300 BC, Harappan script is discovered in Indus Valley c.3300 BC—Pictographs in Uruk 3300 BC to 3000 BC, Face of a woman, from Uruk is made. It is now in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, C.3300 BC The Red Temple, the first phase of the Monte dAccoddi sanctuary in Northwest Sardinia, is built. 3300-3000 BC Evidence of proto-Thracians or proto-Dacians in the prehistoric period,3250 BC – Potters wheel in use in Ancient Near East Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy discovered in the Austrian/Italian Alps in 1991
7.
32nd century BC
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The 32nd century BC is a century which lasted from the year 3200 BC to 3101 BC. c.3200 BC King Iry-Hor reigns from Abydos over most of Egypt. 3200-3150 BC reign of King Ka in Ancient Egypt, radiocarbon dating showed that it is approximately 5,150 years old, which makes it the oldest wooden wheel yet discovered. C.3100 BC start of the reign of Hor-Aha, second pharaoh of the 1st Dynasty Varna Necropolis, malta, Construction of the Ħaġar Qim megalithic temples, featuring both solar and lunar alignments. Tarxien period of temple construction reaches its apex. Ancient Egypt, Earliest known Egyptian hieroglyphs, beginning of the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt, neolithic settlement built at Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. Earliest buildings at the Ness of Brodgar in the Orkney Islands constructed, new Stone Age people in Ireland build the 250,000 ton Newgrange solar oriented passage tomb. C.3100 BC, The earliest phase of Stonehenge construction begins, Iry-Hor, earliest ruler of Egypt known by name. Narmer, founder of the First dynasty of Egypt, the system originated sometime in the Mid- to Late Preclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology, during the latter half of the 1st millennium BC. The starting point of the most commonly used highest-order cycle—the baktun-cycle consisting of thirteen baktuns of 144,000 days each—was projected back to an earlier and this date is equivalent to 11 August 3114 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar, using the correlation known as the Goodman-Martínez-Thompson correlation. Two succeeding dates, the 12th and 13 August have also been supported, all other earlier or later correlation proposals are now discounted. The end of the thirteenth baktun was either on December 21 or 23 of 2012,3102 BC, The beginning of Kali Yuga as per Hindu calendar
8.
31st century BC
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The 31st century BC is a century which lasted from the year 3100 BC to 3001 BC. c.3100 BC, Narmer unifies Upper and Lower Egypt into one country, he rules this new country from Memphis. C.3100 BC, Predynastic period ends in Ancient Egypt, C.3100 BC, Early Dynastic period starts in Ancient Egypt. C.3100 BC, The first temple of Tarxien is in use by the Neolithic inhabitants of Malta, C.3100 BC, First stage in the construction of Stonehenge. C.3100 BC –2600 BC, Skara Brae, Orkney Islands, C.3100 BC, Humans develop their first writing system, cuneiform script. C.3051 BC, The oldest currently living organism, a Pinus longaeva and it is still present to this day. C.3100 BC – Invention of writing in Mesopotamia and Egypt
9.
Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
10.
Writing
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Writing is a medium of human communication that represents language and emotion through the inscription or recording of signs and symbols. In most languages, writing is a complement to speech or spoken language, Writing is not a language but a form of technology that developed as tools developed with human society. Within a language system, writing relies on many of the structures as speech, such as vocabulary, grammar and semantics. The result of writing is called text, and the recipient of text is called a reader. Motivations for writing include publication, storytelling, correspondence and diary, Writing has been instrumental in keeping history, maintaining culture, dissemination of knowledge through the media and the formation of legal systems. As human societies emerged, the development of writing was driven by pragmatic exigencies such as exchanging information, maintaining financial accounts, codifying laws, in both ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica writing may have evolved through calendrics and a political necessity for recording historical and environmental events. H. G. Wells argued that writing has the ability to put agreements, laws and it made the growth of states larger than the old city states possible. It made a continuous historical consciousness possible, the command of the priest or king and his seal could go far beyond his sight and voice and could survive his death. The major writing systems—methods of inscription—broadly fall into four categories, logographic, syllabic, alphabetic, another category, ideographic, has never been developed sufficiently to represent language. A sixth category, pictographic, is insufficient to represent language on its own, a logogram is a written character which represents a word or morpheme. A vast number of logograms are needed to write Chinese characters, cuneiform, and Mayan, where a glyph may stand for a morpheme, many logograms have an ideographic component. For example, in Mayan, the glyph for fin, pronounced ka, was used to represent the syllable ka whenever the pronunciation of a logogram needed to be indicated. In Chinese, about 90% of characters are compounds of an element called a radical with an existing character to indicate the pronunciation. However, such phonetic elements complement the elements, rather than vice versa. A syllabary is a set of symbols that represent syllables. A glyph in a syllabary typically represents a consonant followed by a vowel, or just a vowel alone, phonetically related syllables are not so indicated in the script. For instance, the syllable ka may look nothing like the syllable ki, syllabaries are best suited to languages with a relatively simple syllable structure, such as Japanese. Other languages that use syllabic writing include the Linear B script for Mycenaean Greek, Cherokee, Ndjuka, an English-based creole language of Surinam, most logographic systems have a strong syllabic component
11.
Recorded history
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Recorded history or written history is a historical narrative based on a written record or other documented communication. Recorded history can be contrasted with other narratives of the past, for broader world history, recorded history begins with the accounts of the ancient world around the 4th millennium BC, and coincides with the invention of writing. Examples of written texts, however, can be found dating as far back as 1750 BCE in Ancient Mesopotamia, for some geographic regions or cultures, written history is limited to a relatively recent period in human history because of the limited use of written records. Because of these limits, recorded history in different contexts may refer to different periods of time depending on the historical topic. The question of the nature, and even the possibility, of a method for interpreting recorded history is raised in the philosophy of history as a question of epistemology. Prehistory traditionally refers to the span of time before recorded history, prehistory refers to the past in an area where no written records exist, or where the writing of a culture is not understood. Protohistory refers to the period between prehistory and history, after the advent of literacy in a society but before the writings of the first historians. Protohistory may also refer to the period during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, more complete writing systems were preceded by proto-writing. Early examples are the Jiahu symbols, Vinča signs, early Indus script, earliest recorded history, which varies greatly in quality and reliability, deals with Pharaohs and their reigns, made by ancient Egyptians. Much of the earliest recorded history was re-discovered relatively recently due to archaeological dig sites findings, since these initial accounts, a number of different traditions have developed in different parts of the world in how to handle the writing and production of historical accounts. In China, the earliest history was recorded in oracle bone script which was deciphered, the Zuo Zhuan, attributed to Zuo Qiuming in the 5th century BCE, is the earliest written of narrative history in the world and covers the period from 722 to 468 BCE. The Classic of History is one of the Five Classics of Chinese classic texts and it is traditionally attributed to Confucius. Zhan Guo Ce was a renowned ancient Chinese historical compilation of materials on the Warring States period compiled between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. Sima Qian was the first in China to lay the groundwork for professional historical writing and his written work was the Shiji, a monumental lifelong achievement in literature. His work influenced every subsequent author of history in China, including the prestigious Ban family of the Eastern Han Dynasty era, Herodotus of Halicarnassus has generally been acclaimed as the father of history composing his The Histories written from 450s to the 420s BCE. However, his contemporary Thucydides is credited with having first approached history with a historical method in his work the History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides, unlike Herodotus, regarded history as being the product of the choices and actions of human beings, saint Augustine was influential in Christian and Western thought at the beginning of the medieval period. Through the Medieval and Renaissance periods, history was studied through a sacred or religious perspective
12.
Monte d'Accoddi
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Monte dAccoddi is a Neolithic archaeological site in northern Sardinia, located in the territory of Sassari near Porto Torres. The site consists of a raised stone platform thought to have been an altar. It was constructed by the Ozieri culture or earlier, with the oldest parts dated to around c, the site was discovered in 1954 in a field owned by Segni family. The structure has a base of 27 m by 27 m and it culminated in a platform of about 12.5 m by 7.2 m, accessible via a ramp. It has been described as an altar, a mound. The Monte dAccoddi has been called the most singular cultic monument in the early Western Mediterranean, the surroundings of the Monte dAccoddi have been excavated in the 1960s, and have provided the signs of a considerable sacred center. Near the south-eastern corner of the monument there is a dolmen, the foundations of several small structures were excavated, and several mysterious carved stones. The most impressive of these is a boulder carved into the shape of an egg. It has been reconstructed during the 1980s. It is open to the public and accessible by the old route of SS131 highway, problematiche di studio e di ricerca di un singolare monumento preistorico, Oxford 1984. S. Tinè, S. Bafico, T. Mannoni, Monte dAccoddi e la Cultura di Ozieri, in La Cultura di Ozieri, problematiche e nuove acquisizioni, Ozieri 1989, ercole Contu, Laltare preistorico di Monte dAccoddi Sardegna Digital Library
13.
Sardinia
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Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and an autonomous region of Italy. It is located in the Western Mediterranean, just south of the French island of Corsica, the regions official name is Regione Autonoma della Sardegna / Regione Autònoma de Sardigna, and its capital and largest city is Cagliari. It is divided into four provinces and a metropolitan city and its indigenous language and the other minority languages spoken by the Sardinians enjoy equal dignity with Italian under regional law. The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *srd-, later romanised as sardus and it makes its first appearance on the Nora Stone, where the word Šrdn testifies to the names existence when the Phoenician merchants first arrived. According to Timaeus, one of Platos dialogues, Sardinia and its people as well might have named after Sardò. There has also been speculation that identifies the ancient Nuragic Sards with the Sherden, in Classical antiquity, Sardinia was called Ichnusa, Σανδάλιον Sandal, Sardinia and Sardó. Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 24,100 square kilometres and it is situated between 38°51 and 41°18 latitude north and 8°8 and 9°50 east longitude. To the west of Sardinia is the Sea of Sardinia, a unit of the Mediterranean Sea, to Sardinias east is the Tyrrhenian Sea, the nearest land masses are the island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia, the Balearic Islands, and Provence. The Tyrrhenian Sea portion of the Mediterranean Sea is directly to the east of Sardinia between the Sardinian east coast and the west coast of the Italian mainland peninsula, the Strait of Bonifacio is directly north of Sardinia and separates Sardinia from the French island of Corsica. The island has an ancient geoformation and, unlike Sicily and mainland Italy, is not earthquake-prone and its rocks date in fact from the Palaeozoic Era. Due to long erosion processes, the highlands, formed of granite, schist, trachyte, basalt, sandstone and dolomite limestone. The highest peak is Punta La Marmora, part of the Gennargentu Ranges in the centre of the island. The islands ranges and plateaux are separated by wide valleys and flatlands. Sardinia has few rivers, the largest being the Tirso,151 km long, which flows into the Sea of Sardinia, the Coghinas. There are 54 artificial lakes and dams that supply water and electricity, the main ones are Lake Omodeo and Lake Coghinas. The only natural lake is Lago di Baratz. A number of large, shallow, salt-water lagoons and pools are located along the 1,850 km of the coastline, the climate of the island is variable from area to area, due to several factors including the extension in latitude and the elevation. During the year there is a concentration of rainfall in the winter and autumn, some heavy showers in the spring
14.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
15.
Sassari
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Sassari is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 127,525 inhabitants, and a Functional Urban Area of about 222,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, it contains a collection of art. As Sardinias second most populated city, and the fifth largest municipality in Italy, it has an amount of cultural, touristic. The citys economy relies on tourism and services, however also partially on research, construction, pharmaceuticals. Sassari is located in north-western Sardinia, at 225 metres above sea level, the area rises up on a wide karstic plateau that slopes gently down towards the Gulf of Asinara and the Nurra plain. The abundance of water, with about 400 springs and artesian wells, has made for development of horticulture over the centuries. According to a survey by Weatherwise, Sassari is the city with the fourth best climate in the world. Although Sassari was founded in the early Middle Ages, the area has been inhabited since the Neolithic age, and throughout ancient history, by the Nuragics. In the locality of Fiume Santo is also found a site where an Oreopithecus bambolii. The origin of the city remains uncertain and it developed from the merger of a number of separate villages, such as San Pietro di Silki, San Giacomo di Taniga, and San Giovanni di Bosove. The oldest mention of the village is in an 1131 document in the archive of the Monastery of St. Peter in Silki where is cited a guy named Jordi de Sassaro, Sassari was sacked by the Genoese in 1166. Immigration continued until, in the early 13th century, it was the most populous city in the Giudicato of Torres, after the assassination of Michele Zanche, the latters last ruler in 1275, Sassari became subject to the Republic of Pisa with a semi-independent status. Its statutes of 1316 are remarkable for the leniency of the penalties imposed when compared with the laws of the Middle Ages. From 1323 the Republic of Sassari decided to side with the King of Aragon, in whose hands it remained for much of the following centuries, further attempts made by Genoa to conquer the city failed. In 1391 it was conquered by Brancaleone Doria and Marianus V of Arborea, of the independent Sardinian Giudicato of Arborea, of which it became the last capital. However, in 1420 the city was sold along with the territory for 100,000 florins to the Crown of Aragon, replaced by Spain after 1479 on the joining of the Aragonese. During the period of Aragonese and then Spanish domination the city was known as Sàsser in Catalan language, the Jesuits founded the first Sardinian university in Sassari in 1562. In the same year the first printing press was introduced and the ideals of Renaissance humanism became more widely known, several artists of the Mannerist and Flemish schools practiced their art in the city
16.
Porto Torres
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Porto Torres is a comune and city in northern Sardinia, in the Province of Sassari. It is situated on the north-west coast about 25 kilometres east of the Gorditanian promontory, Porto Torres territory is situate on north-west part of Sardinian Coast, inside the gulf called Gulf of Asinara. The extension of municipality is almost 10200 hectare and is suddivided in two parts with almost the same portion of land, one part is the part where is situated the city, the industry and the romanic ruins, the latter is Asinara island with the smaller Isola Piana. This part of territory is from 1997 a national park, in ancient times, Turris Libyssonis was one of the most considerable cities in Sardinia. It was probably of purely Roman origin, founded apparently by Julius Caesar, pliny described it as a colony, the only on the island in his time, suggesting that there was previously no town on the spot, but merely a fort or castellum. It is noticed also by Ptolemy and in the Itineraries, the ancient remains still existing prove that it must have been a considerable town under the Roman Empire. According from the inscriptions on ancient milestones, the road through the island ran directly from Caralis to Turris. Indeed, two roads, which diverged at Othoca connected Caralis to Turris, the more important keeping inland and it was also an episcopal see during the early part of the Middle Ages. The ancient city continued to be inhabited till the 11th century, when the part of the population migrated to Sassari, about 15 kilometres inland. It was partly under Genoese hands before, in the early 15th century, after the Spanish rule it was part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Torres was separated from the comune of Sassari in 1842, at the time the area which had been built around the basilica of San Gavino joined the fishermens community near the port to form the new Porto Torres. The 11th-century, three-naved Basilica of San Gavino, which was using only precious hardstones like marble, porphyry. Instead of the western facade and eastern apse, the cathedral sports two apses. The crypt holds several Roman sarcophagi, neolithic necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu and Li Lioni. Nuraghe of la Camusina, Li Pedriazzi, Margone and Minciaredda, remains of the Roman bridge, the largest in Sardinia with its arches and a span of 160 to 170 metres on the Rio Mannu Palazzo Re Barbaro Catacombs of Tanca Borgona and piazzale Amsicora. Aragonese Towers of the port and of Abbacurrente, the port is connected by ferries with Genoa, Marseille, Toulon, Barcelona, Civitavecchia, Propriano, Expressway SS131/E25 to Sassari and Cagliari, and a national road to Santa Teresa Gallura. A railway operated by Trenitalia connects the town with Sassari, chemical industries support the modern economy of Porto Torres. Fiume Santo, a 1,040 MW power station owned by E. ON, is 5 to 10 kilometres west from the port and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Smith, William, ed. Turris Libyssonis
17.
Sumer
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Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, Sumerian farmers were able to grow an abundance of grain and other crops, the surplus of which enabled them to settle in one place. Proto-writing in the dates back to c.3000 BC. The earliest texts come from the cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr and date back to 3300 BC, modern historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c.5500 and 4000 BC by a West Asian people who spoke the Sumerian language, an agglutinative language isolate. These conjectured, prehistoric people are now called proto-Euphrateans or Ubaidians, some scholars contest the idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language. Reliable historical records begin much later, there are none in Sumer of any kind that have dated before Enmebaragesi. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians lived along the coast of Eastern Arabia, todays Persian Gulf region, Sumerian civilization took form in the Uruk period, continuing into the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic periods. During the 3rd millennium BC, a cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians, who spoke a language isolate, and Akkadian-speakers, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the 3rd millennium BC as a Sprachbund, Sumer was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BC, but Sumerian continued as a sacred language. Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in the Neo-Sumerian Empire or Third Dynasty of Ur approximately 2100-2000 BC, the term Sumerian is the common name given to the ancient non-Semitic-speaking inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Sumer, by the East Semitic-speaking Akkadians. The Sumerians referred to themselves as ùĝ saĝ gíg ga, phonetically /uŋ saŋ gi ga/, literally meaning the black-headed people, the Akkadian word Shumer may represent the geographical name in dialect, but the phonological development leading to the Akkadian term šumerû is uncertain. Hebrew Shinar, Egyptian Sngr, and Hittite Šanhar, all referring to southern Mesopotamia, in the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into many independent city-states, which were divided by canals and boundary stones. Each was centered on a dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city. The Sumerian city-states rose to power during the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods, classical Sumer ends with the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 23rd century BC. Following the Gutian period, there is a brief Sumerian Renaissance in the 21st century BC, the Amorite dynasty of Isin persisted until c.1700 BC, when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. The Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Akkadian population, 2500–2334 BC Akkadian Empire period, c. 2218–2047 BC Ur III period, c, 2047–1940 BC The Ubaid period is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. It appears that this culture was derived from the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia and it is not known whether or not these were the actual Sumerians who are identified with the later Uruk culture
18.
Ancient Egypt
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Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
19.
Agriculture
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Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of human civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science, the history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology, genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts, the major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, oils, meats, fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo, other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. The word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, field, Agriculture usually refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant, termite and ambrosia beetle. To practice agriculture means to use resources to produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops. This definition includes arable farming or agronomy, and horticulture, all terms for the growing of plants, even then, it is acknowledged that there is a large amount of knowledge transfer and overlap between silviculture and agriculture. In traditional farming, the two are often combined even on small landholdings, leading to the term agroforestry, Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 15,000 years ago, rice was domesticated in China between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, and was independently domesticated in Eurasia at an unknown time
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Eurasia
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Eurasia /jʊˈreɪʒə/ is a combined continental landmass of Europe and Asia. The term is a portmanteau of its constituent continents, in geology, Eurasia is often considered as a single rigid megablock. However, the rigidity of Eurasia is debated based on the paleomagnet data, Eurasia covers around 55,000,000 square kilometres, or around 36. 2% of the Earths total land area. The landmass contains around 5.0 billion people, equating to approximately 70% of the human population, humans first settled in Eurasia between 60,000 and 125,000 years ago. Physiographically, Eurasia is a single continent, the concepts of Europe and Asia as distinct continents date back to antiquity and their borders are geologically arbitrary. Eurasia is connected to Africa at the Suez Canal, and Eurasia is sometimes combined with Africa as the largest contiguous landmass on Earth called Afro-Eurasia. Eurasia formed 375 to 325 million years ago with the merging of Siberia, Kazakhstania, and Baltica, chinese cratons collided with Siberias southern coast. Eurasia has been the host of ancient civilizations, including those based in Mesopotamia. In the Axial Age, a belt of civilizations stretched through the Eurasian subtropical zone from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This belt became the mainstream of world history for two millennia, originally, “Eurasia” is a geographical notion, in this sense, it is simply the biggest continent, the combined landmass of Europe and Asia. However, geopolitically, the word has different meanings, reflecting the specific geopolitical interests of each nation. “Eurasia” is one of the most important geopolitical concepts, as Zbigniew Brzezinski observed, how America manages Eurasia is critical. A power that dominates “Eurasia” would control two of the three most advanced and economically productive regions. About 75 per cent of the people live in “Eurasia”. “Eurasia” accounts for about three-fourths of the known energy resources. ”At the moment one of the most prominent projects of the European Union is the Russia - EU Four Common Spaces Initiative. A political and economic union of former Soviet states named the Eurasian Economic Union was established in 2015, the Russian concept of “Eurasia” corresponded initially more or less to the land area of Imperial Russia in 1914, including parts of Eastern Europe. One of Russias main geopolitical interests lies in ever closer integration with those countries that it considers part of “Eurasia. ”Every two years since 1996 a meeting of most Asian and European countries is organised as the Asia-Europe Meeting. In ancient times, the Greeks classified Europe and Asia as separate lands, where to draw the dividing line between the two regions is still a matter of discussion
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World population
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In demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently living. As of March 2017, it was estimated at 7.49 billion, the United Nations estimates it will further increase to 11.2 billion in the year 2100. World population has experienced growth since the end of the Great Famine of 1315–17 and the Black Death in 1350. The highest population growth rates – global population increases above 1. 8% per year – occurred between 1955-1975 peaking to 2. 06% between 1965-1970, the growth rate has declined to 1. 18% between 2010-2015 and is projected to decline to 0. 13% by the year 2100. World population reached 7 billion on October 31,2011 according to the United Nations Population Fund, and on March 12,2012 according to the United States Census Bureau. The median age of the population was estimated to be 30.1 years in 2016, with the male median age estimated to be 29.4 years. 2003 UN Population Division population projections for the year 2150 range between 3.2 and 24.8 billion. One of many independent mathematical models supports the estimate, while a 2014 estimate forecasts between 9.3 and 12.6 billion in 2100, and continued growth thereafter. Some analysts have questioned the sustainability of further population growth, highlighting the growing pressures on the environment, global food supplies. Estimates on the number of humans who have ever lived range in the order of 106 to 108 billion. Six of the Earths seven continents are permanently inhabited on a large scale, Asia is the most populous continent, with its 4.3 billion inhabitants accounting for 60% of the world population. The worlds two most populated countries alone, China and India, together constitute about 37% of the worlds population, Africa is the second most populated continent, with around 1 billion people, or 15% of the worlds population. Europes 733 million people make up 12% of the population as of 2012. Northern America, primarily consisting of the United States, Mexico, and Canada, has a population of around 352 million, and Oceania, the least-populated region, has about 35 million inhabitants. Though it is not permanently inhabited by any fixed population, Antarctica has a small, fluctuating international population and this population tends to rise in the summer months and decrease significantly in winter, as visiting researchers return to their home countries. Estimates of world population by their nature are an aspect of modernity, more refined estimates, broken down by continents, were published in the first half of the 19th century, at 600 to 1000 million in the early 1800s and at 800 to 1000 million in the 1840s. Estimates of the population of the world at the time agriculture emerged in around 10,000 BCE have ranged between 1 million and 15 million. Even earlier, genetic evidence suggests humans may have gone through a bottleneck of between 1,000 and 10,000 people about 70,000 BCE, according to the Toba catastrophe theory
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Mesopotamia
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In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. The Sumerians and Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of history to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthian Empire. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control. In AD226, eastern part of it fell to the Sassanid Persians, division of Mesopotamia between Roman and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and Muslim conquest of the Levant from Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος middle and ποταμός river and it is used throughout the Greek Septuagint to translate the Hebrew equivalent Naharaim. In the Anabasis, Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria, the Aramaic term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept. The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia. A further distinction is made between Northern or Upper Mesopotamia and Southern or Lower Mesopotamia. Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jazira, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf and includes Kuwait and parts of western Iran. In modern academic usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation and it is usually used to designate the area until the Muslim conquests, with names like Syria, Jazirah, and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date. It has been argued that these later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments, Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the Armenian Highlands. Both rivers are fed by tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 15,000 square kilometres region of marshes, lagoons, mud flats, in the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf. In the marshlands to the south of the area, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since prehistoric times, periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to periods of trade collapse and these trends have continued to the present day in Iraq
23.
Uruk period
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The Uruk period existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, following the Ubaid period and succeeded by the Jemdet Nasr period. Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia. It was followed by the Sumerian civilization, the late Uruk period saw the gradual emergence of the cuneiform script and corresponds to the Early Bronze Age, it may also be called the Protoliterate period. It was during this period that pottery painting declined as copper started to become popular, the term Uruk period was coined at a conference in Baghdad in 1930, where at the same time the Jemdet Nasr and Ubaid periods were defined. Periodization is after archaeological layers at Uruk, thus, Uruk XVIII–XIV are not part of the Uruk period proper but are comprised by the Ubaid period. The Uruk period proper corresponds to the layers Uruk XIV–IV, with the late phase Uruk IV lasting ca, Uruk III reaches up to 3000 BC and into the Early Dynastic period. Around 3600 BC, during the Middle Uruk period, Uruk trade networks started to expand to other parts of Mesopotamia, according to archaeologist Konstantine Pitskhelauri, this expansion started even earlier, at the end of the 5th millennium BC, and continued in the 4th millennium. Large masses of Uruk migrants settled in the South, and later in the North Caucasus, the sites in this general area include Habuba Kabira in Syria, and Arslantepe in Turkey. Uruk expansion to the northeast included sites like Godin Tepe in Iran, Tepe Gawra, in northwest Iraq, is another important site with deep stratigraphy that includes the Uruk period in later layers. Hamoukar is a site in northeastern Syria that has been recently excavated. Uruk enclaves have also identified at Tell Brak and Nineveh in northern Mesopotamia, and on the Syrian Euphrates at Qrayya. On the Euphrates in Anatolia, Uruk enclaves were found at Hassek Hoyuk, Samsat and these early city-states had strong signs of government organization, evident even in items such as cheap, mass-produced beveled rim bowls which were made to be discarded. These bowls may have handed out at community outings, such as large-scale constructions. The cities grew to cover up to 250 acres and supported up to 10, the Uruk world system, the dynamics of expansion of early Mesopotamian civilisation. Chicago, London, The University of Chicago Press Crawford, Harriet E. W. Sumer, the Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient. Lamb, Hubert H. Climate, History, and the Modern World, History of Mesopotamia History of Sumer Jawa
24.
Cuneiform script
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Cuneiform script, one of the earliest systems of writing, was invented by the Sumerians. It is distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by means of a blunt reed for a stylus, the name cuneiform itself simply means wedge shaped. Emerging in Sumer in the fourth millennium BC, cuneiform writing began as a system of pictograms. In the third millennium, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use grew smaller, the system consists of a combination of logophonetic, consonantal alphabetic and syllabic signs. Cuneiform writing was replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire. By the second century CE, the script had become extinct, between half a million and two million cuneiform tablets are estimated to have been excavated in modern times, of which only approximately 30,000 –100,000 have been read or published. Most of these have lain in these collections for a century without being translated, studied or published, the cuneiform writing system was in use for more than three millennia, through several stages of development, from the 34th century BC down to the second century CE. Ultimately, it was replaced by alphabetic writing in the course of the Roman era. It had to be deciphered as an unknown writing system in 19th-century Assyriology. Successful completion of its deciphering is dated to 1857, the cuneiform script was developed from pictographic proto-writing in the late 4th millennium BC. Mesopotamias proto-literate period spans roughly the 35th to 32nd centuries, the first documents unequivocally written in Sumerian date to the 31st century at Jemdet Nasr. Originally, pictographs were either drawn on clay tablets in vertical columns with a reed stylus or incised in stone. This early style lacked the characteristic shape of the strokes. Proper names continued to be written in purely logographic fashion. The earliest known Sumerian king whose name appears on contemporary cuneiform tablets is Enmebaragesi of Kish, from about 2900 BC, many pictographs began to lose their original function, and a given sign could have various meanings depending on context. The sign inventory was reduced from some 1,500 signs to some 600 signs, determinative signs were re-introduced to avoid ambiguity. Cuneiform writing proper thus arises from the more primitive system of pictographs at about that time, by adjusting the relative position of the tablet to the stylus, the writer could use a single tool to make a variety of impressions. Cuneiform tablets could be fired in kilns to provide a permanent record, many of the clay tablets found by archaeologists were preserved because they were fired when attacking armies burned the building in which they were kept
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History of writing
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The history of writing traces the development of expressing language by letters or other marks and also the study and description of these developments. One of the earliest forms of expression is cuneiform. Writing numbers for the purpose of record keeping began long before the writing of language, see History of writing ancient numbers for how the writing of numbers began. It is generally agreed that true writing of language was conceived and developed in at least two places and possibly more. Egyptian script is dissimilar from Mesopotamian cuneiform, but similarities in concepts, similar debate surrounds the Indus script of the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization in Ancient India. In addition, the script is still undeciphered and there is debate whether the script is true writing at all. An additional possibility is the undeciphered Rongorongo script of Easter Island and it is debated whether this is true writing, and if it is, whether it is another case of cultural diffusion of writing. The oldest example is from 1851,139 years after their first contact with Europeans, one explanation is that the script was inspired by Spains written annexation proclamation in 1770. Recent examples are the Cherokee syllabary, invented by Sequoyah, symbolic communication systems are distinguished from writing systems in that one must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to comprehend the text. In contrast, symbolic systems such as signs, painting, maps. Every human community possesses language, a feature regarded by many as an innate, however the development of writing systems, and their partial supplantation of traditional oral systems of communication, have been sporadic, uneven and slow. Once established, writing systems on the change more slowly than their spoken counterparts. Writing allows societies to transmit information and share knowledge, scholars make a reasonable distinction between prehistory and history of early writing, but have disagreed concerning when prehistory becomes history and when proto-writing became true writing. Writing, in its most general terms, is a method of recording information and is composed of graphemes, the emergence of writing in a given area is usually followed by several centuries of fragmentary inscriptions. Historians mark the historicity of a culture by the presence of coherent texts in the writing system. The invention of writing was not an event, but a gradual process initiated by the appearance of symbols. A conventional proto-writing to true writing system follows a series of developmental stages, Picture writing system. Transitional system, graphemes refer not only to the object or idea which it represents, phonetic system, graphemes refer to sounds or spoken symbols, and the form of the grapheme is not related to its meanings
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Base-60
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Sexagesimal is a numeral system with sixty as its base. The number 60, a highly composite number, has twelve factors, namely 1,2,3,4,5,6,10,12,15,20,30, and 60, of which 2,3. With so many factors, many fractions involving sexagesimal numbers are simplified. For example, one hour can be divided evenly into sections of 30 minutes,20 minutes,15 minutes,12 minutes,10 minutes,6 minutes,5 minutes,4 minutes,3 minutes,2 minutes, and 1 minute. 60 is the smallest number that is divisible by every number from 1 to 6, that is, it is the lowest common multiple of 1,2,3,4,5, and 6. In this article, all digits are represented as decimal numbers. For example,10 means ten and 60 means sixty and it is possible for people to count on their fingers to 12 using one hand only, with the thumb pointing to each finger bone on the four fingers in turn. In this system, one hand counts repeatedly to 12, displaying the number of iterations on the other, until five dozens, according to Otto Neugebauer, the origins of sexagesimal are not as simple, consistent, or singular in time as they are often portrayed. Their use has always included inconsistencies in where and how various bases are to represent numbers even within a single text. The most powerful driver for rigorous, fully self-consistent use of sexagesimal has always been its mathematical advantages for writing and calculating fractions, in ancient texts this shows up in the fact that sexagesimal is used most uniformly and consistently in mathematical tables of data. The early shekel in particular was one-sixtieth of a mana, though the Greeks later coerced this relationship into the more base-10 compatible ratio of a shekel being one-fiftieth of a mina. For example, the Cuneiform symbol for 1 was a made by applying the rounded end of the stylus at an angle to the clay. Such multi-base numeric quantity symbols could be mixed with other and with abbreviations. The details and even the magnitudes implied were idiomatic to the time periods, cultures. The sexagesimal system as used in ancient Mesopotamia was not a pure base-60 system, the value of the digit was the sum of the values of its component parts, Numbers larger than 59 were indicated by multiple symbol blocks of this form in place value notation. Without context, this system was fairly ambiguous, for example, the symbols for 1 and 60 are identical. Later Babylonian texts used a placeholder to represent zero, but only in the medial positions, in the Chinese calendar, a sexagenary cycle is commonly used, in which days or years are named by positions in a sequence of ten stems and in another sequence of 12 branches. The same stem and branch repeat every 60 steps through this cycle, book VIII of Platos Republic involves an allegory of marriage centered on the number 604 =12960000 and its divisors
27.
Mathematics
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Mathematics is the study of topics such as quantity, structure, space, and change. There is a range of views among mathematicians and philosophers as to the exact scope, Mathematicians seek out patterns and use them to formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proof, when mathematical structures are good models of real phenomena, then mathematical reasoning can provide insight or predictions about nature. Through the use of abstraction and logic, mathematics developed from counting, calculation, measurement, practical mathematics has been a human activity from as far back as written records exist. The research required to solve mathematical problems can take years or even centuries of sustained inquiry, rigorous arguments first appeared in Greek mathematics, most notably in Euclids Elements. Galileo Galilei said, The universe cannot be read until we have learned the language and it is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which means it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word. Without these, one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth, carl Friedrich Gauss referred to mathematics as the Queen of the Sciences. Benjamin Peirce called mathematics the science that draws necessary conclusions, David Hilbert said of mathematics, We are not speaking here of arbitrariness in any sense. Mathematics is not like a game whose tasks are determined by arbitrarily stipulated rules, rather, it is a conceptual system possessing internal necessity that can only be so and by no means otherwise. Albert Einstein stated that as far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, Mathematics is essential in many fields, including natural science, engineering, medicine, finance and the social sciences. Applied mathematics has led to entirely new mathematical disciplines, such as statistics, Mathematicians also engage in pure mathematics, or mathematics for its own sake, without having any application in mind. There is no clear line separating pure and applied mathematics, the history of mathematics can be seen as an ever-increasing series of abstractions. The earliest uses of mathematics were in trading, land measurement, painting and weaving patterns, in Babylonian mathematics elementary arithmetic first appears in the archaeological record. Numeracy pre-dated writing and numeral systems have many and diverse. Between 600 and 300 BC the Ancient Greeks began a study of mathematics in its own right with Greek mathematics. Mathematics has since been extended, and there has been a fruitful interaction between mathematics and science, to the benefit of both. Mathematical discoveries continue to be made today, the overwhelming majority of works in this ocean contain new mathematical theorems and their proofs. The word máthēma is derived from μανθάνω, while the modern Greek equivalent is μαθαίνω, in Greece, the word for mathematics came to have the narrower and more technical meaning mathematical study even in Classical times
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Astronomy
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Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It applies mathematics, physics, and chemistry, in an effort to explain the origin of those objects and phenomena and their evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, galaxies, and comets, while the phenomena include supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, more generally, all astronomical phenomena that originate outside Earths atmosphere are within the purview of astronomy. A related but distinct subject, physical cosmology, is concerned with the study of the Universe as a whole, Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history, such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Nubians, Iranians, Chinese, during the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy split into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of astronomical objects, theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. The two fields complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain the results and observations being used to confirm theoretical results. Astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can play an active role, especially in the discovery. Amateur astronomers have made and contributed to many important astronomical discoveries, Astronomy means law of the stars. Astronomy should not be confused with astrology, the system which claims that human affairs are correlated with the positions of celestial objects. Although the two share a common origin, they are now entirely distinct. Generally, either the term astronomy or astrophysics may be used to refer to this subject, however, since most modern astronomical research deals with subjects related to physics, modern astronomy could actually be called astrophysics. Few fields, such as astrometry, are purely astronomy rather than also astrophysics, some titles of the leading scientific journals in this field includeThe Astronomical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal and Astronomy and Astrophysics. In early times, astronomy only comprised the observation and predictions of the motions of objects visible to the naked eye, in some locations, early cultures assembled massive artifacts that possibly had some astronomical purpose. Before tools such as the telescope were invented, early study of the stars was conducted using the naked eye, most of early astronomy actually consisted of mapping the positions of the stars and planets, a science now referred to as astrometry. From these observations, early ideas about the motions of the planets were formed, and the nature of the Sun, Moon, the Earth was believed to be the center of the Universe with the Sun, the Moon and the stars rotating around it. This is known as the model of the Universe, or the Ptolemaic system. The Babylonians discovered that lunar eclipses recurred in a cycle known as a saros
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Astrology
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Astrology is the study of the movements and relative positions of celestial objects as a means for divining information about human affairs and terrestrial events. Throughout most of its history astrology was considered a tradition and was common in academic circles, often in close relation with astronomy, alchemy, meteorology. It was present in political circles, and is mentioned in works of literature, from Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer to William Shakespeare, Lope de Vega. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in it has largely declined, Astrology is now recognized to be pseudoscience. The word astrology comes from the early Latin word astrologia, which derives from the Greek ἀστρολογία—from ἄστρον astron, astrologia later passed into meaning star-divination with astronomia used for the scientific term. Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and the Indians, Chinese, the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems. Astrology has been dated to at least the 2nd millennium BCE, with roots in systems used to predict seasonal shifts. A form of astrology was practised in the first dynasty of Mesopotamia, Chinese astrology was elaborated in the Zhou dynasty. Hellenistic astrology after 332 BCE mixed Babylonian astrology with Egyptian Decanic astrology in Alexandria, Alexander the Greats conquest of Asia allowed astrology to spread to Ancient Greece and Rome. In Rome, astrology was associated with Chaldean wisdom, after the conquest of Alexandria in the 7th century, astrology was taken up by Islamic scholars, and Hellenistic texts were translated into Arabic and Persian. In the 12th century, Arabic texts were imported to Europe, major astronomers including Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Galileo practised as court astrologers. Astrological references appear in literature in the works of such as Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer. Throughout most of its history, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition and it was accepted in political and academic contexts, and was connected with other studies, such as astronomy, alchemy, meteorology, and medicine. At the end of the 17th century, new concepts in astronomy. Astrology thus lost its academic and theoretical standing, and common belief in astrology has largely declined, Astrology, in its broadest sense, is the search for meaning in the sky. This was a first step towards recording the Moons influence upon tides and rivers, by the 3rd millennium BCE, civilisations had sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and may have oriented temples in alignment with heliacal risings of the stars. Scattered evidence suggests that the oldest known references are copies of texts made in the ancient world. The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa thought to be compiled in Babylon around 1700 BCE, a scroll documenting an early use of electional astrology is doubtfully ascribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler Gudea of Lagash
30.
Legal system
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The contemporary legal systems of the world are generally based on one of four basic systems, civil law, common law, statutory law, religious law or combinations of these. However, the system of each country is shaped by its unique history. Common law and equity are systems of law whose sources are the decisions in cases by judges, alongside, every system will have a legislature that passes new laws and statutes. The relationships between statutes and judicial decisions can be complex, in some jurisdictions, such statutes may overrule judicial decisions or codify the topic covered by several contradictory or ambiguous decisions. Statutes were allowed to be made by the government, common law was later inherited by the Commonwealth of Nations, and almost every former colony of the British Empire has adopted it. The doctrine of stare decisis, also known as law or precedent by courts, is the major difference to codified civil law systems. In addition to countries, several others have adapted the common law system into a mixed system. For example, Nigeria operates largely on a common law system, in the European Union, the Court of Justice takes an approach mixing civil law with an attachment to the importance of case law. One of the most fundamental documents to shape common law is the English Magna Carta and it served as a kind of medieval bill of rights for the aristocracy and the judiciary who developed the law. The central source of law that is recognized as authoritative is codifications in a constitution or statute passed by legislature and this was an extensive reform of the law in the Byzantine Empire, bringing it together into codified documents. Civil law was partly influenced by religious laws such as Canon law. Civil law today, in theory, is interpreted rather than developed or made by judges, only legislative enactments are considered legally binding. As historically integrated in the Scandinavian cultural sphere, Finland and Iceland also inherited the system, chinese law, a mixture of civil law and socialist law in use in the Peoples Republic of China. The Italian approach has been imitated by other countries including the Netherlands, Argentina, Brazil, most of them have innovations introduced by the Italian legislation, including the unification of the civil and commercial codes. Germanistic to Napoleonic influence The Swiss civil code is considered mainly influenced by the German civil code, the main kinds of religious law are Sharia in Islam, Halakha in Judaism, and canon law in some Christian groups. In some cases these are intended purely as individual moral guidance, whereas in other cases they are intended, the latter was particularly common during the Middle Ages. The Halakha is followed by orthodox and conservative Jews in both ecclesiastical and civil relations. No country is governed by Halakha, but two Jewish people may decide, because of personal belief, to have a dispute heard by a Jewish court
31.
Hydrology
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Hydrology is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is a hydrologist, working within the fields of earth or environmental science, physical geography, geology or civil, Hydrology subdivides into surface water hydrology, groundwater hydrology, and marine hydrology. Domains of hydrology include hydrometeorology, surface hydrology, hydrogeology, drainage-basin management and water quality, oceanography and meteorology are not included because water is only one of many important aspects within those fields. Hydrological research can inform environmental engineering, policy and planning, the term hydrology comes from Greek, ὕδωρ, hýdōr, water, and λόγος, lógos, study. Chemical hydrology is the study of the characteristics of water. Ecohydrology is the study of interactions between organisms and the hydrologic cycle, hydrogeology is the study of the presence and movement of groundwater. Hydroinformatics is the adaptation of technology to hydrology and water resources applications. Hydrometeorology is the study of the transfer of water and energy between land and water surfaces and the lower atmosphere. Isotope hydrology is the study of the signatures of water. Surface hydrology is the study of processes that operate at or near Earths surface. Drainage basin management covers water-storage, in the form of reservoirs, water quality includes the chemistry of water in rivers and lakes, both of pollutants and natural solutes. Determining the water balance of a region, mitigating and predicting flood, landslide and drought risk. Real-time flood forecasting and flood warning, designing irrigation schemes and managing agricultural productivity. Part of the module in catastrophe modeling. Designing dams for water supply or hydroelectric power generation, designing sewers and urban drainage system. Analyzing the impacts of antecedent moisture on sanitary sewer systems, predicting geomorphologic changes, such as erosion or sedimentation. Assessing the impacts of natural and anthropogenic environmental change on water resources, assessing contaminant transport risk and establishing environmental policy guidelines. Hydrology has been a subject of investigation and engineering for millennia, for example, about 4000 BC the Nile was dammed to improve agricultural productivity of previously barren lands
32.
Sailboat
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A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region, although sailboat terminology has varied across history, many terms have specific meanings in the context of modern yachting. A great number of sailboat-types may be distinguished by size, hull configuration, keel type, purpose, number and configuration of masts, and sail plan. Once a common racing configuration, today it gives versatility to cruising boats, a catboat has a single mast mounted far forward and does not carry a jib. Most modern designs have only one sail, the mainsail, however, a dinghy is a type of small open sailboat commonly used for recreation, sail training, and tending a larger vessel. They are popular in youth sailing programs for their short LOA, simple operation and they have three sails, the mainsail, jib, and spinnaker. Ketches are similar to a sloop, but there is a shorter mast astern of the mainmast. The second mast is called the mizzen mast and the sail is called the mizzen sail, a ketch can also be Cutter-rigged with two head sails. A schooner has a mainmast taller than its foremast, distinguishing it from a ketch or a yawl, a schooner can have more than two masts, with the foremast always lower than the foremost main. Traditional topsail schooners have topmasts allowing triangular topsails sails to be flown above their gaff sails, the most common modern sailboat is the sloop, which features one mast and two sails, typically a Bermuda rigged main, and a headsail. This simple configuration is very efficient for sailing into the wind, a smaller headsail is easier for a short-handed crew to manage. A yawl is similar to a ketch, with a mizzen mast carried astern the rudderpost more for balancing the helm than propulsion. Traditional sailboats are monohulls, but multi-hull catamarans and trimarans are gaining popularity, monohull boats generally rely on ballast for stability and usually are displacement hulls. This stabilizing ballast can, in boats designed for racing, be as much as 50% of the weight of the boat and it creates two problems, one, it gives the monohull tremendous inertia, making it less maneuverable and reducing its acceleration. Secondly, unless it has built with buoyant foam or air tanks, if a monohull fills with water. Multihulls rely on the geometry and the stance of the multiple hulls for their stability. Indeed, multihulls are designed to be as light-weight as possible and this absence of ballast also results in some very real performance gains in terms of acceleration, top speed, and maneuverability. The lack of ballast makes it easier to get a multihull on plane, reducing its wetted surface area and thus its drag. The absence of drag improves wind precision
33.
Potter's wheel
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In pottery, a potters wheel is a machine used in the shaping of round ceramic ware. The wheel may also be used during the process of trimming the excess body from dried ware, use of the potters wheel became widespread throughout the Old World but was unknown in the Pre-Columbian New World, where pottery was handmade by methods that included coiling and beating. A potters wheel may occasionally be referred to as a potters lathe, however, that term is better used for another kind of machine that is used for a different shaping process, turning, similar to that used for shaping of metal and wooden articles. The jigger tool shapes one face, the mould the other, the term is specific to the shaping of flat ware, such as plates, whilst a similar technique, jolleying, refers to the production of hollow ware, such as cups. Much early ceramic ware was hand-built using a coiling technique in which clay was rolled into long threads that were then pinched. In the coiling method of construction, all the required to form the main part of a piece is supplied indirectly by the hands of the potter. Early ceramics built by coiling were often placed on mats or large leaves to allow them to be worked more conveniently, the evidence of this lies in mat or leaf impressions left in the clay of the base of the pot. This arrangement allowed the potter to rotate the vessel during construction, the earliest forms of the potters wheel were probably developed as an extension to this procedure. Tournettes, in use around 4500 BC in the Near East, were turned slowly by hand or by foot while coiling a pot, only a small range of vessels were fashioned on the tournette, suggesting that it was used by a limited number of potters. The introduction of the wheel increased the efficiency of hand-powered pottery production. In the mid to late 3rd millennium BC the fast wheel was developed and it utilised energy stored in the rotating mass of the heavy stone wheel itself to speed the process. This wheel was wound up and charged with energy by kicking, or pushing it around with a stick, providing a centrifugal force. The fast wheel enabled a new process of pottery-making to develop, called throwing, in which a lump of clay was placed centrally on the wheel, potters could now produce many more pots per hour, a first step towards industrialization. Many modern scholars suggest that the first potters wheel was first developed in Mesopotamia, however, southeastern Europe and China have also been claimed as possible places of origin. Furthermore, the wheel was also in use by potters starting around 3500 BC in major cities of the Indus Valley civilization in South Asia, namely Harappa. Others consider Egypt as being the place of origin of the potters wheel and it was here that the turntable shaft was lengthened about 3000 BC and a flywheel added. The flywheel was kicked and later was moved by pulling the edge with the hand while forming the clay with the right. This led to the motion for the potters wheel which is almost universal
34.
Wheel
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A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle bearing. The wheel is one of the components of the wheel. Wheels, in conjunction with axles, allow heavy objects to be moved easily facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, wheels are also used for other purposes, such as a ships wheel, steering wheel, potters wheel and flywheel. Common examples are found in transport applications, a wheel greatly reduces friction by facilitating motion by rolling together with the use of axles. In order for wheels to rotate, a moment needs to be applied to the wheel about its axis, cognates within Indo-European include Icelandic hjól wheel, tyre, Greek κύκλος kúklos, and Sanskrit chakra, the latter both meaning circle or wheel. The invention of the falls into the late Neolithic. Note that this implies the passage of several wheel-less millennia even after the invention of agriculture and of pottery, precursors of wheels, known as tournettes or slow wheels, were known in the Middle East by the 5th millennium BCE. These were made of stone or clay and secured to the ground with a peg in the center, but required effort to turn. True potters wheels were apparently in use in Mesopotamia by 3500 BCE and possibly as early as 4000 BCE, and the oldest surviving example, which was found in Ur, dates to approximately 3100 BCE. The earliest well-dated depiction of a vehicle is on the Bronocice pot. The oldest securely dated real wheel-axle combination, that from Stare Gmajne near Ljubljana in Slovenia is now dated in 2σ-limits to 3340–3030 BCE, the axle to 3360–3045 BCE. Two types of early Neolithic European wheel and axle are known, a type of wagon construction. They both are dated to c, in China, the wheel was certainly present with the adoption of the chariot in c.1200 BCE, although Barbieri-Low argues for earlier Chinese wheeled vehicles, c.2000 BC. In Britain, a wooden wheel, measuring about 1 m in diameter, was uncovered at the Must Farm site in East Anglia in 2016. The specimen, dating from 1, 100–800 years BCE, represents the most complete, the wheels hub is also present. A horses spine found nearby suggests the wheel may have part of a horse-drawn cart. The wheel was found in a settlement built on stilts over wetland and it is thought that the primary obstacle to large-scale development of the wheel in the Americas was the absence of domesticated large animals which could be used to pull wheeled carriages. The only large animal that was domesticated in the Western hemisphere, Nubians from after about 400 BCE used wheels for spinning pottery and as water wheels
35.
Chalcolithic
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The Copper Age was originally defined as a transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The archaeological site of Belovode on the Rudnik mountain in Serbia contains the worlds oldest securely dated evidence of copper smelting from 5000 BCE, the multiple names result from multiple recognitions of the period. Originally, the term Bronze Age meant that either copper or bronze was being used as the hard substance for the manufacture of tools. In 1881, John Evans, recognizing that the use of copper often preceded the use of bronze and he did not include the transitional period in the tripartite system of Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age but placed it at the beginning outside of it. He did not, however, present it as a fourth age, in 1884, Gaetano Chierici, perhaps following the lead of Evans, renamed it in Italian as the Eneo-litica, or Bronze-stone transition. The phrase was never intended to mean that the period was the one in which both bronze and stone were used. The Copper Age features the use of copper, excluding bronze, moreover, litica simply names the Stone Age as the point from which the transition began and is not another -lithic age. Subsequently, British scholars used either Evanss Copper Age or the term Eneolithic, around 1900, many writers began to substitute Chalcolithic for Eneolithic, to avoid the false segmentation. It was then that the misunderstanding began among those who did not know Italian, the -lithic was seen as a new -lithic age, a part of the Stone Age in which copper was used, which may appear paradoxical. Today Copper Age, Eneolithic and Chalcolithic are used synonymously to mean Evanss original definition of Copper Age, there was an independent invention of copper and bronze smelting first by Andean civilizations in South America extended later by sea commerce to the Mesoamerican civilization in West Mexico. The literature of European archaeology, in general, avoids the use of Chalcolithic, the Copper Age in the Middle East and the Caucasus began in the late 5th millennium BCE and lasted for about a millennium before it gave rise to the Early Bronze Age. The transition from the European Copper Age to Bronze Age Europe occurs about the same time, an archaeological site in Serbia contains the oldest securely dated evidence of coppermaking from 7,500 years ago. In Serbia, an axe was found at Prokuplje, which indicates that humans were using metals in Europe by 7,500 years ago. Knowledge of the use of copper was far more widespread than the metal itself, the European Battle Axe culture used stone axes modeled on copper axes, even with imitation mold marks carved in the stone. Ötzi the Iceman, who was found in the Ötztal Alps in 1991, examples of Chalcolithic cultures in Europe include Vila Nova de São Pedro and Los Millares on the Iberian Peninsula. Pottery of the Beaker people has found at both sites, dating to several centuries after copper-working began there. The Beaker culture appears to have copper and bronze technologies in Europe. The term Chalcolithic is not generally used by British prehistorians, who disagree whether it applies in the British context, in Bhirrana, the earliest Indus civilization site, copper bangles and arrowheads were found
36.
Santorini
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Santorini, classically Thera, and officially Thira, is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km southeast of Greeces mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera. It forms the southernmost member of the Cyclades group of islands, with an area of approximately 73 km2, the municipality of Santorini includes the inhabited islands of Santorini and Therasia and the uninhabited islands of Nea Kameni, Palaia Kameni, Aspronisi, and Christiana. The total land area is 90.623 km2, Santorini is part of the Thira regional unit. Santorini is essentially what remains after a volcanic eruption that destroyed the earliest settlements on a formerly single island. A giant central, rectangular lagoon, which measures about 12 by 7 km, is surrounded by 300 m high, the main island slopes downward to the Aegean Sea. On the fourth side, the lagoon is separated from the sea by another smaller island called Therasia. The islands principal port is Athinios, the capital, Fira, clings to the top of the cliff looking down on the lagoon. The volcanic rocks present from the prior eruptions feature olivine, and have a presence of hornblende. It is the most active volcanic centre in the South Aegean Volcanic Arc, the volcanic arc is approximately 500 km long and 20 to 40 km wide. The island is the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history, the Minoan eruption, another popular theory holds that the Thera eruption is the source of the legend of Atlantis. Before then, it was known as Kallístē, Strongýlē, or Thēra, the name Thera was revived in the nineteenth century as the official name of the island and its main city, but the colloquial name Santorini is still in popular use. During the Ottoman Empires domination of the Aegean Sea, the Turkish exonym for the island was Santurin or Santoron, Oia is now called a Κοινότητα, within the municipality of Thera, and it consists of the local subdivisions of Therasia and Oia. The two main sources of wealth in Santorini are agriculture and tourism, in recent years, Santorini has been voted one of the worlds most beautiful islands. Santorini remains the home of a small, but flourishing wine industry, white varieties also include Athiri and Aidani, whereas red varieties include mavrotragano and mandilaria. The Cyclades are part of a complex that is known as the Cycladic Massif. The complex formed during the Miocene and was folded and metamorphosed during the Alpine orogeny around 60 million years ago, Thera is built upon a small, non-volcanic basement that represents the former non-volcanic island, which was approximately 9 by 6 km. The basement rock is composed of metamorphosed limestone and schist
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Minoan civilization
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The Minoan civilization was an Aegean Bronze Age civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean islands which flourished from about 2600 to 1100 BC. It preceded the Mycenaean civilization of Ancient Greece, the civilization was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Arthur Evans. It has been described as the earliest of its kind in Europe, the term Minoan, which refers to the mythical King Minos, originally described the pottery of the period. Minos was associated in Greek mythology with the labyrinth and the Minotaur, according to Homer, Crete once had 90 cities. The Minoan period saw trade between Crete and Aegean and Mediterranean settlements, particularly the Near East, traders and artists, the Minoan cultural influence reached beyond Crete to the Cyclades, Egypts Old Kingdom, copper-bearing Cyprus, Canaan and the Levantine coast, and Anatolia. Some of its best art is preserved in the city of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini, although the Minoan language and writing systems remain undecipherable and are subjects of academic dispute, they apparently conveyed a language entirely different from the later Greek. The reason for the end of the Minoan period is unclear, theories include Mycenaean invasions from mainland Greece, the term Minoan refers to the mythical King Minos of Knossos. Its origin is debated, but it is attributed to archeologist Arthur Evans. Minos was associated in Greek mythology with the labyrinth, which Evans identified with the site at Knossos. However, Karl Hoeck had already used the title Das Minoische Kreta in 1825 for volume two of his Kreta, this appears to be the first known use of the word Minoan to mean ancient Cretan, Evans said that applied it, not invented it. Hoeck, with no idea that the archaeological Crete had existed, had in mind the Crete of mythology, although Evans 1931 claim that the term was unminted before he used it was called a brazen suggestion by Karadimas and Momigliano, he coined its archaeological meaning. Instead of dating the Minoan period, archaeologists use two systems of relative chronology, the first, created by Evans and modified by later archaeologists, is based on pottery styles and imported Egyptian artifacts. Evans system divides the Minoan period into three eras, early, middle and late. These eras are subdivided—for example, Early Minoan I, II and III, another dating system, proposed by Greek archaeologist Nicolas Platon, is based on the development of architectural complexes known as palaces at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia and Kato Zakros. Platon divides the Minoan period into pre-, proto-, neo-, the relationship between the systems in the table includes approximate calendar dates from Warren and Hankey. The Thera eruption occurred during a phase of the LM IA period. Efforts to establish the volcanic eruptions date have been controversial, the eruption is identified as a natural event catastrophic for the culture, leading to its rapid collapse. Although stone-tool evidence exists that hominins may have reached Crete as early as 130,000 years ago, evidence for the first anatomically-modern human presence dates to 10, the oldest evidence of modern human habitation on Crete are pre-ceramic Neolithic farming-community remains which date to about 7000 BC
38.
Crete
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Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, 88th-largest island in the world and the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete, the capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065, Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits. It was once the centre of the Minoan civilization, which is regarded as the earliest recorded civilization in Europe. The island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated later in Neo-Assyrian records and it was also known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu, strongly suggesting a similar Minoan name for the island. The current name of Crete is thought to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek texts written in Linear B, through the words
39.
Beaker (archaeology)
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A beaker is a small ceramic or metal drinking vessel shaped to be held in the hands. Bell beakers appear to be the earliest type and are covered with decoration made from impressing twisted cord into the unfired clay. When the decoration covers the vessel they are known as all-over corded beakers. Where comb designs are used, perhaps along with cord impressions they are called all-over ornamented beakers, some have a looped handle on one side or a white coloured material pressed into the decoration, contrasting with the orange or brown ceramic. Traditionally they were superseded by the short-necked beakers which in turn were replaced by long-necked forms, work by Humphrey Case in the 1990s has suggested that the three styles were used contemporaneously for different purposes. Beakers have been found from North Africa to southern Scotland and from Portugal to the far east of Europe but is common in the Rhine valley. Beaker Beaker Beaker Pottery Oxford Concise Dictionary of Archaeology, Darvill, T, OUP,2003 A Beaker from Kent
40.
Susa
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Susa was an ancient city of the Proto-Elamite, Elamite, First Persian Empire, Seleucid, and Parthian empires of Iran, and one of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East. It is located in the lower Zagros Mountains about 250 km east of the Tigris River, the modern Iranian town of Shush is located at the site of ancient Susa. Shush is the capital of the Shush County of Irans Khuzestan province. It had a population of 64,960 in 2005, in Elamite, the name of the city was written variously Ŝuŝan, Ŝuŝun, etc. The origin of the word Susa is from the city deity Inshushinak. Susa was one of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East, Susa is also mentioned in the Ketuvim of the Hebrew Bible by the name Shushan, mainly in Esther, but also once each in Nehemiah and Daniel. Both Daniel and Nehemiah lived in Susa during the Babylonian captivity of the 6th century BCE, Esther became queen there, married to King Ahasueurus, and saved the Jews from genocide. A tomb presumed to be that of Daniel is located in the area, however, the current structure is actually a much later construction dated to the late nineteenth century, ca. Susa is further mentioned in the Book of Jubilees as one of the places within the inheritance of Shem and his eldest son Elam, Greek mythology attributed the founding of Susa to king Memnon of Aethiopia, a character from Homers Trojan War epic, the Iliad. The site was examined in 1836 by Henry Rawlinson and then by A. H. Layard, in 1851, some modest excavation was done by William Loftus, who identified it as Susa. In 1885 and 1886 Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy and Jane Dieulafoy began the first French excavations, jacques de Morgan conducted major excavations from 1897 until 1911. These efforts continued under Roland De Mecquenem until 1914, at the beginning of World War I, French work at Susa resumed after the war, led by De Mecquenem, continuing until World War II in 1940. Archaeological results from the period were very thinly published and attempts are underway to remedy this situation. Roman Ghirshman took over direction of the French efforts in 1946, together with his wife Tania Ghirshman, he continued there until 1967. The Ghirshmans concentrated on excavating a single part of the site, the pottery found at the various levels enabled a stratigraphy to be developed for Susa. During the 1970s, excavations resumed under Jean Perrot, archeologists have dated the first traces of an inhabited Neolithic village to c 7000 BCE. Evidence of a civilization has been dated to c 5000 BCE. Painted ceramic vessels from Susa in the earliest first style are a late, in urban history, Susa is one of the oldest-known settlements of the region
41.
Louvre
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The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the worlds largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the citys 1st arrondissement, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. The Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II, remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace, in 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nations masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum renamed Musée Napoléon, the collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic, whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den, in the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris to a monastery. This territory probably did not correspond exactly to the modern site, the Louvre Palace was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvres holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed, however, on 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. Under Louis XVI, the museum idea became policy. The comte dAngiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the French Museum, many proposals were offered for the Louvres renovation into a museum, however, none was agreed on. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution, during the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences, on 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property
42.
20th century BC
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The 20th century BC was a century which lasted from the year 2000 BC to 1901 BC.2000 BC, Arrival of the ancestors of the Latins in Italy. Town of Mantua was presumably founded, stonehenge is believed to have been completed. Farmers and herders traveled south from Ethiopia and settled in Kenya, horses were tamed and used for transport. C.2000 BC, First of the Minoan palaces on Crete, site of palace complex Knossos started to become occupied. Bronze Age began in north Ancient China, the Harappa Torso was sculpted by a member of the Indus Valley culture. Middle Jōmon period ended in Japan, vessel, from Asahi Mound, Toyama Prefecture, was made. It is now kept at Collection of Tokyo University, dogū, from Kurokoma, Yamanashi Prefecture, was made. It is now kept at Tokyo National Museum, C.2000 BC -1900 BC, the Priest-king torso was sculpted at Mohenjo-Daro, part of the Indus Valley civilization. C.2000 BC - The last wooly mammoth goes extinct on Wrangel island, C.1995 BC, Pharaoh Mentuhotep II, Eleventh dynasty of Egypt dies. 1991 BC, Egypt, Pharaoh Mentuhotep IV died, Pharaoh Amenemhat I started to rule. C.1985 BC, Political authority became less centralized in Ancient Egypt, C.1985 BC –1795 BC, Rock-cut tombs at Beni Hasan were made. Hippopotamus, from the tomb of Senbi at Meir was made and it is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. February 27,1953 BC, A very close alignment of the naked-eye planets took place in which planets are together in a span of 4.3 degrees. C.1942 BC, The so-called king of Leubingen was buried in a large barrow within a 66-foot-wide stone cairn inside a ring ditch. 1932 BC, Amorite conquest of Ur. c.1928 BC –1895 BC, Harvest scene, tempera facsimile by Nina de Garis Davies of wall painting in the tomb of Khnumhotep II,1913 BC –1903 BC, Egyptian-Nubian war. C.2000 BC – Glass appears,1950 BC—The copper bar cubit of Nippur defines the Sumerian cubit as 51.72 cm. c.1900 BC - Cacao is domesticated by the Mokaya in Guatemala. See, List of sovereign states in the 20th century BC
43.
Lleida
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Lleida is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the city of the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression, the metro area has about 250,000 inhabitants. It is also the city of the Segrià comarca, as well as the largest city in the province. It had 137,387 inhabitants as of 2010, including the municipalities of Raimat. Lleida is one of the oldest towns in Catalonia, with recorded settlements dating back to the Bronze Age period, until the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the area served as a settlement for an Iberian people, the Ilergetes. The town became a municipality, named Ilerda, under the reign of Augustus and it was reconquered in 1149, after being ruled by the Moors for many centuries, who had conquered the town in the 8th century. In 1297, the University of Lleida was founded, becoming the third oldest in the whole of Spain, during the following centuries, the town was damaged by several wars such as the Reapers War in the 17th century and the Spanish Civil War in the 20th century. Since then, the city has been in a constant urban, commercial, in ancient times the city, named Iltrida and Ilerda, was the chief city of the Ilergetes, an Iberian tribe. Indíbil, king of the Ilergetes, and Mandoni, king of the Ausetanes, under the Romans, the city was incorporated into the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis, and was a place of considerable importance, historically as well as geographically. Its situation induced the legates of Pompey in Spain to make it the key of their defense against Caesar and it ended by the capitulation of Afranius and Petreius, who were conquered as much by Caesars generosity as by his strategy. In consequence of the battle, the Latin phrase Ilerdam videas is said to have used by people who wanted to cast bad luck on someone else. Under the Roman empire, Ilerda was a flourishing city. It had a stone bridge over the Sicoris. In the time of Ausonius the city had fallen into decay and it was part of Visigothic and Muslim Hispania until it was conquered from the Moors by Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona in 1149. It used to be the seat of a university, the oldest in the Crown of Aragon, until 1717. The University of Lleida is nowadays active again since 1991, during the Reapers War, Lleida was occupied by the French and rebel forces. In 1644 the city was conquered by the Spanish under D. Felipe da Silva, Lleida served as a key defense point for Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, and fell to the Insurgents, whose air forces bombed it extensively, in 1937 and 1938
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