1.
Linear A
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Linear A is one of two currently undeciphered writing systems used in ancient Greece. Linear A was the script used in palace and religious writings of the Minoan civilization. It was discovered by archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans and it is the origin of the Linear B script, which was later used by the Mycenaean civilization. In the 1950s, Linear B was largely deciphered and found to encode an early form of Greek, although the two systems share many symbols, this did not lead to a subsequent decipherment of Linear A. Using the values associated with Linear B in Linear A mainly produces unintelligible words, if Linear A uses the same or similar syllabic values as Linear B, then its associated language, dubbed Minoan, appears unrelated to any known language. Linear A has hundreds of signs and they are believed to represent syllabic, ideographic, and semantic values in a manner similar to Linear B. It primarily appears in the direction, but occasionally appears as a right-to-left or boustrophedon script. An interesting feature is that of how numbers are recorded in the script, the highest number that has been recorded is 3000, but there are special symbols to indicate fractions and weights. Linear A has been unearthed chiefly on Crete, but also at other sites in Greece, as well as Turkey, the extant corpus, comprising some 1427 specimens totalling 7362–7396 signs, if scaled to standard type, would fit easily on two sheets of paper. Discoveries have been made at the locations on Crete, Prior to 1973. Since then, other locations yielded inscriptions, according to Finkelberg, most—if not all—inscriptions found outside of Crete were made locally. This is indicated by such factors as the composition of the material on which the inscriptions were made. Also, close analysis of the inscriptions found outside of Crete indicates the use of a script that is somewhere in between Linear A and Linear B, combining the elements of both. Kea Kythera Melos Samothrace Thera Mycenae Tiryns Hagios Stephanos, Laconia Linear A was a contemporary and possible child of Cretan hieroglyphs, several tablets inscribed in signs similar to Linear A were found in the Troad. While their status is disputed, they may be imports, as there is no evidence of Minoan presence in the Troad, Classification of these signs as a unique Trojan script is not accepted by other linguists. It is difficult to evaluate a given analysis of Linear A as there is point of reference for reading its inscriptions. The simplest approach to decipherment may be to presume that the values of Linear A match more or less the values given to the deciphered Linear B script, in 1957, Bulgarian scholar Vladimir I. Georgiev published his Le déchiffrement des inscriptions crétoises en linéaire A stating that Linear A contains Greek linguistic elements
2.
Cypriot syllabary
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The Cypriot or Cypriote syllabary is a syllabic script used in Iron Age Cyprus, from about the 11th to the 4th centuries BCE, when it was replaced by the Greek alphabet. A pioneer of change was king Evagoras of Salamis. It is descended from the Cypro-Minoan syllabary, in turn a variant or derivative of Linear A, most texts using the script are in the Arcadocypriot dialect of Greek, but also one bilingual inscription was found in Amathus. It has been established that the Cypriot syllabary is derived from the Linear A script and most probably, the most obvious change is the disappearance of ideograms, which were frequent and represented a significant part of Linear A. The earliest inscriptions are found on clay tablets, parallel to the evolution of cuneiform, the signs soon became simple patterns of lines. There is some evidence of a Semitic influence due to trade, the structure of the Cypriot syllabary is very similar to that of Linear B. This is due to their origin and underlying language. The Cypriot script contains 56 signs, each sign generally stands for a syllable in the spoken language, e. g. ka, ke, ki, ko, ku etc. Hence, it is classified as a writing system. Because each sign stands for a syllable rather than a closed one. To see the glyphs above, you must have a compatible font installed, the main difference between the two lies not in the structure of the syllabary but the use of the symbols. Final consonants in the Cypriot syllabary are marked by a final, for example, final consonants, n, s and r are noted by using ne, re and se. Groups of consonants are created using extra vowels, diphthongs, such as ae, au, eu and ei, are spelled out completely. In addition, nasal stops occur before another consonant are omitted completely. Compare Linear B
3.
Louvre
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The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the worlds largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the citys 1st arrondissement, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. The Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II, remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace, in 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nations masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum renamed Musée Napoléon, the collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic, whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den, in the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris to a monastery. This territory probably did not correspond exactly to the modern site, the Louvre Palace was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvres holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed, however, on 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. Under Louis XVI, the museum idea became policy. The comte dAngiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the French Museum, many proposals were offered for the Louvres renovation into a museum, however, none was agreed on. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution, during the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences, on 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property
4.
Syllabary
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A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent the syllables or moras which make up words. This loosely corresponds to shallow orthographies in alphabetic writing systems, most syllabaries only feature one or two kinds of syllabograms and form other syllables by graphemic rules. Otherwise they are synthetic, if they vary by onset, rime, nucleus or coda, or systematic, some scholars, e. g. Daniels, reserve the general term for analytic syllabaries and invent other terms as necessary. Some system provides katakana language conversion, in addition, the undecoded Cretan Linear A is also believed by some to be a syllabic script, though this is not proven. Chinese characters, the script used for Sumerian, Akkadian and other languages. They are therefore referred to as logosyllabic. The contemporary Japanese language uses two syllabaries together called kana, namely hiragana and katakana, which were developed around 700. They are mainly used to some native words and grammatical elements, as well as foreign words. Because Japanese uses mainly CV syllables, a syllabary is well suited to write the language, as in many syllabaries, however, vowel sequences and final consonants are written with separate glyphs, so that both atta and kaita are written with three kana, あった and かいた. It is therefore called a moraic writing system. Languages that use syllabaries today tend to have simple phonotactics, with a predominance of monomoraic syllables, few syllabaries have glyphs for syllables that are not monomoraic, and those that once did have simplified over time to eliminate that complexity. For example, the Vai syllabary originally had separate glyphs for syllables ending in a coda, the modern script has been expanded to cover all moras, but at the same time reduced to exclude all other syllables. g. Ko-no-so for Κνωσός Knōsos, pe-ma for σπέρμα sperma, the Cherokee syllabary generally uses dummy vowels for coda consonants, but also has a segmental grapheme for /s/, which can be used both as a coda and in an initial /sC/ consonant cluster. The languages of South Asia and Southeast Asia, as well as the Ethiopian Semitic languages, have a type of alphabet called an abugida or alphasyllabary, in the 19th century these systems were called syllabics, a term which has survived in the name of Canadian Aboriginal syllabics. In a true syllabary there may be graphic similarity between characters that share a common consonant or vowel sound, but it is not systematic or close to regular. For example, the characters for ke, ka, and ko in Japanese hiragana have no similarity to indicate their common k sound, compare abugida, where each grapheme typically represents a syllable but where characters representing related sounds are all similar graphically. For example, in Devanagari, an abugida, the characters for ke, ka and ko are के, का and को respectively. English, along many other Indo-European languages like German and Russian, allows for complex syllable structures
5.
Cyprus
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Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and Palestine, north of Egypt, the earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC, Cyprus was placed under British administration based on Cyprus Convention in 1878 and formally annexed by Britain in 1914. While Turkish Cypriots made up 18% of the population, the partition of Cyprus and creation of a Turkish state in the north became a policy of Turkish Cypriot leaders, following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. On 15 July 1974, a coup détat was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta in an attempt at enosis and these events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute. The Cyprus Republic has de jure sovereignty over the island of Cyprus, as well as its territorial sea and exclusive economic area, another nearly 4% of the islands area is covered by the UN buffer zone. The international community considers the part of the island as territory of the Republic of Cyprus occupied by Turkish forces. The occupation is viewed as illegal under law, amounting to illegal occupation of EU territory since Cyprus became a member of the European Union. Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean, on 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the eurozone. The earliest attested reference to Cyprus is the 15th century BC Mycenaean Greek
6.
Late Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
7.
Arthur Evans
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Sir Arthur John Evans FRS FREng was an English archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. He is most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete, Evans was also the first to define Cretan scripts Linear A and Linear B, as well as an earlier pictographic writing. He was, on request of the organizations of the peoples of the Balkans. Arthur Evans was born in Nash Mills, England, the first child of John Evans and Harriet Ann Dickinson, the daughter of Johns employer, inventor and founder of Messrs John Dickinson, a paper mill. John Evans came from a family of men who were educated and intellectually active, they were nevertheless undistinguished by either wealth or aristocratic connection. Johns father, Arthur Benoni Evans, Arthurs grandfather, had been headmaster of Market Bosworth Grammar School, John knew Latin and could quote the classical authors. In 1840, instead of going to college, John started work in the mill owned by his maternal uncle and he married his cousin, Harriet, in 1850, which entitled him, in 1851, to a junior partnership in the family business. Profits from the mill would eventually help fund Arthurs excavations, restorations at Knossos, for the time being they were an unpretentious and affectionate family. They moved into a row house built for the purpose near the mill. Grandmother Evans called Arthur darling Trot, asserting in a note that, compared to his father, in 1856, with Harriets declining health and Jacks growing reputation and prosperity, they moved into Harriets childhood home, a mansion with a garden, where the children ran free. John maintained his status as an officer in the company, which eventually became John Dickinson Stationery and his interest in geology came from an assignment by the company to study the diminishing water resources in the area with a view toward protecting the company from lawsuits. The mill consumed large amounts of water, which was also needed for the canals and he became an expert and a legal consultant. However, collecting was endemic to the family, his father and grandfather both had done it and he was more interested in the stone-age artifacts he was discovering while mapping stream beds. As Arthur grew older, he was allowed to assist John in looking for artifacts, ultimately John became a distinguished antiquary, publishing numerous books and articles. In 1859 he conducted a survey of the Somme Valley with Joseph Prestwich. His connections and invaluable advice were indispensable to Arthurs career throughout the remainder of his long life, Arthurs mother, Harriet, died in 1858 when Arthur was seven. He had two brothers, Philip Norman and Lewis, and two sisters, Alice and Harriet and he would remain on excellent terms with all of them all of his life. He was raised by a stepmother, Fanny, née Phelps and she had no children of her own and also predeceased her husband
8.
Clay tablet
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In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylus often made of reed, once written upon, many tablets were dried in the sun or air, remaining fragile. Later, these clay tablets could be soaked in water. Other tablets, once written, were fired in hot kilns making them hard, collections of these clay documents made up the very first archives. They were at the root of first libraries, tens of thousands of written tablets, including many fragments, have been found in the Middle East. In the Minoan/Mycenaean civilizations, writing has not been observed for any use other than accounting, tablets serving as labels, with the impression of the side of a wicker basket on the back, and tablets showing yearly summaries, suggest a sophisticated accounting system. In this cultural region the tablets were never fired deliberately, as the clay was recycled on an annual basis, however, some of the tablets were fired as a result of uncontrolled fires in the buildings where they were stored. The rest are still tablets of unfired clay, and extremely fragile, some scholars are investigating the possibility of firing them now. Writing was not as we see it today, in that way, recorded accounts of amounts of goods involved in a transaction could be made. The clay tablet was thus being used by scribes to take down the events of what was happening during his time, Sumerians used what are known as pictograms. Pictograms are symbols that express a concept, a logogram. Early writing also began in Ancient Egypt using hieroglyphs, early hieroglyphs and some of the modern Chinese characters are other examples of pictographs. The Sumerians later shifted their writing to Cuneiform, defined as Wedge writing in Latin, clay tablets took the forms of myths, fables, essays, hymns, proverbs, epic poetry, laws, plants, and animals. What these clay tablets allowed was for individuals to record who, an example of these great stories was The Story of Gilgamesh. This story would tell of the flood that destroyed Sumer. Remedies and recipes that would have been unknown were then possible because of the clay tablet, some of the recipes were stew, which was made with goat, garlic, onions and sour milk. Communication grew faster as now there was a way to get messages across just like mail, important and private clay tablets were coated with an extra layer of clay, that no one else would read it. This means of communicating was used for over 3000 years in fifteen different languages, Sumerians, Babylonians and Eblaites all had their own clay tablet libraries
9.
Ugarit
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Ugarit was an ancient port city, the ruins of which are located at what is now called Ras Shamra, a headland in northern Syria. The polity was at its height from c.1450 BC until 1200 BC, Ras Shamra lies on the Mediterranean coast, some 11 kilometres north of Latakia, near modern Burj al-Qasab. Neolithic Ugarit was important enough to be fortified with an early on, perhaps by 6000 BC. Ugarit was important perhaps because it was both a port and at the entrance of the trade route to the Euphrates and Tigris lands. The city reached its heyday between 1800 and 1200 BC, when it ruled a trade-based coastal kingdom, trading with Egypt, Cyprus, the Aegean, Syria, the Hittites, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. The first written evidence mentioning the city comes from the city of Ebla. Ugarit passed into the sphere of influence of Egypt, which influenced its art. Evidence of the earliest Ugaritic contact with Egypt comes from a carnelian bead identified with the Middle Kingdom pharaoh Senusret I, a stela and a statuette from the Egyptian pharaohs Senusret III and Amenemhet III have also been found. However, it is unclear at what time these monuments were brought to Ugarit, amarna letters from Ugarit c.1350 BC record one letter each from Ammittamru I, Niqmaddu II, and his queen. From the 16th to the 13th century BC, Ugarit remained in contact with Egypt. In the second millennium BC, Ugarits population was Amorite, the kingdom of Ugarit may have controlled about 2,000 km2 on average. During some of its history it would have been in close proximity to, the last Bronze Age king of Ugarit, Ammurapi, was a contemporary of the Hittite king Suppiluliuma II. The exact dates of his reign are unknown, however, a letter by the king is preserved, in which Ammurapi stresses the seriousness of the crisis faced by many Near Eastern states from invasion by the advancing Sea Peoples. Does not my father know that all my troops and chariots are in the Land of Hatti, thus, the country is abandoned to itself. May my father know it, the seven ships of the enemy that came here inflicted much damage upon us, however, no help arrived, and the city was burned to the ground at the end of the Bronze Age. Ugarit also contained many caches of cuneiform tablets, actual libraries that contained a wealth of information, the destruction levels of the ruin contained Late Helladic IIIB pottery ware, but no LH IIIC. Therefore, the date of the destruction of Ugarit is important for the dating of the LH IIIC phase in mainland Greece. Since an Egyptian sword bearing the name of pharaoh Merneptah was found in the levels,1190 BC was taken as the date for the beginning of the LH IIIC
10.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
11.
Minoan civilization
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The Minoan civilization was an Aegean Bronze Age civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean islands which flourished from about 2600 to 1100 BC. It preceded the Mycenaean civilization of Ancient Greece, the civilization was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Arthur Evans. It has been described as the earliest of its kind in Europe, the term Minoan, which refers to the mythical King Minos, originally described the pottery of the period. Minos was associated in Greek mythology with the labyrinth and the Minotaur, according to Homer, Crete once had 90 cities. The Minoan period saw trade between Crete and Aegean and Mediterranean settlements, particularly the Near East, traders and artists, the Minoan cultural influence reached beyond Crete to the Cyclades, Egypts Old Kingdom, copper-bearing Cyprus, Canaan and the Levantine coast, and Anatolia. Some of its best art is preserved in the city of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini, although the Minoan language and writing systems remain undecipherable and are subjects of academic dispute, they apparently conveyed a language entirely different from the later Greek. The reason for the end of the Minoan period is unclear, theories include Mycenaean invasions from mainland Greece, the term Minoan refers to the mythical King Minos of Knossos. Its origin is debated, but it is attributed to archeologist Arthur Evans. Minos was associated in Greek mythology with the labyrinth, which Evans identified with the site at Knossos. However, Karl Hoeck had already used the title Das Minoische Kreta in 1825 for volume two of his Kreta, this appears to be the first known use of the word Minoan to mean ancient Cretan, Evans said that applied it, not invented it. Hoeck, with no idea that the archaeological Crete had existed, had in mind the Crete of mythology, although Evans 1931 claim that the term was unminted before he used it was called a brazen suggestion by Karadimas and Momigliano, he coined its archaeological meaning. Instead of dating the Minoan period, archaeologists use two systems of relative chronology, the first, created by Evans and modified by later archaeologists, is based on pottery styles and imported Egyptian artifacts. Evans system divides the Minoan period into three eras, early, middle and late. These eras are subdivided—for example, Early Minoan I, II and III, another dating system, proposed by Greek archaeologist Nicolas Platon, is based on the development of architectural complexes known as palaces at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia and Kato Zakros. Platon divides the Minoan period into pre-, proto-, neo-, the relationship between the systems in the table includes approximate calendar dates from Warren and Hankey. The Thera eruption occurred during a phase of the LM IA period. Efforts to establish the volcanic eruptions date have been controversial, the eruption is identified as a natural event catastrophic for the culture, leading to its rapid collapse. Although stone-tool evidence exists that hominins may have reached Crete as early as 130,000 years ago, evidence for the first anatomically-modern human presence dates to 10, the oldest evidence of modern human habitation on Crete are pre-ceramic Neolithic farming-community remains which date to about 7000 BC
12.
Linear B
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Linear B is a syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries, the oldest Mycenaean writing dates to about 1450 BC. It is descended from the older Linear A, an earlier script used for writing the Minoan language, as is the later Cypriot syllabary. Linear B, found mainly in the archives at Knossos, Cydonia, Pylos, Thebes and Mycenae. The succeeding period, known as the Greek Dark Ages, provides no evidence of the use of writing and it is also the only one of the prehistoric Aegean scripts to have been deciphered, by English architect and self-taught linguist Michael Ventris. Linear B consists of around 87 syllabic signs and over 100 ideographic signs and these ideograms or signifying signs symbolize objects or commodities. They have no value and are never used as word signs in writing a sentence. The application of Linear B appears to have been confined to administrative contexts, in all the thousands of clay tablets, a relatively small number of different hands have been detected,45 in Pylos and 66 in Knossos. It is possible that the script was used only by a guild of professional scribes who served the central palaces, once the palaces were destroyed, the script disappeared. Linear B has roughly 200 signs, divided into syllabic signs with phonetic values, the representations and naming of these signs have been standardized by a series of international colloquia starting with the first in Paris in 1956. Colloquia continue, the 13th occurred in 2010 in Paris, many of the signs are identical or similar to those in Linear A, however, Linear A encodes an as-yet unknown language, and it is uncertain whether similar signs had the same phonetic values. The grid developed during decipherment by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick of phonetic values for syllabic signs is shown below, initial consonants are in the leftmost column, vowels are in the top row beneath the title. The transcription of the syllable is listed next to the sign along with Bennetts identifying number for the sign preceded by an asterisk, in cases where the transcription of the sign remains in doubt, Bennetts number serves to identify the sign. The signs on the tablets and sealings often show considerable variation from each other, discovery of the reasons for the variation and possible semantic differences is a topic of ongoing debate in Mycenaean studies. Many of these were identified by the edition and are shown in the special values below. The second edition relates, It may be taken as axiomatic that there are no true homophones, the unconfirmed identifications of *34 and *35 as ai2 and ai3 were removed. Other values remain unknown, mainly because of scarcity of evidence concerning them, note that *34 and *35 are mirror images of each other but whether this graphic relationship indicates a phonetic one remains unconfirmed. In recent times, CIPEM inherited the authority of Bennett
13.
Late Bronze Age collapse
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The palace economy of the Aegean Region and Anatolia that characterised the Late Bronze Age broke down to the isolated village cultures of the Greek Dark Ages. In the first phase of period, almost every city between Pylos and Gaza was violently destroyed, and many abandoned, examples include Hattusa, Mycenae. A very few states, particularly Assyria and Elam, were largely unaffected by the Bronze Age collapse. Before the Bronze Age collapse, Anatolia was dominated by a number of Indo-European peoples, Luwians, Hittites, Mitanni, and Mycenaean Greeks, together with the Semitic Assyrians, and Hurrians. From the 17th century BC, the Mitanni formed a ruling class over the Hurrians, similarly, the Hittites absorbed the Hattians, a people speaking a language that may have been of the North Caucasian group or a Language Isolate. Hattusas, the Hittite capital, was burned, abandoned, karaoğlan, near the present day city of Ankara, was burned and the corpses left unburied. Many other sites that were not destroyed were abandoned, the Hittite Empire was destroyed by the Indo-European-speaking Phrygians and by the Semitic-speaking Aramaeans. Troy was destroyed at least twice, before being abandoned until Roman times, other groups of Indo-European warriors followed into the region, most prominently the Lydians, the Cimmerians, and Scythians. The Semitic Arameans, Kartvelian-speaking Colchians, and Hurro-Urartuans also made an appearance in parts of the region, during the reign of the Hittite king Tudhaliya IV, the island was briefly invaded by the Hittites, either to secure the copper resource or as a way of preventing piracy. Shortly afterwards, the island was reconquered by his son around 1200 BC, some towns show traces of destruction at the end of LCII. Whether or not this is really an indication of a Mycenean invasion is contested, originally, two waves of destruction in c.1230 BC by the Sea Peoples and c.1190 BC by Aegean refugees have been proposed. The smaller settlements of Ayios Dhimitrios and Kokkinokremnos, as well as a number of sites, were abandoned. Kokkinokremos was a settlement, where various caches concealed by smiths have been found. That no one returned to reclaim the treasures suggests that they were killed or enslaved. Recovery occurred only in the Early Iron Age with Phoenician and Greek settlement and these sites in Cyprus show evidence of the collapse, Palaeokastro Kition Sinda Enkomi Ancient Syria had been initially dominated by a number of indigenous Semitic-speaking peoples. The East Semitic speaking Eblaites, the Canaanites language speaking Amorites, Syria during this time was known as The land of the Amurru. Levantine sites previously showed evidence of links with Mesopotamia, Egypt. Evidence, at Ugarit, shows that the destruction there occurred after the reign of Merneptah, the last Bronze Age king of the Semitic state of Ugarit, Ammurapi, was a contemporary of the Hittite king Suppiluliuma II
14.
Enkomi
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Enkomi is a village near Famagusta in Cyprus. It is the site of an important Bronze Age city, possibly the capital of Alasiya, Enkomi is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus. In 1974, Enkomi had about 800 Greek Cypriot inhabitants and they all fled to the south of the island after the Turkish invasion, in the aftermath of the July coup. As of 2011, Enkomi has a population of 2,645 and it comprises displaced Turkish Cypriots from Larnaca and Turkish settlers from Adana Province and Trabzon Province. Enkomi was settled in the Middle Bronze Age, near an inlet from the sea. From about the 16th century BC to the 12th, it was an important trading center for copper, during the 13th century BC, Enkomi was inhabited by Greeks, like most of the cities of Cyprus. From the 13th century, other towns along the southern coast of Cyprus competed with Enkomi, after an earthquake ca.1050 BC, the site was abandoned, leaving an opening for the rise of Salamis. René Dussaud demonstrated that Enkomi is the Alasia of the Amarna correspondence and other texts, long after the town disappeared, Hellenes recalled it in the cult title of Apollo Alasiotas, recorded in a Cypriote inscription as late as the 4th century BC. In 1900 the archaeologist Joseph Offord suggested that Apollo Alasiotas was a Syrian god identical with Resheph, transported to Cyprus, the bronze statuette of a horned god may represent this divinity whom Greeks identified, by interpretatio graeca, with Apollo. Following more than a decade of widespread looting drawn by the quality of the tomb gifts. From the 1930s, excavations were continued by Claude F. A. Schaeffer for the Swedish Cyprus Expedition. Notable finds from Enkomi include Linear C inscriptions and the horned god. Another well-known statue is the god, a statue wearing a horned conical hat and greaves, armed with shield and spear. Murray, A. S. Excavations at Enkomi, in Murray, A. S. Smith, A. H. Walters H. B. From isolation to state formation in Cyprus, ca, the development of the Cypriot economy from the prehistoric period to the present day. Schaeffer, Claude F. A. Nouvelles découvertes à Enkomi, paris, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. Schaeffer, Claude F. A. Enkomi-Alasia I, Enkomi on the Department of Antiquities website
15.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
16.
Eteocypriot language
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Eteocypriot was a pre-Indo-European language spoken in Iron Age Cyprus. The name means true or original Cyprian parallel to Eteocretan, both of which names are used by modern scholarship to mean the pre-Greek languages of those places, Eteocypriot was written in the Cypriot syllabary, a syllabic script derived from Linear A. The language was under pressure from Arcadocypriot Greek from about the 10th century BC, the language is as yet unknown except for a small vocabulary attested in bilingual inscriptions. Such topics as syntax and possible inflection or agglutination remain a mystery, partial translations depend to a large extent on the language or language group assumed by the translator, but there is no consistency. It is conjectured by some linguists to be related to the Etruscan and Lemnian languages and those who do not advocate any of those theories often adopt the default of an unknown pre-Greek language. Due to the number of texts found, there is currently much unproven speculation. Several hundred inscriptions written in the Cypriot syllabary cannot be interpreted in Greek, while the language of Cypro-Minoan inscriptions is often supposed to be the same as Eteocypriot, that has yet to be proved, as the script is only partly legible. The Eteocypriot text in Cypriot characters runs right to left, the Greek text in all capital Greek letters, ta kana sot-i, ail-o kail-i pot-i. Greek,3, Η ПΟΛΙΣ Η АΜАΘΟΥΣΙΩΝ ΑΡΙΣΤΩΝΑ4, ΑΡΙΣΤΩΝΑΚΤΟΣ ΕΥΠΑΤΡΙΔΗΝ which might be rendered into modern script as,3, Ἡ πόλις ἡ Ἀμαθουσίων Ἀριστῶνα4, Ἀριστώνακτος, a suggested translation is, The polis of Amathusians, to Ariston Aristonax, nobleman. Cyrus Gordon translates this text as The city of the Amathusans the noble Ariston of Aristonax, gordons translation is based on Greek inscriptions in general and the fact that the noble Ariston is in the accusative case, implying a transitive verb. Gordon explains that the verb is omitted, the grammar of the Greek, however, is not necessarily that of the Eteocypriot. The inscription is important as verifying that the symbols of the unknown language, Gordon says, This bilingual proves that the signs in Eteocypriot texts have the same values as in the Cypriot Greek texts. However, as a bilingual it uses only a few Greek syllables to translate many Eteocypriot ones, Cypriot syllabary Etruscan civilization Aegean languages Etruscan language Liber Linteus – An Etruscan inscription. Tabula Cortonensis – An Etruscan inscription, cippus perusinus – An Etruscan inscription. Pyrgi Tablets – An Etruscan inscription, Lemnian language Eteocretan Cortona – Ancient Etruscan city. Forgotten Scripts, Their Ongoing Discovery and Decipherment, Revised and Enlarged Edition, notes on the Eteocypriot inscriptions, American journal of philology. A linguistic history of Ancient Cyprus, этеокипрское Omniglot – The Cypriot Syllabry
17.
Prehistoric Cyprus
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The Prehistoric Period is the oldest part of Cypriot history. This article covers the period 10,000 to 800 BCE and ends immediately before written records of civilizations, Cyprus was not settled in the Paleolithic which allowed survival of numerous dwarf forms, such as dwarf elephants and pygmy hippos well into the Holocene. These animals are thought to have arrived on the island as a result of being out to sea while swimming off the coast of the nearby mainland. There are claims of an association of this fauna with artifacts of Epipalaeolithic foragers at Aetokremnos near Limassol on the southern coast of Cyprus, the extinction of the pygmy hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of Homo sapiens on Cyprus. There is evidence of this because of the piles of burned bones in the occupied by these early humans in caves on the southernmost point on the Island. The oldest evidence of settlement is dated to 8800–8600 BC. The first settlers were already agriculturalists, but did not yet produce pottery and they introduced the dog, sheep, goats and maybe cattle and pigs as well as numerous wild animals like foxes and Persian fallow deer that were previously unknown on the island. The PPNB settlers built houses with floors made of terrazzo of burned lime and cultivated einkorn. Pig, sheep, goat and cattle were kept, but remained morphologically wild, evidence for cattle is rare and when they apparently died out in the course of the 8th millennium they were not reintroduced until the early Bronze Age. In the 6th millennium BC, the aceramic Choirokoitia culture was characterized by houses, stone vessels. The lithic industry was the most individual feature of this aceramic culture, the houses had a foundation of river pebbles, the remainder of the building was constructed in mudbrick. Sometimes several round houses were joined together to form a kind of compound, some of these houses reach a diameter of up to 10 m. Inhumation burials are located inside the houses, water wells discovered by archaeologists in western Cyprus are believed to be among the oldest in the world, dated at 9,000 to 10,500 years old, putting them in the Stone Age. They are said to show the sophistication of early settlers, plant remains indicate the cultivation of cereals, lentils, beans, peas and a kind of plum called Bullace. Remains of the animal species were recovered during excavations, Persian fallow deer, goat, sheep, mouflon. More remains indicate Red deer, Roe deer, a kind of horse, life expectancy seems to have been short, the average age at death appears to have been about 34 years, and there was a high infant mortality rate. In 2004, the remains of an 8-month-old cat were discovered buried with its owner at a Neolithic archeological site in Cyprus. The grave is estimated to be 9,500 years old, predating Egyptian civilization, the aceramic civilisation of Cyprus came to an end quite abruptly around 6000 BC
18.
Ancient Near East
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The ancient Near East is studied in the fields of Near Eastern archaeology and ancient history. The ancient Near East is considered one of the cradles of civilization and it also saw the creation of the first writing system and law codes, early advances that laid the foundations of astronomy and mathematics, and the invention of the wheel. During the period, states became increasingly large, until by the end the region was controlled by military empires who had conquered a number of different cultures. The phrase ancient Near East utilizes the 19th-century distinction between Near East and Far East as global regions of interest to the British Empire, the distinction began during the Crimean War. The two theatres were described by the statesmen and advisors of the British Empire as the Near East, shortly, they were to share the stage with Middle East, which came to prevail in the 20th century and continues in modern times. Meanwhile, ancient Near East had become distinct, the Near East ruled by the Ottoman Empire ranged from Vienna to the north to the tip of the Arabian Peninsula to the south, from Egypt in the west to the borders of Iraq in the east. The 19th-century archaeologists added Iran to their definition, which was never under the Ottomans, but they excluded all of Europe and, generally, Egypt, which had parts in the empire. Ancient Near East periodization is the attempt to categorize or divide time into discrete named blocks, or eras, the result is a descriptive abstraction that provides a useful handle on Near East periods of time with relatively stable characteristics. Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia. It was followed by the Sumerian civilization, the late Uruk period saw the gradual emergence of the cuneiform script and corresponds to the Early Bronze Age. Sumer, located in southern Mesopotamia, is the earliest known civilization in the world, the Akkadian Empire, founded by Sargon the Great, lasted from the 24th to the 21st century BC, and was regarded by many as the worlds first Empire. The Akkadians eventually fragmented into Assyria and Babylonia, Ancient Elam lay to the east of Sumer and Akkad, in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of Khuzestan and Ilam Province. In the Old Elamite period, c.3200 BC, it consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered on Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered on Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Elam was absorbed into the Assyrian Empire in the 9th to 7th centuries BC, however, the Proto-Elamite civilization existed from c.3200 BC to 2700 BC, when Susa, the later capital of the Elamites, began to receive influence from the cultures of the Iranian plateau. In archaeological terms, this corresponds to the late Banesh period and this civilization is recognized as the oldest in Iran and was largely contemporary with its neighbour, the Sumerian civilization. The Proto-Elamite script is an Early Bronze Age writing system briefly in use for the ancient Elamite language before the introduction of Elamite Cuneiform, the Amorites were a nomadic Semitic people who occupied the country west of the Euphrates from the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. In the earliest Sumerian sources, beginning about 2400 BC, the land of the Amorites is associated with the West, including Syria and Canaan and they ultimately settled in Mesopotamia, ruling Isin, Larsa, and later Babylon. Assyria, after enduring a period of Mitanni domination, emerged as a great power from the accession of Ashur-uballit I in 1365 BC to the death of Tiglath-Pileser I in 1076 BC
19.
Idalion Tablet
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The Idalion Tablet is a 5th-century BCE bronze tablet from Idalium, Cyprus. The tablet is inscribed on both sides, the script of the tablet is in the Cypriot syllabary and the inscription itself is in Greek. Approximately two lines of the state as follows. they ordered Onasilon the of Onasikupon the physician. The quote from the covers the end of the 2nd line, and continues through the 3rd
20.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
21.
History of Cyprus
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Human habitation of Cyprus dates back to the Paleolithic era. Cypruss geographic position has caused Cyprus to be influenced by differing Eastern Mediterranean civilisations over the millennia, Cyprus was settled by humans in the Paleolithic period who coexisted with various dwarf animal species, such as dwarf elephants and pygmy hippos well into the Holocene. There are claims of an association of this fauna with artifacts of Epipalaeolithic foragers at Aetokremnos near Limassol on the southern coast of Cyprus, the first undisputed settlement occurred in the 9th millennium BC from the Levant. The first settlers were agriculturalists of the so-called PPNB era, the dog, sheep, goats and possibly cattle and pigs were introduced, as well as numerous wild animals such as foxes and Persian fallow deer that were previously unknown on the island. The PPNB settlers built houses with floors made of terrazzo of burned lime and cultivated einkorn. Pigs, sheep, goat and cattle were kept but remained, for the most part, evidence of cattle such as that attested at Shillourokambos is rare, and when they apparently died out in the course of the 8th millennium they were not re-introduced until the ceramic Neolithic. In the 6th millennium BC, the aceramic Khirokitia culture was characterised by roundhouses, stone vessels, cattle were unknown, and Persian fallow deer were hunted. This was followed by the ceramic Sotira phase, the Eneolithic era is characterised by stone figurines with spread arms. Water wells discovered by archaeologists in western Cyprus are believed to be among the oldest in the world, dated at 9,000 to 10,500 years old and they are said to show the sophistication of early settlers, and their heightened appreciation for the environment. In 2004, the remains of an 8-month-old cat were discovered buried with its owner at a Neolithic archeological site in Cyprus. The grave is estimated to be 9,500 years old, predating Egyptian civilization, in the Bronze Age the first cities, such as Enkomi, were built. Systematic copper mining began, and this resource was widely traded, Mycenaean Greeks were undoubtedly inhabiting Cyprus from the late stage of the Bronze Age, while the islands Greek name is already attested from the 15th century BC in the Linear B script. The Cypriot syllabic script was first used in early phases of the late Bronze Age and continued in use for ca.500 years into the LC IIIB, the LCIIC was a time of local prosperity. Cities such as Enkomi were rebuilt on a grid plan. Great official buildings constructed from ashlar masonry point to increased social hierarchisation, some of these buildings contain facilities for processing and storing olive oil, such as Maroni-Vournes and Building X at Kalavassos-Ayios Dhimitrios. A Sanctuary with an altar constructed from ashlar masonry has been found at Myrtou-Pigadhes, other temples have been located at Enkomi, Kition. Both the regular layout of the cities and the new masonry techniques find their closest parallels in Syria, rectangular corbelled tombs point to close contacts with Syria and Palestine as well. The practice of writing spread and tablets in the Cypriot syllabic script have been found at Ras Shamra which was the Phoenician city of Ugarit
22.
Alashiya
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Alashiya, also spelled Alasiya, was a state which existed in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, and was situated somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean. It was a source of goods, especially copper, for Ancient Egypt. It is referred to in a number of the texts and is now thought to be the ancient name of Cyprus. This was confirmed by the analysis performed in the Tel Aviv University of the clay tablets which were sent from Alashiya to other rulers. The name of the state transliterated as Alashiya is found on texts written in Egyptian, Hittite, Akkadian, Mycenean and it corresponds to the Biblical Elishah. Some of the Amarna letters are from the king or the ministers of Alashiya and they concern mostly the amount of copper that has been sent from Alashiya and requests for silver or ivory in return. One letter refers to 500 talents of copper and makes excuses as to why so little copper has been sent. Pharaoh is also referred to by the King of Alashiya as his brother, indicating that the king regarded himself as an equal, papyrus Anastasi IV, written several centuries later, also refers to copper sent from Alashiya to Egypt. Any place identified as Alashiya must therefore have had sizable copper production during the Late Bronze Age, there are a number of other clues in the texts. The Amarna letters contain references to a ship belonging to the King of Alashiya, in other correspondence, the King of Ugarit pleads for help from the King of Alashiya to protect Ugarit from the Sea Peoples. Another document from Ugarit records the banishment of two princes to the land of Alashiya, One further text found at Ugarit may contain a further clue to the location of the capital city of Alashiya, as it could imply that the city was located on a mountain. However, this word has more usually translated as shore. The extant ending of the Story of Wenamun records how Wenamun, Wenamun reports that he was almost killed by an angry mob, but was rescued by Hatbi, the princess of the town. Some of the last texts referring to Alashiya are from the Hittite Empire, however, with all such military reports it is difficult to assess the true outcome. Alashiya therefore needs to be situated somewhere where there was sizable Bronze Age copper production, on the coast, some scholars have suggested sites and areas of Syria or Turkey, but it is now generally agreed that Alashiya refers to at least part of Cyprus. Specifically, it was argued that the site of Enkomi was the capital of the kingdom of Alashiya. These examinations of the provenance of the used to create the tablets indicate that Syria could not be the location of Alashiya. However, this showed that the clays did not originate anywhere near the site of Enkomi
23.
Ancient history of Cyprus
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The recorded history of Cyprus extends to the 8th century BC. The local town of Kition, now Larnaka, recorded part of the ancient history of Cyprus on a stele that commemorated a victory by Sargon II of Assyria there in 709 BCE. Following a brief period of Egyptian domination in the sixth century BCE, Alexanders conquests only served to accelerate an already clear drift towards Hellenisation in Cyprus. During this period, Phoenician and native Cypriot traits disappeared, together with the old Cypriot syllabic script, the kingdom of Kourion in Cyprus is recorded on an inscription dating to the period of the Pharaoh Ramses III in Egypt. Another early written source of Cypriot history mentions the nation under Assyrian rule, the land of Ia is assumed to be the Assyrian name for Cyprus, and some scholars suggest that the latter may mean the islands of the Danaans, or Greece. There are other inscriptions referring to the land of Ia in Sargons palace at Khorsabad, later inscriptions add Marion, Lapithos and Kerynia. Cyprus gained independence after 627 BCE following the death of Ashurbanipal, cemeteries from this period are chiefly rock-cut tombs. They have been found, among other locations, at Tamassos, Soloi, Patriki, the rock-cut Royal tombs at Tamassos, built in about 600 BCE, imitate wooden houses. Some graves contain the remains of horses and chariots, the main deity of ancient Cyprus was the Great Goddess, the Assyro-Babylonian Ishtar, and Phoenician Astarte, later known by the Greek name Aphrodite. She was called the Cypriote by Homer, paphian inscriptions call her the Queen. Pictures of Aphrodite appear on the coins of Salamis as well, in addition, the King of Paphos was the High Priest of Aphrodite. Other Gods venerated include the Phoenician Anat, Baal, Eshmun, Reshef, Mikal and Melkart, animal sacrifices are attested to on terracotta-votives. The Sanctuary of Ayia Irini contained over 2,000 figurines, in 570 BCE, Cyprus was conquered by Egypt under Amasis II. This brief period of Egyptian domination left its influence mainly in the arts, especially sculpture, where the rigidity, Cypriot artists later discarded this Egyptian style in favour of Greek prototypes. Statues in stone often show a mixture of Egyptian and Greek influence, in particular, ceramics recovered on Cyprus show influence from ancient Crete. Men often wore Egyptian wigs and Assyrian-style beards, armour and dress showed western Asiatic elements as well. In 526 BCE, the Persian Achaemenid Empire conquered Cyprus, under the Persians, the Kings of Cyprus retained their independence but had to pay tribute to their overlord. The city-kingdoms began to strike their own coins in the late-sixth century BCE, coins minted by the kings were required to have the overlords portrait on them
24.
Neo-Assyrian Empire
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The Neo-Assyrian Empire was an Iron Age Mesopotamian empire, in existence between 911 and 612 BC. The Assyrians perfected early techniques of imperial rule, many of which became standard in later empires, the Neo-Assyrian Empire succeeded the Old Assyrian Empire, and the Middle Assyrian Empire of the Late Bronze Age. During this period, Aramaic was also made a language of the empire. Upon the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC, the empire began to due to a brutal. In 616 BC, Cyaxares king of the Medes and Persians made alliances with Nabopolassar ruler of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, Assyria was originally an Akkadian kingdom which evolved in the 25th to 24th centuries BC. The urbanised Akkadian speaking nation of Assyria emerged in the mid 21st century BC, during the 20th century BC, it established colonies in Asia Minor, and under the 20th century BC King Ilushuma, Assyria conducted many successful raids against the states of the south. Ashur-uballit extended Assyrian control over the farming lands of Nineveh. Tiglath-Pileser controlled the caravan routes that crossed the fertile crescent from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. Much campaigning by Tiglath-Pileser and succeeding kings was directed against Aramaean pastoralist groups in Syria, by the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the Aramaean expansion had resulted in the loss of much Assyrian territory in Upper Mesopotamia. After the death of Tiglath-Pileser I in 1076 BC, Assyria was in decline for the next 150 years. The period from 1200 BC to 900 BC was an age for the entire Near East, North Africa, Caucasus, Mediterranean and Balkan regions, with great upheavals. Adad-nirari II and his successors campaigned on a basis for part of every year with an exceptionally well-organized army. He subjugated the areas previously under only nominal Assyrian vassalage, conquering and deporting Aramean and Hurrian populations in the north to far-off places. Adadinirari II then twice attacked and defeated Shamash-mudammiq of Babylonia, annexing an area of land north of the Diyala river. He made further gains over Babylonia under Nabu-shuma-ukin I later in his reign and he was succeeded by Tukulti-Ninurta II in 891 BC, who further consolidated Assyrias position and expanded northwards into Asia Minor and the Zagros Mountains during his short reign. The next king, Ashurnasirpal II, embarked on a vast program of expansion, during his rule, Assyria recovered much of the territory that it had lost around 1100 BC at the end of the Middle Assyrian period. Ashurnasirpal II also campaigned in the Zagros Mountains in modern Iran, repressing a revolt against Assyrian rule by the Lullubi, the Assyrians began boasting in their ruthlessness around this time. Ashurnasirpal II also moved his capital to the city of Kalhu, the palaces, temples and other buildings raised by him bear witness to a considerable development of wealth and art
25.
Achaemenid Empire
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The Achaemenid Empire, also called the Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. The empires successes inspired similar systems in later empires and it is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city-states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in a Hellenistic style in the empire as well. By the 7th century BC, the Persians had settled in the portion of the Iranian Plateau in the region of Persis. From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, Alexander, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered the empire in its entirety by 330 BC. Upon his death, most of the former territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire. The Persian population of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century BC under the Parthian Empire, the historical mark of the Achaemenid Empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. Many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange. The impact of Cyruss edict is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, the empire also set the tone for the politics, heritage and history of modern Iran. Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Due to the duration of their reigns, Smerdis, Xerxes II. The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here, the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished, they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic Persians. The Achaemenid Empire was not the first Iranian empire, as by 6th century BC another group of ancient Iranian peoples had established the short lived Median Empire. The Iranian peoples had arrived in the region of what is today Iran c.1000 BC and had for a number of centuries fallen under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia. However, the Medes and Persians, Cimmerians, Persians and Chaldeans played a role in the overthrow of the Assyrian empire. The term Achaemenid means of the family of the Achaemenis/Achaemenes, despite the derivation of the name, Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century ruler of the Anshan in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of Assyria. At some point in 550 BC, Cyrus rose in rebellion against the Medes, eventually conquering the Medes and creating the first Persian empire
26.
Ionian Revolt
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The Ionian Revolt, and associated revolts in Aeolis, Doris, Cyprus and Caria, were military rebellions by several Greek regions of Asia Minor against Persian rule, lasting from 499 BC to 493 BC. The cities of Ionia had been conquered by Persia around 540 BC, in 499 BC, the then tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, launched a joint expedition with the Persian satrap Artaphernes to conquer Naxos, in an attempt to bolster his position. The mission was a debacle, and sensing his imminent removal as tyrant, in 498 BC, supported by troops from Athens and Eretria, the Ionians marched on, captured, and burnt Sardis. However, on their journey to Ionia, they were followed by Persian troops. This campaign was the offensive action by the Ionians, who subsequently went on the defensive. While initially campaigning successfully in Caria, this army was annihilated in an ambush at the Battle of Pedasus and this resulted in a stalemate for the rest of 496 BC and 495 BC. By 494 BC the Persian army and navy had regrouped, the Ionian fleet sought to defend Miletus by sea, but were decisively beaten at the Battle of Lade, after the defection of the Samians. Miletus was then besieged, captured, and its population was brought under Persian rule and this double defeat effectively ended the revolt, and the Carians surrendered to the Persians as a result. The Ionian Revolt constituted the first major conflict between Greece and the Persian Empire, and as such represents the first phase of the Greco-Persian Wars. Although Asia Minor had been back into the Persian fold, Darius vowed to punish Athens. Moreover, seeing that the city states of Greece posed a continued threat to the stability of his Empire. In 492 BC, the first Persian invasion of Greece, the phase of the Greco-Persian Wars. Practically the only source for the Ionian Revolt is the Greek historian Herodotus. Herodotus, who has called the Father of History, was born in 484 BC in Halicarnassus. He wrote his Enquiries around 440–430 BC, trying to trace the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, Herodotuss approach was entirely novel, and at least from the point of view of Western society, he does seem to have invented history as we know it. Some subsequent ancient historians, despite following in his footsteps, criticised Herodotus, nevertheless, Thucydides chose to begin his history where Herodotus left off, and therefore presumably felt that Herodotuss history was accurate enough not to need re-writing or correcting. A negative view of Herodotus was passed on to Renaissance Europe, however, since the 19th century his reputation has been dramatically rehabilitated by the age of democracy and some archaeological finds which have repeatedly confirmed his version of events. The prevailing modern view is that Herodotus generally did a job in his Historia
27.
Ptolemaic dynasty
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Their rule lasted for 275 years, from 305 to 30 BC. They were the last dynasty of ancient Egypt, Ptolemy, one of the seven somatophylakes who served as Alexander the Greats generals and deputies, was appointed satrap of Egypt after Alexanders death in 323 BC. In 305 BC, he declared himself Ptolemy I, later known as Sōter Saviour, the Egyptians soon accepted the Ptolemies as the successors to the pharaohs of independent Egypt. Ptolemys family ruled Egypt until the Roman conquest of 30 BC, all the male rulers of the dynasty took the name Ptolemy. Ptolemaic queens regnant, some of whom were the sisters of their husbands, were usually called Cleopatra, Arsinoe or Berenice. The most famous member of the line was the last queen, Cleopatra VII and her apparent suicide at the conquest by Rome marked the end of Ptolemaic rule in Egypt. Dates in brackets represent the dates of the Ptolemaic pharaohs. They frequently ruled jointly with their wives, who were also their sisters. Of these, one of the last and most famous was Cleopatra, several systems exist for numbering the later rulers, the one used here is the one most widely used by modern scholars. Arsinoe IV, in opposition to Cleopatra Ptolemy Keraunos - eldest son of Ptolemy I Soter, Ptolemy Apion - son of Ptolemy VIII Physcon. Ptolemy Philadelphus - son of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII, Ptolemy of Mauretania - son of King Juba II of Numidia and Mauretania and Cleopatra Selene II, daughter of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony. Contemporaries describe a number of the Ptolemaic dynasty members as extremely obese, whilst sculptures and coins reveal prominent eyes, familial Graves disease could explain the swollen necks and eye prominence, although this is unlikely to occur in the presence of morbid obesity. A. Lampela, Rome and the Ptolemies of Egypt, the development of their political relations 273-80 B. C. J. G. Manning, The Last Pharaohs, Egypt Under the Ptolemies, 305-30 BC. Livius. org, Ptolemies — by Jona Lendering
28.
Hellenistic civilization
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It is often considered a period of transition, sometimes even of decadence or degeneration, compared to the enlightenment of the Greek Classical era. The Hellenistic period saw the rise of New Comedy, Alexandrian poetry, the Septuagint, Greek science was advanced by the works of the mathematician Euclid and the polymath Archimedes. The religious sphere expanded to include new gods such as the Greco-Egyptian Serapis, eastern deities such as Attis and Cybele, the Hellenistic period was characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa. This resulted in the export of Greek culture and language to new realms. Equally, however, these new kingdoms were influenced by the cultures, adopting local practices where beneficial, necessary. Hellenistic culture thus represents a fusion of the Ancient Greek world with that of the Near East, Middle East and this mixture gave rise to a common Attic-based Greek dialect, known as Koine Greek, which became the lingua franca through the Hellenistic world. Scholars and historians are divided as to what event signals the end of the Hellenistic era, Hellenistic is distinguished from Hellenic in that the first encompasses the entire sphere of direct ancient Greek influence, while the latter refers to Greece itself. The word originated from the German term hellenistisch, from Ancient Greek Ἑλληνιστής, from Ἑλλάς, Hellenistic is a modern word and a 19th-century concept, the idea of a Hellenistic period did not exist in Ancient Greece. Although words related in form or meaning, e. g, the major issue with the term Hellenistic lies in its convenience, as the spread of Greek culture was not the generalized phenomenon that the term implies. Some areas of the world were more affected by Greek influences than others. The Greek population and the population did not always mix, the Greeks moved and brought their own culture. While a few fragments exist, there is no surviving historical work which dates to the hundred years following Alexanders death. The works of the major Hellenistic historians Hieronymus of Cardia, Duris of Samos, the earliest and most credible surviving source for the Hellenistic period is Polybius of Megalopolis, a statesman of the Achaean League until 168 BC when he was forced to go to Rome as a hostage. His Histories eventually grew to a length of forty books, covering the years 220 to 167 BC, another important source, Plutarchs Parallel Lives though more preoccupied with issues of personal character and morality, outlines the history of important Hellenistic figures. Appian of Alexandria wrote a history of the Roman empire that includes information of some Hellenistic kingdoms, other sources include Justins epitome of Pompeius Trogus Historiae Philipicae and a summary of Arrians Events after Alexander, by Photios I of Constantinople. Lesser supplementary sources include Curtius Rufus, Pausanias, Pliny, in the field of philosophy, Diogenes Laertius Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is the main source. Ancient Greece had traditionally been a collection of fiercely independent city-states. After the Peloponnesian War, Greece had fallen under a Spartan hegemony, in which Sparta was pre-eminent but not all-powerful
29.
Kitos War
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The Kitos War occurred during the period of the Jewish–Roman wars, 66–136. Some of the areas with the heaviest massacres were left so utterly annihilated that others were made to settle these areas to prevent the absence of any remaining presence. The rebellions were crushed by Roman legionary forces, chiefly by the Roman general Lusius Quietus, whose nomen later gave the conflict its title. Several incidents also occurred in parts of the Roman Empire, most notable the Alexandria pogroms. The escalation of tensions finally erupted as the Great Revolt of Judea and it erupted initially due to Greek and Jewish religious tensions, but later escalated due to anti-taxation protests and attacks upon Roman citizens. The Roman military garrison of Judaea was quickly overrun by rebels, cestius Gallus, the legate of Syria, brought the Syrian army, based on XII Fulminata, reinforced by auxiliary troops, to restore order and quell the revolt. The legion, however, was ambushed and defeated by Jewish rebels at the Battle of Beth Horon, the revolt ended when legions under Titus besieged and destroyed the center of rebel resistance in Jerusalem in the year 70 CE, and defeated the remaining Jewish strongholds later on. In 115, the emperor Trajan was in command of the campaign against the Parthian Empire. The Roman invasion had been prompted by the imposition of a king on the throne of Armenia after a Parthian invasion of that land. This encroachment on the sphere of influence of the Roman Empire — the two empires had shared hegemony over Armenia since the time of Nero some 50 years earlier — could only lead to war. As Trajans army advanced victoriously through Mesopotamia, Jewish rebels in its rear began attacking the small garrisons left behind, a revolt in far off Cyrenaica soon spread to Egypt and then Cyprus, inciting revolt in Judaea. A widespread uprising centered at Lydda threatened grain supplies from Egypt to the front, the Jewish insurrection swiftly spread to the recently conquered provinces. Cities with substantial Jewish populations – Nisibis, Edessa, Seleucia, Arbela – joined the rebellion, in Cyrenaica, the rebels were led by one Lukuas or Andreas, who called himself king. The 4th century Christian historian Paulus Orosius records that the violence so depopulated the province of Cyrenaica that new colonies had to be established by Hadrian, The Jews. Dio Cassius states of Jewish insurrectionaries, Meanwhile the Jews in the region of Cyrene had put one Andreas at their head and were destroying both the Romans and the Greeks. They would cook their flesh, make belts for themselves of their entrails, anoint themselves with their blood, many they sawed in two, from the head downwards. Others they would give to wild beasts and force others to fight as gladiators. In all, consequently, two hundred and twenty thousand perished, in Egypt, also, they performed many similar deeds, and in Cyprus under the leadership of Artemio
30.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
31.
Caliphate
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A caliphate is an area containing an Islamic steward known as a caliph —a person considered a religious successor to the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, and a leader of the entire Muslim community. During the history of Islam after the Rashidun period, many Muslim states, the Sunni branch of Islam stipulates that, as a head of state, a caliph should be elected by Muslims or their representatives. Followers of Shia Islam, however, believe a caliph should be an Imam chosen by God from the Ahl al-Bayt, before the advent of Islam, Arabian monarchs traditionally used the title malik, or another from the same root. The term caliph, derives from the Arabic word khalīfah, which means successor, steward, however, studies of pre-Islamic texts suggest that the original meaning of the phrase was successor selected by God. There was no specified procedure for this shura or consultation, candidates were usually, but not necessarily, from the same lineage as the deceased leader. Capable men who would lead well were preferred over an ineffectual heir, Sunni Muslims believe that Abu Bakr was chosen by the community and that this was the proper procedure. Sunnis further argue that a caliph should ideally be chosen by election or community consensus, the Shia believe that Ali, the son-in-law and cousin of Muhammad, was chosen by Muhammad as his spiritual and temporal successor as the Mawla of all Muslims in the event of Ghadir Khumm. The caliph was often known as Amir al-Muminin, Muhammad established his capital in Medina, after he died, it remained the capital during the Rashidun Caliphate, before Kufa was reportedly made the capital by Caliph Ali. At times there have been rival claimant caliphs in different parts of the Islamic world, according to Sunni Muslims, the first caliph to be called Amir al-Muminin was Abu Bakr, followed by Umar, the second of the Rashidun. Uthman and Ali also were called by the title, while the Shia consider Ali to have been the only truly legitimate caliph. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk officially abolished the system of Caliphate in Islam as part of his secular reforms, the Kings of Morocco still label themselves with the title Amir al-Muminin for the Moroccans, but lay no claim to the Caliphate. Some Muslim countries, including Somalia, Indonesia and Malaysia, were never subject to the authority of a Caliphate, with the exception of Aceh, consequently, these countries had their own, local, sultans or rulers who did not fully accept the authority of the Caliph. Abu Bakr, the first successor of Muhammad, nominated Umar as his successor on his deathbed, Umar, the second caliph, was killed by a Persian named Piruz Nahavandi. His successor, Uthman, was elected by a council of electors, Uthman was killed by members of a disaffected group. Ali then took control but was not universally accepted as caliph by the governors of Egypt and he faced two major rebellions and was assassinated by Abd-al-Rahman ibn Muljam, a Khawarij. Alis tumultuous rule lasted only five years and this period is known as the Fitna, or the first Islamic civil war. The followers of Ali later became the Shia minority sect of Islam, the followers of all four Rashidun Caliphs became the majority Sunni sect. Under the Rashidun each region of the Caliphate had its own governor, Muawiyah, a relative of Uthman and governor of Syria, succeeded Ali as Caliph
32.
Crusades
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The First Crusade arose after a call to arms in a 1095 sermon by Pope Urban II. Urban urged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, the response to Urbans preaching by people of many different classes across Western Europe established the precedent for later Crusades. Volunteers became Crusaders by taking a vow and receiving plenary indulgences from the church. Some were hoping for apotheosis at Jerusalem, or forgiveness from God for all their sins, others participated to satisfy feudal obligations, gain glory and honour, or find opportunities for economic and political gain. Many modern Historians have polarised opinions of the Crusaders behaviour under Papal sanction, to some it was incongruous with the stated aims and implied moral authority of the papacy and the Crusades, to the extent that on occasions that the Pope excommunicated Crusaders. Crusaders often pillaged as they travelled, while their leaders retained control of captured territory rather than returning it to the Byzantines. During the Peoples Crusade thousands of Jews were murdered in what is now called the Rhineland massacres, Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade rendering the reunification of Christendom impossible. These tales consequently galvanised medieval romance, philosophy and literature, but the Crusades also reinforced the connection between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism. Crusade is not a term, instead the terms iter for journey or peregrinatio for pilgrimage were used. Not until the word crucesignatus for one who was signed with the cross was adopted at the close of the century was specific terminology developed. The Middle English equivalents were derived from old French, croiserie in the 13th–15th centuries, croisade appeared in English c1575, and continued to be the leading form till c1760. By convention historians adopt the term for the Christian holy wars from 1095, the Crusades in the Holy Land are traditionally counted as nine distinct campaigns, numbered from the First Crusade of 1095–99 to the Ninth Crusade of 1271/2. Usage of the term Crusade may differ depending on the author, pluralists use the term Crusade of any campaign explicitly sanctioned by the reigning Pope. This reflects the view of the Roman Catholic Church that every military campaign given Papal sanction is equally valid as a Crusade, regardless of its cause, justification, generalists see Crusades as any and all holy wars connected with the Latin Church and fought in defence of their faith. Popularists limit the Crusades to only those that were characterised by popular groundswells of religious fervour – that is, only the First Crusade, Medieval Muslim historiographers such as Ali ibn al-Athir refer to the Crusades as the Frankish Wars. The term used in modern Arabic, ḥamalāt ṣalībiyya حملات صليبية, campaigns of the cross, is a loan translation of the term Crusade as used in Western historiography. The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, the resulting unified polity in the seventh and eighth centuries led to a rapid expansion of Arab power. This influence stretched from the northwest Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, tolerance, trade, and political relationships between the Arabs and the Christian states of Europe waxed and waned
33.
Kingdom of Cyprus
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The Kingdom of Cyprus was a Crusader kingdom on the island of Cyprus in the high and late Middle Ages, between 1192 and 1489. It was ruled by the French House of Lusignan and it comprised not only Cyprus, but also some possessions on the Anatolian mainland, Antalya between 1361 and 1373 and Corycus between 1361 and 1448. The island was conquered in 1191 by King Richard I of England during the Third Crusade, from Isaac Komnenos, an upstart local governor and self-proclaimed emperor claiming the Byzantine Empire. There were even rumours that Komnenus was secretly in league with Saladin in order to protect himself from his enemies in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, the ruling Angelos family. Moreover, control of the island of Cyprus would provide a strategic base of operations from which to launch. The English army disembarked on the shores of Limassol and engaged the Cypriots who proved no match for the English archers, fearing treachery at the hands of the new invaders however, Komnenos fled after making this pledge to Richard and escaped to the stronghold of Kantara. The English king left garrisons in the towns and castles of the island before he departed, a subsequent revolt after Richard left for the Holy Land caused him to doubt the island as a worthwhile gain and eventually prompted him to sell the territory to the Knights Templar. The English invasion of Cyprus marked the beginning of 400 years of Western dominance on the island and it also brought the Latin church to Cyprus, which had hitherto been Orthodox in religion. Richard took them up on the offer and the Templars returned to Syria, retaining, a small minority Roman Catholic population of the island was mainly confined to some coastal cities, such as Famagusta, as well as inland Nicosia, the traditional capital. Roman Catholics kept the reins of power and control, while the Orthodox inhabitants lived in the countryside and it is unclear whether Richard gave him the territory or sold it and it is highly unlikely that Richard was ever paid even if a deal was struck. In 1194, Guy de Lusignan died without any heirs and so his brother, Amalric, became King Amalric I of Cyprus, a crown and title which was approved by Henry VI. After the death of Amalric of Lusignan, the Kingdom continually passed to a series of boys who grew up as king. The Ibelin family, which had much power in Jerusalem prior its downfall. In 1229 one of the Ibelin regents was forced out of power by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, fredericks supporters were defeated in this struggle by 1233, although it lasted longer in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and in the Holy Roman Empire. The territory in Palestine was finally lost while Henry II was king in 1291, like Jerusalem, Cyprus had a Haute Cour, although it was less powerful than it had been in Jerusalem. The island was richer and more feudal than Jerusalem, so the king had more personal wealth, the most important vassal family was the multi-branch House of Ibelin. However, the king was often in conflict with the Italian merchants, especially because Cyprus had become the centre of European trade with Africa, the kingdom eventually came to be dominated more and more in the 14th century by the Genoese merchants. Cyprus therefore sided with the Avignon Papacy in the Great Schism, House of Brienne and several others
34.
Venetian Cyprus
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The island of Cyprus was an overseas possession of the Republic of Venice from 1489, when the independent Kingdom of Cyprus ended, until 1570–71, when the island was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. Venice for centuries wanted to control Cyprus and Venetian merchants had worked in the island since the year 1000 AD, the Venetian desire for Cyprus was inspired mainly by profit. The Venetians saw Cyprus primarily as a military base, anticipating conflict, they undertook an ambitious plan of fortification. Famagusta and Nicosia were ringed with massive earthworks, cased with stone, an outer wall was erected around Kyrenia castle, the gap being filled with earth to form an artillery rampart. The best military architects in Europe were brought in to design, in 1468, James II of Cyprus of the house of Lusignan became King of Cyprus. In 1468 he chose Catherine Cornaro for his wife and Queen consort of the Kingdom of Cyprus, the Kings choice was extremely pleasing to the Republic of Venice as it could henceforth secure the commercial rights and other privileges of Venice in Cyprus. They married in Venice on 30 July 1468 by proxy when she was 14 years old, James died soon after the wedding due to a sudden illness and, according to his will, Caterina, who at the time was pregnant, acted as regent. She became monarch when their infant son James died of malaria in August 1474 before his first birthday, the Kingdom of Cyprus had long since declined, and had been a tributary state of the Egyptian Mameluks since 1426. According to George Boustronios, On 14 February, the Queen dressed in black and accompanied by the Barons and their ladies, six knights held her horses reins. From the moment she left Nicosia, her eyes kept streaming with tears, upon her departure, the whole population was bewailing. The bulk of Venetian Cyprus was composed of Greek Orthodox peasants who were oppressed by the Frankish ruling class, Venice favored Catholicism, which thus enjoyed a huge increase in followers, there were some problems because of this with the local Greek Orthodox priests. Throughout the period of Venetian rule, Ottoman Turks raided and attacked the peoples of Cyprus at will, the Greek population of Cyprus were given weapons by their Venetian rulers and fought the attacking Ottomans. In 1489, the first year of Venetian control, Turks attacked the Karpass Peninsula, in 1539 the Turkish fleet attacked and destroyed Limassol. Fearing the ever-expanding Ottoman Empire, the Venetians had fortified Famagusta, Nicosia, and Kyrenia, in 1489, when Cyprus came under Venetian rule, Nicosia became their administrative center and the seat of the Republic of Venice. The Venetian Governors saw it as a necessity for all the cities of Cyprus to be fortified due to the Ottoman threat. The new walls took the shape of a star with bastions, the design of the bastion was more suitable for artillery. The walls had three gates, to the North Kyrenia Gate, to the west Paphos Gate and to the east Famagusta Gate. The river Pedieos used to flow through the Venetian walled city, the Venetians even modified Kyrenia Castle to meet the threat that the use of gunpowder and cannons posed
35.
Ottoman Cyprus
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The Eyalet of Cyprus was an eyalet of the Ottoman Empire made up of the island of Cyprus, which was annexed into the Empire in 1571. The Ottomans changed the way they administered Cyprus multiple times and it was a sanjak of the Eyalet of the Archipelago from 1670 to 1703, and again from 1784 onwards, a fief of the Grand Vizier, and again an eyalet for the short period from 1745 to 1748. During Venetian rule, the Ottomans at times raided Cyprus, in 1489, the first year of Venetian control, Turks attacked the Karpass Peninsula, pillaging and taking captives to be sold into slavery. In 1539 the Turkish fleet attacked and destroyed Limassol, fearing the ever-expanding Ottoman Empire, the Venetians had fortified Famagusta, Nicosia, and Kyrenia, but most other cities were easy prey. In the summer of 1570, the Turks struck again, about 60,000 troops, including cavalry and artillery, under the command of Lala Mustafa Pasha landed unopposed near Limassol on July 2,1570, and laid siege to Nicosia. The city fell on September 9,1570,20,000 Nicosians were put to death, and every church, public building, only women and boys who were captured to be sold as slaves were spared. Word of the spread, and a few days later Mustafa took Kyrenia without having to fire a shot. Famagusta, however, resisted with the Siege of Famagusta and put up a defense that lasted from September 1570 until August 1571, the fall of Famagusta marked the beginning of the Ottoman period in Cyprus. The victory over the Turks, however, came too late to help Cyprus, in 1570, the Turks first occupied Cyprus, and Lala Mustafa Pasha became the first Turkish Governor of Cyprus, challenging the claims of Venice. Simultaneously, the Pope formed a coalition between the Papal States, Malta, Spain, Venice and several other Italian states, with no real result, in 1573 the Venetians left, removing the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. As soon as Nicosia was conquered, Cyprus was declared an eyalet under the administration of a beylerbey, and Mustafa Pasha, Cyprus was divided into three sanjaks, Famagusta, Kyrenia and Paphos. Additionally, the sanjaks of Alâiye, Tarsus, İçel, Sis, Zülkadriye, Cyprus was also divided into several kazas, Tuzla, Limassol, Episkopi, Kythrea, Paphos, Kukla, Lefka, Morphou, Hirsofu, Famagusta, Kyrenia and Mesariye. These kazas each had their own kadı or naib, the sanjak of Tripoli, however, was removed from the jurisdiction of Cyprus in 1573 due to its distance and given to the Damascus Eyalet. The sanjaks of İçel, Alâiye and Tarsus were also removed in 1610, however, after the conquest of Crete, the Cypriot Orthodox Church argued that Cyprus had lost importance, that trade volume had decreased and that people were emigrating. It thus requested a change in the status as Cyprus could not afford remaining an eyalet. Thus, in 1670, Cyprus became a sanjak under the Eyalet of the Archipelago, under the control of Kapudan Pasha. This control was exercised through an appointed mütesellim, however, under this system, local aghas were the tax collectors. This magnified their power and resulted in discontent, with the rivalry between them causing a long revolt in the 1680s by Boyacıoğlu Mehmed Agha
36.
British Cyprus
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Cyprus was a territory of the Ottoman Empire, lastly as part of the Vilayet of the Archipelago, since it was conquered from the Republic of Venice in 1570-71. Cyprus was then proclaimed a British protectorate and was integrated into the British Empire, king Paul of Greece declared that Cyprus desired union with Greece in 1948. A referendum was presented by the Orthodox Church of Cyprus in 1950, the Greek petition and enosis became an international issue when it was accepted by the United Nations. The Cyprus Emergency was an action that took place in Cyprus from 1955 to 1959. The Cyprus Emergency mainly primarily consisting of a campaign by the Greek Cypriot military group EOKA to remove the British from Cyprus so it could be unified with Greece, signed on 19 February 1959, the London and Zurich Agreements started the process for the constitution of an independent Cyprus. The United Kingdom granted independence of Cyprus via referendum on 16 August 1960, archbishop Makarios III, a charismatic religious and political leader, was elected the first president of independent Cyprus. In 1961 the Republic of Cyprus became the 99th member of the United Nations, media related to British Cyprus at Wikimedia Commons British Rule in Cyprus - cypnet. co. uk
37.
History of Cyprus since 1878
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The history of Cyprus, an island in the Eastern Mediterranean, from 1878 to the present. Cyprus was part of the British Empire, as a Military occupation from 1914–1925, Cyprus became an independent nation in 1960. The first Briton who was placed in charge of the administration was given the title of High Commissioner and was Lieutenant-General Sir Garnet Joseph Wolseley, the British faced a major political problem on the island. The indigenous Cypriots believed it their right to unite the island with Greece following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. While the Cypriots at first welcomed British rule hoping that they would gradually achieve prosperity, democracy and national liberation, the British imposed heavy taxes to cover the compensation which they were paying to the Sultan for having conceded Cyprus to them. Moreover, the people were not given the right to participate in the administration of the island, since all powers were reserved to the High Commissioner, Cyprus was part of the British Empire from 1914 as a Military occupation from 1914–1925 and a Crown colony from 1925–1960. However, Cyprus status as a protectorate of the British Empire ended in 1914 when the Ottoman Empire declared war against the Triple Entente powers, Cyprus was then annexed by the British Empire on 5 November 1914. During the course of the First World War Britain offered to cede Cyprus to Greece if they would fulfill treaty obligations to attack Bulgaria, Britain proclaimed Cyprus the Crown colony of British Cyprus in 1925, under an undemocratic constitution. International recognition of the new Republic of Turkey resulted from the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 in which the new Turkish government formally recognised Britains sovereignty over Cyprus. The administration was reformed in the latter 1920s, and some members of the Legislative Council were elected by the Cypriots, the Legislative Council was abolished in 1931. Greek Cypriots believed the circumstances were right to demand union of the island with Greece, Palmerokratia The period between October 1931 and October 1940 proved to be a very difficult one for the Cypriots. This regime became known as Palmerokratia, named after the Governor and its aim was to prevent local public interest in politics. In 1948, King Paul of Greece declared that Cyprus desired union with Greece, in 1950 the Orthodox Church of Cyprus presented a referendum according to which around 97% of the Greek Cypriot population wanted the union. The United Nations accepted the Greek petition and enosis became an international issue, in 1952 both Greece and Turkey became members of NATO. After the war, a delegation from Cyprus submitted a demand for enosis to London, the demand was rejected but the British proposed a more liberal constitution and a 10-year programme of social and economic development. Led by Archbishop Makarios, the Greek Cypriot demand for enosis emerged with new force in the 1950s and this attempt to win world support alerted Turkey and alarmed the Turkish Cypriots. The British withdrawal from Egypt led to Cyprus becoming the new location for their Middle East Headquarters, when international pressure did not suffice to make Britain respond as required, violence escalated with a campaign against the colonial power organised by EOKA. Its leader, Colonel George Grivas, created and directed an effective campaign beginning in 1955, the first bombs were set off on April 1, followed by leaflets
38.
Enosis
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Enosis refers to the movement of various Greek communities that live outside Greece, for incorporation of the regions they inhabit into the Greek state. Widely known is the case of the Greek-Cypriots for union of Cyprus into Greece, following Greek independence, movements calling for Enosis achieved popular support among ethnic Greeks living outside the Greek nation state. Britain transferred the islands to Greece in 1864, Thessaly remained under Ottoman control after the formation of the Kingdom of Greece. Although parts of the territory had participated in the uprisings in the Greek War of Independence In 1821. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 Greece remained neutral, as a result of assurances by the Great Powers that her claims on the Ottoman Empire would be considered after the war. In 1881 Greece and the Ottoman Empire signed the Convention of Constantinople which created a new Greco-Turkish border, Crete rebelled against Ottoman rule during the Cretan Revolt of 1866-69 using the motto Crete, Enosis, Freedom or Death. The Cretan State was established following the intervention of the Great Powers, the Dodecanese were held by Italy until World War II, after which they became a British military protectorate. The islands were united with Greece by the 1947 Treaty of Peace with Italy. In modern times, apart from Cyprus, the call for Enosis is adopted among part of the Greeks living in southern Albania/Northern Epirus. In 1828, modern Greece’s first president Ioannis Kapodistrias whose maternal ancestors were Greek Cypriots, called for union of Cyprus with Greece, a string of British proposals for local autonomy under continued British suzerainty were roundly rejected. The idea of enosis was systematically implanted into the minds of Greek Cypriot youth through education, as such, Greek Cypriot schools put emphasis on the idea of being part of a greater Greek nation and the realization of Megali Idea to make Greece great again. They taught students that they were Greeks and should welcome enosis, in the 1940s and 50s, textbooks portrayed Turks as enemies of Greeks and claimed that Greek Cypriots were enslaved by the British. Students pledged their loyalty to the Greek king at the Boy Scouts, inter-communal periodicals, published by the British, were prevented from being accessed by students and teachers were pressured to actively promote enosis as they feared retribution by the Church. Even though the U. K. was an ally of Greece during WW2 and had supported the Greek government during the Greek civil war. The Church then proceeded to organize its own unofficial referendum which would place in churches. Later, there were accusations that the local Greek Orthodox church had told its congregation that if it did not vote in favour of Enosis that would have meant excommunication from the church. Unlike modern elections and referendums, which are decided by secret ballot, an obvious reason for this could be that, given the unofficial status of the referendum, a secret ballot would be easier to dispute than an eponymous one. After the referendum, a delegation was formed with the aim of the distribution of the referendum documents
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Taksim (politics)
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Taksim was the objective of Turkish Cypriots who supported a partition of the island of Cyprus into Turkish and Greek portions, a concept declared as early as 1957 by Dr. Fazıl Küçük. Turkish nationalism in Cyprus developed mainly in response to Greek nationalism and desire for enosis, initially, the Turkish Cypriots favoured the continuation of the British rule. The Turkish Cypriots also viewed themselves as an ethnic group of the island. Nationalistic slogans centered on the idea that Cyprus is Turkish, upon realising the fact that the Turkish Cypriot population was only 20% of the islanders made annexation unfeasible, the national policy was changed to favour partition. The slogan Partition or Death was frequently used in Turkish Cypriot and Turkish protests, starting in the late 1950s, Cyprus dispute Turkish invasion of Cyprus TRNC
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Cypriot intercommunal violence
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There was a period of political and violent conflict in Cyprus, also known as the Cyprus crisis and EOKA period, between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, between 1955 and 1964. In 1914, after the Ottoman Empire joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers, soon afterward, the UK offered the island to King Constantine I of Greece on condition that Greece join the war on the side of the British. Although the offer was supported by Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, it was rejected by the King, after the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the new Turkish government formally recognized Britains sovereignty over Cyprus. Greek Cypriots believed it was their natural and historic right to unite the island with Greece, in 1931, riots broke out in Cyprus against the British administration. The British suppressed the riots, abolished the council in Cyprus. At the end of the Second World War Britain rejected fresh demands for enosis, offering concessions on home rule, or self-government, Greek Cypriots felt that this position paid little respect to the right of self-determination of the Cypriot people. EOKA, led by the Greek commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities, one of the effects of the EOKA campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by the then British Governor John Harding that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus. Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects”. In doing so, Turkey’s aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island and this could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel, the British started conscripting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight the EOKA. However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British forces. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a station was bombed. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the army was deployed in the streets, Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighborhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression, such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey. On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus, Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim, the Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan, on 27 January 1958 British soldiers opened fire against a crowd of Turkish Cypriot rioters
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Akrotiri and Dhekelia
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Akrotiri and Dhekelia, officially the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, is a British Overseas Territory on the island of Cyprus. The territory is comprised of two Base Areas, one is Akrotiri, or the Western Sovereign Base Area, which includes two main bases at RAF Akrotiri and Episkopi, plus all of Akrotiri Villages district and parts of eleven other village districts. The other area is Dhekelia Cantonment, or the Eastern Sovereign Base Area, the Sovereign Base Areas were created in 1960 by the London and Zurich Agreements, when Cyprus achieved independence from the British Empire. The United Kingdom desired to retain sovereignty over these areas, as this guaranteed the use of UK military bases on Cyprus, including RAF Akrotiri, and this did not affect the status of the bases. The Turkish advance halted when it reached the edge of the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area to avoid conflict with the United Kingdom. Some Greek Cypriot refugees remain housed on land in the parts of Trachoni, locals claimed the masts would endanger local lives and cause cancer, as well as have a negative impact on wildlife in the area. As of 2010, around 3,000 troops of British Forces Cyprus are based at Akrotiri, Ayios Nikolaos Station, in the ESBA, is an ELINT listening station of the UKUSA Agreement intelligence network. The election of left-wing Demetris Christofias as Cypriot president in February 2008 prompted concern in the United Kingdom, Christofias pledged to remove all foreign military forces from the island as part of a future settlement of the Cyprus dispute, calling the British presence on the island a colonial bloodstain. In some Cypriot media it was stated that the interdiction of the Syrian civil war, utilising Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The Labour government under whom the proposal appeared was replaced by the first Cameron ministry, the SBAs were retained in 1960 to keep military bases in areas under British sovereignty, along with the rights retained to use other sites in what became the territory of the Republic. Not to set up and administer colonies, not to create customs posts or other frontier barriers between the Sovereign Base Areas and the Republic. Not to establish commercial or civilian seaports or airports, not to allow new settlement of people in the Sovereign Base Areas other than for temporary purposes. Not to expropriate private property within the Sovereign Base Areas except for military purposes on payment of fair compensation, the ancient monuments and antiquity will be administered and maintained by the Republic of Cyprus. Licences for antiquity excavation will be issued by the Republic but will be subject to the consent of the authorities of the Sovereign Base Areas, movable antiquities found in excavations or discovered will be the property of the Republic. It has no connection with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or the British High Commission in Nicosia. The territory is administered by an Administrator who is also the Commander of British Forces Cyprus, the Administrator is officially appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the Ministry of Defence. The Administrator has all the executive and legislative authority of a governor of an overseas territory, no elections are held in the territory, although British citizens are normally entitled to vote in United Kingdom elections. The areas have their own system, distinct from the United Kingdom
