1.
Mesolithic
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In archaeology, the Mesolithic is the culture between Paleolithic and Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used for areas outside northern Europe, Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It was originally post-Pleistocene, pre-agricultural material in northwest Europe about 10,000 to 5000 BC, in the archaeology of Northern Europe, for example for archaeological sites in Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Ukraine, and Russia, the term Mesolithic is almost always used. In the archaeology of other areas, the term Epipaleolithic may be preferred by most authors, in the New World, neither term is used. Other authors use the term Mesolithic for a variety of Late Paleolithic cultures subsequent to the end of the last glacial period whether they are transitional towards agriculture or not, conversely, those that are in course of transition toward artificial food production are assigned to the Mesolithic. Therefore, care must be taken in translating Mesolithic as Middle Stone Age, subdivisions of earlier and later were added to the Stone Age by Thomsen and especially his junior colleague and employee Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae. John Lubbock kept these divisions in his work Pre-historic Times in 1865 and he saw no need for an intermediate category. When Hodder Westropp introduced the Mesolithic in 1866, as an intermediate between Paleolithic and Neolithic, a storm of controversy immediately arose around it. A British school led by John Evans denied any need for an intermediate, the ages blended together like the colors of a rainbow, he said. A European school led by Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet asserted that there was a gap between the earlier and later, edouard Piette claimed to have filled the gap with his discovery of the Azilian Culture. Knut Stjerna offered an alternative in the Epipaleolithic, a continuation of the use of Paleolithic technology, the start and end dates of the Mesolithic vary by geographical region. Childes view prevails that the term covers the period between the end of the Pleistocene and the start of the Neolithic. If the Mesolithic is more similar to the Paleolithic it is called the Epipaleolithic, the Paleolithic was an age of purely hunting and gathering while in the Neolithic domestication of plants and animals had occurred. Some Mesolithic peoples continued with intensive hunting, others were practising the initial stages of domestication. The type of remains the diagnostic factor, The Mesolithic featured composite devices manufactured with Mode V chipped stone tools. The Paleolithic had utilized Modes I–IV and the Neolithic mainly abandoned the chipped microliths in favor of polished, not chipped, the first period, known as Mesolithic 1, followed the Aurignacian or Levantine Upper Paleolithic periods throughout the Levant. By the end of the Aurignacian, gradual changes took place in stone industries, small stone tools called microliths and retouched bladelets can be found for the first time. The microliths of this period differ greatly from the Aurignacian artifacts
2.
Maghreb
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The Maghreb, or the Greater Maghreb, is usually defined as much or most of the region of western North Africa or Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. Historical terms for the region or various portions of the Maghreb include Mauretania, Numidia, Libya, the term maghrib is Arabic for west, from the verb gharaba. In the strict sense, the definite form al-maghrib denotes the country of Morocco in particular and it identified the westernmost territories that fell to the Islamic conquests of the 7th century. Today, it is a noun for the present region of the Maghreb. The Berber languages alternative term for the region, Tamazgha, has been popularized by Berber activists since the second half of the 20th century. As recently as the late 19th century it was used to refer to the Western Mediterranean region of coastal North Africa in general, and to Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia in particular. The region was unified as an independent political entity during the rule of the Berber kingdom of Numidia. The most enduring rule was that of the local Berber empires of the Almoravids, Almohads, Hammadids, Zirids, Marinids, Saadi, the Ottoman Turks ruled the region as well. Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya established the Maghreb Union in 1989 to promote cooperation and it was envisioned initially by Muammar Gaddafi as a superstate. The union included Western Sahara implicitly under Moroccos membership, putting Moroccos long cold war with Algeria to a rest, however, this progress was short-lived, and the union is now frozen. Tensions between Algeria and Morocco over Western Sahara re-emerged strongly, reinforced by the unsolved borderline issue between the two countries and these two main conflicts have hindered progress on the unions joint goals and practically made it inactive as a whole. Around 3,500 BC a tilt in the Earths orbit created a rapid desertification of the Sahara, the Maghreb or western North Africa is believed to have been inhabited by Berbers since from at least 10,000 BC. Maghreb coast ports were predominantly occupied or constructed by the Phoenicians, the main Phoenician settlements centered in the Gulf of Tunis along the North African littoral between the Pillars of Hercules and the Libyan coast east of ancient Cyrenaica. They dominated the trade and intercourse of the Western Mediterranean for centuries, Rome was greatly helped by the defection of King Massinissa and Carthaginians eastern Numidian Massylii client-allies. A century later, the Byzantine emperor Justinian I sent a force under General Belisarius that succeeded in destroying the Vandal kingdom, the Berbers contested outside-the-area control although after the 640s-700 AD period the Arabs controlled the entire region. The Arabs reached the Maghreb in early Umayyad times, Arab expansion and the spread of Islam pushed the development of trans-Saharan trade. While restricted due to the cost and dangers, the trade was highly profitable, commodities traded included such goods as salt, gold, ivory, and slaves. Arab control over the Maghreb was quite weak, various Islamic variations, such as the Ibadis and the Shia, were adopted by some Berbers, often leading to scorning of Caliphal control in favour of their own interpretation of Islam
3.
Gafsa
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Gafsa, originally called Capsa in Latin, is the capital of Gafsa Governorate of Tunisia. It lends its Latin name to the Mesolithic Capsian culture, with a population of 111,170, Gafsa is the 9th-largest Tunisian city. Gafsa is the capital of the southwest of Tunisia and is both a historical oasis and home to the industry of Tunisia. The city had 111,170 inhabitants at the 2014 census, under the ruling of the mayor, the city lies 369 km by road southwest of Tunis. Its geographical coordinates are 34°25′N 8°47′E, excavations at prehistoric sites in the area have yielded artefacts and skeletal remains associated with the Capsian culture. This Mesolithic civilisation has been dated to between 10,000 and 6,000 BCE. 6000BC years ago at Capsa the Neolithic people named Snail eaters, the city of Capsa belonged to King Jugurtha, who deposited his treasures there. It was captured by Gaius Marius in 106 BC and destroyed, but later became a Roman colonia, Roman cisterns are still evident in the city ruins The Vandals conquered the Roman city and ruled it until the death of Genseric. The Berbers then occupied it, making it the capital of a Romano-berber kingdom until subjected to Byzantium under Justinian I and he made Capsa the capital of the province of Byzacena. The Duke of Byzacena resided there, in 540, the Byzantine governor general Solomon built a new city wall, naming the city Justiniana Capsa. The Arab army of Oqba Ibn Nafi conquered Gafsa in 688, after the Arab conquest, Capsa started to lose importance, replaced by Muslim-founded Kairouan. In the 3rd century, Donatulus took part in the council that Saint Cyprian convoked in Carthage in 256 to discuss the problem of the lapsi. In the 4th century, at the council of Carthage of 349, Fortunatianus of Capsa was present, a Donatist bishop of Capsa called Quintasius was at the council held at Cabarsussi in 393 by a breakaway group of Donatists led by Maximianus. All three sources agree in attributing to Capsa the Vindemialis who was one of the Catholic bishops whom Huneric summoned to Carthage in 484, however, the latest editions of the Roman Martyrology, which commemorates Vindemialis on 2 May, call him bishop of Capsus in Numidia. Capsa still had resident bishops at the end of the 9th century, but a community may have lasted until the early 12th century No longer a residential bishopric, Capsa is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see. Phosphate mines were discovered as early as 1886, and Gafsa today is home to one of the largest mines of phosphate in the world, in the Second World War, Gafsa suffered heavy bombardment from both the German and Italian side and the Allies. Part of its Kasbah was destroyed, on 27 January 1980, a group of dissidents armed and trained by Libya occupied the city to contest the régime of Habib Bourguiba. 48 people were killed in the battles, the Gafsa region has had an active political voice throughout its history, and various events there have shaped its political developments in the various phases of modern Tunisia
4.
Tunisia
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Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia is the northernmost country in Africa, covering 165,000 square kilometres. Its northernmost point, Cape Angela, is the northernmost point on the African continent and it is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisias population was estimated to be just under 11 million in 2014, Tunisias name is derived from its capital city, Tunis, which is located on Tunisias northeast coast. Geographically, Tunisia contains the end of the Atlas Mountains. Much of the rest of the land is fertile soil. Tunisia is a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic and it is considered to be the only full democracy in the Arab World. It has a human development index. In addition, Tunisia is also a state of the United Nations. Close relations with Europe – in particular with France and with Italy – have been forged through economic cooperation, privatisation, in ancient times, Tunisia was primarily inhabited by Berbers. Phoenician immigration began in the 12th century BC, these immigrants founded Carthage, a major mercantile power and a military rival of the Roman Republic, Carthage was defeated by the Romans in 146 BC. The Romans, who would occupy Tunisia for most of the eight hundred years, introduced Christianity. After several attempts starting in 647, the Arabs conquered the whole of Tunisia by 697, the Ottomans held sway for over three hundred years. The French colonization of Tunisia occurred in 1881, Tunisia gained independence with Habib Bourguiba and declared the Tunisian Republic in 1957. In 2011, the Tunisian Revolution resulted in the overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the country voted for parliament again on 26 October 2014, and for President on 23 November 2014. The word Tunisia is derived from Tunis, an urban hub. The present form of the name, with its Latinate suffix -ia, the French derivative Tunisie was adopted in some European languages with slight modifications, introducing a distinctive name to designate the country. Other languages remained untouched, such as the Russian Туни́с and Spanish Túnez, in this case, the same name is used for both country and city, as with the Arabic تونس, and only by context can one tell the difference. The name Tunis can be attributed to different origins and it is generally associated with the Berber root ⵜⵏⵙ, transcribed tns, which means to lay down or encampment
5.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
6.
Algeria
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Algeria, officially the Peoples Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a sovereign state in North Africa on the Mediterranean coast. Its capital and most populous city is Algiers, located in the far north. With an area of 2,381,741 square kilometres, Algeria is the tenth-largest country in the world, the country is a semi-presidential republic consisting of 48 provinces and 1,541 communes. Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been President since 1999, Berbers are the indigenous inhabitants of Algeria. Algeria is a regional and middle power, the North African country supplies large amounts of natural gas to Europe, and energy exports are the backbone of the economy. According to OPEC Algeria has the 16th largest oil reserves in the world, Sonatrach, the national oil company, is the largest company in Africa. Algeria has one of the largest militaries in Africa and the largest defence budget on the continent, most of Algerias weapons are imported from Russia, with whom they are a close ally. Algeria is a member of the African Union, the Arab League, OPEC, the countrys name derives from the city of Algiers. The citys name in turn derives from the Arabic al-Jazāir, a form of the older Jazāir Banī Mazghanna. In the region of Ain Hanech, early remnants of hominid occupation in North Africa were found, neanderthal tool makers produced hand axes in the Levalloisian and Mousterian styles similar to those in the Levant. Algeria was the site of the highest state of development of Middle Paleolithic Flake tool techniques, tools of this era, starting about 30,000 BC, are called Aterian. The earliest blade industries in North Africa are called Iberomaurusian and this industry appears to have spread throughout the coastal regions of the Maghreb between 15,000 and 10,000 BC. Neolithic civilization developed in the Saharan and Mediterranean Maghreb perhaps as early as 11,000 BC or as late as between 6000 and 2000 BC and this life, richly depicted in the Tassili nAjjer paintings, predominated in Algeria until the classical period. The amalgam of peoples of North Africa coalesced eventually into a native population that came to be called Berbers. These settlements served as market towns as well as anchorages, as Carthaginian power grew, its impact on the indigenous population increased dramatically. Berber civilization was already at a stage in which agriculture, manufacturing, trade, by the early 4th century BC, Berbers formed the single largest element of the Carthaginian army. In the Revolt of the Mercenaries, Berber soldiers rebelled from 241 to 238 BC after being unpaid following the defeat of Carthage in the First Punic War. They succeeded in obtaining control of much of Carthages North African territory, the Carthaginian state declined because of successive defeats by the Romans in the Punic Wars
7.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
8.
Sicily
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Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous Region of Italy, along with surrounding minor islands, Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula, from which it is separated by the narrow Strait of Messina. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, the island has a typical Mediterranean climate. The earliest archaeological evidence of activity on the island dates from as early as 12,000 BC. It became part of Italy in 1860 following the Expedition of the Thousand, a revolt led by Giuseppe Garibaldi during the Italian unification, Sicily was given special status as an autonomous region after the Italian constitutional referendum of 1946. Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially regard to the arts, music, literature, cuisine. It is also home to important archaeological and ancient sites, such as the Necropolis of Pantalica, the Valley of the Temples, Sicily has a roughly triangular shape, earning it the name Trinacria. To the east, it is separated from the Italian mainland by the Strait of Messina, about 3 km wide in the north, and about 16 km wide in the southern part. The northern and southern coasts are each about 280 km long measured as a line, while the eastern coast measures around 180 km. The total area of the island is 25,711 km2, the terrain of inland Sicily is mostly hilly and is intensively cultivated wherever possible. Along the northern coast, the ranges of Madonie,2,000 m, Nebrodi,1,800 m. The cone of Mount Etna dominates the eastern coast, in the southeast lie the lower Hyblaean Mountains,1,000 m. The mines of the Enna and Caltanissetta districts were part of a leading sulphur-producing area throughout the 19th century, Sicily and its surrounding small islands have some highly active volcanoes. Mount Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe and still casts black ash over the island with its ever-present eruptions and it currently stands 3,329 metres high, though this varies with summit eruptions, the mountain is 21 m lower now than it was in 1981. It is the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps, Etna covers an area of 1,190 km2 with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. In Greek Mythology, the deadly monster Typhon was trapped under the mountain by Zeus, Mount Etna is widely regarded as a cultural symbol and icon of Sicily. The Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the northeast of mainland Sicily form a volcanic complex, the three volcanoes of Vulcano, Vulcanello and Lipari are also currently active, although the latter is usually dormant
9.
Savanna
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A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland grassland ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support a herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses. Savannas maintain an open canopy despite a high tree density and it is often believed that savannas feature widely spaced, scattered trees. However, in savannas, tree densities are higher and trees are more regularly spaced than in forests. Savanna covers approximately 20% of the Earths land area, the word originally entered English in 1555 as the Latin Zauana, equivalent in the orthography of the times to zavana. Peter Martyr reported it as the name for the plain around Comagre. The accounts are inexact, but this is placed in present-day Madugandí or at points on the nearby Guna Yala coast opposite Ustupo or on Point Mosquitos. These areas are now given over to modern cropland or jungle. The common usage meaning to describe vegetation now conflicts with a simplified yet widespread climatic concept meaning, the divergence has sometimes caused areas such as extensive savannas north and south of the Congo and Amazon Rivers to be excluded from mapped savanna categories. Barrens has been used almost interchangeably with savanna in different parts of North America, sometimes midwestern savanna were described as grassland with trees. Different authors have defined the limits of savanna tree coverage as 5–10%. Two factors common to all environments are rainfall variations from year to year. In the Americas, e. g. in Belize, Central America, savanna vegetation is similar from Mexico to South America, savannas are subject to regular wildfires and the ecosystem appears to be the result of human use of fire. For example, Native Americans created the Pre-Columbian savannas of North America by periodically burning where fire-resistant plants were the dominant species, pine barrens in scattered locations from New Jersey to coastal New England are remnants of these savannas. Aboriginal burning appears to have responsible for the widespread occurrence of savanna in tropical Australia and New Guinea. The maquis shrub savannas of the Mediterranean region were created and maintained by anthropogenic fire. These fires are usually confined to the layer and do little long term damage to mature trees. However, these either kill or suppress tree seedlings, thus preventing the establishment of a continuous tree canopy which would prevent further grass growth
10.
East Africa
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East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. The first five are included in the African Great Lakes region. Burundi and Rwanda are sometimes considered to be part of Central Africa. Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia – collectively known as the Horn of Africa, Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles – small island nations in the Indian Ocean. Réunion and Mayotte – French overseas territories also in the Indian Ocean, Mozambique and Madagascar – often considered part of Southern Africa, on the eastern side of the sub-continent. Madagascar has close ties to Southeast Asia and the islands of the Indian Ocean. Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe – often also included in Southern Africa, Egypt, Sudan and South Sudan – collectively part of the Nile Valley. Situated in the portion of the continent, and Egypt. Also members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa free trade area, the geography of East Africa is often stunning and scenic. Shaped by global plate tectonic forces that have created the East African Rift, East Africa is the site of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya and it also includes the worlds second largest freshwater lake Lake Victoria, and the worlds second deepest lake Lake Tanganyika. The climate of East Africa is rather atypical of equatorial regions, in fact, on the coast of Somaliland and Puntland, many years can go by without any rain whatsoever. Unusually, most of the falls in two distinct wet seasons, one centred on April and the other in October or November. Annual rainfall here ranges from over 1,600 millimetres on the slopes to around 1,250 millimetres at Addis Ababa and 550 millimetres at Asmara. In the high rainfall can be over 2,500 millimetres. Temperatures in East Africa, except on the hot and generally humid coastal belt, are moderate, with maxima of around 25 °C, at altitudes of above 2,500 metres, frosts are common during the dry season and maxima typically about 21 °C or less. The unique geography and apparent suitability for farming made East Africa a target for European exploration, exploitation and colonialization in the nineteenth century, today, tourism is an important part of the economies of Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, and Uganda. The easternmost point of the continent, that is Ras Hafun in Somalia, is of archaeological, historical and economical importance, there are differing theories on whether there was a single exodus or several, a multiple dispersal model involves the Southern Dispersal theory. A growing number of researchers suspect that North Africa was instead the home of the modern humans who first trekked out of the continent
11.
Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub
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Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund, is generally characterized by dry summers and rainy winters. Summers are typically hot in low-lying inland locations but can be cool near colder seas, winters are typically mild to cool in low-lying locations but can be cold in inland and higher locations. All these ecoregions are highly distinctive, collectively harboring 10% of the Earths plant species, much of the woody vegetation in Mediterranean-climate regions is sclerophyll, which means hard-leaved in Greek. Sclerophyll vegetation generally has small, dark leaves covered with an outer layer to retain moisture in the dry summer months. This is equivalent to about 40% of the plant species of the United States and Canada combined, forests are often found in riparian areas, where they receive more summer water. Coniferous forests also occur, especially around the Mediterranean, pine and deciduous oak forest are widespread across California Woodland, Oak woodlands are characteristic of the Mediterranean Basin and in California. Pine woodlands are also present in the Mediterranean Basin, savanna and grassland, The California Central Valley grasslands are the largest Mediterranean grassland eco-region, although these grasslands have mostly been converted to agriculture. The remaining woodlands feature mainly oak, walnut and pine, the cork oak savanna in Portugal, known as montado, is a good example of a mediterranean savanna. Shrubland, Shrublands are dense thickets of evergreen shrubs and small trees. They are most common near the seacoast, and are adapted to wind. Northern coastal scrub and coastal scrub, also known as soft chaparral. In some places shrublands are of the vegetation type, and in other places are the result of degradation of former forest or woodland by logging or overgrazing. Fire, both natural and human-caused, has played a role in shaping the ecology of Mediterranean ecoregions. The hot, dry summers make much of the prone to fires. Many of the plants are pyrophytes, or fire-loving, adapted or even depending on fire for reproduction, recycling of nutrients, and the removal of dead or senescent vegetation. The plant communities in these areas adapted to the frequent human-caused fires, the European shrublands have also been shaped by anthropogenic fire, historically associated with transhumance herding of sheep and goats. Mediterranean ecoregions are some of the most endangered and vulnerable on the planet, media related to Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub at Wikimedia Commons National Geographic Global 200 Ecoregions, Mediterranean Forest, Woodland and Scrub. Part of National Geographics Wild World Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World mapping project, Forest Sciences Centre of Catalonia FAO
12.
Altitude
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Altitude or height is defined based on the context in which it is used. As a general definition, altitude is a measurement, usually in the vertical or up direction. The reference datum also often varies according to the context, although the term altitude is commonly used to mean the height above sea level of a location, in geography the term elevation is often preferred for this usage. Vertical distance measurements in the direction are commonly referred to as depth. In aviation, the altitude can have several meanings, and is always qualified by explicitly adding a modifier. Parties exchanging altitude information must be clear which definition is being used, aviation altitude is measured using either mean sea level or local ground level as the reference datum. When flying at a level, the altimeter is always set to standard pressure. On the flight deck, the instrument for measuring altitude is the pressure altimeter. There are several types of altitude, Indicated altitude is the reading on the altimeter when it is set to the local barometric pressure at mean sea level. In UK aviation radiotelephony usage, the distance of a level, a point or an object considered as a point, measured from mean sea level. Absolute altitude is the height of the aircraft above the terrain over which it is flying and it can be measured using a radar altimeter. Also referred to as radar height or feet/metres above ground level, true altitude is the actual elevation above mean sea level. It is indicated altitude corrected for temperature and pressure. Height is the elevation above a reference point, commonly the terrain elevation. Pressure altitude is used to indicate flight level which is the standard for reporting in the U. S. in Class A airspace. Pressure altitude and indicated altitude are the same when the setting is 29.92 Hg or 1013.25 millibars. Density altitude is the altitude corrected for non-ISA International Standard Atmosphere atmospheric conditions, aircraft performance depends on density altitude, which is affected by barometric pressure, humidity and temperature. On a very hot day, density altitude at an airport may be so high as to preclude takeoff and these types of altitude can be explained more simply as various ways of measuring the altitude, Indicated altitude – the altitude shown on the altimeter
13.
Aurochs
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The aurochs, also urus, ure, is an extinct type of large wild cattle that inhabited Europe, Asia, and North Africa. It is the ancestor of domestic cattle, the species survived in Europe until the last recorded aurochs died in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland in 1627. Other species of wild bovines were also domesticated, namely the water buffalo, gaur. In modern cattle, numerous breeds share characteristics of the aurochs, such as a colour in the bulls with a light eel stripe along the back. The aurochs was variously classified as Bos primigenius, Bos taurus, or, in old sources, the words aurochs, urus, and wisent have all been used synonymously in English. However, the extinct aurochs/urus is a separate species from the still-extant wisent. The two were confused, and some 16th-century illustrations of aurochs and wisents have hybrid features. The word urus is a Latin word, but was borrowed into Latin from Germanic, in German, OHG ūr was compounded with ohso ox, giving ūrohso, which became early modern Aurochs. The word aurochs was borrowed from early modern German, replacing archaic urochs, the word is invariable in number in English, though sometimes back-formed singular auroch and innovated plural aurochses occur. The use in English of the plural form aurochsen is nonstandard and it is directly parallel to the German plural Ochsen and recreates by analogy the same distinction as English ox and oxen. During the Pliocene, the colder climate caused an extension of open grassland, Bos acutifrons is an extinct species of cattle that has been suggested as an ancestor for the aurochs. The oldest aurochs remains have been dated to about 2 million years ago, the Indian subspecies was the first to appear. During the Pleistocene, the species migrated west into the Middle East and they reached Europe about 270,000 years ago. The South Asian domestic cattle, or zebu, descended from Indian aurochs at the edge of the Thar Desert, domestic yak, gayal, and banteng do not descend from aurochs. The first complete mitochondrial genome DNA sequence analysis of Bos primigenius from an archaeologically verified, three wild subspecies of aurochs are recognized. Only the Eurasian subspecies survived until recent times, the Eurasian aurochs once ranged across the steppes and taigas of Europe, Siberia and Central Asia, and East Asia. It is noted as part of the Pleistocene megafauna, and declined in numbers along with other species by the end of Pleistocene. The Eurasian aurochs were domesticated into modern taurine cattle breeds around the sixth millennium BC in the Middle East, Aurochs were still widespread in Europe during the time of the Roman Empire, when they were widely popular as a battle beast in Roman arenas
14.
Hartebeest
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The hartebeest, also known as kongoni, is an African antelope, first described by the German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1766. Eight subspecies have been described, including two considered to be independent species. A large antelope, the hartebeest stands just over 1 m at the shoulder, the weight ranges from 100 to 200 kg. It has a particularly elongated forehead and oddly shaped horns, short neck and its legs, which often have black markings, are unusually long. The coat is short and shiny. Coat colour varies by the subspecies, from the brown of the western hartebeest to the chocolate brown of the Swaynes hartebeest. Both sexes of all subspecies have horns, with those of females being more slender, horns can reach lengths of 45–70 cm. Apart from its face, the large chest and the sharply sloping back differentiate the hartebeest from other antelopes. Gregarious animals, hartebeest form herds of 20 to 300 individuals and they are very alert and non-aggressive. They are primarily grazers, with their diets consisting mainly of grasses, mating in hartebeest takes place throughout the year with one or two peaks, and depends upon the subspecies and local factors. Both males and females reach maturity at one to two years of age. Gestation is eight to nine months long, after which a single calf is born, births usually peak in the dry season. The lifespan is 12 to 15 years, inhabiting dry savannas and wooded grasslands, hartebeest often move to more arid places after rainfall. They have been reported from altitudes on Mount Kenya up to 4,000 m, the hartebeest was formerly widespread in Africa, but populations have undergone drastic decline due to habitat destruction, hunting, human settlement, and competition with livestock for food. Each of the eight subspecies of the hartebeest has a different conservation status, the Bubal hartebeest was declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1994. While the populations of the red hartebeest are on the rise, the hartebeest is extinct in Algeria, Egypt, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Somalia, and Tunisia, but has been introduced into Swaziland and Zimbabwe. It is a game animal due to its highly regarded meat. The vernacular name hartebeest could have originated from the obsolete Afrikaans word hertebeest, the name was given by the Boers, based on the resemblance of the antelope to deer
15.
Hare
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Hares and jackrabbits are leporids belonging to the genus Lepus. Hares are classified into the family as rabbits. They are similar in size and form to rabbits and eat the same diet and they are generally herbivorous and long-eared, they are fast runners, and they typically live solitarily or in pairs. Hare species are native to Africa, Eurasia, North America, five leporid species with hare in their common names are not considered true hares, the hispid hare, and four species known as red rock hares. Meanwhile, jackrabbits are hares rather than rabbits, a hare less than one year old is called a leveret. The collective noun for a group of hares is a drove, Hares are swift animals, The European hare can run up to 56 km/h. The five species of jackrabbits found in central and western North America are able to run at 64 km/h, and can leap up to 3 m at a time. Normally a shy animal, the European brown hare changes its behavior in spring, when hares can be seen in daytime chasing one another, during this spring frenzy, hares can be seen boxing, one hare striking another with its paws. For a long time, this had been thought to be only intermale competition, Hares do not bear their young below ground in a burrow as do other leporids, but rather in a shallow depression or flattened nest of grass called a form. Young hares are adapted to the lack of protection, relative to that afforded by a burrow, by being born fully furred. They are hence precocial, and are able to fend for themselves soon after birth, by contrast, the related rabbits and cottontail rabbits are altricial, having young that are born blind and hairless. All rabbits live underground in burrows or warrens, while hares live in simple nests above the ground, Hares are generally larger than rabbits, with longer ears, and have black markings on their fur. Hares have not been domesticated, while rabbits are raised for food, the domestic pet known as the Belgian Hare is a rabbit that has been selectively bred to resemble a hare. Hares have jointed, or kinetic, skulls, unique among mammals and they have 48 chromosomes while rabbits have 44. In rural areas of North America and particularly in pioneer times, because of their extremely low fat content, they are a poor choice as a survival food. Hares can be prepared in the manner as rabbits — commonly roasted or taken apart for breading and frying. Hasenpfeffer is a traditional German stew made from marinated rabbit or hare, pfeffer is not only the name of a spice, but also of a dish where the animals blood is used as a thickening agent for the sauce. Wine or vinegar is also a prominent ingredient, to lend a sourness to the recipe
16.
Snail
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Snail is a common name that is applied most often to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name snail is also applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have a shell that is large enough for the animal to retract completely into. When the word snail is used in this most general sense, it not just land snails but also thousands of species of sea snails. Occasionally a few other molluscs that are not actually gastropods, such as the Monoplacophora, snail-like animals that naturally lack a shell, or have only an internal shell, are mostly called slugs, and land snails that have only a very small shell are often called semi-slugs. Even a few species have lungs. Snails can be found in a wide range of environments, including ditches, deserts. Although land snails may be familiar to laymen, marine snails constitute the majority of snail species, and have much greater diversity. Numerous kinds of snail can also be found in fresh water, most snails have thousands of microscopic tooth-like structures located on a banded ribbon-like tongue called a radula. The radula works like a file, ripping food into small pieces, many snails are herbivorous, eating plants or rasping algae from surfaces with their radulae, though a few land species and many marine species are omnivores or predatory carnivores. Several species of the genus Achatina and related genera are known as giant African land snails, some grow to 15 in from snout to tail, and weigh 1 kg. The largest living species of sea snail is Syrinx aruanus, its shell can measure up to 90 cm in length, and the whole animal with the shell can weigh up to 18 kg. The snail Lymnaea makes decisions by using two types of neuron, one deciding whether the snail is hungry, and the other deciding whether there is food in the vicinity. Named Gee Geronimo, this snail was owned by Christopher Hudson of Hove, East Sussex, UK, gastropods that lack a conspicuous shell are commonly called slugs rather than snails. Some species of slug have a red shell, some have only a vestige that serves mainly as a calcium repository. Other than that there is little difference between slugs and snails. There are however important differences in habitats and behavior, slugs squeeze themselves into confined spaces such as under loose bark on trees or under stone slabs, logs or wooden boards lying on the ground. In such retreats they are in danger from either predators or desiccation. Slugs as a group are far from monophyletic, biologically speaking slug is a term of convenience with little taxonomic significance, the reduction or loss of the shell has evolved many times independently within several very different lineages of gastropods
17.
Caprinae
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Subfamily Caprinae is part of the ruminant family Bovidae, consisting of mostly medium-sized bovids. A member of this subfamily is called a caprine, within this subfamily Caprinae, a prominent tribe Caprini includes sheep, goat, and ibex. Some earlier taxonomies considered Caprinae a separate family called Capridae, but now it is considered a subfamily within the Bovidae family. The European mouflon is thought to be the ancestor of the domestic sheep. Many species have become extinct since the last ice age, probably largely because of human interaction, of the survivors, Five are classified as endangered, Eight as vulnerable, Seven as of concern and needing conservation measures, but at lower risk, and Seven species are secure. Members of the group vary considerably in size, from just over 1 m long for a full-grown grey goral, to almost 2.5 m long for a musk ox, musk oxen in captivity have reached over 650 kg. The resource-defenders are the primitive group, they tend to be smaller in size, dark in colour, males and females fairly alike, have long, tassellated ears, long manes. They tend to be larger, highly social, and rather than mark territory with scent glands, no sharp line divides the groups, but a continuum varies from the serows at one end of the spectrum to sheep, true goats, and musk oxen at the other. The goat-antelope, or caprid, group is known from as early as the Miocene, when members of the group resembled the modern serow in their general body form
18.
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
19.
Mediterranean race
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The Mediterranean race is one of the sub-races into which the Caucasian race was categorised by most anthropologists in the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. These differentiations occurred following long-standing claims about the differences between the Nordic and the Mediterranean people. Such debates arose from responses to ancient writers who had commented on differences between northern and southern Europeans, the Greek and Roman people considered the Germanic and Celtic peoples wild, red haired barbarians. Aristotle argued that the Greeks were a people because they possessed a medium skin-tone. By the 19th century, long-standing cultural and religious differences between Protestant northwestern Europe and the Roman Catholic south were being reinterpreted in racial terms, in the 19th century, the division of humanity into distinct races became a matter for scientific debate. In 1870, Thomas Huxley argued that there were four basic racial categories, the Xanthochroic race were the fair whites of north and central Europe. According to Huxley, On the south and west this type comes into contact and mixes with the Melanochroi and it is to the Xanthochroi and Melanochroi, taken together, that the absurd denomination of Caucasian is usually applied. By the late 19th century, Huxleys Xanthochroi group had been redefined as the Nordic race, as such, Huxleys Melanochroi eventually also comprised various other dark Caucasoid populations, including the Hamites and Moors. William Z. Ripleys The Races of Europe created a tripartite model and it divided Europeans into three main subcategories, Teutonic, Alpine and Mediterranean. Ripley noted that although the European Caucasoid populations largely spoke Aryan languages and he also acknowledged the existence of non-European Caucasoids, including various populations that did not speak Aryan languages, such as Hamito-Semitic and Turkish groups. Southern/Eastern Europeans were deemed to be inferior, an argument that dated back to Arthur de Gobineaus Nordicist claims that mixing was responsible for the decline of the Roman Empire. The notion that Mediterranean peoples were responsible for the most important of ancient civilisations was a problem for the promoters of Nordic superiority, the four great branches of the Mediterranean stock were the Libyans, the Ligurians, the Pelasgians and the Iberians. Ancient Egyptians, Ethiopians and Somalis were considered by Sergi as Hamites, themselves constituting a Mediterranean variety, to Sergi, the Semites were a branch of the Eurafricans who were closely related to the Mediterraneans. He also asserted that the light-skinned Nordic race descended from the Eurafricans, according to Robert Ranulph Marett, it is in North Africa that we must probably place the original hotbed of that Mediterranean race. These writers subscribed to Sergis depigmentation theory that the Nordic race was the variety of Mediterraneans that lost pigmentation through natural selection due to the environment. According to Coon, the homeland and cradle of the Mediterranean race was in North Africa and Southwest Asia and he further stated that Mediterraneans formed the major population element in Pakistan and North India. Coon also argued that smaller Mediterraneans had travelled by land from the Mediterranean basin north into Europe in the Mesolithic era, taller Mediterraneans were Neolithic seafarers who sailed in reed-type boats and colonised the Mediterranean basin from a Near Eastern origin. He argued that they also colonised Britain & Ireland where their descendants may be today, characterized by dark brown hair, dark eyes
20.
Mechta-Afalou
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Mechta-Afalou are an extinct population of North Africa. They inhabited the region during the late Paleolithic and Mesolithic, and are associated with the Iberomaurusian archaeological culture, mechtoids are believed to have been assimilated during the Neolithic and early Bronze Age by the makers of the ensuing Capsian culture. Craniometric analysis indicates that these Iberomaurusians were closely related to the early Holocene Capsians of the Maghreb, tenerian culture Physical Anthropology of European Populations, Mouton,1980. Antropologia Fisica Etnia Guanche Migration of Mechta-Afalou people, marked light green on the map
21.
Natufian culture
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The Epipaleolithic Natufian culture /nəˈtuːfiən/ existed from around 12,500 to 9,500 BC in the Levant, a region in the Eastern Mediterranean. It was unusual in that it supported a sedentary or semi-sedentary population even before the introduction of agriculture, the Natufian communities may be the ancestors of the builders of the first Neolithic settlements of the region, which may have been the earliest in the world. Natufians founded Jericho which may be the oldest city in the world, some evidence suggests deliberate cultivation of cereals, specifically rye, by the Natufian culture, at Tell Abu Hureyra, the site of earliest evidence of agriculture in the world. Generally, though, Natufians exploited wild cereals, Dorothy Garrod coined the term Natufian based on her excavations at Shuqba cave in Wadi an-Natuf, in the western Judean Mountains. The Natufian culture was discovered by British archaeologist Dorothy Garrod during her excavations of Shuqba cave in the Judaean Hills, prior to the 1930s, the majority of archaeological work taking place in Palestine was biblical archaeology focused on historic periods, and little was known about the regions prehistory. She discovered a layer sandwiched between the Upper Palaeolithic and Bronze Age deposits characterised by the presence of microliths. She identified this with the Mesolithic, a period between the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic which was well represented in Europe but had not yet been found in the Near East. A year later, when she discovered similar material at el-Wad Terrace, Garrod suggested the name the Natufian culture, as early as 1931, both Garrod and Neuville drew attention to the presence of stone sickles in Natufian assemblages and the possibility that this represented very early agriculture. Radiocarbon dating places this culture from the terminal Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene. The period is split into two subperiods, Early Natufian and Late Natufian. The Late Natufian most likely occurred in tandem with the Younger Dryas, the Natufian developed in the same region as the earlier Kebaran industry. It is generally seen as a successor, which evolved out of elements within that preceding culture, more generally there has been discussion of the similarities of these cultures with those found in coastal North Africa. In fact, Weiss et al. have shown that the earliest known usage of plants was in the Levant 23,000 years ago at the Ohalo II site. Loring Brace cross-analysed the craniometric traits of Natufian specimens with those of ancient and modern groups from the Near East, Africa. Settlements occur in the belt where oak and Pistacia species dominated. The underbrush of this woodland was grass with high frequencies of grain. The habitations of the Natufian are semi-subterranean, often with a dry-stone foundation, the superstructure was probably made of brushwood. No traces of mudbrick have been found, which became common in the following Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, the round houses have a diameter between three and six meters, and they contain a central round or subrectangular fireplace
22.
Sahara
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The Sahara is the largest hot desert and the third largest desert in the world after Antarctica and the Arctic. Its area of 9,200,000 square kilometres is comparable to the area of the United States. The desert comprises much of North Africa, excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb, and the Nile Valley in Egypt and Sudan. It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, where the landscape gradually changes from desert to coastal plains. To the south, it is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of tropical savanna around the Niger River valley. The Sahara can be divided into several regions including, the western Sahara, the central Ahaggar Mountains, the Tibesti Mountains, the Aïr Mountains, the Ténéré desert, the name Sahara is derived from ṣaḥārā, the plural of the Arabic word for desert. The Sahara covers large parts of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and it covers 9 million square kilometres, amounting to 31% of Africa. If all areas with an annual precipitation of less than 250 mm were included. It is one of three physiographic provinces of the African massive physiographic division. The Sahara is mainly rocky hamada, Ergs form only a minor part, wind or rare rainfall shape the desert features, sand dunes, dune fields, sand seas, stone plateaus, gravel plains, dry valleys, dry lakes, and salt flats. Unusual landforms include the Richat Structure in Mauritania, several deeply dissected mountains, many volcanic, rise from the desert, including the Aïr Mountains, Ahaggar Mountains, Saharan Atlas, Tibesti Mountains, Adrar des Iforas, and the Red Sea hills. The highest peak in the Sahara is Emi Koussi, a volcano in the Tibesti range of northern Chad. The central Sahara is hyperarid, with sparse vegetation, the northern and southern reaches of the desert, along with the highlands, have areas of sparse grassland and desert shrub, with trees and taller shrubs in wadis, where moisture collects. In the central, hyperarid region, there are subdivisions of the great desert, Tanezrouft, the Ténéré, the Libyan Desert, the Eastern Desert. These extremely arid areas often receive no rain for years, the northern limit also corresponds to the 100 mm isohyet of annual precipitation. To the south, the Sahara is bounded by the Sahel, the southern limit of the Sahara is indicated botanically by the southern limit of Cornulaca monacantha, or northern limit of Cenchrus biflorus, a grass typical of the Sahel. According to climatic criteria, the limit of the Sahara corresponds to the 150 mm isohyet of annual precipitation. The Sahara is the worlds largest low-latitude hot desert and this steady descending airflow causes a warming and a drying effect in the upper troposphere
23.
Rock art
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In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural stone, it is largely synonymous with parietal art. A global phenomenon, rock art is found in many diverse regions of the world. It has been produced in many contexts throughout history, although the majority of rock art that has been ethnographically recorded has been produced as a part of ritual. Such artworks are often divided into three forms, petroglyphs, which are carved into the surface, pictographs, which are painted onto the surface. The oldest known rock art dates from the Upper Palaeolithic period, having found in Europe, Australia, Asia. Archaeologists studying these artworks believe that they likely had magico-religious significance, Rock art continues to be of importance to indigenous peoples in various parts of the world, who view them as both sacred items and significant components of their cultural patrimony. Such archaeological sites are significant sources of cultural tourism, and have been utilised in popular culture for their aesthetic qualities. Normally found in cultures, a rock relief or rock-cut relief is a relief sculpture carved on solid or living rock such as a cliff. They are a category of art, and sometimes found in conjunction with rock-cut architecture. However, they tend to be omitted in most works on rock art, a few such works exploit the natural contours of the rock and use them to define an image, but they do not amount to man-made reliefs. Rock reliefs have been made in many cultures, and were important in the art of the Ancient Near East. Rock reliefs are generally large, as they need to be to make an impact in the open air. Most have figures that are over life-size, and in many the figures are multiples of life-size, the vertical relief is most common, but reliefs on essentially horizontal surfaces are also found. The term typically excludes relief carvings inside caves, whether natural or themselves man-made, natural rock formations made into statues or other sculpture in the round, most famously at the Great Sphinx of Giza, are also usually excluded. Reliefs on large boulders left in their location, like the Hittite İmamkullu relief, are likely to be included. The term rock art appears in the literature as early as the 1940s. It has also described as rock carvings, rock drawings, rock engravings, rock inscriptions, rock paintings, rock pictures. The defining characteristic of rock art is that it is placed on natural rock surfaces, as such, rock art is a form of landscape art, and includes designs that have been placed on boulder and cliff faces, cave walls and ceilings, and on the ground surface
24.
Ochre
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Ochre (/ˈoʊkər/ OH-kər, from Greek, ὠχρός, ōkhrós, or ocher, is a natural earth pigment containing hydrated iron oxide, which ranges in color from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the produced by this pigment. A variant of ochre containing an amount of hematite, or dehydrated iron oxide, has a reddish tint known as red ochre. Ochre is a family of pigments, which includes yellow ochre, red ochre, purple ochre, sienna. The major ingredient of all the ochres is iron oxide-hydroxide, known as limonite, which gives them a yellow color. Yellow ochre, FeO·nH 2O, is a hydrated iron hydroxide also called gold ochre Red ochre, Fe 2O3, takes its color from the mineral hematite. Purple ochre, is identical to red ochre chemically but of a different hue caused by different light diffraction properties associated with an average particle size. Brown ochre, also FeO, is a hydrated iron oxide. Sienna contains both limonite and an amount of manganese oxide, which makes it darker than ochre. Umber pigments contain a proportion of manganese which make them a dark brown. When natural sienna and umber pigments are heated, they are dehydrated and some of the limonite is transformed into hematite, giving them more reddish colors, called burnt sienna and burnt umber. Ochres are non-toxic, and can be used to make an oil paint that dries quickly, modern ochre pigments often are made using synthetic iron oxide. Pigments which use natural ochre pigments indicate it with the name PY-43 on the label, pieces of ochre engraved with abstract designs have been found at the site of the Blombos Cave in South Africa, dated to around 75,000 years ago. In Wales, the paleolithic burial called the Red Lady of Paviland from its coating of red ochre has been dated to around 33,000 years before present. Paintings of animals made with red and yellow ochre pigments have been found in sites at Pech Merle in France. The cave of Lascaux has an image of a horse colored with yellow estimated to be 17,300 years old. In Ancient Egypt, yellow was associated with gold, which was considered to be eternal, the skin and bones of the gods were believed to be made of gold. The Egyptians used yellow extensively in tomb painting, though occasionally they used orpiment
25.
Common ostrich
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The ostrich or common ostrich is either one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio, which is in the ratite family. In 2014, the Somali ostrich was recognized as a distinct species, the common ostrich shares the order Struthioniformes with the kiwis, emus, rheas, and cassowaries. However, phylogenetic studies have shown that it is the group to all other members of Palaeognathae. It is distinctive in its appearance, with a neck and legs, and can run at up to about 70 km/h. The common ostrich is the largest living species of bird and lays the largest eggs of any living bird, the common ostrichs diet consists mainly of plant matter, though it also eats invertebrates. It lives in groups of 5 to 50 birds. When threatened, the ostrich will either hide itself by lying flat against the ground, if cornered, it can attack with a kick of its powerful legs. Mating patterns differ by region, but territorial males fight for a harem of two to seven females. The common ostrich is farmed around the world, particularly for its feathers and its skin is used for leather products and its meat is marketed commercially, with its leanness a common marketing point. Common ostriches usually weigh from 63 to 145 kilograms, or as much as two adult humans, ostriches of the East African race averaged 115 kg in males and 100 kg in females, while the nominate subspecies was found to average 111 kg in unsexed adults. Exceptional male ostriches can weigh up to 156.8 kg, at sexual maturity, male common ostriches can be from 2.1 to 2.8 m in height, while female common ostriches range from 1.7 to 2.0 m tall. New chicks are fawn in colour, with brown spots. During the first year of life, chicks grow at about 25 cm per month, at one year of age, common ostriches weigh approximately 45 kilograms. Their lifespan is up to 40–45 years, the feathers of adult males are mostly black, with white primaries and a white tail. However, the tail of one subspecies is buff, females and young males are greyish-brown and white. The head and neck of both male and female ostriches is nearly bare, with a layer of down. The skin of the neck and thighs is pinkish gray. The eyes are shaded from sunlight from above, However, the head and bill are relatively small for the birds huge size, with the bill measuring 12 to 14.3 cm
26.
Seashell
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A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer created by an animal that lives in the sea. The shell is part of the body of the animal, empty seashells are often found washed up on beaches by beachcombers. The shells are empty because the animal has died and the parts have been eaten by another animal or have rotted out. The term seashell usually refers to the exoskeleton of an invertebrate, most shells that are found on beaches are the shells of marine mollusks, partly because many of these shells endure better than other seashells. Apart from mollusk shells, other shells that can be found on beaches are those of barnacles, horseshoe crabs, marine annelid worms in the family Serpulidae create shells which are tubes made of calcium carbonate that are cemented onto other surfaces. The shells of sea urchins are called tests, and the shells of crabs. While most seashells are external, some cephalopods have internal shells, Seashells have been used by humans for many different purposes throughout history and pre-history. However, seashells are not the kind of shells, in various habitats, there are shells from freshwater animals such as freshwater mussels and freshwater snails. When the word refers only to the shells of marine mollusks. The study of the entire molluscan animal is known as malacology, Seashells are commonly found in beach drift, which is natural detritus deposited along strandlines on beaches by the waves and the tides. Shells are very often washed up onto an empty and clean. Empty seashells are often picked up by beachcombers, however, the majority of seashells which are offered for sale commercially have been collected alive and then killed and cleaned, specifically for the commercial trade. This type of large-scale exploitation can sometimes have a negative impact on local ecosystems. The word seashell is often used to only the shell of a marine mollusk. These shells are often the most commonly encountered, both in the wild, and for sale as decorative objects. Marine species of gastropods and bivalves are more numerous land and freshwater species. The shells of species also often have more sculpture and more color. Although there are a number of species of shelled mollusks that are large, there are vast numbers of extremely small species too
27.
Iberomaurusian
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The Iberomaurusian culture is a backed bladelet lithic industry found throughout the Tamazgha. The industry was originally described in 1909 by the French scholar Pallary, other names for the industry have included Mechta-Afalou, Mouillian and Oranian. Recent fieldwork indicates that the Iberomaurusian culture existed in the region from around the timing of the Last Glacial Maximum, at 20,000 BP, the industry is succeeded by the Capsian culture, which was originally thought to have spread into the Maghreb from the Near East. However, later studies suggest that the Iberomaurusian may have been the progenitors of the Capsian, despite suggestions that this minor element may be related to the Basques of southwestern Europe, there appear to be no vestiges of a Basque linguistic influence in the region. In 2013, Iberomaurusian skeletons from the sites of Taforalt. The ancient Taforalt individuals carried the mtDNA Haplogroup N subclades like U6, H, JT and V, which points to population continuity in the region dating from the Iberomaurusian period. In 2016 it has been identified mtDNA haplogroups H or U, T2b, JT or H14b1, J, J1c3f, H1, R0a1a, R0a2c, H2a1e1a, H2a2a1, H6a1a8, H14b1, U4a2b, U4c1, U6d3. A2003 sequencing on the mitochondrial DNA of two Cro-Magnons identified the mtDNA as Haplogroup N. Aterian
28.
Prehistoric North Africa
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The Prehistory of North Africa spans the period of earliest human presence in the region to the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt in c.3100 BC. Geographically, it can also be held to include the Saharan portions of Mauritania, Mali, Niger, as modern humans are generally believed to originate in Africa, prehistoric North Africa may hold important clues in understanding the evolution and spread of Homo sapiens. Human habitation in North Africa has been influenced by the climate of the Sahara. This is due to a 41000-year cycle in which the tilt of the changes between 22° and 24. 5°. At present, we are in a dry period, but it is expected that the Sahara will become again in 15000 years. During the last glacial period, the Sahara was much larger than it is today, the end of the glacial period brought more rain to the Sahara, from about 8000 BC to 6000 BC, perhaps because of low pressure areas over the collapsing ice sheets to the north. Once the ice sheets were gone, the northern Sahara dried out, in the southern Sahara, the drying trend was initially counteracted by the monsoon, which brought rain further north than it does today. By around 4200 BC, however, the monsoon retreated south to approximately where it is today, the Sahara is now as dry as it was about 13,000 years ago. These conditions are responsible for what has called the Sahara pump theory. During periods of a wet or Green Sahara, the Sahara becomes a savanna grassland and various flora and this separates populations of some of the species in areas with different climates, forcing them to adapt, possibly giving rise to allopatric speciation.8 million BC. Tools of this era, starting about 130,000 BCE, are called Aterian and are marked by a standard of workmanship, great variety. The earliest blade industries in North Africa belong to the Iberomaurusian or Oranian and this lithic industry appears to have spread throughout the coastal regions of North Africa between 15,000 and 10,000 BC. Neolithic society spread in the Saharan and Mediterranean North Africa after the Levante between 6000 and 2000 BC and this type of economy, so richly depicted in the Tassili nAjjer cave paintings, predominated in North Africa until the classical period. The pictures provide the most complete record of a prehistoric African culture, in 2013, Iberomaurusian skeletons from the prehistoric sites of Taforalt and Afalou in the Maghreb were analyzed for ancient DNA. The ancient Taforalt individuals carried the mtDNA haplogroups U6, H, JT and V, cultures producing rock art flourished during this period. In Prehistoric Egypt, Neolithic settlements appear from about 6000 BC, oher regions in Africa independently developed agriculture at about the same time, the Ethiopian highlands, the Sahel, and West Africa. The beginning of the Bronze Age in Egypt is conventionally identified as the Protodynastic Period, by the Iron Age, the historic record demonstrated the existence of the Berbers in North Africa from at least 10,000 B. C. While Egypt and Sudan had entered historicity since the Bronze Age, some Phoenician and Greek colonies were established along the Mediterranean coast during the 7th century BC
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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Peter N. Peregrine
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Peter N. Peregrine is an American anthropologist, registered professional archaeologist, and academic. He is well known for his defense of science in anthropology. Peregrine did dissertation research on the evolution of the Mississippian culture of North America and he is currently Professor of Anthropology at Lawrence University and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Peregrine developed a data set and methodology for conducting diachronic cross-cultural research. This work has produced the Atlas of Cultural Evolution and the Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Peregrine has published extensively on the Mississippian culture and on archaeological method and theory. Peregrine serves on the boards of American Anthropologist, Cross-Cultural Research. In 2011 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Peregrine argued that Mississippian cultures should be seen as participants in a large system that integrated much of eastern North America in a single political economy. The Mississippian cores themselves competitively manufactured and traded these objects, linking them into what Peregrine called a prestige-goods system, polities vied for power over exchange, and rose and fell as their ability to control prestige-goods strengthened or waned. The response to Peregrine’s view was mixed, with calling it “exaggerationalist”. In the mid-1990s Peregrine and colleagues Richard Blanton, Gary M. Feinman, and Steven Kowalewski developed “dual-processual” theory, dual-processual theory posits that political leaders adopt strategies for implementing power ranging along a continuum from being highly exclusionary to highly inclusive. Exclusionary strategies are like those Peregrine argued were in place among Mississippian polities, Peregrine argued that inclusive ones were in place among some Ancestral Puebloan polities. While not without controversy, dual processual theory has come to be seen as a tool for understanding both Mississippian and Ancestral Puebloan polities. Again, though not without controversy, Peregrine’s drive to promote a multi-regional perspective has been seen as useful for addressing some questions in North American archaeology, in addition to archaeology Peregrine has also made a number of contributions to cross-cultural studies. The focus of his work has been on developing archaeological correlates for various types of behavior, including warfare, postmarital residence, Peregrine also developed a sampling universe for conducting diachronic cross-cultural research using archaeological cases. The Outline of Archaeological Traditions, as this sampling universe is called, formed the basis of the Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Peregrine played John Muirs father Daniel Muir in the Emmy Award winning film John Muir in the New World. Peregrine lives in Appleton, Wisconsin with his wife and two daughters
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Melvin Ember
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Melvin Lawrence Ember was an American cultural anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher with wide-ranging interests who combined an active research career with writing for nonprofessionals. He then went on to Yale University to study for his Ph. D. in anthropology, after a year’s postdoctoral work at Yale, Ember spent four years at the Laboratory of Socio-Environmental Studies at the National Institute of Health. He was professor at Antioch College and Hunter College and he also chaired the department of anthropology at Hunter College of the City University of New York. Here he succeeded in expanding the department significantly, attracting scholars from major institutions. He also served as officer of the City University of New York graduate program in anthropology from 1973 to 1975. He was president of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research in 1981–82 and in 1982 took over the editorship of Cross-Cultural Research, a position he held until the time of his death. He moved to the New Haven area in 1987 to become president of the Human Relations Area Files, under his leadership, he helped revitalize the institution, moving its databases into the digital age. He chose three communities differing in distance from the center to evaluate how commercial involvement affected political change. His assessment of Samoan kinship was subsequently challenged by Derek Freeman, at the National Institute of Mental Health Embler worked on the universality of the familial incest taboo. Ember later worked with cross-cultural psychologists to explore the relationships between aggression and war, branching out into diverse and interdisciplinary research areas was not unusual for Ember. Indeed, he published articles in archaeology, linguistics, biological anthropology. Ember is widely known as the co-author of two textbooks, Anthropology, and Cultural Anthropology, first published in 1973 and now in their 13th edition. He was also editor or co-editor of eight encyclopedias
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University of Waterloo
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The University of Waterloo is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario. The main campus is on 404 hectares of land in Uptown Waterloo, the university offers academic programs administered by six faculties and ten faculty-based schools. The university also operates four campuses and four affiliated university colleges. Waterloo is a member of the U15, a group of universities in Canada. University of Waterloo is most famous for its education programs. University of Waterloo operates the largest post secondary program of its kind in the world. The institution was established on 1 July 1957 as the Waterloo College Associate Faculties and this entity formally separated from Waterloo College and was incorporated as a university with the passage of the University of Waterloo Act by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1959. It was established to fill the need to train engineers and technicians for Canadas growing postwar economy and it grew substantially over the next decade, adding a faculty of arts in 1960, and the College of Optometry of Ontario which moved from Toronto in 1967. The university is co-educational, and as of 2016 has 30,600 undergraduate and 5,300 postgraduate students, Alumni and former students of the university can be found across Canada and in over 140 countries. Waterloos varsity teams, known as the Waterloo Warriors, compete in the Ontario University Athletics conference of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport. The University of Waterloo traces its origins to Waterloo College, the outgrowth of Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. When Gerald Hagey assumed the presidency of Waterloo College in 1953, following that method, Waterloo College established the Waterloo College Associate Faculties on 4 April 1956, as a non-denominational board affiliated with the college. The academic structure of the Associated Faculties was originally focused on education in the applied sciences – largely built around the proposals of Ira Needles. On 25 January 1958, the Associated Faculties announced the purchase of over 74 hectares of land west of Waterloo College, by the end of the same year, the Associated Faculties opened its first building on the site, the Chemical Engineering Building. In 1959, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed an act which split the Associated Faculties from Waterloo College. The president, appointed by the board, was to act as the chief executive officer. While the agreements sought to safeguard the existence of the two colleges, they also aimed at federating them with the newly established University of Waterloo. Due to disagreements with Waterloo College, the College was not formally federated with the new university and this was something that the Associated Faculties was not prepared to accept
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