1.
Breton language
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Breton /ˈbrɛtən/ is a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Brittany. Breton is most closely related to Cornish, both being Southwestern Brittonic languages, Welsh and the extinct Cumbric are the more distantly related Brittonic languages. The other regional language of Brittany, Gallo, is a langue doïl, Gallo is consequently close to French, although not mutually intelligible, and a Romance language descended from Latin. However, the number of children attending bilingual classes has risen 33% between 2006 and 2012 to 14,709, Breton is spoken in West Brittany, roughly to the west of a line linking Plouha and La Roche-Bernard. It comes from a Brittonic language community that extended from Great Britain to Armorica and had even established a toehold in Galicia. Old Breton is attested from the 9th century and it was the language of the upper classes until the 12th century, after which it became the language of commoners in Lower Brittany. The nobility, followed by the bourgeoisie, adopted French, the written language of the Duchy of Brittany was Latin, switching to French in the 15th century. There exists a tradition of Breton literature. Some Old Breton vocabulary remains in the present day as philosophical, during the French Revolution, the government introduced policies favouring French over the regional languages, which it pejoratively referred to as patois. The revolutionaries assumed that reactionary and monarchist forces preferred regional languages to try to keep the peasant masses underinformed, in 1794, Bertrand Barère submitted his report on the patois to the Committee of Public Safety in which he said that federalism and superstition speak Breton. Teachers humiliated students for using their regional languages, and such practices prevailed until the late 1960s, the majority of todays speakers are more than 60 years old, and Breton is now classified as an endangered language. At the beginning of the 20th century, half of the population of Lower Brittany knew only Breton, by 1950, there were only 100,000 monolingual Bretons, and this rapid decline has continued, with likely no monolingual speakers left today. A statistical survey in 1997 found around 300,000 speakers in Lower Brittany, few 15- to 19-year-olds spoke Breton. In 1925, Professor Roparz Hemon founded the Breton-language review Gwalarn, during its 19-year run, Gwalarn tried to raise the language to the level of a great international language. Its publication encouraged the creation of literature in all genres. In 1946, Al Liamm replaced Gwalarn, other Breton-language periodicals have been published, which established a fairly large body of literature for a minority language. In 1977, Diwan schools were founded to teach Breton by immersion and they taught a few thousand young people from elementary school to high school. See the education section for more information, the Asterix comic series has been translated into Breton
2.
Megalith
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A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. The word megalithic describes structures made of large stones without the use of mortar or concrete. For later periods, the monolith, with an overlapping meaning, is more likely to be used. The word megalith comes from the Ancient Greek μέγας and λίθος, megalith also denotes an item consisting of rock hewn in definite shapes for special purposes. It has been used to describe buildings built by people from parts of the world living in many different periods. A variety of stones are seen as megaliths, with the most widely known megaliths not being sepulchral. The construction of these took place mainly in the Neolithic and continued into the Chalcolithic. At a number of sites in eastern Turkey, large ceremonial complexes from the 9th millennium BC have been discovered and they belong to the incipient phases of agriculture and animal husbandry. Large circular structures involving carved megalithic orthostats are a feature, e. g. at Nevalı Çori. Although these structures are the most ancient megalithic structures known so far, at Göbekli Tepe, four stone circles have been excavated from an estimated 20. Some measure up to 30 metres across, as well as human figures, the stones carry a variety of carved reliefs depicting boars, foxes, lions, birds, snakes and scorpions. Dolmens and standing stones have been found in areas of the Middle East starting at the Turkish border in the north of Syria close to Aleppo. They can be encountered in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Israel, Jordan, the largest concentration can be found in southern Syria and along the Jordan Rift Valley, however they are being threatened with destruction. They date from the late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age, megaliths have also been found on Kharg Island and pirazmian in Iran, at Barda Balka in Iraq, and at Jaintapur in Bangladesh. A semicircular arrangement of megaliths was found in Israel at Atlit Yam and it is a very early example, dating from the 7th millennium BC. The most concentrated occurrence of dolmens in particular is in an area on both sides of the Jordan Rift Valley, with greater predominance on the eastern side. They occur first and foremost on the Golan Heights, the Hauran, and in Jordan, in Saudi Arabia, only very few dolmen have been identified so far in the Hejaz. They seem, however, to re-emerge in Yemen in small numbers, the standing stone has a very ancient tradition in the Middle East, dating back from Mesopotamian times
3.
Carnac
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Carnac is a commune beside the Gulf of Morbihan on the south coast of Brittany in the Morbihan department in north-western France. Its inhabitants are called Carnacois in French, Carnac is renowned for the Carnac stones – one of the most extensive Neolithic menhir collections in the world – as well as its beaches, which are popular with tourists. Located on a narrow peninsula halfway between the medieval town Vannes and the seaside resort Quiberon, Carnac is split into two centres - Carnac-Ville and Carnac-Plage, in total there are five beaches, including la Grande Plage, and further to the east, Plage Men Dû and Beaumer. Carnac is famous as the site of more than 10,000 Neolithic standing stones, the stones were hewn from local rock and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany. Local tradition claims that the reason they stand in such perfectly straight lines is that they are a Roman legion turned to stone by Pope Cornelius, the Carnac stones were erected during the Neolithic period which lasted from around 4500 BC until 2000 BC. The precise date of the stones is difficult to ascertain as little material has been found beneath them. One interpretation of the site is that successive generations visited the site to erect a stone in honour of their ancestors, in 1864, La Trinité-sur-Mer and its port were separated from the commune to create their own commune and parish. The fishermen found the church in Saint-Cornély to be too far from the port, La Trinité-sur-Mer thus became both a parish and a separate commune. In 1903, a resort was created on the old salt flats, developing extensively through the 1950s to create the split Carnac of today, Carnac-ville. In 1974, a hydrotherapy centre was sponsored by champion cyclist Louison Bobet. Since the end of World War II, Carnac has become a site for tourists seeking a break from the traditional destinations on the Côte dAzur. During the months of July and August, the number of people in the town increases significantly from the influx of tourists, wind and waves in the region attract day and cruise sailors. The Standing Stones and other monuments in the vicinity provide some cultural attraction and Carnac-Plages variety of bars and clubs ensures that a younger set can amuse themselves at night. There are a number of camping grounds in the woods around Carnac, Carnac is home to École de Voile de Carnac which provides sailing and windsurfing lessons and rentals to sailors of all levels of experience. The geography of the Bay of Quiberon provides ideal conditions for sailing, the Peninsula of Quiberon provides protection from Atlantic waves and turbulence while allowing the Gulf Winds to enter the bay. For windsurfers, the Saint-Colomban beach is located in Carnac-Plage, the beach is very popular with windsurfers, as its position allows for the best exploitation of strong winds from the West. Other beaches in the area provide equal access to the winds of the bay, a local myth holds that a unicorn lives in the waters off the city and in a cave near St. Malo. Carnac is connected to La Trinité-sur-Mer to the east by road, the other neighbouring communes are Crach, Erdeven, Ploemel and Plouharnel
4.
Brittany
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Brittany is a cultural region in the north-west of France. Brittany has also referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain. It is bordered by the English Channel to the north, the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and its land area is 34,023 km². Since reorganisation in 1956, the administrative region of Brittany comprises only four of the five Breton departments. The remaining area of old Brittany, the Loire-Atlantique department around Nantes, at the 2010 census, the population of historic Brittany was estimated to be 4,475,295. Of these, 71% lived in the region of Brittany, while 29% lived in the Loire-Atlantique department, in 2012, the largest metropolitan areas were Nantes, Rennes, and Brest. Brittany is the homeland of the Breton people and is recognised by the Celtic League as one of the six Celtic nations. A nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the French Republic, the word Brittany, along with its French, Breton and Gallo equivalents Bretagne, Breizh and Bertaèyn, derive from the Latin Britannia, which means Britons land. This word had been used by the Romans since the 1st century to refer to Great Britain and this word derives from a Greek word, Πρεττανικη or Βρεττανίαι, used by Pytheas, an explorer from Massalia who visited the British Islands around 320 BC. This term probably comes from a Gallic word, aremorica, which close to the sea. Another name, Letauia, was used until the 12th century and it possibly means wide and flat or to expand and it gave the Welsh name for Brittany, Llydaw. Later, authors like Geoffrey of Monmouth used the terms Britannia minor, breton-speaking people may pronounce the word Breizh in two different ways, according to their region of origin. Breton can be divided into two dialects, the KLT and the dialect of Vannes. KLT speakers pronounce it and would write it Breiz, while the Vannetais speakers pronounce it, the official spelling is a compromise between both variants, with a z and an h together. In 1941, efforts to unify the dialects led to the creation of the so-called Breton zh, on its side, Gallo language has never had a widely accepted writing system and several ones coexist. For instance, the name of the region in that language can be written Bertaèyn in ELG script, or Bertègn in MOGA, Brittany has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic. This population was scarce and very similar to the other Neanderthals found in the whole of Western Europe and their only original feature was a distinct culture, called Colombanian. One of the oldest hearths in the world has found in Plouhinec
5.
Stone row
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A stone row, is a linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones set at intervals along a common axis or series of axes, usually dating from the later Neolithic or Bronze Age. Rows may be individual or grouped, and three or more stones aligned can constitute a stone row, Stone rows can be few metres or several kilometres in length and made from stones that can be as tall as 2m, although 1m high stones are more common. The terminals of many rows have the largest stones and other features are sometimes sited at the ends. The stones are placed at intervals and may vary in height along the sequence, to provide a graduated appearance, Stone rows were erected by the later Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples in the British Isles, parts of Scandinavia and northern France. The most famous example is the Carnac stones, a complex of stone rows around Carnac in Brittany, there are a number of examples on Dartmoor including the row at Stall Down and three rows at Drizzlecombe and the Hill O Many Stanes in Caithness. In Britain they are found in isolated moorland areas. The term alignment is sometimes taken to imply that the rows were placed purposely in relation to other such as other monuments or topographical or astronomical features. Archaeologists treat stone rows as discrete features however and alignment refers to the stones being lined up one another rather than anything else. Their purpose is thought to be religious or ceremonial perhaps marking a processual route, another theory is that each generation would erect a new stone to contribute to a sequence that demonstrated a peoples continual presence. Archaeological inventory of County Cork, Volume 3, Mid Cork,9467 ColorBooks, ISBN 0-7076-4933-1 Lancaster Brown, P. Megaliths, myths, and men, an introduction to astro-archaeology. English Heritage Monument Description Thesaurus listing Megalith Map of Stone Circles and Rows
6.
Dolmen
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A dolmen is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more vertical megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone, although there are also more complex variants. Most date from the early Neolithic, Dolmens were typically covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus. In many instances, that covering has weathered away, leaving only the skeleton of the burial mound intact. It remains unclear when, why, and by whom the earliest dolmens were made, the oldest known dolmens are in Western Europe, where they were set in place around 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists still do not know who erected these dolmens, which makes it difficult to know why they did it and they are generally all regarded as tombs or burial chambers, despite the absence of clear evidence for this. Human remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have found in or close to the dolmens which could be scientifically dated using radiocarbon dating. However, it has been impossible to prove that these date from the time when the stones were originally set in place. The word dolmen has a confused history, the word entered archaeology when Théophile Corret de la Tour dAuvergne used it to describe megalithic tombs in his Origines gauloises using the spelling dolmin. The name was derived from a Breton language term meaning stone table but doubt has been cast on this. Nonetheless it has now replaced cromlech as the usual English term in archaeology, granja is used in Portugal, Galicia, and Spain. The rarer forms anta and ganda also appear, in the Basque Country, they are attributed to the jentilak, a race of giants. The etymology of the German, Hünenbett, Hünengrab and Dutch, of other Celtic languages, Welsh, cromlech was borrowed into English and quoit is commonly used in English in Cornwall. Great dolmen Passage grave Polygonal dolmen Rectangular, enlarged or extended dolmen Simple dolmen Korean dolmens exhibit a distinct from the Atlantic European dolmen. The largest concentration of dolmens in the world is found on the Korean Peninsula, with an estimated 35,000 dolmens, Korea alone accounts for nearly 40% of the world’s total. Three specific UNESCO World Heritage sites at Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa by themselves account for over 1,000 dolmens, the Korean word for dolmen is goindol supported stone. Serious studies of the Korean megalithic monuments were not undertaken until relatively recently, after 1945, new research is being conducted by Korean scholars. In 1981 a curator of National Museum of Korea, Gongil Ji, the boundary between them falls at the Bukhan River although examples of both types are found on either side. Korean dolmens can also be divided into three types, the table type, the go-table type and the unsupported capstone type
7.
Tumulus
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A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or kurgans, a cairn, which is a mound of stones built for various purposes, may also originally have been a tumulus. Tumuli are often categorised according to their external apparent shape, in this respect, a long barrow is a long tumulus, usually constructed on top of several burials, such as passage graves. A round barrow is a tumulus, also commonly constructed on top of burials. The internal structure and architecture of both long and round barrows has a range, the categorization only refers to the external apparent shape. The method of inhumation may involve a dolmen, a cist, a mortuary enclosure, examples of barrows include Duggleby Howe and Maeshowe. The funeral of Patroclus is described in book 23 of the Iliad, Patroclus is burned on a pyre, and his bones are collected into a golden urn in two layers of fat. The barrow is built on the location of the pyre, achilles then sponsors funeral games, consisting of a chariot race, boxing, wrestling, running, a duel between two champions to the first blood, discus throwing, archery and spear throwing. Beowulfs body is taken to Hronesness, where it is burned on a funeral pyre, during cremation, the Geats lament the death of their lord, a widows lament being mentioned in particular, singing dirges as they circumambulate the barrow. Afterwards, a mound is built on top of a hill, overlooking the sea, a band of twelve of the best warriors ride around the barrow, singing dirges in praise of their lord. Parallels have also drawn to the account of Attilas burial in Jordanes Getica. Jordanes tells that as Attilas body was lying in state, the best horsemen of the Huns circled it, as in circus games. An Old Irish Life of Columcille reports that every funeral procession halted at a mound called Eala, whereupon the corpse was laid, archaeologists often classify tumuli according to their location, form, and date of construction. Some British types are listed below, Bank barrow Bell barrow Bowl barrow D-shaped barrow - round barrow with a flat edge at one side often defined by stone slabs. Disc barrow Fancy barrow - generic term for any Bronze Age barrows more elaborate than a hemispherical shape. Long barrow Oval barrow - a Neolithic long barrow consisting of an elliptical, platform barrow - The least common of the recognised types of round barrow, consisting of a flat, wide circular mound that may be surrounded by a ditch. They occur widely across southern England with a concentration in East and West Sussex. Pond barrow - a barrow consisting of a circular depression, surrounded by a bank running around the rim of the depression
8.
Menhir
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A menhir, standing stone, orthostat, lith or masseba/matseva is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found solely as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones and their size can vary considerably, but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top. Menhirs are widely distributed across Europe, Africa and Asia, however, they are most numerous in Western Europe, in particular in Ireland, Great Britain and Brittany. There are about 50,000 megaliths in these areas, while there are 1,200 menhirs in northwest France alone, standing stones are usually difficult to date, but pottery, and/or pottery shards found underneath some in Atlantic Europe connects them with the Beaker people. They were constructed during different periods across pre-history as part of a larger megalithic culture that flourished in Europe. Some menhirs have been erected next to buildings that often have an early or current religious significance, one example is the South Zeal Menhir in Devon, which formed the basis for a 12th-century monastery built by lay monks. The monastery later became the Oxenham Arms hotel, at South Zeal, where menhirs appear in groups, often in a circular, oval, henge or horseshoe formation, they are sometimes called megalithic monuments. These are sites of ancient religious ceremonies, sometimes containing burial chambers, the exact function of menhirs has provoked more debate than practically any other issue in European pre-history. Until the nineteenth century, antiquarians did not have knowledge of prehistory. The developments of radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology have done much to knowledge in this area. The word menhir was adopted from French by 19th-century archaeologists and it is a combination of two words of the Breton language, maen and hir. In modern Welsh, they are described as maen hir, or long stone, in modern Breton, the word peulvan is used, with peul meaning stake or post and van which is a soft mutation of the word maen which means stone. Almost nothing is known of the organization or religious beliefs of the people who erected the menhirs. There is not even any trace of these language, however we do know that they buried their dead and had the skills to grow cereal, farm and make pottery, stone tools. Until recently, menhirs were associated with the Beaker people, who inhabited Europe during the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age — later third millennium BC, ca.2800 –1800 BC. However, recent research into the age of megaliths in Brittany strongly suggests a far older origin, many menhirs are engraved with megalithic art. This often turned them into anthropomorphic stelae, although images of such as stone axes, ploughs, shepherd crooks. With the exception of the axe, none of these motifs are definite
9.
Prehistoric
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Prehistory means literally before history, from the Latin word for before, præ, and Greek ιστορία. Neighbouring civilisations were the first to follow, most other civilisations reached the end of prehistory during the Iron Age. The period when a culture is written about by others, but has not developed its own writing is known as the protohistory of the culture. By definition, there are no records from human prehistory. Clear techniques for dating were not well-developed until the 19th century and this article is concerned with human prehistory as defined here above. There are separate articles for the history of the Earth. However, for the race as a whole, prehistory ends when recorded history begins with the accounts of the ancient world around the 4th millennium BC. For example, in Egypt it is accepted that prehistory ended around 3200 BC, whereas in New Guinea the end of the prehistoric era is set much more recently. The three-age system is the periodization of prehistory into three consecutive time periods, named for their respective predominant tool-making technologies, Stone Age Bronze Age Iron Age. The notion of prehistory began to surface during the Enlightenment in the work of antiquarians who used the word primitive to describe societies that existed before written records, the first use of the word prehistory in English, however, occurred in the Foreign Quarterly Review in 1836. The main source for prehistory is archaeology, but some scholars are beginning to more use of evidence from the natural and social sciences. This view has been articulated by advocates of deep history, human population geneticists and historical linguists are also providing valuable insight for these questions. Human prehistory differs from history not only in terms of its chronology, restricted to material processes, remains and artifacts rather than written records, prehistory is anonymous. Because of this, reference terms that use, such as Neanderthal or Iron Age are modern labels with definitions sometimes subject to debate. Palaeolithic means Old Stone Age, and begins with the first use of stone tools, the Paleolithic is the earliest period of the Stone Age. The early part of the Palaeolithic is called the Lower Palaeolithic, evidence of control of fire by early humans during the Lower Palaeolithic Era is uncertain and has at best limited scholarly support. The most widely accepted claim is that H. erectus or H. ergaster made fires between 790,000 and 690,000 BP in a site at Bnot Yaakov Bridge, Israel. The use of fire enabled early humans to cook food, provide warmth, Early Homo sapiens originated some 200,000 years ago, ushering in the Middle Palaeolithic
10.
Standing stone
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A menhir, standing stone, orthostat, lith or masseba/matseva is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found solely as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones and their size can vary considerably, but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top. Menhirs are widely distributed across Europe, Africa and Asia, however, they are most numerous in Western Europe, in particular in Ireland, Great Britain and Brittany. There are about 50,000 megaliths in these areas, while there are 1,200 menhirs in northwest France alone, standing stones are usually difficult to date, but pottery, and/or pottery shards found underneath some in Atlantic Europe connects them with the Beaker people. They were constructed during different periods across pre-history as part of a larger megalithic culture that flourished in Europe. Some menhirs have been erected next to buildings that often have an early or current religious significance, one example is the South Zeal Menhir in Devon, which formed the basis for a 12th-century monastery built by lay monks. The monastery later became the Oxenham Arms hotel, at South Zeal, where menhirs appear in groups, often in a circular, oval, henge or horseshoe formation, they are sometimes called megalithic monuments. These are sites of ancient religious ceremonies, sometimes containing burial chambers, the exact function of menhirs has provoked more debate than practically any other issue in European pre-history. Until the nineteenth century, antiquarians did not have knowledge of prehistory. The developments of radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology have done much to knowledge in this area. The word menhir was adopted from French by 19th-century archaeologists and it is a combination of two words of the Breton language, maen and hir. In modern Welsh, they are described as maen hir, or long stone, in modern Breton, the word peulvan is used, with peul meaning stake or post and van which is a soft mutation of the word maen which means stone. Almost nothing is known of the organization or religious beliefs of the people who erected the menhirs. There is not even any trace of these language, however we do know that they buried their dead and had the skills to grow cereal, farm and make pottery, stone tools. Until recently, menhirs were associated with the Beaker people, who inhabited Europe during the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age — later third millennium BC, ca.2800 –1800 BC. However, recent research into the age of megaliths in Brittany strongly suggests a far older origin, many menhirs are engraved with megalithic art. This often turned them into anthropomorphic stelae, although images of such as stone axes, ploughs, shepherd crooks. With the exception of the axe, none of these motifs are definite
11.
Rock (geology)
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Rock or stone is a natural substance, a solid aggregate of one or more minerals or mineraloids. For example, granite, a rock, is a combination of the minerals quartz, feldspar. The Earths outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock, rock has been used by mankind throughout history. The minerals and metals found in rocks have been essential to human civilization, three major groups of rocks are defined, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The scientific study of rocks is called petrology, which is a component of geology. At a granular level, rocks are composed of grains of minerals, the aggregate minerals forming the rock are held together by chemical bonds. The types and abundance of minerals in a rock are determined by the manner in which the rock was formed, many rocks contain silica, a compound of silicon and oxygen that forms 74. 3% of the Earths crust. This material forms crystals with other compounds in the rock, the proportion of silica in rocks and minerals is a major factor in determining their name and properties. Rocks are geologically classified according to such as mineral and chemical composition, permeability, the texture of the constituent particles. These physical properties are the end result of the processes that formed the rocks, over the course of time, rocks can transform from one type into another, as described by the geological model called the rock cycle. These events produce three general classes of rock, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic, the three classes of rocks are subdivided into many groups. However, there are no hard and fast boundaries between allied rocks, hence the definitions adopted in establishing rock nomenclature merely correspond to more or less arbitrary selected points in a continuously graduated series. Igneous rock forms through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava and this magma can be derived from partial melts of pre-existing rocks in either a planets mantle or crust. Typically, the melting of rocks is caused by one or more of three processes, an increase in temperature, a decrease in pressure, or a change in composition, igneous rocks are divided into two main categories, plutonic rock and volcanic. Plutonic or intrusive rocks result when magma cools and crystallizes slowly within the Earths crust, a common example of this type is granite. Volcanic or extrusive rocks result from magma reaching the surface either as lava or fragmental ejecta, the chemical abundance and the rate of cooling of magma typically forms a sequence known as Bowens reaction series. Most major igneous rocks are found along this scale, about 64. 7% of the Earths crust by volume consists of igneous rocks, making it the most plentiful category. Of these, 66% are basalts and gabbros, 16% are granite, only 0. 6% are syenites and 0. 3% peridotites and dunites
12.
Celts
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The history of pre-Celtic Europe remains very uncertain. According to one theory, the root of the Celtic languages, the Proto-Celtic language, arose in the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of Central Europe. Thus this area is called the Celtic homeland. The earliest undisputed examples of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions beginning in the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested almost exclusively through inscriptions and place-names, Insular Celtic languages are attested beginning around the 4th century in Ogham inscriptions, although it was clearly being spoken much earlier. Celtic literary tradition begins with Old Irish texts around the 8th century, coherent texts of Early Irish literature, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge, survive in 12th century recensions. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a cohesive cultural entity. They had a linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from the culture of the surrounding polities. By the 6th century, however, the Continental Celtic languages were no longer in wide use, Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of the Gaels and the Celtic Britons of the medieval and modern periods. A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Great Britain, Ireland, today, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton are still spoken in parts of their historical territories, and Cornish and Manx are undergoing a revival. The first recorded use of the name of Celts – as Κελτοί – to refer to a group was by Hecataeus of Miletus, the Greek geographer, in 517 BC. In the fifth century BC Herodotus referred to Keltoi living around the head of the Danube, the etymology of the term Keltoi is unclear. Possible roots include Indo-European *kʲel ‘to hide’, IE *kʲel ‘to heat’ or *kel ‘to impel’, several authors have supposed it to be Celtic in origin, while others view it as a name coined by Greeks. Linguist Patrizia De Bernardo Stempel falls in the group. Yet he reports Celtic peoples in Iberia, and also uses the ethnic names Celtiberi and Celtici for peoples there, as distinct from Lusitani, pliny the Elder cited the use of Celtici in Lusitania as a tribal surname, which epigraphic findings have confirmed. Latin Gallus might stem from a Celtic ethnic or tribal name originally and its root may be the Proto-Celtic *galno, meaning “power, strength”, hence Old Irish gal “boldness, ferocity” and Welsh gallu “to be able, power”. The tribal names of Gallaeci and the Greek Γαλάται most probably have the same origin, the suffix -atai might be an Ancient Greek inflection. Proto-Germanic *walha is derived ultimately from the name of the Volcae and this means that English Gaul, despite its superficial similarity, is not actually derived from Latin Gallia, though it does refer to the same ancient region
13.
Neolithic
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It ended when metal tools became widespread. The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops, the beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant about 10, 200–8800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called proto-Neolithic is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic between 10,200 and 8800 BC. By 10, 200–8800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep. By about 6900–6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture, unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species reached the Neolithic. The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νέος néos, new and λίθος líthos, stone, the term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing in the 10th millennium BC, early development occurred in the Levant and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are attested in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia by around 8000 BC. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards, the Neolithic 1 period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity. At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have been found in Jericho, Israel, Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, the start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree. The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming, in the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour, emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated
14.
33rd century BCE
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The 33rd century BC is a century which lasted from the year 3300 BC to 3201 BC. Major climate shift possibly due to shift in solar activity,3300 BC, Harappan script is discovered in Indus Valley c.3300 BC—Pictographs in Uruk 3300 BC to 3000 BC, Face of a woman, from Uruk is made. It is now in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, C.3300 BC The Red Temple, the first phase of the Monte dAccoddi sanctuary in Northwest Sardinia, is built. 3300-3000 BC Evidence of proto-Thracians or proto-Dacians in the prehistoric period,3250 BC – Potters wheel in use in Ancient Near East Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy discovered in the Austrian/Italian Alps in 1991
15.
Roman Gaul
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Roman Gaul refers to Gaul under provincial rule in the Roman Empire from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD. The Roman Republic began its takeover of Celtic Gaul in 121 BC, julius Caesar significantly advanced the task by defeating the Celtic tribes in the Gallic Wars of 58-51 BC. In 22 BC, imperial administration of Gaul was reorganized, establishing the provinces of Gallia Aquitania, Gallia Belgica, parts of eastern Gaul were incorporated into the provinces Raetia and Germania Superior. During Late Antiquity, Gaulish and Roman culture amalgamated into a hybrid Gallo-Roman culture, the Gaulish language was marginalized and eventually extinct, being replaced by regional forms of Late Latin which in the medieval period developed into the group of Gallo-Romance languages. Roman control over the provinces deteriorated in the 4th and 5th centuries, the last vestiges of any Roman control over parts of Gaul were effaced with the defeat of Syagrius at the Battle of Soissons. Gaul had three divisions, one of which was divided into multiple Roman provinces, Gallia Cisalpina or Gaul this side of the Alps. Gallia Narbonensis, formerly Gallia Transalpina or Gaul across the Alps was originally conquered and annexed in 121 BC in an attempt to solidify communications between Rome and the Iberian peninsula. It comprised the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur, most of Languedoc-Roussillon. Gallia Comata, or long haired Gaul, encompassed the remainder of present-day France, Belgium, and westernmost Germany, gauls continued writing some inscriptions in the Gaulish language, but switched from the Greek alphabet to the Latin alphabet during the Roman period. The Roman influence was most apparent in the areas of religion and administration. The Druidic religion was suppressed by Emperor Claudius I, and in later centuries Christianity was introduced, the prohibition of Druids and the syncretic nature of the Roman religion led to disappearance of the Celtic religion. It remains to this day poorly understood, current knowledge of the Celtic religion is based on archeology and via literary sources from several isolated areas such as Ireland, the Romans easily imposed their administrative, economic, artistic and literary culture. They wore the Roman tunic instead of their traditional clothing, the Romano-Gauls generally lived in the vici, small villages similar to those in Italy, or in villae, for the richest. Surviving Celtic influences also infiltrated back into the Roman Imperial culture in the 3rd century, for example, the Gaulish tunic—which gave Emperor Caracalla his surname—had not been replaced by Roman fashion. Similarly, certain Gaulish artisan techniques, such as the barrel, the Celtic heritage also continued in the spoken language. Gaulish spelling and pronunciation of Latin are apparent in several 5th century poets, the last pockets of Gaulish speakers appear to have lingered until the 6th or 7th century. Germanic placenames were first attested in border areas settled by Germanic colonizers, from the 4th to 5th centuries, the Franks settled in northern France and Belgium, the Alemanni in Alsace and Switzerland, and the Burgundians in Savoie. The Roman administration finally collapsed as remaining Roman troops withdrew southeast to protect Italy, between 455 and 476 the Visigoths, the Burgundians, and the Franks assumed control in Gaul
16.
Cornelius the Centurion
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Cornelius was a Roman centurion who is considered by Christians to be the first Gentile to convert to the faith, as related in Acts of the Apostles and, perhaps the Gospel according to John. Cornelius was a centurion in the Cohors II Italica Civium Romanorum and he was stationed in Caesarea, the capital of Roman Iudaea province. He is depicted in the New Testament as a God-fearing man who always prayed and was full of good works, Cornelius receives a vision in which an angel of God tells him that his prayers have been heard, he understands that hes chosen for a higher alternative. The angel then instructs Cornelius to send the men of his household to Joppa, where they will find Simon Peter, the conversion of Cornelius comes after a separate vision given to Simon Peter himself. In the vision, Simon Peter sees all manner of beasts, a voice commands Simon Peter to eat. When he objects to eating those animals that are unclean according to Mosaic Law, when Cornelius men arrive, Simon Peter understands that through this vision the Lord commanded the Apostle to preach the Word of God to the Gentiles. Peter accompanies Cornelius men back to Caesarea, when Cornelius meets Simon Peter, he falls at Peters feet. Simon Peter raises the centurion and the two men share their visions, Simon Peter tells of Jesus ministry and the Resurrection, the Holy Spirit descends on everyone at the gathering. The Jews among the group are amazed that Cornelius and other uncircumcised should begin speaking in tongues, thereupon Simon Peter commands that Cornelius and his followers be baptized. The controversial aspect of Gentile conversion is taken up later at the Council of Jerusalem, Peter later chose not to eat with Gentiles in Antioch after some Jews criticized him. The apostle Paul publicly confronted Peter for being hypocritical as related in Galatians 2, Cornelius was the first Gentile converted to Christianity. Florentine Bechtel summarizes the importance of Cornelius baptism, The baptism of Cornelius is an important event in the history of the Early Church, certain traditions hold Cornelius as becoming either the first bishop of Caesarea or the bishop of Scepsis in Mysia. His feast day on the General Roman Calendar is 2 February and he is commemorated in the Orthodox tradition on 13 September. Cornelius is honored with a commemoration in the calendar of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America on February 7. When Governors Island, New York, was an installation the Episcopal Church maintained a stone chapel there dedicated to him. The Greek-French philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis is named after him
17.
Pope Cornelius
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Pope Cornelius was the Bishop of Rome from 6 or 13 March 251 to his martyrdom in 253. Many Christians refused and were martyred, while others partook in the sacrifices in order to save their own lives, two schools of thought arose after the persecution. Under this philosophy, the way to re-enter the church would be re-baptism. The opposing side, including Cornelius and Cyprian the Bishop of Carthage, instead they thought that the sinners should only need to show contrition and true repentance to be welcomed back into the church. In hopes that Christianity would fade away, Decius prevented the election of a new pope, however, soon afterwards Decius was forced to leave the area to fight the invading Goths and while he was away the elections for pope were held. In the 14 months without a pope, the leading candidate, Novatian believed that he would be elected, however Cornelius was unwillingly elected the twenty-first pope in March 251. Novatian was very angry not only that he was not elected pope and he thus proclaimed himself the antipope to Cornelius, driving a schism through the church. Corneliuss next action was to convene a synod of 60 bishops to restate himself as the rightful pope, also addressed in the synod was that Christians who stopped practising during Emperor Deciuss persecution could receive communion only after doing penance. The verdict of the synod was sent to the Christian bishops, most notably the bishop of Antioch, the letters that Cornelius sent to surrounding bishops provide knowledge of the size of the church during the period. His letters also inform that Cornelius had a staff of over 150 clergy members, from these numbers, it has been estimated that there were at least 50,000 Christians in Rome during the papacy of Pope Cornelius. In June 251, Decius was killed in battle with the Goths, persecution began again in June 252, and Pope Cornelius was exiled to Centumcellae, Italy, where he died in June 253. The Liberian catalogue lists his death as being from the hardships of banishment, however, later sources claim he was beheaded. Cornelius is not buried in the chapel of the popes, but in a catacomb. This suggests that Cornelius did not come from a wealthy family. A letter from Cornelius while in exile mentions an office of exorcist in the church for the first time, canon law has since then required each diocese to have an exorcist. St. Cornelius is not mentioned much in most texts, when he is referenced, it seems to be in conjunction with his anti-pope Novatian, who eventually founded his own church with his own bishops, his predecessor St Fabian, or his successor St. Lucius. His papacy was short, reigning two years, three months, and ten days, and little was probably circulated at the due to the persecution in Christian centers. Over time, St. Cornelius seems to have been overlooked and passed over for other great Catholic popes whose papacies lasted longer, had political power
18.
King Arthur
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King Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD. The details of Arthurs story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, the sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas. Arthurs name also occurs in early sources such as Y Gododdin. Arthur is a figure in the legends making up the so-called Matter of Britain. The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouths fanciful, how much of Geoffreys Historia was adapted from such earlier sources, rather than invented by Geoffrey himself, is unknown. Geoffrey depicted Arthur as a king of Britain who defeated the Saxons and established an empire over Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Gaul. The 12th-century French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who added Lancelot, in these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various Knights of the Round Table. Arthurian literature thrived during the Middle Ages but waned in the centuries that followed until it experienced a resurgence in the 19th century. In the 21st century, the lives on, not only in literature but also in adaptations for theatre, film, television, comics. The historical basis for the King Arthur legend has long debated by scholars. These culminate in the Battle of Badon, where he is said to have single-handedly killed 960 men, recent studies, however, question the reliability of the Historia Brittonum. The other text that seems to support the case for Arthurs historical existence is the 10th-century Annales Cambriae, the Annales date this battle to 516–518, and also mention the Battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut were both killed, dated to 537–539. These details have often used to bolster confidence in the Historias account. Problems have been identified, however, with using this source to support the Historia Brittonums account, the latest research shows that the Annales Cambriae was based on a chronicle begun in the late 8th century in Wales. Additionally, the textual history of the Annales Cambriae precludes any certainty that the Arthurian annals were added to it even that early. They were more likely added at point in the 10th century. The Badon entry probably derived from the Historia Brittonum and this lack of convincing early evidence is the reason many recent historians exclude Arthur from their accounts of sub-Roman Britain. These modern admissions of ignorance are a recent trend, earlier generations of historians were less sceptical
19.
Roman legion
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A Roman legion was the largest unit of the Roman army involving from 3000 men in early times to over 5200 men in imperial times, consisting of centuries as the basic units. Until the middle of the first century,10 cohorts made up a Roman Legion and this was later changed to nine cohorts of standard size and one cohort, the first cohort, of double strength. In the early Roman Kingdom the legion may have meant the entire Roman army but sources on this period are few, Legions also included a small ala or cavalry unit. By the third century AD, the legion was a smaller unit of about 1,000 to 1,500 men. In the fourth century AD, East Roman border guard legions may have even smaller. The Roman army, for most of the Imperial period, consisted mostly of auxiliaries rather than legions, because legions were not permanent units until the Marian reforms, and were instead created, used, and disbanded again, several hundred legions were named and numbered throughout Roman history. To date, about 50 have been identified, toward the end of the 2nd Century BC, Rome started to experience manpower shortages brought about by property and financial qualifications to join the army. In the time of Augustus, there were nearly 50 upon his succession but this was reduced to about 25–35 permanent standing legions, a legion consisted of several cohorts of heavy infantry known as legionaries. The recruitment of non-citizens was rare but appears to have occurred in times of great need, For example, Caesar appears to have recruited the Legio V Alaudae mostly from non-citizen Gauls. In the period before the raising of the legio and the years of the Roman Kingdom. These centuries were grouped together as required and answered to the leader who had hired or raised them, the roles of century leader, second in command and standard bearer are referenced in this early period. Much Roman history of the era is shrouded in legend, but it is believed that during the reign of Servius Tullius, the census was introduced. Joining the army was both a duty and a mark of Roman citizenship, during the entire pre-Marian period the wealthiest land owners performed the most years of military service. These individuals would have had the most to lose should the state have fallen. The first and wealthiest common class was armed in the fashion of the hoplite with spear, sword, helmet, breast plate and round shield, there were 82 centuries of these, Roman soldiers had to purchase their own equipment. The second and third class also acted as spearmen but were heavily armoured and carried a larger oval or rectangular shield. The fourth class could afford no armour, perhaps bearing a shield and armed with spear. All three of the latter made up about 26 centuries
20.
Merlin
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Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in Arthurian legend and medieval Welsh poetry. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouths Historia Regum Britanniae,1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures. He is allegedly buried in the Broceliande forest, near Paimpont in Brittany, Geoffreys rendering of the character was immediately popular, especially in Wales. Later writers expanded the account to produce an image of the wizard. Merlins traditional biography casts him as a cambion, born of a woman, sired by an incubus. The name of Merlins mother is not usually stated, but is given as Adhan in the oldest version of the Prose Brut, Merlin matures to an ascendant sagehood and engineers the birth of Arthur through magic and intrigue. Later authors have Merlin serve as the kings advisor until he is bewitched and imprisoned by the Lady of the Lake, the name Merlin is derived from the Welsh Myrddin, the name of the bard Myrddin Wyllt, one of the chief sources for the later legendary figure. Geoffrey of Monmouth Latinised the name to Merlinus in his works, medievalist Gaston Paris suggests that Geoffrey chose the form Merlinus rather than the regular Merdinus to avoid a resemblance to the Anglo-Norman word merde for feces. Clas Myrddin or Merlins Enclosure is a name for Great Britain stated in the Third Series of Welsh Triads. Celticist A. O. H. Jarman suggests that the Welsh name Myrddin was derived from the toponym Caerfyrddin and this contrasts with the popular folk etymology that the town was named for the bard. The name Carmarthen is derived from the towns previous Roman name Moridunum, itself derived from Celtic Brittonic *moridunon, sea fortress. The former had nothing to do with Arthur, in British poetry he was a bard driven mad after witnessing the horrors of war, who fled civilization to become a wild man of the wood in the 6th century. Geoffrey had this individual in mind when he wrote his earliest surviving work, the Prophetiae Merlini, Geoffreys Prophetiae do not reveal much about Merlins background. He included the prophet in his next work Historia Regum Britanniae, supplementing the characterisation by attributing to him stories about Aurelius Ambrosius, according to Nennius, Ambrosius was discovered when the British king Vortigern was trying to erect a tower. The tower always collapsed before completion, and his men told him that the only solution was to sprinkle the foundation with the blood of a child born without a father. Geoffrey retells this story in Historia Regum Britanniæ with some embellishments and he goes on to add new episodes that tie Merlin into the story of King Arthur and his predecessors, such as bringing the stones for Stonehenge from Preseli Hills in south-west Wales and Ireland. Geoffrey dealt with Merlin again in his third work Vita Merlini and he based the Vita on stories of the original 6th-century Myrddin, set long after his time frame for the life of Merlin Ambrosius. He tries to assert that the characters are the same references to King Arthur and his death
21.
Building material
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Building material is any material which is used for construction purposes. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, apart from naturally occurring materials, many man-made products are in use, some more and some less synthetic. They provide the make-up of habitats and structures including homes and these trends tend to increase the initial and long term economic, ecological, energy, and social costs of building materials. The initial economic cost of building materials is the purchase price and this is often what governs decision making about what materials to use. Sometimes people take into consideration the energy savings or durability of the materials, for example, an asphalt shingle roof costs less than a metal roof to install, but the metal roof will last longer so the lifetime cost is less per year. Some materials may require more care than others, maintaining costs specific to some materials may also influence the final decision. Risks when considering lifetime cost of a material is if the building is damaged such as by fire or wind, the cost of materials should be taken into consideration to bear the risk to buy combustive materials to enlarge the lifetime. It is said that, if it must be done, it must be done well, pollution costs can be macro and micro. An example of the aspect of pollution is the off-gassing of the building materials in the building or indoor air pollution. Red List building materials are found to be harmful. Also the carbon footprint, the set of greenhouse gas emissions produced in the life of the material. A life-cycle analysis also includes the reuse, recycling, or disposal of construction waste, two concepts in building which account for the ecological economics of building materials are green building and sustainable development. Initial energy costs include the amount of energy consumed to produce, deliver, the long term energy cost is the economic, ecological, and social costs of continuing to produce and deliver energy to the building for its use, maintenance, and eventual removal. The initial embodied energy of a structure is the energy consumed to extract, manufacture, deliver, install, social costs are injury and health of the people producing and transporting the materials and potential health problems of the building occupants if there are problems with the building biology. Aspects of fair trade and labor rights are social costs of building material manufacturing. These were variously named wikiups, lean-tos, and so forth, an extension on the brush building idea is the wattle and daub process in which clay soils or dung, usually cow, are used to fill in and cover a woven brush structure. This gives the more thermal mass and strength. Wattle and daub is one of the oldest building techniques, many older timber frame buildings incorporate wattle and daub as non load bearing walls between the timber frames
22.
Metre
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The metre or meter, is the base unit of length in the International System of Units. The metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in a vacuum in 1/299792458 seconds, the metre was originally defined in 1793 as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole. In 1799, it was redefined in terms of a metre bar. In 1960, the metre was redefined in terms of a number of wavelengths of a certain emission line of krypton-86. In 1983, the current definition was adopted, the imperial inch is defined as 0.0254 metres. One metre is about 3 3⁄8 inches longer than a yard, Metre is the standard spelling of the metric unit for length in nearly all English-speaking nations except the United States and the Philippines, which use meter. Measuring devices are spelled -meter in all variants of English, the suffix -meter has the same Greek origin as the unit of length. This range of uses is found in Latin, French, English. Thus calls for measurement and moderation. In 1668 the English cleric and philosopher John Wilkins proposed in an essay a decimal-based unit of length, as a result of the French Revolution, the French Academy of Sciences charged a commission with determining a single scale for all measures. In 1668, Wilkins proposed using Christopher Wrens suggestion of defining the metre using a pendulum with a length which produced a half-period of one second, christiaan Huygens had observed that length to be 38 Rijnland inches or 39.26 English inches. This is the equivalent of what is now known to be 997 mm, no official action was taken regarding this suggestion. In the 18th century, there were two approaches to the definition of the unit of length. One favoured Wilkins approach, to define the metre in terms of the length of a pendulum which produced a half-period of one second. The other approach was to define the metre as one ten-millionth of the length of a quadrant along the Earths meridian, that is, the distance from the Equator to the North Pole. This means that the quadrant would have defined as exactly 10000000 metres at that time. To establish a universally accepted foundation for the definition of the metre, more measurements of this meridian were needed. This portion of the meridian, assumed to be the length as the Paris meridian, was to serve as the basis for the length of the half meridian connecting the North Pole with the Equator
23.
Foot (unit)
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The foot is a unit of length in the imperial and US customary systems of measurement. Since 1959, both units have been defined by international agreement as equivalent to 0.3048 meters exactly, in both systems, the foot comprises 12 inches and three feet compose a yard. Historically the foot was a part of local systems of units, including the Greek, Roman, Chinese, French. It varied in length from country to country, from city to city and its length was usually between 250 mm and 335 mm and was generally, but not always, subdivided into 12 inches or 16 digits. The United States is the industrialized nation that uses the international foot and the survey foot in preference to the meter in its commercial, engineering. The foot is legally recognized in the United Kingdom, road signs must use imperial units, the measurement of altitude in international aviation is one of the few areas where the foot is widely used outside the English-speaking world. The length of the international foot corresponds to a foot with shoe size of 13,14,15.5 or 46. Historically the human body has been used to provide the basis for units of length. The foot of a male is typically about 15. 3% of his height, giving a person of 160 cm a foot of 245 mm. These figures are less than the used in most cities over time. Archeologists believe that the Egyptians, Ancient Indians and Mesopotamians preferred the cubit while the Romans, under the Harappan linear measures, Indus cities during the Bronze Age used a foot of 13.2 inches and a cubit of 20.8 inches. The Egyptian equivalent of the measure of four palms or 16 digits—was known as the djeser and has been reconstructed as about 30 cm. The Greek foot had a length of 1⁄600 of a stadion, one stadion being about 181.2 m, the standard Roman foot was normally about 295.7 mm, but in the provinces, the pes Drusianus was used, with a length of about 334 mm. Originally both the Greeks and the Romans subdivided the foot into 16 digits, but in later years, after the fall of the Roman Empire, some Roman traditions were continued but others fell into disuse. In AD790 Charlemagne attempted to reform the units of measure in his domains and his units of length were based on the toise and in particular the toise de lÉcritoire, the distance between the fingertips of the outstretched arms of a man. The toise has 6 pieds each of 326.6 mm, at the same time, monastic buildings used the Carolingian foot of 340 mm. The procedure for verification of the foot as described in the 16th century by Jacob Koebel in his book Geometrei, the measures of Iron Age Britain are uncertain and proposed reconstructions such as the Megalithic Yard are controversial. Later Welsh legend credited Dyfnwal Moelmud with the establishment of their units, the Belgic or North German foot of 335 mm was introduced to England either by the Belgic Celts during their invasions prior to the Romans or by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th & 6th century
24.
Alexander Thom
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Alexander Sandy Thom was a Scottish engineer most famous for his theory of the Megalithic yard, categorisation of stone circles and his studies of Stonehenge and other archaeological sites. Thom was born in Carradale in 1894 and his mother was Lily Stevenson Strang from the family of Robert Louis Stevenson. Her mother belonged to a family from Symington, upon whom had been bestowed the land by Robert the Bruce. His father was a tenant farmer at Mains farm for Carradale House. His father trained the Church choir while his mother was pianist, Thom spent his early years at Mains farm until moving to The Hill farm at Dunlop, Ayrshire. Instilled with a work ethic by his father, Thom taught himself industrial engineering. In 1912 he attended school at Loch Eck where he was trained in surveying and field astronomy by Dr. David Clark. In 1913, aged just 19, he assisted in surveying the Canadian Pacific Rail Network, Thom graduated from the Royal College of Science and Technology and the University of Glasgow in 1914, earning a BSc with special distinction in Engineering. He suffered from a heart murmur and was not drafted during the First World War, instead he went to work in civil engineering of the Forth Bridge and later designed flying boats for the Gosport Aircraft Company. In 1917 he married Jeanie Kirkwood with whom he shared a long and he returned to the University of Glasgow and worked as a lecturer from 1922 to 1939, quickly earning his PhD and DSc degrees. He built his own home called Thalassa in 1922, along with a windmill to power it with electricity and his father died in 1924 and he took over running the farm where he fathered three children, Archibald, Beryl and Alan. Thom helped to develop the Department of Aeronautics at Glasgow University and lectured on statistics, practical field surveying, theodolite design, from 1930 to 1935 he was a Carnegie Teaching Fellow. Thom became especially interested in the circles of the British Isles and France. In 1955, Alexander Thom published A statistical examination of sites in Britain in which he first suggested the megalithic yard as a standardised prehistoric measurement. He retired from academia in 1961 to spend the rest of his devoted to this area of research. The Thom Building, housing the Department of Engineering Science at Oxford and he suggested several were built as astronomical complexes to predict eclipses via nineteen-year cycles. Thom went on to identify solar and stellar alignments at stone circles. He further suggested the prehistoric peoples of Britain must have used a method of keeping calendar
25.
Stone circle
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A stone circle is a monument of standing stones arranged in a circle. Such monuments have been constructed in parts of the world throughout history for many different reasons. Outside of Europe, stone circles have also erected, such as the 6300~6900 BCE Atlit Yam in Israel and 3000~4000 BCE Gilgal Refaim nearby. Another prehistoric stone circle tradition occurred in southern Scandinavia during the Iron Age, the size and number of the stones varies from example to example, and the circle shape can be an ellipse. All experts agree that stone circles are of date. Radiocarbon dating has produced a range of dates at different sites. This is at least partly due to an inadequacy of materials suitable for radiocarbon dating that can be obtained from the sites. The diversity of radiocarbon evidence may also suggest that stone circles were constructed over a long period. It is often not clear when building started, a further obstacle to dating is that there are generally no other archaeological artifacts associated with the stone circles. Traditional archaeological artifacts, such as pottery sherds, bones, etc. are not often found at the sites, the sites display no evidence of human dwelling, and rarely encompass graves. This suggests that stone circles were constructed for ceremonies and were in use on ceremonial occasions only, the type of ceremonies is entirely unknown. The crudeness and variety of the stones excludes the possibility that they had astronomical observation purposes of any precision, sometimes a stone circle is found in association with a burial pit or burial chamber, but the great majority of these monuments have no such association. A stone circle is a different entity from a henge. That suggests religious context, the details of which are still obscure, during the Middle Neolithic stone circles began to appear in coastal and lowland areas towards the north of the United Kingdom. The Langdale axe industry in the Lake District appears to have been an important early centre for circle building, many had closely set stones, perhaps similar to the earth banks of henges, others were made from unfounded boulders rather than standing stones. By the later Neolithic, stone circle construction had attained a greater precision, rather than being limited to coastal areas, they began to move inland and their builders grew more ambitious, producing examples of up to 400 m diameter in the case of the Outer Circle at Avebury. Most circles, however, measured around 25 m in diameter, designs became more complex, with double and triple ring designs appearing along with significant regional variation. These monuments are often classed separately as concentric stone circles, by 1500 BC stone circle construction had all but ceased
26.
Stone circles
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A stone circle is a monument of standing stones arranged in a circle. Such monuments have been constructed in parts of the world throughout history for many different reasons. Outside of Europe, stone circles have also erected, such as the 6300~6900 BCE Atlit Yam in Israel and 3000~4000 BCE Gilgal Refaim nearby. Another prehistoric stone circle tradition occurred in southern Scandinavia during the Iron Age, the size and number of the stones varies from example to example, and the circle shape can be an ellipse. All experts agree that stone circles are of date. Radiocarbon dating has produced a range of dates at different sites. This is at least partly due to an inadequacy of materials suitable for radiocarbon dating that can be obtained from the sites. The diversity of radiocarbon evidence may also suggest that stone circles were constructed over a long period. It is often not clear when building started, a further obstacle to dating is that there are generally no other archaeological artifacts associated with the stone circles. Traditional archaeological artifacts, such as pottery sherds, bones, etc. are not often found at the sites, the sites display no evidence of human dwelling, and rarely encompass graves. This suggests that stone circles were constructed for ceremonies and were in use on ceremonial occasions only, the type of ceremonies is entirely unknown. The crudeness and variety of the stones excludes the possibility that they had astronomical observation purposes of any precision, sometimes a stone circle is found in association with a burial pit or burial chamber, but the great majority of these monuments have no such association. A stone circle is a different entity from a henge. That suggests religious context, the details of which are still obscure, during the Middle Neolithic stone circles began to appear in coastal and lowland areas towards the north of the United Kingdom. The Langdale axe industry in the Lake District appears to have been an important early centre for circle building, many had closely set stones, perhaps similar to the earth banks of henges, others were made from unfounded boulders rather than standing stones. By the later Neolithic, stone circle construction had attained a greater precision, rather than being limited to coastal areas, they began to move inland and their builders grew more ambitious, producing examples of up to 400 m diameter in the case of the Outer Circle at Avebury. Most circles, however, measured around 25 m in diameter, designs became more complex, with double and triple ring designs appearing along with significant regional variation. These monuments are often classed separately as concentric stone circles, by 1500 BC stone circle construction had all but ceased
27.
Inch
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The inch is a unit of length in the imperial and United States customary systems of measurement now formally equal to 1⁄36 yard but usually understood as 1⁄12 of a foot. Derived from the Roman uncia, inch is also used to translate related units in other measurement systems. The English word inch was a borrowing from Latin uncia not present in other Germanic languages. The vowel change from Latin /u/ to English /ɪ/ is known as umlaut, the consonant change from the Latin /k/ to English /tʃ/ or /ʃ/ is palatalisation. Both were features of Old English phonology, inch is cognate with ounce, whose separate pronunciation and spelling reflect its reborrowing in Middle English from Anglo-Norman unce and ounce. In many other European languages, the word for inch is the same as or derived from the word for thumb, the inch is a commonly used customary unit of length in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. It is also used in Japan for electronic parts, especially display screens, for example, three feet two inches can be written as 3′ 2″. Paragraph LXVII sets out the fine for wounds of various depths, one inch, one shilling, an Anglo-Saxon unit of length was the barleycorn. After 1066,1 inch was equal to 3 barleycorns, which continued to be its legal definition for several centuries, similar definitions are recorded in both English and Welsh medieval law tracts. One, dating from the first half of the 10th century, is contained in the Laws of Hywel Dda which superseded those of Dyfnwal, both definitions, as recorded in Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, are that three lengths of a barleycorn is the inch. However, the oldest surviving manuscripts date from the early 14th century, john Bouvier similarly recorded in his 1843 law dictionary that the barleycorn was the fundamental measure. He noted that this process would not perfectly recover the standard, before the adoption of the international yard and pound, various definitions were in use. In the United Kingdom and most countries of the British Commonwealth, the United States adopted the conversion factor 1 metre =39.37 inches by an act in 1866. In 1930, the British Standards Institution adopted an inch of exactly 25.4 mm, the American Standards Association followed suit in 1933. By 1935, industry in 16 countries had adopted the industrial inch as it came to be known, in 1946, the Commonwealth Science Congress recommended a yard of exactly 0.9144 metres for adoption throughout the British Commonwealth. This was adopted by Canada in 1951, the United States on 1 July 1959, Australia in 1961, effective 1 January 1964, and the United Kingdom in 1963, effective on 1 January 1964. The new standards gave an inch of exactly 25.4 mm,1.7 millionths of a longer than the old imperial inch and 2 millionths of an inch shorter than the old US inch. The United States retains the 1/39. 37-metre definition for survey purposes and this is approximately 1/8-inch in a mile
28.
Aerial photography
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Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated/direct-down position. Usually the camera is not supported by a ground-based structure, mounted cameras may be triggered remotely or automatically, hand-held photographs may be taken by a photographer. Aerial photography should not be confused with air-to-air photography, where one or more aircraft are used as chase planes that chase, Aerial photography was first practiced by the French photographer and balloonist Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, known as Nadar, in 1858 over Paris, France. However, the photographs he produced no longer exist and therefore the earliest surviving aerial photograph is titled Boston, as the Eagle, taken by James Wallace Black and Samuel Archer King on October 13,1860, it depicts Boston from a height of 630m. Kite aerial photography was pioneered by British meteorologist E. D. Archibald in 1882 and he used an explosive charge on a timer to take photographs from the air. Frenchman Arthur Batut began using kites for photography in 1888, Samuel Franklin Cody developed his advanced Man-lifter War Kite and succeeded in interesting the British War Office with its capabilities. The first use of a motion picture camera mounted to an aircraft took place on April 24,1909 over Rome in the 3,28 silent film short. The use of aerial photography rapidly matured during the war, as aircraft were equipped with cameras to record enemy movements. At the start of the conflict, the usefulness of aerial photography was not fully appreciated, germany adopted the first aerial camera, a Görz, in 1913. The French began the war with several squadrons of Blériot observation aircraft equipped with cameras for reconnaissance, the French Army developed procedures for getting prints into the hands of field commanders in record time. Frederick Charles Victor Laws started aerial photography experiments in 1912 with No.1 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps, in 1916 the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy made vertical camera axis aerial photos above Italy for map-making. The camera was inserted into the floor of the aircraft and could be triggered by the pilot at intervals. In January 1918, General Allenby used five Australian pilots from No.1 Squadron AFC to photograph a 624 square miles area in Palestine as an aid to correcting and improving maps of the Turkish front and this was a pioneering use of aerial photography as an aid for cartography. Beginning 5 January, they flew with an escort to ward off enemy fighters. The first commercial aerial photography company in the UK was Aerofilms Ltd, founded by World War I veterans Francis Wills, the company soon expanded into a business with major contracts in Africa and Asia as well as in the UK. Operations began from the Stag Lane Aerodrome at Edgware, using the aircraft of the London Flying School, subsequently, the Aircraft Manufacturing Company, hired an Airco DH.9 along with pilot entrepreneur Alan Cobham. From 1921, Aerofilms carried out vertical photography for survey and mapping purposes, during the 1930s, the company pioneered the science of photogrammetry, with the Ordnance Survey amongst the companys clients. One Fairchild aerial survey aircraft in 1935 carried unit that combined two synchronized cameras, and each camera having five six inch lenses with a ten-inch lenses, each photo covered two hundred and twenty five square miles
29.
Saint-Michel tumulus
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The Tumulus of St. Michel is a megalithic grave mound, located east of Carnac in Brittany, France. It is the largest grave mound in continental Europe, the tumulus was built during the fifth millennium BC. The Saint-Michel tumulus consists of a mound of earth and stones 125 meters long,50 meters wide and 10 meters high, explored in 1862, researchers found there a central vault containing a fairly prestigious funerary furniture, axes, pearls, flint tools and sillimanite. It is the subject of a classification as Monument historique since 1889
30.
Egyptian pyramids
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The Egyptian pyramids are ancient pyramid-shaped masonry structures located in Egypt. As of November 2008, sources cite either 118 or 138 as the number of identified Egyptian pyramids, most were built as tombs for the countrys pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods. The earliest known Egyptian pyramids are found at Saqqara, northwest of Memphis, the earliest among these is the Pyramid of Djoser which was built during the third dynasty. This pyramid and its surrounding complex were designed by the architect Imhotep, the most famous Egyptian pyramids are those found at Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo. Several of the Giza pyramids are counted among the largest structures ever built, the Pyramid of Khufu at Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It is the one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence. By the time of the Early Dynastic Period, those with sufficient means were buried in bench-like structures known as mastabas, the second historically-documented Egyptian pyramid is attributed to the architect Imhotep, who planned what Egyptologists believe to be a tomb for the pharaoh Djoser. Imhotep is credited with being the first to conceive the notion of stacking mastabas on top of each other, the result was the Pyramid of Djoser, which was designed to serve as a gigantic stairway by which the soul of the deceased pharaoh could ascend to the heavens. Such was the importance of Imhoteps achievement that he was deified by later Egyptians, the most prolific pyramid-building phase coincided with the greatest degree of absolutist rule. It was during this time that the most famous pyramids, the Giza pyramid complex, were built. Long after the end of Egypts own pyramid-building period, a burst of pyramid-building occurred in what is present-day Sudan, al-Aziz Uthman tried to destroy the Giza pyramid complex. He gave up after damaging the Pyramid of Menkaure because the task proved too huge, the shape of Egyptian pyramids is thought to represent the primordial mound from which the Egyptians believed the earth was created. Pyramids were often named in ways that referred to solar luminescence. For example, the name of the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur The Southern Shining Pyramid. While it is agreed that pyramids were burial monuments, there is continued disagreement on the particular theological principles that might have given rise to them. One suggestion is that they were designed as a type of resurrection machine, the Egyptians believed the dark area of the night sky around which the stars appear to revolve was the physical gateway into the heavens. One of the shafts that extend from the main burial chamber through the entire body of the Great Pyramid points directly towards the center of this part of the sky. This suggests the pyramid may have designed to serve as a means to magically launch the deceased pharaohs soul directly into the abode of the gods
31.
Chamber tomb
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A chamber tomb is a tomb for burial used in many different cultures. In the case of burials, the chamber is thought to signify a higher status for the interree than a simple grave. Built from rock or sometimes wood, the chambers could also serve as places for storage of the dead from one family or social group and were used over long periods for multiple burials. There are numerous terms for them depending on the period, design, most were constructed from large stones or megaliths and covered by cairns, barrows or earth, but the term is also applied to rock-cut tombs and wooden-chambered tombs covered with earth barrows. Grave goods are a characteristic of chamber tomb burials. In Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe, stone-built examples of burials are known by the generic term of megalithic tombs. Chamber tombs are often distinguished by the layout of their chambers and entrances or the shape and material of the structure that covered them, a wide variety of local types has been identified, and some designs appear to have influenced others. Mycenaean chamber tomb V-shaped passage grave Cruciform passage grave Clava cairn Other types, Domus de Janas Dysser Medway tomb Shaft and chamber tomb Piccolo, ancient Stones, The Prehistoric Dolmens of Sicily
32.
Cairn
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A cairn is a human-made pile of stones. The word cairn comes from the Scottish Gaelic, càrn, cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes, from prehistoric times to the present. In modern times, cairns are often erected as landmarks, a use they have had since ancient times. Cairns are used as markers in many parts of the world, in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, as well as in barren deserts. They vary in size from small stone markers to entire artificial hills, cairns may be painted or otherwise decorated, whether for increased visibility or for religious reasons. An ancient example is the inuksuk, used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, inuksuit are found from Alaska to Greenland. This region, above the Arctic Circle, is dominated by the tundra biome and has areas with few natural landmarks, different types of cairns exist from rough piles of stones to interlocking dry stone round cylinders. The most important cairns commonly used around the world are interlocking stone survey cairns constructed around a central survey mark about every 30 km on the tallest peaks across a nation. These physical survey mark cairn systems by surveyors as the basis for national survey grids to interconnect individual land survey measurements for entire nations, on occasion these permanent interlocking stone cairns were taken down then reconstructed for survey mark for measurements to increase the accuracy of the national survey grid. They can also be used in unpopulated country as emergency location points, for example, the extensive trail network maintained by the DNT, the Norwegian Trekking Association, extensively uses cairns in conjunction with T-painted rock faces to mark trails. Other examples of these can be seen in the fields of Volcanoes National Park to mark several hikes. Placed at regular intervals, a series of cairns can be used to indicate a path across stony or barren terrain, such cairns are often placed at junctions or in places where the trail direction is not obvious. They may also be used to indicate an obscured danger such as a sudden drop, most trail cairns are small, usually being a foot or less in height. However, they may be built taller so as to protrude through a layer of snow, hikers passing by often add a stone, as a small bit of maintenance to counteract the erosive effects of severe weather. North American trail marks are sometimes called ducks or duckies, because they sometimes have a beak pointing in the direction of the route. The expression two rocks do not make a duck reminds hikers that just one rock resting upon another could be the result of accident or nature rather than intentional trail marking. The building of cairns for recreational purposes along trails, to ones personal passage through the area. This distracts from cairns used as navigational guides, and also conflicts with the Leave No Trace ethic
33.
Sherd
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Occasionally, a piece of broken pottery may be referred to as a shard. While the spelling shard is generally reserved for referring to fragments of glass vessels, the etymology is connected with the idea of breakage, from Old English sceard, related to Old Norse skarth, notch, and Middle High German scharte, notch. A sherd or potsherd that has been used by having writing painted or inscribed on it can be more referred to as an ostracon. The analysis of sherds is widely used by archaeologists to date sites and develop chronologies, due to their characteristics and high resistance to natural. Some characteristics of sherds useful to archaeologists include temper, form and these characteristics can be used to determine the kinds of resources and technologies used at the site. Archaeologists often classify sherds by the part of the vessel from which the sherd came. For example, sherds may be categorized as rim sherds, body sherds, rim sherds are fragments of a vessels rim, while base sherds are fragments of the vessels base. Body sherds are fragments of ceramic that are not identified as rim sherds or base sherds, other categories might include fragments of handles or lids. While all types of sherds carry valuable information, rim sherds, shepard, Anna O. Ceramics for the Archaeologist
34.
Nephrite
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Nephrite is a variety of the calcium, magnesium, and iron-rich amphibole minerals tremolite or actinolite. The chemical formula for nephrite is Ca25Si8O222 and it is one of two different mineral species called jade. The other mineral species known as jade is jadeite, which is a variety of pyroxene, while nephrite jade possess mainly grays and greens, jadeite jade, which is rarer, can also contain blacks, reds, pinks and violets. Nephrite jade is a stone used in carvings, beads. Western Canada is the source of modern lapidary nephrite. Nephrite jade was used mostly in pre-1800 China as well as in New Zealand, the Pacific Coast and Atlantic Coasts of North America, Neolithic Europe, accordingly, nephrite jade was once believed to be a cure for kidney stones. Tomb jade or grave jade are names given to ancient burial nephrite pieces that have a brown or chalky white texture as a surface treatment. A lot of tools and amulets are known since the Early Neolithic to the Late Chalcolithic on the Balkans from two or more unknown sources - Balkan nephrite culture. Such tools are found in the Later Neolithic of Poland, Sardinia, single or just a few finds of nephrite artifacts are reported also from some other European countries. Jade was used to create many utilitarian and ceremonial objects, ranging from indoor decorative items to jade burial suits, Jade was considered the imperial gem. From about the earliest Chinese dynasties until present, the deposits in most use were from the region of Khotan in the Western Chinese province of Xinjiang. There, white and greenish nephrite jade is found in quarries and as pebbles. River jade collection was concentrated in the Yarkand, and the White Jade, Nephrite jade in New Zealand is known as pounamu in the Māori language, and is highly valued, playing an important role in Māori culture. It is considered a taonga, or treasure, and therefore protected under the Treaty of Waitangi, the South Island of New Zealand is Te Wai Pounamu in Māori — The Greenstone Water — because that is where it occurs. Weapons and ornaments were made of it, in particular the mere, and these were believed to have their own mana, were handed down as valuable heirlooms, and often given as gifts to seal important agreements. It was also used for a range of such as adzes. Commonly called greenstone, jade jewellery in Māori designs is widely popular with tourists – although much of the jade itself is now imported from British Columbia, bale, Martin T. and Ko, Min-jung. Craft Production and Social Change in Mumun Pottery Period Korea, gemmological significance of the prehistoric Balkan nephrite culture
35.
Megalithic art
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Megalithic art refers to the use of large stones as an artistic medium. Although some modern artists and sculptors make use of stones in their work. Megalithic art is found in places in Western Europe although the main concentrations are in Malta, Ireland, Brittany. Megalithic art started in the Neolithic and continued into the Bronze Age, although many monument types received this form of art the majority is carved on Neolithic passage graves. Megalithic art tends to be abstract and contains relatively few representations of recognisable real objects. Megalithic art is similar to prehistoric rock art and contains many similar motifs such as the cup and ring mark. The meaning of art is the subject of much debate. Weathering and vandalism have affected many examples of the art and little of it remains to day, Ireland has the largest concentration of megalithic art in Europe, particularly in the Boyne Valley. This art form appears to be abstract and is perhaps the most famous with its well-known multiple-spirals. It is believed much of this artwork is entoptically derived from induced states of altered consciousness. Stylistically the art of Ireland is similar to finds in nearby Wales. The French region of Brittany has the second highest concentration of megalithic art, the earliest examples in this area are with anthropomorphic representations on menhirs which later continued in passage graves. Brittany shares some motifs with both Ireland and Iberia and the level of contact between them has always been debated, among the most famous examples are the passage grave at Gavrinis and the Barnenez mound. Iberian megalithic art contains the most number of representations of objects. Iberia is the place to have painted decoration as well as carved. Other areas may also have originally been painted, but Iberias arid climate lends itself to preservation of the paint, the paint is normally restricted to black and red, although occasionally features white as well. Megalithic art is rare in Central Europe. The gallery grave at Züschen in Germany is an intriguing exception, as well as abstract or geometric art, some carvings are considered to represent tools, weapons, animals, human figures, deities or idols
36.
Caprock
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Caprock or cap rock is a harder or more resistant rock type overlying a weaker or less resistant rock type. Common types of caprock are sandstone and mafic rock types, in processes such as scarp retreat, the caprock controls the rate of erosion of the scarp. As the softer rock is cut away, periodically the caprock shears off, Caprock is also found on the top of mesa formations. The Niagara Escarpment, over which Niagara Falls flows, is an example of a scarp or escarpment, at Niagara Falls, the caprock is the riverbed above the falls, and is what prevents the river from eroding the face of the falls very quickly. In the photo, the thin layer in the foreground where water is not yet running, is the caprock. The Niagara caprock is made of dolomitic limestone, an analogy of caprock could be the outer crust on a cake that is a bit harder than the underlying layer. In the petroleum industry, caprock is any nonpermeable formation that may trap oil, gas or water and this caprock or trap can create a reservoir of oil, gas or water beneath it and is a primary target for the petroleum industry. The tops of salt domes such as in the Gulf of Mexico dissolve in a characteristic manner, the halite is removed first, leaving behind gypsum and anhydrite. The anhydrite and gypsum react with material to form calcite. The classic Murray 1966 paper describes the sequence as sediments-calcite-gypsum-anhydrite-salt. Caprock Escarpment Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway Monadnock Hoodoo
37.
Horseshoe
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A horseshoe is a fabricated product, normally made of metal, although sometimes made partially or wholly of modern synthetic materials, designed to protect a horses hoof from wear. Shoes are attached on the surface of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall that is anatomically akin to the human toenail. However, there are cases where shoes are glued. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, horseshoeing is legally restricted to people with specific qualifications. In others, such as the United States, where licensing is not legally required. Horseshoes are available in a variety of materials and styles, developed for different types of horse. The most common materials are steel and aluminium, but specialized shoes may use of rubber, plastic, magnesium, titanium. Steel tends to be preferred in sports where a strong, long-wearing shoe is needed, such as polo, eventing, show jumping, and western riding events. Aluminium shoes are lighter, making them common in racing, where a lighter shoe is desired, and often facilitate certain types of movement. Some horseshoes have caulkins, caulks, or calks, protrusions at the toe or heels of the shoe, when kept as a talisman, a horseshoe is said to bring good luck. Others believe that the horseshoe should be hung the other way, a stylized variation of the horseshoe is used for a popular throwing game, horseshoes. Since the early history of domestication of the horse, working animals were found to be exposed to conditions that created breakage or excessive hoof wear. Ancient people recognized the need for the walls of domestic horses hooves to have additional protection over, an early form of hoof protection was seen in ancient Asia, where horses hooves were wrapped in rawhide, leather or other materials for both therapeutic purposes and protection from wear. Historians have expressed differing opinions on the origin of the horseshoe, because iron was a valuable commodity, and any worn out items were generally melted down and reused, it is difficult to locate clear archaeological evidence. Although some credit the Druids, there is no evidence to support this claim. In 1897 four bronze horseshoes with what are apparently nail holes were found in an Etruscan tomb dated around 400 B. C. The assertion by some historians that the Romans invented the mule shoes sometime after 100 BC is supported by a reference by Catullus who died in 54 BC. However, these references to use of horseshoes and muleshoes in Rome, may have been to the boots, reinforced by an iron plate
38.
Tonne
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The SI symbol for the tonne is t, adopted at the same time as the unit itself in 1879. Its use is also official, for the metric ton, within the United States, having been adopted by the US National Institute of Standards and it is a symbol, not an abbreviation, and should not be followed by a period. Informal and non-approved symbols or abbreviations include T, mT, MT, in French and all English-speaking countries that are predominantly metric, tonne is the correct spelling. Before metrication in the UK the unit used for most purposes was the Imperial ton of 2,240 pounds avoirdupois, equivalent to 1,016 kg, differing by just 1. 6% from the tonne. Ton and tonne are both derived from a Germanic word in use in the North Sea area since the Middle Ages to designate a large cask. A full tun, standing about a high, could easily weigh a tonne. An English tun of wine weighs roughly a tonne,954 kg if full of water, in the United States, the unit was originally referred to using the French words millier or tonneau, but these terms are now obsolete. The Imperial and US customary units comparable to the tonne are both spelled ton in English, though they differ in mass, one tonne is equivalent to, Metric/SI,1 megagram. Equal to 1000000 grams or 1000 kilograms, megagram, Mg, is the official SI unit. Mg is distinct from mg, milligram, pounds, Exactly 1000/0. 453 592 37 lb, or approximately 2204.622622 lb. US/Short tons, Exactly 1/0. 907 184 74 short tons, or approximately 1.102311311 ST. One short ton is exactly 0.90718474 t, imperial/Long tons, Exactly 1/1. 016 046 9088 long tons, or approximately 0.9842065276 LT. One long ton is exactly 1.0160469088 t, for multiples of the tonne, it is more usual to speak of thousands or millions of tonnes. Kilotonne, megatonne, and gigatonne are more used for the energy of nuclear explosions and other events. When used in context, there is little need to distinguish between metric and other tons, and the unit is spelt either as ton or tonne with the relevant prefix attached. *The equivalent units columns use the short scale large-number naming system used in most English-language countries. †Values in the equivalent short and long tons columns are rounded to five significant figures, ǂThough non-standard, the symbol kt is also sometimes used for knot, a unit of speed for sea-going vessels, and should not be confused with kilotonne. A metric ton unit can mean 10 kilograms within metal trading and it traditionally referred to a metric ton of ore containing 1% of metal. In the case of uranium, the acronym MTU is sometimes considered to be metric ton of uranium, in the petroleum industry the tonne of oil equivalent is a unit of energy, the amount of energy released by burning one tonne of crude oil, approximately 42 GJ
39.
Megalithic yard
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A Megalithic Yard is a unit of measurement of about 2.72 feet, that some researchers believe was used in the construction of megalithic structures. The proposal was made by Alexander Thom as a result of his surveys of 600 megalithic sites in England, Scotland, Wales, Thom also proposed the Megalithic Rod of 2.5 MY. As subunits of these, he proposed the Megalithic Inch of 2.073 centimetres, one hundred of which are included in a Megalithic Rod. An oak rod from the Iron Age fortified settlement at Borre Fen mearured 53.15 inches with marks dividing it up into eight parts of 6.64 inches, euan Mackie referred to five eights of this rod 33.2 inches as very close to a megalithic yard. A hazel measuring rod recovered from a Bronze Age burial mound in Borum Eshøj, keith Critchlow suggested this may have shrunk 0.63 inches from its original length of one Megalithic Yard over a period of 3000 years. Thom made a comparison of his Megalithic Yard with the Spanish vara and he suggested similarities with other measurements such as the ancient Indian gaz and the Sumerian šu-du3-a. Along with John Michell, Mackie also noted that it is the diagonal of a rectangle measuring 2 by 1 Egyptian remens, jay Kappraff has noted similarity between the Megalithic Yard and the ancient Indus short yard of 33 inches. Anne Macaulay reported that the Megalithic Rod is equal in length to the Greek fathom of from studies by Eric Fernie of the Metrological Relief in the Ashmolean Museum, thoms proposals were initially ignored or regarded as unbelievable by mainstream archaeologists. Clive Ruggles, citing astronomer Douglas C, in other words, the evidence presented by Thom could be adequately explained by, say, monuments being set out by pacing, with the unit reflecting an average length of pace. In an investigation for the Royal Academy Kendall concluded that there was evidence of a unit in Scottish circles but not in English circles. Statistician P. R. Freeman reached similar conclusions and found two other units fit the data as well as the yard. In his book Rings of Stone, The Prehistoric Stone Circles of Britain, aubrey Burl calls the megalithic yard a chimera, a grotesque statistical misconception. Most researchers have concluded there is marginal evidence for a standardized measuring unit. John Ivimy noted that The ratio MY, Rc is SQRT, SQRT to the nearest millimeter, which makes the MY equal to SQRT remens, or the length of a 2 x 1 remen rectangle
40.
Druid
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A druid was a member of the high-ranking professional class in ancient Celtic cultures. While perhaps best remembered as religious leaders, they were also legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and they are however attested in some detail by their contemporaries from other cultures, such as the Romans. The earliest known references to the date to the fourth century BCE. Later Greco-Roman writers also described the Druids, including Cicero, Tacitus, in about 750 CE the word druid appears in a poem by Blathmac, who wrote about Jesus, saying that he was. Better than a prophet, more knowledgeable than every druid, a king who was a bishop, the druids then also appear in some of the medieval tales from Christianized Ireland like the Táin Bó Cúailnge, where they are largely portrayed as sorcerers who opposed the coming of Christianity. In the wake of the Celtic revival during the 18th and 19th centuries, fraternal and neopagan groups were founded based on ideas about the ancient druids, many popular notions about druids are based on the misconceptions of 18th century scholars. These have been superseded by more recent study. The modern English word druid derives from the Latin druides, which was considered by ancient Roman writers to come from the native Celtic Gaulish word for these figures, other Roman texts also employ the form druidae, while the same term was used by Greek ethnographers as δρυΐδης. Based on all forms, the hypothetical proto-Celtic word may then be reconstructed as *dru-wid-s meaning oak-knower. The two elements go back to the Proto-Indo-European roots *deru- and *weid- to see, the sense of oak-knower is supported by Pliny the Elder, who in his Natural History considered the word to contain the Greek noun drýs, oak-tree and the Greek suffix -idēs. The modern Irish word for Oak is Dair, which occurs in anglicized placenames like Derry – Doire, there are many stories about saints, heroes, and oak trees, and also many local stories and superstitions about trees in general, which still survive in rural Ireland. Both Old Irish druí and Middle Welsh dryw could also refer to the wren, sources by ancient and medieval writers provide an idea of the religious duties and social roles involved in being a druid. One of the few things that both the Greco-Roman and the vernacular Irish sources agree on about the druids is that played an important part in pagan Celtic society. He also claimed that they were exempt from service and from the payment of taxes. Pomponius Mela is the first author who says that the instruction was secret and was carried on in caves. Druidic lore consisted of a number of verses learned by heart. What was taught to Druid novices anywhere is conjecture, of the oral literature, not one certifiably ancient verse is known to have survived. All instruction was communicated orally, but for ordinary purposes, Caesar reports, in this he probably draws on earlier writers, by the time of Caesar, Gaulish inscriptions had moved from the Greek script to the Latin script
41.
James Miln
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James Miln was a Scottish antiquary who excavated many sites around the French village of Carnac in Brittany from around the 1860s. He worked on Roman military camps and other Roman antiquities including the Bosseno Roman villa, towards 1875, he engaged a local boy, Zacharie Le Rouzic, as his assistant to carry his drawing materials as he surveyed the excavations, and Zacharie learnt archaeology on the job. Miln published his results, Excavations at Carnac, in 1877 and 1881, after Milns death in Glasgow, he left the results of his excavations to the town of Carnac, and the James Miln Museum was established there by his brother Robert to house the artefacts. Zacharie became the director of the Museum and a recognised expert on megaliths in the region. He too left the results of his work to the town, quelques explorations archéologiques de feu James Miln, ed. by Jean-François Luco, Vannes, Galles, 1882-1883,6 vol. Before published in Bulletin de la Société polymathique du Morbihan. See Milns Preface in Excavations at Carnac, Brittany, a record of archaeological researches in the Bossenno and the Mont Saint-Michel,1877, p. V-VII. Ferdinand Fontès, « Allocution de M. Fontès en prenant le fauteuil de la présidence », in Bulletin de la Société polymathique du Morbihan, Vannes,1881, p. 1-2. Jean-François Luco, « Notice sur les oeuvres archéologiques de feu James Miln », in Congrès archéologique de France,48, Paris,1882, Zacharie Le Rouzic, Catalogue du Musée J. Miln à Carnac, Vannes, B. Anne-Elisabeth Riskine, Musée de préhistoire, James Miln, Zacharie Le Rouzic,450000 ans dhistoire au pays de Carnac, Carnac, Musée de préhistoire,2000
42.
Archaeoastronomy
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Archaeoastronomy is the study of how people in the past have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cultures. It is often twinned with ethnoastronomy, the study of skywatching in contemporary societies. Archaeoastronomy uses a variety of methods to uncover evidence of past practices including archaeology, anthropology, astronomy, statistics and probability, because these methods are diverse and use data from such different sources, integrating them into a coherent argument has been a long-term difficulty for archaeoastronomers. Archaeoastronomy fills complementary niches in landscape archaeology and cognitive archaeology, other examples which have brought together ideas of cognition and landscape include studies of the cosmic order embedded in the roads of settlements. Archaeoastronomy can be applied to all cultures and all time periods, the meanings of the sky vary from culture to culture, nevertheless there are scientific methods which can be applied across cultures when examining ancient beliefs. It is perhaps the need to balance the social and scientific aspects of archaeoastronomy which led Clive Ruggles to describe it as, field with academic work of high quality at one end but uncontrolled speculation bordering on lunacy at the other. Nearly two decades later, we can ask the question, Is archaeoastronomy still waiting at the gates of orthodoxy or has it gotten inside the gates. Two hundred years before Michell wrote the above, there were no archaeoastronomers and there were no professional archaeologists, late in the nineteenth century astronomers such as Richard Proctor and Charles Piazzi Smyth investigated the astronomical orientations of the pyramids. The term archaeoastronomy was first used by Elizabeth Chesley Baity in 1973, Clive Ruggles says that Heinrich Nissen, working in the mid-nineteenth century was arguably the first archaeoastronomer. Rolf Sinclair says that Norman Lockyer, working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, could be called the father of archaeoastronomy. Euan MacKie would place the origin even later, stating. the genesis, MacKie therefore broadly accepted Thoms conclusions and published new prehistories of Britain. In contrast a re-evaluation of Thoms fieldwork by Clive Ruggles argued that Thoms claims of high accuracy astronomy were not fully supported by the evidence and his influence endures and practice of statistical testing of data remains one of the methods of archaeoastronomy. The approach in the New World, where began to consider more fully the role of astronomy in Amerindian civilizations, was markedly different. They had access to sources that the prehistory of Europe lacks such as ethnographies, following the pioneering example of Anthony Aveni, this allowed New World archaeoastronomers to make claims for motives which in the Old World would have been mere speculation. The concentration on historical data led to claims of high accuracy that were comparatively weak when compared to the statistically led investigations in Europe. This came to a head at a meeting sponsored by the International Astronomical Union in Oxford in 1981, the methodologies and research questions of the participants were considered so different that the conference proceedings were published as two volumes. Archaeoastronomy has long seen as an interdisciplinary field that uses written and unwritten evidence to study the astronomies of other cultures. As such, it can be seen as connecting other disciplinary approaches for investigating ancient astronomy, astroarchaeology, history of astronomy, reflecting Archaeoastronomys development as an interdisciplinary subject, research in the field is conducted by investigators trained in a wide range of disciplines
43.
Statistics
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Statistics is a branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, analysis, interpretation, presentation, and organization of data. In applying statistics to, e. g. a scientific, industrial, or social problem, populations can be diverse topics such as all people living in a country or every atom composing a crystal. Statistics deals with all aspects of data including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys, statistician Sir Arthur Lyon Bowley defines statistics as Numerical statements of facts in any department of inquiry placed in relation to each other. When census data cannot be collected, statisticians collect data by developing specific experiment designs, representative sampling assures that inferences and conclusions can safely extend from the sample to the population as a whole. In contrast, an observational study does not involve experimental manipulation, inferences on mathematical statistics are made under the framework of probability theory, which deals with the analysis of random phenomena. A standard statistical procedure involves the test of the relationship between two data sets, or a data set and a synthetic data drawn from idealized model. A hypothesis is proposed for the relationship between the two data sets, and this is compared as an alternative to an idealized null hypothesis of no relationship between two data sets. Rejecting or disproving the hypothesis is done using statistical tests that quantify the sense in which the null can be proven false. Working from a hypothesis, two basic forms of error are recognized, Type I errors and Type II errors. Multiple problems have come to be associated with this framework, ranging from obtaining a sufficient sample size to specifying an adequate null hypothesis, measurement processes that generate statistical data are also subject to error. Many of these errors are classified as random or systematic, the presence of missing data or censoring may result in biased estimates and specific techniques have been developed to address these problems. Statistics continues to be an area of research, for example on the problem of how to analyze Big data. Statistics is a body of science that pertains to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation. Some consider statistics to be a mathematical science rather than a branch of mathematics. While many scientific investigations make use of data, statistics is concerned with the use of data in the context of uncertainty, mathematical techniques used for this include mathematical analysis, linear algebra, stochastic analysis, differential equations, and measure-theoretic probability theory. In applying statistics to a problem, it is practice to start with a population or process to be studied. Populations can be diverse topics such as all living in a country or every atom composing a crystal. Ideally, statisticians compile data about the entire population and this may be organized by governmental statistical institutes
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Megalithic Yard
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A Megalithic Yard is a unit of measurement of about 2.72 feet, that some researchers believe was used in the construction of megalithic structures. The proposal was made by Alexander Thom as a result of his surveys of 600 megalithic sites in England, Scotland, Wales, Thom also proposed the Megalithic Rod of 2.5 MY. As subunits of these, he proposed the Megalithic Inch of 2.073 centimetres, one hundred of which are included in a Megalithic Rod. An oak rod from the Iron Age fortified settlement at Borre Fen mearured 53.15 inches with marks dividing it up into eight parts of 6.64 inches, euan Mackie referred to five eights of this rod 33.2 inches as very close to a megalithic yard. A hazel measuring rod recovered from a Bronze Age burial mound in Borum Eshøj, keith Critchlow suggested this may have shrunk 0.63 inches from its original length of one Megalithic Yard over a period of 3000 years. Thom made a comparison of his Megalithic Yard with the Spanish vara and he suggested similarities with other measurements such as the ancient Indian gaz and the Sumerian šu-du3-a. Along with John Michell, Mackie also noted that it is the diagonal of a rectangle measuring 2 by 1 Egyptian remens, jay Kappraff has noted similarity between the Megalithic Yard and the ancient Indus short yard of 33 inches. Anne Macaulay reported that the Megalithic Rod is equal in length to the Greek fathom of from studies by Eric Fernie of the Metrological Relief in the Ashmolean Museum, thoms proposals were initially ignored or regarded as unbelievable by mainstream archaeologists. Clive Ruggles, citing astronomer Douglas C, in other words, the evidence presented by Thom could be adequately explained by, say, monuments being set out by pacing, with the unit reflecting an average length of pace. In an investigation for the Royal Academy Kendall concluded that there was evidence of a unit in Scottish circles but not in English circles. Statistician P. R. Freeman reached similar conclusions and found two other units fit the data as well as the yard. In his book Rings of Stone, The Prehistoric Stone Circles of Britain, aubrey Burl calls the megalithic yard a chimera, a grotesque statistical misconception. Most researchers have concluded there is marginal evidence for a standardized measuring unit. John Ivimy noted that The ratio MY, Rc is SQRT, SQRT to the nearest millimeter, which makes the MY equal to SQRT remens, or the length of a 2 x 1 remen rectangle
45.
Stonehenge
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Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England,2 miles west of Amesbury and 8 miles north of Salisbury. Stonehenges ring of standing stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, archaeologists believe it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the first bluestones were raised between 2400 and 2200 BC, although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC, one of the most famous landmarks in the UK, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon. It has been a legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1882 when legislation to protect historic monuments was first successfully introduced in Britain, the site and its surroundings were added to UNESCOs list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage, Stonehenge could have been a burial ground from its earliest beginnings. Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, William Stukeley in 1740 notes, Pendulous rocks are now called henges in Yorkshire. I doubt not, Stonehenge in Saxon signifies the hanging stones. Like Stonehenges trilithons, medieval gallows consisted of two uprights with a lintel joining them, rather than the inverted L-shape more familiar today, the henge portion has given its name to a class of monuments known as henges. Archaeologists define henges as earthworks consisting of a banked enclosure with an internal ditch. As often happens in archaeological terminology, this is a holdover from antiquarian use, Stonehenge evolved in several construction phases spanning at least 1500 years. There is evidence of construction on and around the monument that perhaps extends the landscapes time frame to 6500 years. The modern phasing most generally agreed to by archaeologists is detailed below, features mentioned in the text are numbered and shown on the plan, right. Archaeologists have found four, or possibly five, large Mesolithic postholes and these held pine posts around 0.75 metres in diameter, which were erected and eventually rotted in situ. Three of the posts were in an east-west alignment which may have had significance, no parallels are known from Britain at the time. A settlement that may have been contemporaneous with the posts has been found at Blick Mead, a reliable year round spring 1 mile from Stonehenge. Salisbury Plain was then still wooded but 4,000 years later, during the earlier Neolithic, people built an enclosure at Robin Hoods Ball. In approximately 3500 BC, a Stonehenge Cursus was built 700 metres north of the site as the first farmers began to clear the trees, a number of other adjacent stone and wooden structures and burial mounds, previously overlooked, may date as far back as 4000 BC. Charcoal from the ‘Blick Mead’ camp 2.4 kilometres from Stonehenge has been dated to 4000 BC and it stood in open grassland on a slightly sloping spot
