1.
Ethiopia
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Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north and northeast, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. With nearly 100 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world and it occupies a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres, and its capital and largest city is Addis Ababa. Some of the oldest evidence for modern humans has been found in Ethiopia. It is widely considered as the region from modern humans first set out for the Middle East. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations settled in the Horn region during the ensuing Neolithic era, tracing its roots to the 2nd millennium BC, Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of its history. During the first centuries AD, the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region, subsequently, many African nations adopted the colors of Ethiopias flag following their independence. It was the first independent African member of the 20th-century League of Nations, Ethiopias ancient Geez script, also known as Ethiopic, is one of the oldest alphabets still in use in the world. The Ethiopian calendar, which is seven years and three months behind the Gregorian calendar, co-exists alongside the Borana calendar. A slight majority of the population adheres to Christianity, while around a third follows Islam, the country is the site of the Migration to Abyssinia and the oldest Muslim settlement in Africa at Negash. A substantial population of Ethiopian Jews, known as Bete Israel, resided in Ethiopia until the 1980s, Ethiopia is a multilingual nation with around 80 ethnolinguistic groups, the four largest of which are the Oromiffa, Amhara, Somali, and Tigrayans. Most people in the country speak Afroasiatic languages of the Cushitic or Semitic branches, additionally, Omotic languages are spoken by ethnic minority groups inhabiting the southern regions. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by the nations Nilotic ethnic minorities. Ethiopia is the place of origin for the coffee bean which originated from the place called Kefa and it is a land of natural contrasts, with its vast fertile West, jungles, and numerous rivers, and the worlds hottest settlement of Dallol in its north. The Ethiopian Highlands are Africas largest continuous mountain ranges, and Sof Omar Caves contain Africas largest cave, Ethiopia has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Africa. Ethiopia is one of the members of the UN, the Group of 24, the Non-Aligned Movement, G-77. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ethiopia suffered from civil wars, the country has begun to recover recently however, and now has the largest economy in East Africa and Central Africa. According to Global Fire Power, Ethiopia has the 42nd most powerful military in the world, the origin of the word Ethiopia is uncertain
2.
Addis Ababa
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Addis Ababa or Addis Abeba, is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It has a population of 3,384,569 according to the 2007 population census and this number has been increased from the originally published 2,738,248 figure and appears to be still largely underestimated. As a chartered city, Addis Ababa has the status of both a city and a state and it is where the African Union is and its predecessor the OAU was based. It also hosts the headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa is therefore often referred to as the political capital of Africa for its historical, diplomatic and political significance for the continent. The city is populated by people from different regions of Ethiopia and it is home to Addis Ababa University. The Federation of African Societies of Chemistry and Horn of Africa Press Institute are also headquartered in Addis Ababa, Entoto is one of a handful of sites put forward as a possible location for a medieval imperial capital known as Barara. Dubbed the Pentagon, the 30 hecatre site incorporates a castle with 12 towers, the site of Addis Ababa was chosen by Empress Taytu Betul and the city was founded in 1886 by Emperor Menelik II. His interest in the area grew when his wife Taytu began work on a church on Mount Entoto, and Menelik endowed a second church in the area. However, the area did not encourage the founding of a town for lack of firewood and water. Initially, Taytu built a house for herself near the Filwoha hot mineral springs, other nobility and their staff and households settled in the vicinity, and Menelik expanded his wifes house to become the Imperial Palace which remains the seat of government in Addis Ababa today. The name changed to Addis Ababa and became Ethiopias capital when Menelik II became Emperor of Ethiopia, the town grew by leaps and bounds. One of Emperor Meneliks contributions that is visible today is the planting of numerous eucalyptus trees along the city streets. Following all the engagements of their invasion, Italian troops from the colony of Eritrea entered Addis Ababa on 5 May 1936. Along with Dire Dawa, the city had been spared the aerial bombardment practiced elsewhere, the city was liberated by Major Orde Wingates Sudanese and Ethiopian Gideon Force in time to permit Emperor Haile Selassies return on 5 May 1941, five years to the day after he had left. Following reconstruction, Haile Selassie helped form the Organisation of African Unity in 1963, the OAU was dissolved in 2002 and replaced by the African Union, also headquartered in Addis Ababa. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa also has its headquarters in Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa was also the site of the Council of the Oriental Orthodox Churches in 1965. Ethiopia has often called the original home of mankind because of various humanoid fossil discoveries like the Australopithecine Lucy. After analysing the DNA of almost 1,000 people around the world, geneticists, the research indicated that genetic diversity decreases steadily the farther ones ancestors traveled from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
3.
Bead
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Beads range in size from under 1 millimetre to over 1 centimetre in diameter. A pair of beads made from Nassarius sea snail shells, approximately 100,000 years old, are thought to be the earliest known examples of jewellery, beadwork is the art or craft of making things with beads. Beads can be together with specialized thread, strung onto thread or soft, flexible wire. In some cases, such as millefiori and cloisonné beads, multiple categories may overlap in an interdependent fashion, Beads can be made of many different materials. The earliest beads were made of a variety of materials which, after they were gathered. As humans became capable of obtaining and working with more difficult materials, more recently, synthetic materials were added. In modern manufacturing, the most common materials are wood, plastic, glass, metal. Beads are still made from naturally occurring materials, both organic and inorganic. However, some of these materials now routinely undergo some extra processing beyond mere shaping and drilling such as color enhancement via dyes or irradiation, the natural organics include bone, coral, horn, ivory, seeds, animal shell, and wood. For most of human history pearls were the ultimate precious beads of natural origin because of their rarity, amber and jet are also of natural organic origin although both are the result of partial fossilization. The natural inorganics include various types of stones, ranging from gemstones to common minerals, and metals. Of the latter, only a few precious metals occur in pure forms, the oldest-surviving synthetic materials used for beadmaking have generally been ceramics, pottery and glass. Beads were also made from ancient alloys such as bronze and brass, many different subtypes of glass are now used for beadmaking, some of which have their own component-specific names. Lead crystal beads have a percentage of lead oxide in the glass formula. Most of the other named glass types have their formulations and patterns inseparable from the manufacturing process, plastic toy beads, made by chopping plastic tubes into short pieces, were introduced in 1958 by Munkplast AB in Munka-Ljungby, Sweden, under the brand Nabbi. Known as Indian beads, they were sewn together to form ribbons. The pegboard for bead designs was invented in the early 1960s by Gunnar Knutsson in Vällingby, Sweden, as a therapy for elderly homes, the bead designs were glued to cardboard or Masonite boards and used as trivets. Later, when the beads were made of polyethylene, it possible to fuse them with a flat iron
4.
Sewing needle
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A sewing needle for hand-sewing is a long slender tool with a pointed tip at one end and a hole or eye at the other. The earliest needles were made of bone or wood, modern ones are manufactured from carbon steel wire and are nickel- or 18K gold-plated for corrosion resistance. The highest quality embroidery needles are plated with platinum and one-third titanium alloy. Traditionally, needles have been kept in books or needlecases which have become objects of adornment. Sewing needles may also be kept in an etui, a box that held needles and other items such as scissors, pencils. Hand sewing needles come in a variety of types/ classes designed according to their intended use, sharp Needles, used for general hand sewing, built with a sharp point, a round eye, and are of medium length. Those with a double-eyes are able to carry two strands of thread while minimizing fabric friction, appliqué, These are considered another all-purpose needle for sewing, appliqué, and patch work. Embroidery, Also known as needles, identical to sharps but have a longer eye to enable easier threading of multiple embroidery threads. Milliners, A class of needles generally longer than sharps, useful for basting and pleating, normally used in millinery work. Beading, These needles are very fine, with an eye to enable them to fit through the centre of beads and sequins along with a long shaft to thread. Bodkin, Also called ballpoints, this is a long, thick needle with a ballpoint end and they can be flat or round and are generally used for threading elastic, ribbon or tape through casings and lace openings. Chenille, These are similar to tapestry needles but with large, long eyes, darning, Sometimes called finishing needles, these are designed with a blunt tip and large eye making them similar to tapestry needles but longer, yarn darners are the heaviest sub-variety. Doll, Not designed for hand sewing at all, these needles are made long and thin and are used for soft sculpturing on dolls, particularly facial details. Leather, Also known as glovers and as wedge needles, these have a point designed to pierce leather without tearing it, often used on leather-like materials such as vinyl. Sailmaker, Similar to leather needles, but the triangular point extends further up the shaft, tatting, These are built long with an even thickness for their entire length, including at the eye, to enable thread to be pulled through the double stitches used in tatting. Straight sizes, 3-12 long, curved,1. 5-6 long, needle size is denoted by one or more numbers on the manufacturers packet. The general convention for sizing of needles, like that of wire gauges, is that any given class of needle the length. For example, a size 9 needle will be thicker and longer than a size 12 needle, however, the needle sizes are not standardized and so a size 10 of one class may be either thinner or finer than a size 12 of another type
5.
Jewellery
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Jewellery or jewelry consists of small decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes, for many centuries metal, often combined with gemstones, has been the normal material for jewellery, but other materials such as shells and other plant materials may be used. It is one of the oldest type of archaeological artefact – with 100, historically, the most widespread influence on jewellery in terms of design and style have come from Asia. Jewellery may be made from a range of materials. Gemstones and similar such as amber and coral, precious metals, beads, and shells have been widely used. In most cultures jewellery can be understood as a symbol, for its material properties, its patterns. Jewellery has been made to nearly every body part, from hairpins to toe rings. The word jewellery itself is derived from the jewel, which was anglicised from the Old French jouel. In British English, Indian English, New Zealand English, Hiberno-English, Australian English, both are used in Canadian English, though jewelry prevails by a two to one margin. Numerous cultures store wedding dowries in the form of jewellery or make jewellery as a means to store or display coins, alternatively, jewellery has been used as a currency or trade good, an example being the use of slave beads. Many items of jewellery, such as brooches and buckles, originated as functional items. Jewellery can also symbolise group membership or status, wearing of amulets and devotional medals to provide protection or ward off evil is common in some cultures. These may take the form of symbols, stones, plants, animals, body parts, in creating jewellery, gemstones, coins, or other precious items are often used, and they are typically set into precious metals. Alloys of nearly every metal known have been encountered in jewellery, bronze, for example, was common in Roman times. Modern fine jewellery usually includes gold, white gold, platinum, palladium, titanium, most contemporary gold jewellery is made of an alloy of gold, the purity of which is stated in karats, indicated by a number followed by the letter K. American gold jewellery must be of at least 10K purity, many whimsical fashions were introduced in the extravagant eighteenth century. Cameos that were used in connection with jewellery were the attractive trinkets along with many of the objects such as brooches, ear-rings. Some of the necklets were made of pieces joined with the gold chains were in and bracelets were also made sometimes to match the necklet
6.
Sculpture
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Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. It is one of the plastic arts, a wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modelling, or molded, or cast. However, most ancient sculpture was painted, and this has been lost. Those cultures whose sculptures have survived in quantities include the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, India and China, the Western tradition of sculpture began in ancient Greece, and Greece is widely seen as producing great masterpieces in the classical period. During the Middle Ages, Gothic sculpture represented the agonies and passions of the Christian faith, the revival of classical models in the Renaissance produced famous sculptures such as Michelangelos David. Relief is often classified by the degree of projection from the wall into low or bas-relief, high relief, sunk-relief is a technique restricted to ancient Egypt. Relief sculpture may also decorate steles, upright slabs, usually of stone, techniques such as casting, stamping and moulding use an intermediate matrix containing the design to produce the work, many of these allow the production of several copies. The term sculpture is used mainly to describe large works. The very large or colossal statue has had an enduring appeal since antiquity, another grand form of portrait sculpture is the equestrian statue of a rider on horse, which has become rare in recent decades. The smallest forms of life-size portrait sculpture are the head, showing just that, or the bust, small forms of sculpture include the figurine, normally a statue that is no more than 18 inches tall, and for reliefs the plaquette, medal or coin. Sculpture is an important form of public art, a collection of sculpture in a garden setting can be called a sculpture garden. One of the most common purposes of sculpture is in form of association with religion. Cult images are common in cultures, though they are often not the colossal statues of deities which characterized ancient Greek art. The actual cult images in the innermost sanctuaries of Egyptian temples, of which none have survived, were rather small. The same is true in Hinduism, where the very simple. Some undoubtedly advanced cultures, such as the Indus Valley civilization, appear to have had no monumental sculpture at all, though producing very sophisticated figurines, the Mississippian culture seems to have been progressing towards its use, with small stone figures, when it collapsed. Other cultures, such as ancient Egypt and the Easter Island culture, from the 20th century the relatively restricted range of subjects found in large sculpture expanded greatly, with abstract subjects and the use or representation of any type of subject now common. Today much sculpture is made for intermittent display in galleries and museums, small sculpted fittings for furniture and other objects go well back into antiquity, as in the Nimrud ivories, Begram ivories and finds from the tomb of Tutankhamun
7.
Bead weaving
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Bead weaving using seed beads can be done either on a loom or using one of a number of off-loom stitches. When weaving on a loom, the beads are locked in between the threads by the weft threads. The most common bead weaving technique requires two passes of the weft thread, first, an entire row of beads is strung on the weft thread. Then the beads are pressed in between the warp threads, the needle is passed back through the beads above the warp threads to lock the beads into place. Heddle looms were popular near the beginning of the 20th century and they allowed weaving of beads by raising every other thread and inserting strung beads in the shed, the space between the lowered and raised threads. There are still a few Heddle Bead Looms being manufactured today, the most difficult part of loomwork is finishing off the warp threads. Although loomed pieces are rectangular, it is possible to increase and decrease to produce angular or curvy shapes. Fringe can also be added during weaving or before the piece is removed from the loom, Bead looms vary in size and are typically made of wood or metal. Usually, a comb or spring is used to hold the warp threads a bead-width apart, some looms have roller bars that allow the weaver to produce pieces that are longer than the loom. Most looms are meant to sit on a table, but some have floor stands or are meant to sit in the lap, all off-loom techniques can be accomplished using a single needle and thread, but some have two-needle variations. Different stitches produce pieces with distinct textures, shapes, and patterns, ISBN 1-883010-63-2 Carol Wilcox Wells, Creative Bead Weaving
8.
Bead stringing
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Bead stringing is the putting of beads on string. It can range from simply sliding a single bead onto any thread-like medium to complex creations that have multiple strands or interwoven levels. The choice of stringing medium can be an important point in the overall design, similarly, certain bead types with sharp edges, such as hollow metal beads or some varieties of stone or glass, might abrade the string and cause the strand to eventually break. The simplest design is a single bead centered as a point on the string medium. The ends of the string can be simply knotted together or components of a clasp may be attached to each end, next in complexity would be stringing multiple beads onto a single strand. Here alone are numerous opportunities for adding elements to the design concept, all the beads might be identical. The beads might be varied and used either in a random assortment or in a repeating pattern. Items not strictly defined as beads, such as pendants or drops, knotting is a next level of proficiency in creating strands. Here the stringing medium has knots tied into it as a means of separating the individual beads from each other, the traditional strand of pearls is a well-known example of this technique. This classic design can be varied by adding or using other varieties of beads or varying the number, multiple strands can be created using either the simple stringing or the knotting technique. Here, depending on the design, more planning may be called for. If the bead pattern is random, the concern is that one strand be sized shorter than the next, so they will all lie flat. However, if a repeating pattern is planned, then careful planning will be required so that the placement of matching portions of the pattern between the strands is aligned properly. A beading board, generally a flat panel with measured curved indentations in several staggered lengths, is a tool for spacing the beads to work out the desired pattern. There is another way of using the smallest size of beads which is naïve and it is a medium for artistic expression e. g. calligraphy or portraiture by arranging patterns of smallest size of beads of different textures and hues in the length of adjoined strings. Motikaari is a craft as well as an art, the method of making a pattern involves three stages. The first stage in this art form is to prepare a desired pattern on paper, then it is pasted on a flat panel hardboard sheet. Preparation of hardboard sheet is the second important stage of the work, in the third stage, the beads of different colors are strung together according to the sketched pattern with the help of needle and thread in the form of independent but parallel columns of strings
9.
Bead embroidery
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Bead embroidery is a type of beadwork that uses a needle and thread to stitch beads to a surface of fabric, suede, or leather. Bead embroidery is an embellishment that does not form a part of a textiles structure. In this respect, bead embroidery differs from bead weaving, bead crochet, woven, knitted, and crocheted beads may be attached during fabric production, whereas embroidered beads are always added upon finished fabric. Traditionally, bead embroidery has been used on clothing and decorative textiles and it may be used in jewelry with the addition of structural supports such as bracelet bands. Other clothing accessories such as buckles and handbags can be embroidered with beads. When used with hard surfaces, bead patterns are measured and planned with seam allowances, in India the work is called Zari or Moochi Aari, or just Aari and is used on garments and furnishings. A hallmark of Tambour or Luneville embroidery is that the beads are attached on the underside of the fabric, whereas in Zari and Aari work the beads are attached to the top side of the fabric where the chain stitch is formed. In Zari/Aari work the thread is hooked through each bead as the stitches are formed, there are multiple YouTube videos examples demonstrating Arri/Zari stitching, and numerous books which instruct on Tambour or Luneville work. Using a frame means the embroiderer has both hands free for working, in Tambour or Luneville work the frame is often supported between two tables, above a table or on stands and used when seated on a chair. In Aari or Zari work the frame is often closer to the ground, lesage is acclaimed in the fashion world for the beaded embroideries worked for many well known fashion designers
10.
Bead crochet
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Bead crochet is a crochet technique that incorporates beads into a crochet fabric. The technique is used to produce effects in womens fashion accessories. The word crochet is derived from the French croche or croc meaning to hook, published descriptions of bead crochet date from around 1824 although it was probably common before then. At one time, bead crochet was thought by some people to be only for rich people. Early examples of bead crochet include nineteenth century misers purses, by the 1920s bead crochet technique also made necklace ropes, bracelets, and beaded bags. Bead crochet waned during the 1930s when the great depression reduced free time for decorative needlework, interest in bead crochet has revived somewhat in recent years as a hobbyist pastime. Most bead crochet is created by stringing beads onto uncut crochet thread prior to crocheting, most artists either use a beading needle or apply clear nail polish to the end of the thread to create an anchor point for beading. At predetermined stitches, the slides one bead down and incorporates it into the fabric. Pre-stringing requires both the sequence and the crochet pattern to be fully planned in advance of manufacture. This technique aligns beads on one side of the stitch, so crocheting in rounds naturally yields a bead side and a crochet side. Projects that are worked in rows would either have beads on both sides of the fabric or have alternating bead and non-bead rows, off-loom stitches and fringing may also be used to add beads onto finished crochet work. Design considerations in bead crochet include the size of the yarn or weight to be used, the diameter of the beads, bethany Barry, Bead Crochet, Loveland, Colorado, Interweave Press,2004
11.
Bead knitting
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Beaded knitting is a type of knitting in which the stitches are decorated with ceramic or glass beads. The techniques are described here for beads, but knitting sequins can be done analogously, there are two main approaches- threading the beads on in advance, and threading the beads on individually as the object is knitted. The classic approach is to thread beads on the yarn in advance, there are several ways to go about knitting the beads in though, slipping the stitch, putting the bead between stitches, and putting the bead on the stitch. The slip stitch method is to slip the stitch with the yarn in front at the position where a bead is desired, the bead will be visible only on the right side of the work. The disadvantage of this method is that beads cannot be arranged on top of each other, the axis of the bead is horizontal to the work. Putting the bead between the two stitches is done by positioning the bead on the yarn connecting two stitches, i. e. between two bights and this results in the bead being visible from both sides of the work when beads are slipped on both sides. The bead has a tendency to not lie straight when placed with this method, the axis of the bead is horizontal with respect to the work. This is the shown in the picture. The third method is to knit the stitch with the bead on the bight itself, technically, this is considered bead knitting rather than beaded knitting. For consistency, the bead should be positioned on the leg of the bight. Using this third method, one can make a densely beaded knitted fabric, i. e. one that appears to be all beads, with no knitted yarns visible. It is sometimes difficult, however, to keep the bead on the side of the fabric, for this reason. A second approach that offers more flexibility is to thread the bead onto the bight, in this case, the beads appears on both sides of the fabric. The chief drawback of this method is that the beads must be larger, in this approach, it is helpful to make an elongated stitch to fit both the bead and the next stitch. A third approach is to sew on the beads after knitting and this approach is the least desirable, since it does not protect the yarn as well and since the sewing thread is usually weaker than the yarn. In the Victorian era, it was popular to knit densely beaded purses using tiny knitting needles made of stiff wire, such tiny stitches allow for very intricate patterns. Very small lace needles, as small as 0.5 mm diameter, are available from specialty retailers, vogue Knitting, The Ultimate Knitting Book, updated ed. Sixth and Spring Books. The Encyclopedia of Knitting Techniques, Viking Penguin, ISBN 0-7181-3124-X June Hemmons Hiatt The Principles of Knitting, Simon and Schuster, pp. 293–305
12.
Homo sapiens
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Homo sapiens is the binomial nomenclature for the only extant human species. Homo is the genus, which also includes Neanderthals and many other extinct species of hominid. Modern humans are the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens, which differentiates them from what has been argued to be their direct ancestor, the binomial name Homo sapiens was coined by Carl Linnaeus. The Latin noun homō means man, human being, subspecies of H. sapiens include Homo sapiens idaltu and the only extant subspecies, Homo sapiens sapiens. Some sources show Neanderthals as a subspecies, similarly, the discovered specimens of the Homo rhodesiensis species have been classified by some as a subspecies, but these last two subspecies classifications are not widely accepted by scientists. Traditionally, there are two competing views in paleoanthropology about the origin of H. sapiens, the recent African origin, since 2010, genetic research has led to the emergence of an intermediate position, characterised by mostly recent African origin plus limited admixture with archaic humans. The recent African origin of humans is the mainstream model that describes the origin. The theory is called the Out-of-Africa model in the press, and academically the recent single-origin hypothesis, Replacement Hypothesis. The hypothesis that humans have a single origin was published in Charles Darwins Descent of Man, the concept was speculative until the 1980s, when it was corroborated by a study of present-day mitochondrial DNA, combined with evidence based on physical anthropology of archaic specimens. The recent single origin of humans in East Africa is the near-consensus position held within the scientific community. However, recent sequencing of the full Neanderthal genome suggests Neanderthals, the authors of the study suggest that their findings are consistent with Neanderthal admixture of up to 4% in some populations. But the study suggests that there may be other reasons why humans. That study however does not explain why only a fraction of humans have Neanderthal DNA. The multiregional origin model provides an explanation for the pattern of evolution proposed by Milford H. Wolpoff in 1988. Scientific study of evolution is concerned, primarily, with the development of the genus Homo. Modern humans are defined as the Homo sapiens species, of which the extant subspecies is known as Homo sapiens sapiens. Homo sapiens idaltu, the known subspecies, is now extinct. Similarly, the specimens of the Homo rhodesiensis species have been classified by some as a subspecies
13.
Religion
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Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has considered a source of religious beliefs. There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, about 84% of the worlds population is affiliated with one of the five largest religions, namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion. With the onset of the modernisation of and the revolution in the western world. The religiously unaffiliated demographic include those who do not identify with any religion, atheists. While the religiously unaffiliated have grown globally, many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs, about 16% of the worlds population is religiously unaffiliated. The study of religion encompasses a variety of academic disciplines, including theology, comparative religion. Theories of religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion, Religion is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possible interpretation traced to Cicero, connects lego read, i. e. re with lego in the sense of choose, go over again or consider carefully. The medieval usage alternates with order in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders, we hear of the religion of the Golden Fleece, of a knight of the religion of Avys. In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin root religio was understood as a virtue of worship, never as doctrine, practice. In the Quran, the Arabic word din is often translated as religion in modern translations and it was in the 19th century that the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Confucianism first emerged. Max Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, what is called ancient religion today, they would have only called law. Some languages have words that can be translated as religion, but they may use them in a different way. For example, the Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as religion, throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a union between imperial law and universal or Buddha law, but these later became independent sources of power. There is no equivalent of religion in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities
14.
Vittorio Crivelli
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Vittorio Crivelli was an Italian painter, brother of Carlo Crivelli. Born ca.1440 in Venice, dead in Venice 1501 or 1502 and his works are similar in style to his brothers, but less accomplished. He painted a Madonna della Morte for a church in Massa Fermana, virgin and Child enthroned, in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
15.
Hobby
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A hobby is a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during ones leisure time. Hobbies can include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports, a list of hobbies is lengthy and always changing as interests and fashions change. By continually participating in a hobby, one can acquire substantial skill. Engagement in hobbies has increased since the nineteenth century as workers have more leisure time and advancing production. As some hobbies have become popular, like stamp collecting, others have been created following technological advances. Hobbyists are a part of a group of people engaged in leisure pursuits where the boundaries of each group overlap to some extent. The Serious Leisure Perspective groups hobbyists with amateurs and volunteers and identifies three broad groups of activity with hobbies being found mainly in the Serious leisure category. Casual leisure is intrinsically rewarding, short-lived, pleasurable activity requiring little or no preparation b, Serious leisure is the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer that is substantial, rewarding and results in a sense of accomplishment. Project-based leisure is a short-term often a one-off project that is rewarding, in the 16th century, the term hobyn had the meaning of small horse and pony. The term hobby horse was documented in a 1557 payment confirmation for a Hobbyhorse from Reading, the item, originally called a Tourney Horse, was made of a wooden or basketwork frame with an artificial tail and head. It was designed for a child to mimic riding a real horse, by 1816 the derivative, hobby, was introduced into the vocabulary of a number of English people. Over the course of subsequent centuries, the term came to be associated with recreation, a hobby became an activity that is practised regularly and usually with some worthwhile purpose. Hobbies are usually, but not always, practised primarily for interest and enjoyment, the origins pursuits that others thought somewhat childish or trivial. However, as early as 1676 Sir Matthew Hale, in Contemplations Moral and Divine and he was acknowledging that a hobby horse produces a legitimate sense of pride. By the mid 18th century there was a flourishing of hobbies as working people had more hours of work. They spent more time to pursue interests that brought them satisfaction, however, there was concern that these working people might not use their leisure time in worthwhile pursuits. The hope of weaning people away from bad habits by the provision of counter-attractions came to the fore in the 1830s, the flourishing book and magazine trade of the day encouraged worthwhile hobbies and pursuits. The burgeoning manufacturing trade made materials used in hobbies cheap and was responsive to the interests of hobbyists
16.
Jewelry
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Jewellery or jewelry consists of small decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes, for many centuries metal, often combined with gemstones, has been the normal material for jewellery, but other materials such as shells and other plant materials may be used. It is one of the oldest type of archaeological artefact – with 100, historically, the most widespread influence on jewellery in terms of design and style have come from Asia. Jewellery may be made from a range of materials. Gemstones and similar such as amber and coral, precious metals, beads, and shells have been widely used. In most cultures jewellery can be understood as a symbol, for its material properties, its patterns. Jewellery has been made to nearly every body part, from hairpins to toe rings. The word jewellery itself is derived from the jewel, which was anglicised from the Old French jouel. In British English, Indian English, New Zealand English, Hiberno-English, Australian English, both are used in Canadian English, though jewelry prevails by a two to one margin. Numerous cultures store wedding dowries in the form of jewellery or make jewellery as a means to store or display coins, alternatively, jewellery has been used as a currency or trade good, an example being the use of slave beads. Many items of jewellery, such as brooches and buckles, originated as functional items. Jewellery can also symbolise group membership or status, wearing of amulets and devotional medals to provide protection or ward off evil is common in some cultures. These may take the form of symbols, stones, plants, animals, body parts, in creating jewellery, gemstones, coins, or other precious items are often used, and they are typically set into precious metals. Alloys of nearly every metal known have been encountered in jewellery, bronze, for example, was common in Roman times. Modern fine jewellery usually includes gold, white gold, platinum, palladium, titanium, most contemporary gold jewellery is made of an alloy of gold, the purity of which is stated in karats, indicated by a number followed by the letter K. American gold jewellery must be of at least 10K purity, many whimsical fashions were introduced in the extravagant eighteenth century. Cameos that were used in connection with jewellery were the attractive trinkets along with many of the objects such as brooches, ear-rings. Some of the necklets were made of pieces joined with the gold chains were in and bracelets were also made sometimes to match the necklet
17.
Handbag
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A handbag, also purse or pouch in North American English, is a handled medium-to-large bag that is often fashionably designed, often used by women, to hold personal items. The term purse originally referred to a bag for holding coins. In British English, it is used to refer to a small coin bag. A handbag is an accessory that holds objects beyond currency. American English typically uses the terms purse and handbag interchangeably, the term handbag began appearing in the early 1900s. Initially, it was most often used to refer to mens hand-luggage, womens bags grew larger and more complex during this period, and the term was attached to the accessory. Handbags are valued for their stylishness as visual accessories as well as for their function, the verb to handbag derives from UK prime minister Margaret Thatchers habit of pulling scraps of paper out of her handbag in meetings and reading aloud the comments she had written on them. The verbs more general meaning of treating ruthlessly came to symbolise Thatchers whole style of government, julian Critchley, one of her biggest Tory backbench critics, once said, Margaret Thatcher and her handbag is the same as Winston Churchill and his cigar. Early modern Europeans wore purses for one purpose, to carry coins. Purses were made of fabric or leather and were worn by men as often as ladies. In the 17th century, young girls were taught embroidery as a skill for marriage. By the late 18th century, fashions in Europe were moving towards a slender shape for these accessories, inspired by the silhouettes of Ancient Greece, women wanted purses that would not be bulky or untidy in appearance, so reticules were designed. Reticules were made of fine fabrics like silk and velvet, carried with wrist straps, first becoming popular in France, they crossed over into Britain, where they became known as indispensables. Men, however, did not adopt the trend and they used purses and pockets, which became popular in mens trousers. The modern purse, clutch, pouch or handbag came about in England during the Industrial Revolution, H. J. Cave obliged and produced the first modern set of luxury handbags, as we would recognize them today, including a clutch and a tote. These are now on display in the Museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam. H. J. Cave did continue to sell and advertise the handbags, but many critics said that women did not need them, H. J. However, H. J. Cave resumed handbag production in 2010. During the 1940s, the rationing of textiles for World War II led to the manufacturing of handbags made in materials like raffia or crocheted from yarn, some women crocheted their own small handbags from commercial patterns during this period
18.
Brooklyn Museum
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The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum is New York Citys third largest in physical size, the museum initially struggled to maintain its building and collection, only to be revitalized in the late 20th century, thanks to major renovations. Significant areas of the collection include antiquities, specifically their collection of Egyptian antiquities spanning over 3,000 years, African, Oceanic, and Japanese art make for notable antiquities collections as well. American art is represented, starting at the Colonial period. Artists represented in the collection include Mark Rothko, Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell, Winslow Homer, Edgar Degas, Georgia OKeeffe, the museum also has a Memorial Sculpture Garden which features salvaged architectural elements from throughout New York City. The roots of the Brooklyn Museum extend back to the 1823 founding by Augustus Graham of the Brooklyn Apprentices’ Library in Brooklyn Heights, in 1890, under its director Franklin Hooper, Institute leaders reorganized as the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and began planning the Brooklyn Museum. The initial design for the Brooklyn Museum was four times as large as the actualized version, Daniel Chester French, the noted sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial, was the principal designer of the pediment sculptures and the monolithic 12. 5-foot figures along the cornice. The figures were created by 11 sculptors and carved by the Piccirilli Brothers, by 1920, the New York City Subway reached the museum with a subway station, this greatly improved access to the once-isolated museum from Manhattan and other outer boroughs. The Brooklyn Institutes director Franklin Hooper was the museums first director and he was followed by Philip Newell Youtz, Laurance Page Roberts, Isabel Spaulding Roberts, Charles Nagel, Jr. and Edgar Craig Schenck. Thomas S. Buechner became the director in 1960, making him one of the youngest directors in the country. Buechner oversaw a major transformation in the way the museum displayed art and brought some one thousand works that had languished in the museums archives and put them on display. Buechner played a role in rescuing the Daniel Chester French sculptures from destruction due to an expansion project at the Manhattan Bridge in the 1960s. The Brooklyn Museum changed its name to Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1997, on March 12,2004, the museum announced that it would revert to its previous name. In April 2004, the museum opened the James Polshek-designed entrance pavilion on the Eastern Parkway façade, in September 2014, Lehman announced that he was planning to retire around June 2015. In May 2015, Creative Time president and artistic director Anne Pasternak was named the Museums next director, member institutions occupy land or buildings owned by the City of New York and derive part of their yearly funding from the City. The Brooklyn Museum also supplements its earned income with funding from Federal and State governments, as well as donations by individuals. Major benefactors include Frank Lusk Babbott, the museum is the site of the annual Brooklyn Artists Ball which has included celebrity hosts such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Liv Tyler. The Brooklyn Museum exhibits collections that seek to embody the rich heritage of world cultures
19.
Egyptian faience
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Egyptian faience is a sintered-quartz ceramic displaying surface vitrification which creates a bright lustre of various colours, with blue-green being the most common. Notably, faience is considerably more porous than glass proper and can be cast in molds to create vessels or objects, Egyptian faience was very widely used for small objects from beads to small statues, and is found in both elite and popular contexts. It was the most common material for scarabs and other forms of amulet and shabti figures, larger applications included cups and bowls, and wall tiles, mostly used for temples. 9-centimetre faience sceptre from Egypt dated 1427–1400 BC. It is called Egyptian faience to distinguish it from faience, the tin-glazed pottery associated with Faenza in northern Italy, the term is therefore unsatisfactory in several respects, although clear in an Ancient Egyptian context, and is increasingly rejected in museum and archaeological usage. The bodies are usually colourless but natural impurities give them a brown or greyish tint, colourants can also be added to give it an artificial colour. It can be modelled by hand, thrown or moulded, and this material is used in the context of Islamic ceramics where it is described as stonepaste. Glazed composition is related to glass, but glass is formed by fusing the ingredients in a liquid melted at high temperature. This material is also popularly called faience in the contexts of Ancient Egypt, however, this is a misnomer as these objects have no relationship to the glazed pottery vessels made in Faenza, from which the faience term derives. From the inception of faience in the record of Ancient Egypt. Glazed in these colours, faience was perceived as substitute for blue-green materials such as turquoise, found in the Sinai peninsula, and lapis lazuli, from Afghanistan. As early as the Predynastic graves at Naqada, Badar, el-Amrah, Matmar, Harageh, Avadiyedh and El-Gerzeh, glazed steatite and faience beads are found associated with these semi-precious stones. The symbolism embedded in blue glazing could recall both the Nile, the waters of heaven and the home of the gods, whereas green could possibly evoke images of regeneration, rebirth and vegetation. Such close relationship is reflected in the prominent similarity of the formulations of faience glaze, Faience has been defined as the first high technology ceramic, to emphasize its status as an artificial medium, rendering it effectively a precious stone. Plant ash, from halophyte plants typical of dry and sea areas, was the source of alkali until the Ptolemaic Period. Typical faience mixture is thixotropic, that is thick at first and then soft and this property, together with the angularity of silica particles, accounts for the gritty slumps formed when the material is wetted, rendering faience a difficult material to hold a shape. If pressed too vigorously, this material will resist flow until it yields and cracks, due to its limited plastic deformation and low yield strength. A number of possible binding agents, amongst Arabic gum, clay, lime, egg white, the use of alkalis as binders, in the form of natron or plant ash, produced suitable results in experiments. Three methods have been hypothesized to shape the body of faience objects, modeling, moulding and abrasion, modeling, scraping and grinding are the techniques most widely used in earlier times, as represented in the material qualities of Predynastic and Protodynastic faience objects
20.
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
21.
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
22.
Narmer
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Narmer was an ancient Egyptian king of the Early Dynastic Period. Probably the successor to the Protodynastic kings Scorpion and/or Ka, some consider him the unifier of Egypt and founder of the First Dynasty, and in turn the first king of a unified Egypt. This conclusion is based on the Narmer Palette and the two seals from the necropolis of Abydos that show him as the first king of the First Dynasty. The date commonly given for the beginning of his reign is c.3100 BC, other mainstream estimates using both the historical method and Radiocarbon dating are in the range 3273–2987 BC. Although highly inter-related, the question of “who was Menes. ”, while Menes is traditionally considered the first king of Ancient Egypt, Narmer has been identified by the majority of Egyptologists as the same person as Menes. Although vigorously debated, the predominant opinion is that Narmer was Menes, the issue is confusing because “Narmer” is a Horus Name, while “Menes” is a personal name. The difficulty is aligning the contemporary archaeological evidence which lists Horus Names with the King Lists that list personal names, two documents have been put forward as proof either that Narmer was Menes or alternatively Hor-Aha was Menes. The first is the “Naqada Label” which shows a serekh of Hor-Aha next to an enclosure inside of which are symbols that have been interpreted by scholars as the name “Menes”. The second is the impression from Abydos that alternates between a serekh of Narmer and the chessboard symbol, “mn”, which is interpreted as an abbreviation of Menes. Arguments have been made with regard to each of these documents in favour of Narmer or Hor-Aha being Menes, but in neither case, are the arguments conclusive. Two necropolis sealings, found in 1985 and 1991 in Abydos, in or near the tombs of Den and Qa’a, show Narmer as the founder of the First Dynasty, followed by Hor-Aha. The Qa’a sealing lists all eight of the kings of the First Dynasty in the correct order starting with Narmer and these necropolis sealings are strong evidence that Narmer was the first king of the First Dynasty – hence is the same person as Menes. The famous Narmer Palette, discovered by James E, since its discovery, however, it has been debated whether the Narmer Palette represents an actual historic event or is purely symbolic. Of course, the Narmer Palette could represent an historical event while at the same time having a symbolic significance. In 1993, Günter Dreyer discovered in Abydos, a “year label” of Narmer depicting the event that is depicted on the Narmer Palette. This year label shows that the Narmer Palette depicts an historical event. Archaeological evidence suggests that Egypt was at least partially unified during the reigns of Ka and Iry-Hor, but there is a substantial difference in the quantity and distribution of inscriptions with the names of those earlier kings in Lower Egypt and Canaan, compared to the inscriptions of Narmer. The archaeological evidence suggest that the unification began before Narmer, but was completed by him through the conquest of a polity in the North-West Delta as depicted on the Narmer Palette
23.
Ptolemaic Kingdom
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The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a Hellenistic kingdom based in Egypt. Alexandria became the city and a major center of Greek culture. To gain recognition by the native Egyptian populace, they named themselves the successors to the Pharaohs, the later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions by marrying their siblings, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life. The Ptolemies had to fight native rebellions and were involved in foreign and civil wars led to the decline of the kingdom. Hellenistic culture continued to thrive in Egypt throughout the Roman and Byzantine periods until the Muslim conquest. The era of Ptolemaic reign in Egypt is one of the most well documented periods of the Hellenistic Era. In 332 BC, Alexander the Great, King of Macedon invaded the Achaemenid satrapy of Egypt and he visited Memphis, and traveled to the oracle of Amun at the Oasis of Siwa. The oracle declared him to be the son of Amun, the wealth of Egypt could now be harnessed for Alexanders conquest of the rest of the Persian Empire. Early in 331 BC he was ready to depart, and led his forces away to Phoenicia and he left Cleomenes as the ruling nomarch to control Egypt in his absence. Following Alexanders death in Babylon in 323 BC, a crisis erupted among his generals. Perdiccas appointed Ptolemy, one of Alexanders closest companions, to be satrap of Egypt, Ptolemy ruled Egypt from 323 BC, nominally in the name of the joint kings Philip III and Alexander IV. However, as Alexander the Greats empire disintegrated, Ptolemy soon established himself as ruler in his own right, Ptolemy successfully defended Egypt against an invasion by Perdiccas in 321 BC, and consolidated his position in Egypt and the surrounding areas during the Wars of the Diadochi. In 305 BC, Ptolemy took the title of King, as Ptolemy I Soter, he founded the Ptolemaic dynasty that was to rule Egypt for nearly 300 years. All the male rulers of the dynasty took the name Ptolemy, while princesses and queens preferred the names Cleopatra, Arsinoe and Berenice. Because the Ptolemaic kings adopted the Egyptian custom of marrying their sisters, many of the kings ruled jointly with their spouses and this custom made Ptolemaic politics confusingly incestuous, and the later Ptolemies were increasingly feeble. The only Ptolemaic Queens to officially rule on their own were Berenice III, Cleopatra V did co-rule, but it was with another female, Berenice IV. Cleopatra VII officially co-ruled with Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator, Ptolemy XIV, and Ptolemy XV, upper Egypt, farthest from the centre of government, was less immediately affected, even though Ptolemy I established the Greek colony of Ptolemais Hermiou to be its capital. But within a century Greek influence had spread through the country, nevertheless, the Greeks always remained a privileged minority in Ptolemaic Egypt
24.
Old Kingdom of Egypt
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The term itself was coined by eighteenth-century historians and the distinction between the Old Kingdom and the Early Dynastic Period is not one which would have been recognized by Ancient Egyptians. The Old Kingdom is most commonly regarded as the period from the Third Dynasty through to the Sixth Dynasty, many Egyptologists also include the Memphite Seventh and Eighth Dynasties in the Old Kingdom as a continuation of the administration centralized at Memphis. During the Old Kingdom, the king of Egypt became a god who ruled absolutely and could demand the services. Under King Djoser, the first king of the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, the capital of Egypt was moved to Memphis. A new era of building was initiated at Saqqara under his reign, King Djosers architect, Imhotep is credited with the development of building with stone and with the conception of the new architectural form—the Step Pyramid. Indeed, the Old Kingdom is perhaps best known for the number of pyramids constructed at this time as burial places for Egypts kings. For this reason, the Old Kingdom is frequently referred to as the Age of the Pyramids, the first king of the Old Kingdom was Djoser of the third dynasty, who ordered the construction of a pyramid in Memphis necropolis, Saqqara. An important person during the reign of Djoser was his vizier and it was in this era that formerly independent ancient Egyptian states became known as nomes, under the rule of the king. The former rulers were forced to assume the role of governors or otherwise work in tax collection, Egyptians in this era worshipped their king as a god, believing that he ensured the annual flooding of the Nile that was necessary for their crops. Egyptian views on the nature of time during this period held that the worked in cycles. They also perceived themselves as a specially selected people, the Old Kingdom and its royal power reached a zenith under the Fourth Dynasty, which began with Sneferu. Using more stones than any king, he built three pyramids, a now collapsed pyramid in Meidum, the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur. However, the development of the pyramid style of building was reached not at Saqqara. Sneferu was succeeded by his son, Khufu who built the Great Pyramid of Giza, after Khufus death, his sons Djedefra and Khafra may have quarrelled. The latter built the pyramid and the Sphinx in Giza. Recent reexamination of evidence has led Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev to propose that the Sphinx had been built by Djedefra as a monument to his father Khufu, alternatively, the Sphinx has been proposed to be the work of Khafra and Khufu himself. There were military expeditions into Canaan and Nubia, with Egyptian influence reaching up the Nile into what is today the Sudan, the later kings of the Fourth Dynasty were king Menkaure, who built the smallest pyramid in Giza, Shepseskaf and, perhaps, Djedefptah. The Fifth Dynasty began with Userkaf and was marked by the importance of the cult of sun god Ra
25.
Cherokee
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The Cherokee language is part of the Iroquoian language group. The Cherokee were one of the first, if not the first, article 8 in the 1817 treaty with the Cherokee stated Cherokees may wish to become citizens of the United States. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma has around 300,000 tribal members, in addition, numerous groups claiming Cherokee lineage, some of which are state-recognized, have members who are among those 819, 000-plus people claiming Cherokee ancestry on the US census. Of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes, the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians have headquarters in Tahlequah, the UKB are mostly descendants of Old Settlers, Cherokee who migrated to Arkansas and Oklahoma about 1817. They are related to the Cherokee who were relocated there in the 1830s under the Indian Removal Act. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is on the Qualla Boundary in western North Carolina, the Cherokee refer to themselves as Ani-Yunwiya, which means Principal People. Many theories—though none proven—abound about the origin of the name Cherokee and it may have originally been derived from the Choctaw word Cha-la-kee, which means people who live in the mountains, or Choctaw Chi-luk-ik-bi, meaning people who live in the cave country. The earliest Spanish rendering of the name Cherokee, from 1755, is Tchalaquei, Another theory is that Cherokee derives from a Lower Creek word, Cvlakke. The Iroquois in New York have historically called the Cherokee Oyata’geronoñ, Tsalagi is sometimes misused as a name for the people, Tsalagi is actually the Cherokee word for the Cherokee language. There are two theories of Cherokee origins. Another theory is that the Cherokee had been in the Southeast for thousands of years, researchers in the 19th century recorded conversations with elders who recounted an oral tradition of the Cherokee peoples migrating south from the Great Lakes region in ancient times. They may have moved south into Muscogee Creek territory and settled at the sites of mounds built by the Mississippian culture, in the 19th century, European-American settlers mistakenly attributed several Mississippian culture sites to the Cherokee, including Moundville and Etowah Mounds. However, the Cherokee did not reach this part of Georgia until the late 18th century, pre-contact Cherokee are considered to be part of the later Pisgah Phase of Southern Appalachia, which lasted from circa 1000 to 1500. During the late Archaic and Woodland Period, Indians in the region began to cultivate plants such as elder, lambsquarters, pigweed, sunflowers. People created new art forms such as shell gorgets, adopted new technologies, during the Mississippian Culture-period, local women developed a new variety of maize called eastern flint corn. It closely resembled modern corn and produced larger crops, the successful cultivation of corn surpluses allowed the rise of larger, more complex chiefdoms with several villages and concentrated populations during this period. Corn became celebrated among numerous peoples in ceremonies, especially the Green Corn Ceremony. Much of what is known about pre-18th-century Native American cultures has come from records of Spanish expeditions, the earliest ones of the mid-16th-century encountered people of the Mississippian culture, the ancestors to later tribes in the Southeast such as the Muscogee and Catawba
26.
Knitting needle
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A knitting needle or knitting pin is a tool in hand-knitting to produce knitted fabrics. They generally have a shaft and taper at their end. The long shaft holds the stitches of the fabric, to prevent them from unravelling. In specialized forms of knitting the needle may be passed between active stitches being held on another needle, or indeed between/through inactive stitches that have been knit previously, the size of a needle is described first by its diameter and secondly by its length. The size of the new stitch is determined in part by the diameter of the knitting needle used to form it. Thus, large stitches can be made with needles, whereas fine knitting requires fine needles. In most cases, the knitting needles being used in hand-knitting are of the diameter, however, in uneven knitting. Larger stitches may also be made by wrapping the yarn more than once around the needles with every stitch, various sizing systems for needles are in common use. The most widely recognized form of needle is the single-pointed needle and it is a slender, straight stick tapered to a point at one end, with a knob at the other end to prevent stitches from slipping off. Such needles are used in pairs and are usually 10-16 inches long but, due to the compressibility of knitted fabrics. The knitting of new stitches occurs only at the tapered ends, fictional depictions of knitting in movies, television programs, animation, and comic strips almost always show knitting done on straight needles. Both Wallace and Gromit and Monty Python, for example, show this type of knitting, the oldest type of needle is the straight double-pointed needle. Double-pointed needles are tapered at both ends, which allows them to be knit from either end and they are typically used in sets of four and five, and are commonly used for circular knitting. Since the invention of the needle, they have been most commonly used to knit smaller tube-shaped pieces such as sleeves, collars. Usually two needles are active while the others hold the remaining stitches, double-pointed needles are somewhat shorter than single-pointed or circular needles, and are usually used in the 13–20 cm length range, although they are also made longer. Double-pointed needles are depicted in a number of 14th-century oil paintings, typically called Knitting Madonnas, a cable needle is a special type of double-pointed needle that is typically very short and used to hold a very small number of stitches temporarily while the knitter is forming a cable pattern. They are often U-shaped, or have a U-shaped bend, to keep the held stitches from falling off while the needle is being used. The first US patent for a needle was issued in 1918
27.
Peyote stitch
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The peyote stitch, also known as the gourd stitch, is an off-loom bead weaving technique. Peyote stitch may be worked with either an even or an odd number of beads per row, both even and odd count peyote pieces can be woven as flat strips, in a flat round shape, or as a tube. Tubular peyote is used to make pouches or to objects such as bottles or fan handles. Many cultures around the world have used peyote stitch in their beadwork, examples of peyote stitch have been found in artifacts from Ancient Egypt, and the stitch has also been used in historic and contemporary Native American beadwork. The name peyote stitch derives from the use of this stitch to decorate objects used in ceremonies by members of the Native American Church. The name gourd stitch similarly derives from the use of the stitch in decorating gourd containers, a variation of the peyote stitch is often referred to as the fast peyote stitch as its use resembles peyote, but it can be done in less time. Much like the first two rows of a peyote stitch project, the speed stitch requires two rows be strung then worked in and it can only be done with an even number of beads but is easily done in either flat or tubular peyote
28.
Necklace
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A necklace is an article of jewellery which is worn around the neck. Necklaces are frequently formed from a jewellery chain. Others are woven or manufactured from cloth using string or twine, common features of necklaces include colorful stones, wood, art glass, feathers, shells, beads or corals - a hugely wide variety of other adornments have also been used. If a necklace includes a primary hanging feature, it is called a pendant, if the pendant is itself a small container, necklaces are worn by both men and women in cultures around the world for purposes of adornment and social status. However, in Western society, the necklace in English often carries a female connotation. Men in Western countries often call their neck jewelry chains instead, necklaces have been an integral part of jewelry since the time of ancient civilizations and pre-date the invention of writing. Necklaces are believed to be as old as 40,000 years, during the neolithic period shell necklaces were made with the shells of 3 genera Spondylus, Glycymeris and Charonia. Cloth working and metalworking greatly expanded the range of available to humans. Twine and string enabled the development of smaller, more durable, gemcutting and glassblowing allowed faceted and highly polished gemstones and/or beautiful art glass to be added to pieces. Miniaturisation and laser etching enable the crafting of finely detailed artwork, or insignias or other calligraphy, womens necklaces are often classified by length. Choker 35 centimetres to 41 centimetres long and sits high on the neck, princess necklace A princess necklace is 45 centimetres to 50 centimetres long, longer than a choker, but shorter than a matinee. Matinee necklace A matinee length necklace is 56 centimetres to 58 centimetres long — typically a single strand that rests at the top of the cleavage, opera necklace An opera necklace is 75 centimetres to 90 centimetres long and sits at the breastbone. Rope necklace A rope necklace is any longer than opera length. Cross necklace A necklace featuring a Christian cross, diamond necklace A diamond necklace is a necklace that incorporates diamonds — they are often given as gifts in Western countries as signs of love and fealty between wealthy lovers or families. Pearl necklace Pearl necklaces are popular among women, a bib necklace is made of multiple strands of stepped pearls. Tooth pendant necklace Some mens necklaces attach a tooth as the pendant portion. A particularly popular variant is a leather string necklace with a shark tooth attached, prayer bead necklace A long, beaded necklace typically in the form of a wide lasso, usually with a religious symbol at the end of the lasso. The beads can be made of wood, metal, gems or even plastic
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Murano
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Murano is a series of islands linked by bridges in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies about 1.5 kilometres north of Venice and measures about 1.5 km across with a population of just over 5,000 and it is famous for its glass making. It was once an independent comune, but is now a frazione of the comune of Venice, Murano is composed of seven islands, linked by bridges, separated by eight channels. Murano was initially settled by the Romans and from the century by people from Altinum. At first, the island prospered as a port and through its production of salt. It was also a centre for trade through the port it controlled on SantErasmo, from the eleventh century, it began to decline as islanders moved to Dorsoduro. It had a Grand Council, like that of Venice, but from the thirteenth century, unlike the other islands in the Lagoon, Murano minted its own coins. Early in the second millennium hermits of the Camaldolese Order occupied one of the islands, there they founded the Monastery of St. Michael. This monastery became a center of learning and printing. The famous cartographer, Fra Mauro, whose maps were crucial to the European exploration of the world, was a monk of this community. The monastery was suppressed in 1810 by French forces under Napoleon, in the course of their conquest of the Italian peninsula, the grounds then became Venices major cemetery. In 1291, all the glassmakers in Venice were forced to move to Murano due to the risk of fires, in the following century, exports began, and the island became famous, initially for glass beads and mirrors. Aventurine glass was invented on the island, and for a while Murano was the producer of glass in Europe. The island later known for chandeliers. Although decline set in during the century, glassmaking is still the islands main industry. In the fifteenth century, the island became popular as a resort for Venetians, and palaces were built, the countryside of the island was known for its orchards and vegetable gardens until the nineteenth century, when more housing was built. Glass-related attractions include the many glassworks, some Mediaeval and most open to the public, Murano glass is still associated with Venetian glass. Muranos glassmakers were soon numbered among the island’s most prominent citizens, by the fourteenth century, glassmakers were allowed to wear swords, enjoyed immunity from prosecution by the Venetian state and found their daughters married into Venice’s most affluent families
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Murano beads
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Murano beads are intricate glass beads influenced by Venetian glass artists. The process of Murano bead-making begins with the production of color canes, the chemical compounds involved in color fabrication are extremely sensitive so they must be mixed with absolute accuracy. Aquamarine is created through the use of copper and cobalt, most Murano beads are made using an air pump burner lampworking or torch and mandrel technique. Once the mandrel was made by using an iron rod covered with a release material stuck on the top of the rod, the copper tube helps make many other different shapes. The lamp-work method is the most time-consuming method of glass bead-making, using a torch for heat, Murano glass rods and tubes are heated to a molten state and wrapped around a metal rod until the desired shape is achieved. Several layers of different colored glass, as well as gold, after the bead is slowly cooled, it is removed from the rod, resulting in a hole for eventual stringing as jewelry. Wedding cake beads known as Fiorato and Venetian foil beads are two of the kinds of beads made using the lamp-work method, seedbeads or conterie are small, round beads. To produce this tiny bead, hollow tubes of colored glass are formed, then chopped and re-fired for smoothness and shade. First produced in Murano at the end of the 14th Century, after this layering of color, these beads are ground to produce patterns of five concentric stars with twelve points. The canes are then sliced into individual beads, the Chevron bead is distinguished by a red, white and blue zigzag pattern. These beads are known as Millefiori. The abstract millefiori beads are created in a similar to that of chevron or rosetta beads. There is a use of color and the glass cane is not hollow. When the lamp-work flame was introduced, beadmakers discovered they could melt the canes, today this glassblowing is called the Filigrana or filigree method. To produce these beads with stripes of color and spirals, glassmakers lay canes of glass down, beads Murano glass Murano Venetian glass Glassblowing Glass A History of Murano Glass The world of venetian seed glass beads
31.
Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas
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Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America, Mesoamerica, North America including Greenland, in North America, the Lithic stage or Paleo-Indian period is defined as approximately 18, 000–8000 BCE. The period from around 8000–800 BCE is generally referred to as the Archaic period, the production of bannerstones, Projectile point, Lithic reduction styles and pictographic cave paintings are some of the art that remains from this time period. The bone was found early in the 21st century near Vero Beach, Florida, the bone is too mineralized to be dated, but the carving has been authenticated as having been made before the bone became mineralized. The oldest known painted object in North American is the Cooper Bison Skull from 10, 900–10,200 BCE, Lithic age art in South America includes Monte Alegre culture rock paintings created at Caverna da Pedra Pintada dating back to 9250–8550 BCE. Guitarrero Cave in Peru has the earliest known textiles in South America, the southwestern United States and certain regions of the Andes have the highest concentration of pictographs and Petroglyphs from this period. Both pictographs and petroglyphs are known as rock art, the Yupik of Alaska have a long tradition of carving masks for use in shamanic rituals. Indigenous peoples of the Canadian arctic have produced objects that could be classified as art since the time of the Dorset culture. While the walrus ivory carvings of the Dorset were primarily shamanic, with European contact the historic period of Inuit art began. In this period, which reached its height in the late 19th century, Inuit artisans created souvenirs for the crews of whaling ships and explorers. Modern Inuit art began in the late 1940s, when with the encouragement of the Canadian government they began to produce prints and serpentine sculptures for sale in the south. Greenlandic Inuit have a unique textile tradition intregrating skin-sewing, furs, Women create elaborate netted beadwork collars. They have strong mask-making tradition and also are known for an art form called tupilaq or a spirit object. Traditional art making practices thrive in the Ammassalik, sperm whale ivory remains a valued medium for carving. Inuit art from Alaska, Canada, and Greenland Cultures of interior Alaska, while humans have lived in the region far longer, the oldest known surviving Subarctic art is a petroglyph site in northwest Ontario, dated to 5000 BCE. Caribou, and to a lesser extent moose, are major resources, providing hides, antlers, sinew, porcupine quillwork embellishes hides and birchbark. After European contact with the influence of the Grey Nuns, moosehair tufting, famous examples include totem poles, transformation masks, and canoes. In addition to woodwork, two dimensional painting and silver, gold and copper engraved jewelry became important after contact with Europeans, the Eastern Woodlands, or simply woodlands, cultures inhabited the regions of North America east of the Mississippi River at least since 2500 BCE
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Quillwork
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Quillwork is a form of textile embellishment traditionally practiced by Native Americans that employs the quills of porcupines as an aesthetic element. Quills from bird feathers were occasionally used in quillwork. Porcupine quillwork is an art form unique to North America. The use of quills in designs spans from Maine to Alaska, quillworking tools were discovered in Alberta, Canada and date back to the 6th century CE. Cheyenne oral history, as told by Picking Bones Woman to George Bird Grinnell, says quilling came to their tribe from a man who married a woman and his son was also a buffalo. The man visited his wife and son in their home, and, while among the buffalo, the man learned the art of quilling. Joining the Cheyenne Quilling Society was an honor for Cheyenne women. Upon entering the Society, women would work first on quilling moccasins, then cradleboards, rosettes for mens shirts and tipis, quillwork was used to create and decorate a variety of Native American items, including those of daily usage to Native American men and women. These include clothing such as coats and moccasins, accessories such as bags and belts, quills suitable for embellishment are two to three inches long and may be dyed before use. In their natural state, the quills are pale yellow to white with black tips, the tips are usually snipped off before use. Quills readily take dye, which originally was derived from plants and included a wide spectrum of colors, with black, yellow. By the 19th century, aniline dyes were available through trade and made dying easier, the quills can be flattened with specific bone tools or by being run through ones teeth. Awls were used to punch holes in hides, and sinew, the four most common techniques for quillwork are appliqué, embroidery, wrapping, and loom weaving. Appliquéd quills are stitched into hide in a manner that covers the stitches, in wrapping, a single quill may be wrapped upon itself or two quills may be intertwined. Quills can be appliquéd singly to form patterns, as found on Odawa pouches from the 18th century. This technique lends itself to floral designs popularized among northeastern tribes by Ursuline nuns, huron women excelled at floral quillwork during the 18th and 19th centuries. Plains quillwork is characterized by bands of rectangles creating geometrical patterns found also in Plains painting, rosettes of concentric circles of quillwork commonly adorned historical Plains mens shirts, as did parallel panels of quillwork on the sleeves. These highly abstracted designs had layers of symbolic meaning, the Red River Ojibwe of Manitoba created crisp, geometric patterns by weaving quills on a loom in the 19th century
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Two Row Wampum Treaty
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The treaty is spiritually and culturally revered and widely accepted among the Indigenous peoples in the relevant territories, and documented by the wampum belts and oral tradition. In August 2013, the Journal of Early American History published an issue dedicated to exploring the Two Row Tradition. Soon after Henry Hudsons 1609 exploration of the Hudson River and its estuary, at the time the Iroquois Mohawk and the Mahican territory abutted in the mid-Hudson Valley. The Dutch traded with the population to supply fur pelts, particularly from beaver. By 1614, the New Netherland Company was established and Fort Nassau was built, the 1613 agreement was recorded by the Haudenosaunee in a wampum belt known as the Two Row Wampum. This wampum records the meaning of the agreement, which declared peaceful coexistence between the Haudenosaunee and Dutch settlers in the area, the pattern of the belt consists of two rows of purple wampum beads against a background of white beads. The purple beads signify the courses of two vessels — a Haudenosaunee canoe and a European ship — traveling down the river of life together, parallel, the three white stripes denote peace and friendship. We say We will not be like Father and Son, and this wampum belt confirms our words. Neither of us will make compulsory laws or interfere in the affairs of the other. Neither of us try to steer the others vessel. The treaty is considered by Haudenosaunee people to still be in effect, now we have Symbolized this Agreement and it shall be binding forever as long as Mother Earth is still in motion. The wampum of the pact is stored in Canada and in 2013 was presented in festivities along the Hudson River celebrating the 400th anniversary of the treaty, Onondaga leaders state that the oral tradition which accompanies the wampum belts is evidence that an agreement was made in 1613. It remains unclear if the policy will be changed in recognition of the 400th anniversary of the treaty, in September 2013, three Haudenosaunee leaders traveled to the Netherlands for an official visit in recognition of the anniversary, traveling on Haudenosaunee passports. The Two Row Wampum continues to play a role in defining the relationship between citizens of New York State and Haudenosaunee residents of the region. Larger disputes concerning extant treaties based on the Two Row Wampum, such as the Treaty of Canandaigua, remain unresolved through litigation, supporters of the Two Row Wampum Treaty note that it conveys a respect for the laws of nature and thus an obligation for ecological stewardship. The treaty has been cited as an inspiration to clean up polluted waters such as Onondaga Lake, “Water is sacred, like all parts of creation, ” said Freida Jacques, an Onondaga Clanmother. It has a duty, given to it by the Creator, to give all creation clean. He claimed to have acquired it from a person on the Mississaugua reserve in Canada
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Ursulines
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The term Ursulines refers to a number of religious institutes of the Catholic Church. The best known group was founded in 1535 at Brescia, Italy, by St. Angela Merici, for the education of girls and their patron saint is Saint Ursula. They are divided into two branches, the monastic Order of St. Ursula, among whom the largest organization are the Ursulines of the Roman Union, the other branch is the Company of St. Ursula, who follow the original form of life established by their foundress. They are commonly called the Angelines, Merici, a member of the Third Order of St. Francis, was a woman of deep mystical gifts, which she combined with the service of the poor and needy. She believed that she experienced a call from God to found a community to share this work, among the group of men and women who formed around her, she soon selected 28 women who wished to commit their lives in this endeavor. The women called themselves the Company of St. Ursula, taking as their patroness the medieval patron saint of education, continuing to live in their family homes, they would meet regularly for conferences and prayer in common. Merici drew up a Rule of Life for them, in 1538 the Company held its first General Chapter, at which Angela was elected Mother for life. In 1539 she added her Testament and a book of Counsels to regulate the life of the group, mericis vision was that they were to live among the people they served without any distinguishing feature, such as a religious habit. The Company grew rapidly, being joined by women throughout her hometown of Desenzano. The increasing number of members came to be organized in groups, the Company then spread throughout the Diocese of Brescia. Their work quickly spread to dioceses in the region. Angela Merici died on 27 January 1540, the Company was formally recognized in 1546 by Pope Paul III. Mericis death in 1540, however, had left the Company without a clear leader, organized loosely, questions about their future began to surface. Additionally, pressure began to come from the officials of the Church, in 1572 in Milan, at the insistence of St. Charles Borromeo, the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, the Ursulines agree to become an enclosed religious order. Pope Gregory XIII approved this step, putting them under the Rule of St. Augustine, especially in France, groups of the Company begin to re-shape themselves as cloistered nuns, under solemn vows, and dedicated to the education of girls within the walls of their monasteries. In the following century, the Ursuline nuns were encouraged and supported by St. Francis de Sales. They were called the Ursuline nuns as distinct from the federated Ursulines of the Company, both forms of life continued to spread throughout Europe and beyond. At the beginning of the 18th century the Order was represented by 350 convents, the Ursuline Sisters were the first Catholic nuns to land in the new world
35.
Great Lakes
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Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth, containing 21% of the worlds surface fresh water by volume. The total surface is 94,250 square miles, and the volume is 5,439 cubic miles. Due to their sea-like characteristics the five Great Lakes have also long been referred to as inland seas, Lake Superior is the second largest lake in the world by area, and Lake Michigan is the largest lake that is entirely within one country. The southern half of the Great Lakes is bordered by the Great Lakes Megalopolis, the lakes have been a major highway for transportation, migration and trade, and they are home to a large number of aquatic species. Many invasive species have been introduced due to trade, and some threaten the regions biodiversity, though the five lakes reside in separate basins, they form a single, naturally interconnected body of fresh water, within the Great Lakes Basin. The lakes form a chain connecting the interior of North America to the Atlantic Ocean. From the interior to the outlet at the Saint Lawrence River, water flows from Superior to Huron and Michigan, southward to Erie, the lakes drain a large watershed via many rivers, and are studded with approximately 35,000 islands. There are also several smaller lakes, often called inland lakes. The surface area of the five primary lakes combined is roughly equal to the size of the United Kingdom, while the area of the entire basin is about the size of the UK. Lake Michigan is the one of the Great Lakes that is located entirely within the United States. The lakes are divided among the jurisdictions of the Canadian province of Ontario and the U. S. states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Both Ontario and Michigan include in their boundaries portions of four of the lakes, Ontario does not border Lake Michigan, New York and Wisconsins jurisdictions extend into two lakes, and the remaining states into one of the lakes. This designation, however, is not universal and those living on the shore of Lake Superior often refer to all the other lakes as the lower lakes, because they are farther south. This corresponds to thinking of Lakes Erie and Ontario as down south, vessels sailing north on Lake Michigan are considered upbound even though they are sailing toward its effluent current. The Chicago River and Calumet River systems connect the Great Lakes Basin to the Mississippi River System through man-made alterations, the St. Marys River, including the Soo Locks, connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron. The Straits of Mackinac connect Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, the St. Clair River connects Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair. The Detroit River connects Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie, the Niagara River, including Niagara Falls, connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. The Welland Canal, bypassing the Falls, connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, the Saint Lawrence River connects Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which connects to the Atlantic Ocean
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Nez Perce people
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The Nez Perce /ˌnɛzˈpɜːrs/ are an Indigenous people of the Plateau, who live in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, which is on the Columbia River Plateau. They are federally recognized as the Nez Perce Tribe and govern their reservation in Idaho and they are one of five federally recognized tribes in the state. Anthropologists have written that the Nez Percé descend from the Old Cordilleran Culture and this name was given to this tribe and the nearby Chinook people by French explorers and trappers, meaning pierced nose, but only the Chinook used that form of decoration. Their name for themselves is Nimíipuu, meaning, The People, in their language, Nez Percé is an exonym given by French Canadian fur traders who visited the area regularly in the late 18th century, meaning literally pierced nose. English-speaking traders and settlers adopted the name in turn, since the late 20th century, the Nez Perce identify most often as Niimíipu in Sahaptin. The tribe also uses the term Nez Perce, as does the United States Government in its dealings with them. Older historical ethnological works and documents use the French spelling of Nez Percé, the original French pronunciation is, with three syllables. In his journals, William Clark referred to the people as the Chopunnish /ˈtʃoʊpənɪʃ/, Walker in 1998, writing for the Smithsonian, this term is an adaptation of the term cú·pʼnitpeľu. The term is formed from cú·pʼnit and peľu, by contrast, the Nez Perce Language Dictionary has a different analysis than did Walker for the term cúpnitpelu. The prefix cú- means in single file and this prefix, combined with the verb -piní, to come out. Finally, with the suffix of -pelú, meaning people or inhabitants of, together, these three elements, cú- + -piní + pelú = cúpnitpelu, or the People Walking Single File Out of the Forest. Nez Perce oral tradition indicates the name Cuupnitpeluu meant we walked out of the woods or walked out of the mountains, the interpreter of the Lewis and Clark Expedition mistakenly identified this people as the Nez Perce when the team encountered the tribe in 1805. They did not practice nose piercing or wearing ornaments, the tribe known as pierced nose lived on and around the lower Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. They are commonly called the Chinook tribe by historians and anthropologists, the Chinook relied heavily upon salmon as a food staple, as did the Nez Perce. The peoples shared fishing and trading sites, but the Chinook had a different culture and more hierarchical social arrangements. The Nez Perce language, or Niimiipuutímt, is a Sahaptian language related to the dialects of Sahaptin. The Sahaptian sub-family is one of the branches of the Plateau Penutian family, the tribal area extended from the Bitterroots in the east to the Blue Mountains in the west between latitudes 45°N and 47°N. In 1800, the Nez Perce had more than 100 permanent villages, ranging from 50 to 600 individuals, depending on the season, archeologists have identified a total of about 300 related sites including camps and villages, mostly in the Salmon River Canyon
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Innu
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Their population in 2003 included about 18,000 people, of which around 14,000 lived in Quebec, under 3000 in Labrador, and the rest outside their traditional territory. Their ancestors were known to have lived on these lands as hunter-gatherers for several thousand years and their subsistence activities were historically centred on hunting and trapping caribou, moose, deer and small game. Some coastal clans also practised agriculture, fished, and managed maple sugarbush and their language, Innu or Ilnu, is spoken throughout Nitassinan, with certain dialect differences. It is part of Cree language group, and unrelated with neighboring Inuit languages, the Innu were allied with neighbouring Atikamekw, Maliseet and Algonquin against their traditional enemies, the Mikmaq and Iroquois. During the Beaver Wars the Iroquois repeatedly invaded their territories, and enslaved women and warriors, since these raids were made by the Iroquois with unprecedented brutality, the Innu themselves adopted the torment, torture, and cruelty of their enemies. The Naskapi, on the hand, were usually in conflicts with the southward advancing Inuit in the east. The Innu recognize several distinctions based on different regional affiliations and various dialects of the Innu language, the word Naskapi was first recorded by French colonists in the 17th century and was subsequently applied to Innu groups beyond the reach of missionary influence. It particularly applied to living in the lands which bordered Ungava Bay. It is here that the term came to be used for the Naskapi First Nation, the Naskapi are traditionally nomadic peoples, in contrast with the more sedentary Montagnais, who establish settled territories. Mushuau Innuat, while related to the Naskapi, split off from the tribe in the 1900s and they were subject to a government relocation program at Davis Inlet. Some of the families of the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach have close relatives in the Cree village of Whapmagoostui, on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. Since 1990, the Montagnais people have chosen to be officially referred to as the Innu. On July 29,1609, at Ticonderoga or Crown Point, New York, Champlain, a battle began the next day. Two hundred Iroquois advanced on Champlains position as a native guide pointed out the three Iroquois chiefs to the French, Champlain fired his arquebus and killed two of them with one shot. One of his men killed the third and this was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next 100 years. As the forest and mining began at the turn of the 20th century. In 1999 Survival International published a study of the Innu communities of Labrador and it assessed the impact of the Canadian governments relocating the people far from their ancestral lands and preventing their practising their ancient way of life. Survival International considered these policies to be in violation of international law, by 2000, the Innu island community of Davis Inlet asked the Canadian government to assist with a local addiction crisis
38.
Mi'kmaq
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The Mikmaq or Migmaq are a First Nations people indigenous to Canadas Maritime Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec. They call their national territory Mikmaki, others today live in Newfoundland and the northeastern region of Maine. The nation has a population of about 40,000, of whom nearly 11,000 speak Mikmaq, once written in Mikmaq hieroglyphic writing, it is now written using most letters of the Latin alphabet. After implementation of the Indian Act, the Grand Council took on a more spiritual function, the Grand Council was made up of chiefs of the seven district councils of Mikmaki. On September 26,2011 the Government of Canada announced the recognition of Canadas newest Mikmaq First Nations Band, the new band, which is landless, has accepted 25,000 applications to become part of the band. The number of applications received by the deadline on November 30,2012 exceeded 100,000, as of January 2013. The deadline was extended to January 31,2014, and then to February 10,2014 and its members are recognized as Status Indians, joining other organized Mikmaq bands recognized in southeast Canada. Until the 1980s, Micmac remained the most common spelling in English, although still used, for example in Ethnologue, this spelling has fallen out of favour in recent years. Most scholarly publications now use the spelling Mikmaq, and it has been adopted by media as the spelling Micmac is now considered to be colonially tainted, the Mikmaq prefer to use one of the three current Mikmaq orthographies when writing the language. Lnu is the term the Mikmaq use for themselves, their autonym, various explanations exist for the origin of the term Mikmaq. The Mikmaw Resource Guide states that Mikmaq means the family, The definite article the suggests that Mikmaq is the undeclined form indicated by the letter m. When declined in the singular it reduces to the forms, nikmaq - my family, kikmaq - your family. Other hypotheses include the following, The name Micmac was first recorded in a memoir by de La Chesnaye in 1676. Professor Ganong in a footnote to the word megamingo, as used by Marc Lescarbot, the Micmacs, then, must have thought of themselves as the Red Earth People, or the People of the Red Earth. Others seeking a meaning for the word Micmac have suggested that it is from nigumaach, my brother, my friend, members of the Mikmaq historically referred to themselves as Lnu, but used the term níkmaq as a greeting. The French initially referred to the Mikmaq as Souriquois and later as Gaspesiens or Mickmakis, the British originally referred to them as Tarrantines. According to ethnologist T. J. Brasser, with a climate unfavorable for agriculture and their weakly developed leadership did not extend beyond hunting parties. The Mikmaq lived in a cycle of seasonal movement between living in dispersed interior winter camps and larger coastal communities during the summer
39.
Penobscot
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The Penobscot are an indigenous people in North America with members who reside in the United States and Canada. They are organized as a recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic provinces. The Penobscot Nation, formerly known as the Penobscot Tribe of Maine, is the federally recognized tribe of Penobscot people in the United States. They are part of the Wabanaki Confederacy, along with the Abenaki, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and their main settlement is now the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation, located within the state of Maine along the Penobscot River. The word Penobscot originates from a mispronunciation of their name for themselves, the word means rocky part or descending ledges, and originally referred to their territory on the portion of the Penobscot River between present-day Old Town and Bangor. The Penobscot Nation is headquartered in Indian Island, Maine, the tribal chief is Kirk Francis. Little is known about the Penobscot people pre-contact, Native peoples are thought to have inhabited Maine and surrounding areas for at least 11,000 years. They had a society, with the men hunting beaver, otters, moose, bears, caribou, fish, seafood, birds. The women gathered and processed bird eggs, berries, nuts, the people practiced some agriculture but not to the same extent as that of indigenous peoples in southern New England, where the climate was more temperate. Food was potentially scarce only toward the end of the winter, in February, for the rest of the year, the Penobscot and other Wabanaki likely had little difficulty surviving because the land and ocean waters offered much bounty, and the number of people was sustainable. The bands moved seasonally, following the patterns of game and fish, during the 15th century the Penobscot had contact with Europeans through the fur trade. It was lucrative and the Penobscot were willing to trade pelts for European goods such as axes, guns. Hunting for fur pelts reduced the game, however, and the European trade introduced alcohol to Penobscot communities for the first time and it has been argued that the people are genetically vulnerable to alcoholism, which Europeans frequently tried to exploit in dealings and trade. Penobscot people and other nations made pine beer, which had vitamin C, in addition to being an alcoholic beverage, when Europeans arrived, they brought alcohol in quantity. The Europeans carried endemic infectious diseases of Eurasia that were new to the Native Americans, and their fatality rates from the introduction of measles, smallpox and other infectious diseases was high. The population also declined due to fighting between the Wabanaki Federation and the powerful Mohawk people of the Iroquois League, which struggled to control the fur trade. This catastrophic population depletion may have contributed to Christian conversion, the people could see that the European priests did not suffer from the pandemics, the latter said that the Penobscot had died because they did not believe in Jesus Christ. At the beginning of the 17th century, Europeans began to live year-round in Wabanaki territory, at this time, there were probably about 10,000 Penobscot
40.
Iroquois
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The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee are a historically powerful northeast Native American confederacy. The Iroquois have absorbed many other peoples into their cultures as a result of warfare, adoption of captives, the historic Erie, Susquehannock, Wyandot, and St. Lawrence Iroquoians, all independent peoples, spoke Iroquoian languages. In 2010, more than 45,000 enrolled Six Nations people lived in Canada, the most common name for the confederacy, Iroquois, is of somewhat obscure origin. The first time it appears in writing is in the account of Samuel de Champlain of his journey to Tadoussac in 1603, other spellings occurring in the earliest sources include Erocoise, Hiroquois, Hyroquoise, Irecoies, Iriquois, Iroquaes, Irroquois, and Yroquois. In the French spoken at the time, this would have been pronounced as or. In 1883, Horatio Hale wrote that the Charlevoix etymology was dubious, Hale suggested instead that the term came from Huron, and was cognate with Mohawk ierokwa they who smoke or Cayuga iakwai a bear. Hewitt responded to Hales etymology in 1888 by expressing doubt that either of those words even exist in the respective languages, a more modern etymology is that advocated by Gordon M. Day in 1968, who elaborates upon an earlier etymology given by Charles Arnaud in 1880. Arnaud had claimed that the word came from Montagnais irnokué, meaning terrible man, Day proposes a hypothetical Montagnais phrase irno kwédač, meaning a man, an Iroquois, as the origin of this term. More recently, Peter Bakker has proposed a Basque origin for Iroquois. g and he proposes instead that the word derives from hilokoa, from the Basque roots hil to kill, ko, and a. He also argues that the /l/ was rendered as /r/ since the former is not attested in the inventory of any language in the region. Thus the word according to Bakker is translatable as the killer people, a different term, Haudenosaunee, is the designation more commonly used by the Iroquois to refer to themselves. It is also preferred by scholars of Native American history who consider the name Iroquois to be derogatory in origin. An alternate designation, Ganonsyoni, is encountered as well. More transparently, the Iroquois confederacy is also referred to simply as the Six Nations. The history of the Iroquois Confederacy goes back to its formation by the Peacemaker in 1142, each nation within the Iroquoian family had a distinct language, territory and function in the League. Iroquois influence extended into present-day Canada, westward along the Great Lakes, the League is governed by a Grand Council, an assembly of fifty chiefs or sachems, each representing one of the clans of one of the nations. The original Iroquois League or Five Nations, occupied areas of present-day New York State up to the St. Lawrence River, west of the Hudson River. The League was composed of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, in or close to 1722, the Tuscarora tribe joined the League, having migrated from the Carolinas after being displaced by Anglo-European settlement
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Relief
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Relief is a sculptural technique where the sculpted elements remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term relief is from the Latin verb relevo, to raise, to create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane. What is actually performed when a relief is cut in from a surface of stone or wood is a lowering of the field. The technique involves considerable chiselling away of the background, which is a time-consuming exercise. In other materials such as metal, clay, plaster stucco, ceramics or papier-mâché the form can be just added to or raised up from the background, and monumental bronze reliefs are made by casting. There are different degrees of relief depending on the degree of projection of the form from the field. There is also sunk relief, which was restricted to Ancient Egypt. However the distinction between high relief and low relief is the clearest and most important, and these two are generally the only used to discuss most work. Hyphens may or may not be used in all these terms, works in the technique are described as in relief, and, especially in monumental sculpture, the work itself is a relief. Reliefs are common throughout the world on the walls of buildings and a variety of settings. Relief is more suitable for depicting complicated subjects with figures and very active poses, such as battles. Most ancient architectural reliefs were painted, which helped to define forms in low relief. Rock reliefs are carved into solid rock in the open air. This type is found in cultures, in particular those of the Ancient Near East and Buddhist countries. A stele is a standing stone, many of these carry reliefs. The distinction between high and low relief is somewhat subjective, and the two are often combined in a single work. In particular, most later high reliefs contain sections in low relief, a low relief or bas-relief is a projecting image with a shallow overall depth, for example used on coins, on which all images are in low relief. Other versions distort depth much less and it is a technique which requires less work, and is therefore cheaper to produce, as less of the background needs to be removed in a carving, or less modelling is required
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Zuni
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The Zuni are federally recognized Native American Pueblo peoples. Most live in the Pueblo of Zuni on the Zuni River, Zuni is 55 km south of Gallup, New Mexico. In addition to the reservation, the tribe owns trust lands in Catron County, New Mexico and Apache County, in 2000,10,228 people were enrolled in the Zuni tribe. Archaeology suggests that the Zuni have been farmers in their present location for 3,000 to 4,000 years, the village of the great kiva near the contemporary Zuni Pueblo was built in the 11th century CE. The Zuni region, however, was only sparsely populated by small agricultural settlements until the 12th century when the population. In the 14th century, the Zuni inhabited a dozen pueblos between 180 and 1,400 rooms in size, all of these pueblos, except Zuni, were abandoned by 1400, and over the next 200 years, nine large new pueblos were constructed. These were the seven cities of Cibola sought by early Spanish explorers, by 1650, there were only six Zuni villages. In 1539, Moorish slave Estevanico led a party of Fray Marcos de Nizas Spanish expedition. The Zuni killed him as a spy and this was Spains first contact with any of the Pueblo peoples. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado traveled through Zuni Pueblo, the Spaniards built a mission at Hawikuh in 1629. The Zunis tried to expel the missionaries in 1632, but the Spanish built another mission in Halona in 1643, before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Zuni lived in six different villages. After the revolt, until 1692, they took refuge in a position atop Dowa Yalanne, a steep mesa 5 km southeast of the present Pueblo of Zuni, Dowa means corn. After the establishment of peace and the return of the Spanish, the Zunis were self-sufficient during the mid-19th century, but faced raiding by the Apaches, Navajos, and Plains Indians. Their reservation was officially recognized by the United States federal government in 1877, gradually the Zuni farmed less and turned to sheep and cattle herding as a means of economic development. Frank Hamilton Cushing, an anthropologist associated with the Smithsonian Institution, a controversy during the early 2000s was associated with Zuni opposition to the development of a coal mine near the Zuni Salt Lake, a site considered sacred by the Zuni and under Zuni control. The mine would have extracted water from the aquifer below the lake, the plan died in 2003 after several lawsuits. The Zuni traditionally speak the Zuni language, a language isolate that has no relationship to any other Native American language. Linguists believe that the Zuni have maintained the integrity of their language for at least 7,000 years, the Zuni have, however, share a number of words from Keresan, Hopi, and Pima pertaining to religion and religious observances
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Huichol people
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The Huichol or Wixáritari are Native Mexicans, living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the Mexican states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango. They are best known to the world as the Huichol, however. The adjectival form of Wixáritari and name for their own language is Wixárika, once yearly, some Huichol journey back to San Luís, their ancestral homeland to perform Mitote Peyote ceremonies. This ancient tribe is located deep in the mountains of central Mexico. have lived here for at least 15,000 years according to carbon dating of the ashes from their sacred fireplaces. The three main Huichol communities belong to the municipality of Mezquitic, Jalisco and are called San Sebastián Teponohuastlan, Santa María Cuexcomatitlán, other Wixarika communities include Guadalupe Ocotán, and Santa Catarina and Tuxpán de Bolaños in Jalisco. However, only around 7,000 Wixáritari live in their homeland while some 13,000 have migrated to places within Nayarit. The Wixárika arrived in the Bolaños Canyon region after the arrival of the Tepehuanes, Tepecano oral history also confirms that villages currently inhabited by Wixárika, such as Santa Catarina, were Tepecano villages in the past. In addition, there exist no stories of conquest or domination of the Wixárika by the Tepecanos in either of the histories of the respective ethnic groups. Central to the religion of the Wixárika is the gathering of hikuri in the place that they call Wirikuta. Hikuri does not grow in the region of Wixárika, but it is abundant in San Luis Potosí, the Guachichiles were known to be bellicose and fiercely defensive of their territory. It is unlikely that the Guachichiles would have let the Wixárika pass peacefully through their territory to gather peyote unless they recognized them as part of their own ethnic group. Historical documents indicate that during the 16th century, the Wixárika had already arrived in the region that is today northern Jalisco. The Spaniards who explored the region later became Jerez wrote that they were groups of Guachichiles in the region that had pushed out the Zacatecas that had previously resided there. Through this historical evidence one can postulate that the Wixárika arrived in the Bolaños Canyon region around the time as the Spaniards. These experiences are documented in the oral history of wixaritari. The Wixárika arrived in the Bolaños Canyon region looking for refuge and it is likely that there was mixing among the ethnic groups, as is evidenced by the many traditions, rituals shared among the groups. It is clear that the two groups would unite under a single leader to defend themselves from Spanish incursions and to mount rebellions against the Spanish colonial government. There is historical evidence of a rebellion mounted jointly by the two groups in El Teúl in 1592 and another one in Nostic in 1702
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Jalisco
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Jalisco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco, is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided into 125 municipalities, Jalisco is one of the most important states in Mexico because of its natural resources as well as its history. Many of the traits of Mexican culture, particularly outside Mexico City, are originally from Jalisco, such as mariachi, ranchera music, birria, tequila, jaripeo. Hence, the motto, Jalisco es México. Economically, it is ranked third in the country, with industries centered in the Guadalajara metropolitan area, the state is home to two significant indigenous populations, the Huichols and the Nahuas. There is also a significant foreign population, mostly retirees from the United States and Canada, living in the Lake Chapala, with a total area of 78,599 square kilometers, Jalisco is the seventh-largest state in Mexico, accounting for 4. 1% of the countrys territory. Jalisco is made up of a terrain that includes forests, beaches, plains. Altitudes in the state vary from 0 to 4,300 meters above sea level, over 52% of the bird species found in Mexico live in the state, with 525, 40% of Mexicos mammals with 173 and 18% of its reptile species. There are also 7,500 species of veined plants, one reason for its biodiversity is that is lies in the transition area between the temperate north and tropical south. Its five natural regions are, Northwestern Plains and Sierras, Sierra Madre Occidental, Central Plateau, Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, which covers most of the state, and it has an average altitude of 1,550 meters MASL, but ranges from 0–4,300 m. Most of the territory is semi-flat between 600–2,050 m, followed by rugged terrain of between 900–4,300 m and a percentage of flat lands between 0–1,750 m. Jalisco has several river basins with the most notable being that of the Lerma/Santiago River, the Lerma River enters extends from the State of Mexico and empties into Lake Chapala on the east side. On the west, water flows out in the Santiago River, tributaries to the Santiago River include the Zula, the Verde River, the Juchipila and the Bolaños. About three quarters of the population lives near this river system. In the southwest of the state, there are a number of rivers that empty directly into the Pacific Ocean. The most important of these is the Ameca, with its one main tributary and this river forms the state’s border with Nayarit and empties into the Ipala Bay. The Tomatlán, San Nicolás, Purificación, Marabasco-Minatitlán, Ayuquila, Tuxcacuesco, Armería and Tuxpan rivers flow almost perpendicular to the Pacific Ocean, another river of this group is the Cihuatlán River, which forms the boundary between Jalisco and Colima emptying into the Barra de Navidad Bay. The southeastern corner belongs to the Balsas River basin and this includes the Ayuqila and Tuxcacuesco, which join to form the Armería and the Tuxpan
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Nayarit
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Nayarit, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit, is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, make up the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its capital city is Tepic and it is located in Western Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Sinaloa to the northwest, Durango to the north, Zacatecas to the northeast, to the west, Nayarit has a significant share of coastline on the Pacific Ocean, including the islands of Marías and Marietas. The beaches of San Blas and the so-called Riviera Nayarit are popular with tourists, beside tourism, the economy of the state is based mainly on agriculture and fishing. Home to Uto-Aztecan indigenous peoples such as the Huichol and Cora, Spanish governance was made difficult by indigenous rebellions and by the inhospitable terrain of the Sierra del Nayar. The last independent Cora communities were subjugated in 1722, the states name recalls the Coras label for themselves, Náayerite, commemorating Nayar, a resistance leader. Encountered on the western coast by the Spanish invaders in 1500, hernándo was the first known European to enter into the area now known as Nayarit, which claimed for Spain as part of the colony of Nueva Galicia. As the Spaniards invaded the area, led by Nuño de Guzman, their brutality caused the inhabitants to revolt. After almost two centuries of resistance, the last independent Cora communities were incorporated into the administration by force in 1722. Then followed intense missionary efforts by Jesuit friars, in the colonial period, the port of San Blas was one of the most important trade ports on the American Pacific coast. Galleons transporting goods from Manila, the Philippines arrived here before the rise of the port of Acapulco, today, the town still boasts colonial architecture from the its heyday, such as the aduana, contaduria and the fortress that protected the port against pirates. In Nayarit, the struggle for independence from Spain was initiated by the priest José María Mercado, with the first independent constitution of 1824, Nayarit was a part of Jalisco state. During the second half of the 19th century, Nayarit was one of the most turbulent territories in Mexico, the population was in open revolt, demanding access to land. Nayarit was one of the last territories admitted as a state of the Mexican federation, Nayarit covers 27,815 square kilometers, making it one of the smaller states in Mexico. Nayarit is located between latitude lines 23°05 north and 20°36 south and longitude lines 103°43 east and 105°46 west and its terrain is broken up by the western ends of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. Its highest mountains are, San Juan, Sanguangüey, El Ceboruco, Nayarit has two volcanoes, Ceboruco and Sangangüey. In the northeast are broad, tropical plains watered by the Río Grande de Santiago, the main state rivers are the Río Grande de Santiago, San Pedro, Acaponeta, Ameca and Las Cañas. The Río Grande de Santiago is the largest river in Nayarit, the Santiago and its tributaries are of major importance for agricultural irrigation
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Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
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