1.
Georgia (country)
–
Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi, Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres, and its 2016 population is about 3.72 million. Georgia is a unitary, semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy, during the classical era, several independent kingdoms became established in what is now Georgia. The kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia adopted Christianity in the early 4th century, a unified Kingdom of Georgia reached the peak of its political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar in the 12th and early 13th centuries. Thereafter the kingdom declined and eventually disintegrated under hegemony of various powers, including the Mongols, the Ottoman Empire. Russian rule over Georgia was eventually acknowledged in various treaties with Iran. Since the establishment of the modern Georgian republic in April 1991, post-communist Georgia suffered from civil, the countrys Western orientation soon led to the worsening of relations with Russia, culminating in the brief Russo-Georgian War in August 2008. Georgia is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and it contains two de facto independent regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which gained limited international recognition after the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. Georgia and a part of the international community consider the regions to be part of Georgias sovereign territory under Russian military occupation. Georgia probably stems from the Persian designation of the Georgians – gurğān, in the 11th and 12th centuries adapted via Syriac gurz-ān/gurz-iyān, starting with the Persian word gurğ/gurğān, the word was later adopted in numerous other languages, including Slavic and West European languages. This term itself might have established through the ancient Iranian appellation of the near-Caspian region. The self-designation used by ethnic Georgians is Kartvelebi, the medieval Georgian Chronicles present an eponymous ancestor of the Kartvelians, Kartlos, a great-grandson of Japheth. However, scholars agree that the word is derived from the Karts, the name Sakartvelo consists of two parts. Its root, kartvel-i, specifies an inhabitant of the core central-eastern Georgian region of Kartli, ancient Greeks and Romans referred to early western Georgians as Colchians and eastern Georgians as Iberians. Today the full, official name of the country is Georgia, before the 1995 constitution came into force the countrys name was the Republic of Georgia. The territory of modern-day Georgia was inhabited by Homo erectus since the Paleolithic Era, the proto-Georgian tribes first appear in written history in the 12th century BC. The earliest evidence of wine to date has found in Georgia. In fact, early metallurgy started in Georgia during the 6th millennium BC, the classical period saw the rise of a number of early Georgian states, the principal of which was Colchis in the west and Iberia in the east
Georgia (country)
–
It is said that
Georgians were so named because they revered
Saint George.
Georgia (country)
–
Flag
Georgia (country)
–
Ancient Georgian states of
Colchis and
Iberia, 500-400 BC
Georgia (country)
–
Queen
Tamar of Georgia presided over the "Golden Age" of the medieval Georgian monarchy. Her position as the first woman to rule Georgia in her own right was emphasized by the title "Mepe mepeta" ("King of Kings").
2.
Region
–
In geography, regions are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics, human impact characteristics, and the interaction of humanity and the environment. Apart from the continental regions, there are also hydrospheric and atmospheric regions that cover the oceans. The land and water global regions are divided into subregions geographically bounded by large geological features that influence large-scale ecologies, such as plains and features. As a way of describing spatial areas, the concept of regions is important and widely used among the branches of geography. For example, ecoregion is a used in environmental geography, cultural region in cultural geography, bioregion in biogeography. The field of geography that studies regions themselves is called regional geography, where human geography is concerned, the regions and subregions are described by the discipline of ethnography. A region has its own nature that could not be moved, the first nature is its natural environment. The second nature is its physical elements complex that were built by people in the past, the third nature is its socio-cultural context that could not be replaced by new immigrants. Global regions distinguishable from space, and are clearly distinguished by the two basic terrestrial environments, land and water. However, they have generally recognised as such much earlier by terrestrial cartography because of their impact on human geography. They are divided into largest of land regions, known as continents, there are also significant regions that do not belong to either classification, such as archipelago regions that are littoral regions, or earthquake regions that are defined in geology. Continental regions are based on broad experiences in human history. As such they are conceptual constructs, usually lacking distinct boundaries, oceanic division into maritime regions are used in conjunction with the relationship to the central area of the continent, using directions of the compass. To a large extent, major continental regions are mental constructs created by considering an efficient way to large areas of the continents. For the most part, the images of the world are derived as much from academic studies and they are a matter of collective human knowledge of its own planet and are attempts to better understand their environments. Regional geography is a branch of geography that studies regions of all sizes across the Earth and it has a prevailing descriptive character. The main aim is to understand or define the uniqueness or character of a particular region, attention is paid also to regionalization, which covers the proper techniques of space delimitation into regions. Regional geography is considered as a certain approach to study in geographical sciences
Region
–
This article is about the concept of region in geography. For other uses, see
Region (disambiguation).
3.
Georgian language
–
Georgian is a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians. It is the language of Georgia. Georgian is written in its own writing system, the Georgian script, Georgian is the literary language for all regional subgroups of Georgians, including those who speak other Kartvelian languages, Svans, Mingrelians and the Laz. Georgian is the most pervasive of the Kartvelian languages, a family that also includes Svan and Megrelian and Laz. Dialects of Georgian are from Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi, Guria, Adjara, Imerkhevi, Kartli, Kakheti, Saingilo, Tusheti, Khevsureti, Khevi, Pshavi, Fereydan, Mtiuleti and Meskheti. Georgian as separate from the other Kartvelian languages would have emerged in the 1st millennium BC in the area known later as the Kingdom of Iberia, the evolution of Georgian into a written language was a consequence of the conversion of the Georgian elite to Christianity in the mid-4th century. The first Georgian texts are inscriptions and palimpsests dating to the 5th century, Georgian has a rich literary tradition. The oldest surviving work in Georgian is the 5th century Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik by Iakob Tsurtaveli. In the 11th century, Old Georgian gives rise to Middle Georgian, the Georgian national epic, Shota Rustavelis The Knight in the Panthers Skin, dates from the 12th century. This marked the beginning of the modern Georgian language, symbols on the left are those of the IPA and those on the right are of the modern Georgian alphabet. Opinions also differ on the aspiration of /t͡sʰ, t͡ʃʰ/, as it is non-contrastive, a former distinction between /x/ and /qʰ/ has been lost. Prosody in Georgian involves stress, intonation, and rhythm, stress is very weak, and linguists disagree as to where stress occurs in words. Jun, Vicenik, and Lofstedt have proposed that Georgian stress and intonation are the result of pitch accents on the first syllable of a word, the rhythm of Georgian speech is syllable-timed. Georgian contains many harmonic clusters involving two consonants of a type which are pronounced with only a single release, e. g. ბგერა bgera, ცხოვრება tskhovreba. There are also frequent consonant clusters, sometimes involving more than six consonants in a row, as may be seen in words like გვფრცქვნი gvprtskvni and მწვრთნელი mtsvrtneli. Vicenik has observed that Georgian vowels following ejective stops have creaky voice, Georgian has been written in a variety of scripts over its history. Currently the Mkhedruli or Military script is almost completely dominant, the others are used mostly in religious documents, Mkhedruli has 33 letters in common use, a half dozen more are obsolete in Georgian, though still used in other alphabets, like Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan. The letters of Mkhedruli correspond closely to the phonemes of the Georgian language, however, the first examples of a Georgian script date from the 5th century AD
Georgian language
–
The Kartvelian people
Georgian language
–
Georgian
Georgian language
–
Calligraphy
Georgian language
–
Road sign in Latin and Georgian
4.
Romanization of Georgian
–
Romanization of Georgian is the process of transliterating the Georgian language from the Georgian script into the Latin script. The system was already in use, since 1998, on driving licenses and it is also used by BGN and PCGN since 2009. Despite its popularity this system leads to ambiguity. The system is used in social networks, forums, chat rooms. The system is influenced by the common case-sensitive Georgian keyboard layout that ties each key to each letter in the alphabet. ISO9984,1996, Transliteration of Georgian characters into Latin characters, was last reviewed and confirmed in 2010, Transliteration web utility for the National and ISO transliteration of Georgian
Romanization of Georgian
–
Mtskheta and
Tbilisi romanized.
5.
Town
–
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size definition for what constitutes a town varies considerably in different parts of the world, the word town shares an origin with the German word Zaun, the Dutch word tuin, and the Old Norse tun. The German word Zaun comes closest to the meaning of the word. An early borrowing from Celtic *dunom, in English and Dutch, the meaning of the word took on the sense of the space which these fences enclosed. In England, a town was a community that could not afford or was not allowed to build walls or other larger fortifications. In the Netherlands, this space was a garden, more specifically those of the wealthy, in Old Norse tun means a place between farmhouses, and is still used in a similar meaning in modern Norwegian. If there was any distinction between toun and burgh as claimed by some, it did not last in practice as burghs, for example, Edina Burgh or Edinburgh was built around a fort and eventually came to have a defensive wall. In some cases, town is a name for city or village. Sometimes, the town is short for township. A places population size is not a determinant of urban character. In many areas of the world, as in India at least until recent times, in the United Kingdom, there are historical cities that are far smaller than the larger towns. Some forms of settlement, such as temporary mining locations, may be clearly non-rural. Towns often exist as governmental units, with legally defined borders. In the United States these are referred to as incorporated towns, in other cases the town lacks its own governance and is said to be unincorporated. Note that the existence of a town may be legally set forth through other means. In the case of planned communities, the town exists legally in the form of covenants on the properties within the town. Australian geographer Thomas Griffith Taylor proposed a classification of towns based on their age, although there is no official use of the term for any settlement. In Albanian qytezë means small city or new city, while in ancient times small residential center within the walls of a castle
Town
–
Çeşme,
Turkey a coastal Turkish town with houses in regional style and an Ottoman Castle.
Town
–
The alpine town of
Davos in the
Swiss Alps.
Town
–
Reading,
England, is a large town which has unsuccessfully tried to
become a city.
Town
–
The historical town of
Skalica in
Slovakia.
6.
Archaeological site
–
Sites may range from those with few or no remains visible above ground, to buildings and other structures still in use. Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a site can vary widely, depending on the period studied and it is almost invariably difficult to delimit a site. It is sometimes taken to indicate a settlement of some sort although the archaeologist must also define the limits of human activity around the settlement, any episode of deposition such as a hoard or burial can form a site as well. Development-led archaeology undertaken as cultural resources management has the disadvantage of having its sites defined by the limits of the intended development, even in this case however, in describing and interpreting the site, the archaeologist will have to look outside the boundaries of the building site. According to Jess Beck in “How Do Archaeologists find sites. ”The areas with a number of artifacts are good targets for future excavation. The most common person to have found artifacts are farmers who are plowing their fields or just cleaning them up often find archaeological artifacts, many people who are out hiking and even pilots find artifacts they usually end up reporting them to archaeologist to do further investigation. When they find sites, they have to first record the area and if they have the money, there are many ways to find sites, one example can be through surveys. Surveys involve walking around analyzing the land looking for artifacts. ”This helps archaeologists in the future. In case there was no time, or money during the finding of the site, archaeologists can come back, archaeologist can also sample randomly within a given area of land as another form of conducting surveys. Surveys are very useful, according to Jess Beck, “it can tell you where people were living at different points in the past. ”Geophysics is a branch of survey becoming more and more popular in archaeology, because it uses different types of instruments to investigate features below the ground surface. It is not as reliable, because although they can see what is under the surface of the ground it does not produce the best picture, Archaeologists have to still dig up the area in order to uncover the truth. There are also two most common types of survey, which is, magnetometer and ground penetrating radar. Magnetometry is the technique of measuring and mapping patterns of magnetism in the soil and it uses an instrument called a magnetometer which is required to measure and map traces of soil magnetism. The ground penetrating radar is a method that uses radar pulses to image the subsurface and it uses electro magnetic radiation in the microwave band of the radio spectrum, and detects the reflected signals from subsurface structures. There are many tools that can be used to find artifacts. This tool is helpful to archaeologists who want to explore in a different area. They can use this tool to see what has already been discovered, with this information available, archaeologists can expand their research and add more to what has already been found. Traditionally, sites are distinguished by the presence of artifacts and features
Archaeological site
–
An archaeological site with human presence dating from 4th century BC, Fillipovka, South Urals,
Russia. This site has been interpreted to be a
Sarmatian Kurgan.
Archaeological site
–
Monte Albán, a
Zapotec site in
Oaxaca,
Mexico
7.
Tbilisi
–
Tbilisi, commonly known by its former name Tiflis, is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of roughly 1.5 million inhabitants. Founded in the 5th century by the monarch of Georgias ancient precursor the Kingdom of Iberia, Tbilisi has since served, with intermissions, as the capital of various Georgian kingdoms and republics. Under Russian rule, from 1801 to 1917 Tiflis was the seat of the Imperial Viceroy governing both sides of the entire Caucasus. Tbilisis varied history is reflected in its architecture, which is a mix of medieval, classical, Middle Eastern, Art Nouveau, historically, Tbilisi has been home to people of diverse cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, though it is overwhelmingly Eastern Orthodox Christian. Archaeological studies of the region have indicated human settlement in the territory of Tbilisi as early as the 4th millennium BC, according to an old legend, the present-day territory of Tbilisi was covered by forests as late as 458. One widely accepted variant of the legend of Tbilisis founding states that King Vakhtang I Gorgasali of Georgia went hunting in the wooded region with a falcon. The Kings falcon allegedly caught or injured a pheasant during the hunt, King Vakhtang became so impressed with the hot springs that he decided to cut down the forest and build a city on the location. The name Tbilisi derives from Old Georgian Tbilisi, and further from Tpili, the name Tbili or Tbilisi was therefore given to the city because of the areas numerous sulphuric hot springs that came out of the ground. King Dachi I Ujarmeli, who was the successor of Vakhtang I Gorgasali, Tbilisi was not the capital of a unified Georgian state at that time and did not include the territory of Colchis. It was, however, the city of Eastern Georgia/Iberia. During his reign, King Dachi I oversaw the construction of the wall that lined the citys new boundaries. From the 6th century, Tbilisi grew at a steady pace due to the favourable and strategic location which placed the city along important trade. Tbilisis favourable and strategic location did not necessarily bode well for its existence as Eastern Georgias/Iberias capital, in the year 627, Tbilisi was sacked by the Byzantine/Khazar armies and later, in 736–738, Arab armies entered the town under Marwan II Ibn-Muhammad. After this point, the Arabs established an emirate centered in Tbilisi, in 764, Tbilisi, still under Arab control was once again sacked by the Khazars. In 853, the armies of Arab leader Bugha Al-Turki invaded Tbilisi in order to enforce its return to Abbasid allegiance, the Arab domination of Tbilisi continued until about 1050. In 1068, the city was again sacked, only this time by the Seljuk Turks under Sultan Alp Arslan. In 1122, after fighting with the Seljuks that involved at least 60,000 Georgians and up to 300,000 Turks. After the battles for Tbilisi concluded, David moved his residence from Kutaisi to Tbilisi, making it the capital of a unified Georgian State, from 12–13th centuries, Tbilisi became a dominant regional power with a thriving economy and a well-established social system/structure
Tbilisi
–
Historical center of Tbilisi
Tbilisi
–
Detail from the Nautical chart by
Angelino Dulcert, depicting Georgian Black Sea coast and Tiflis, 1339.
Tbilisi
–
View of Tbilisi by French traveler
Jean Chardin, 1671.
Tbilisi
–
Mikhail Lermontov, Tiflis, 1837.
8.
Megaannum
–
A year is the orbital period of the Earth moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earths axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by changes in weather, the hours of daylight, and, consequently, vegetation and soil fertility. In temperate and subpolar regions around the globe, four seasons are recognized, spring, summer, autumn. In tropical and subtropical regions several geographical sectors do not present defined seasons, but in the seasonal tropics, a calendar year is an approximation of the number of days of the Earths orbital period as counted in a given calendar. The Gregorian, or modern, calendar, presents its calendar year to be either a common year of 365 days or a year of 366 days, as do the Julian calendars. For the Gregorian calendar the average length of the year across the complete leap cycle of 400 years is 365.2425 days. The ISO standard ISO 80000-3, Annex C, supports the symbol a to represent a year of either 365 or 366 days, in English, the abbreviations y and yr are commonly used. In astronomy, the Julian year is a unit of time, it is defined as 365.25 days of exactly 86400 seconds, totalling exactly 31557600 seconds in the Julian astronomical year. The word year is used for periods loosely associated with, but not identical to, the calendar or astronomical year, such as the seasonal year, the fiscal year. Similarly, year can mean the period of any planet, for example. The term can also be used in reference to any long period or cycle, west Saxon ġēar, Anglian ġēr continues Proto-Germanic *jǣran. Cognates are German Jahr, Old High German jār, Old Norse ár and Gothic jer, all the descendants of the Proto-Indo-European noun *yeh₁rom year, season. Cognates also descended from the same Proto-Indo-European noun are Avestan yārǝ year, Greek ὥρα year, season, period of time, Old Church Slavonic jarŭ, Latin annus is from a PIE noun *h₂et-no-, which also yielded Gothic aþn year. Both *yeh₁-ro- and *h₂et-no- are based on verbal roots expressing movement, *h₁ey- and *h₂et- respectively, the Greek word for year, ἔτος, is cognate with Latin vetus old, from the PIE word *wetos- year, also preserved in this meaning in Sanskrit vat-sa- yearling and vat-sa-ras year. Derived from Latin annus are a number of English words, such as annual, annuity, anniversary, etc. per annum means each year, anno Domini means in the year of the Lord. No astronomical year has an number of days or lunar months. Financial and scientific calculations often use a 365-day calendar to simplify daily rates, in the Julian calendar, the average length of a year is 365.25 days. In a non-leap year, there are 365 days, in a year there are 366 days
Megaannum
–
Key concepts
9.
Dmanisi skull
–
The Dmanisi skull, also known as Skull 5 or D4500, is one of five Homo erectus skulls discovered in Dmanisi, Georgia. Rather, they may have been an evolving lineage. Since then, five early hominin skulls have been discovered at the site, Skull 5, found in 2005, is the most complete specimen of them all. After further analysis, it was coupled with its mandible found 5 years earlier, the final analysis of the discovery took many years and was only published in 2013. Despite a brain volume the size of a large Australopithecus male, the braincase sizes of the other Dmanisi skulls are between 601 cubic centimetres and 730 cubic centimetres. The cranial superstructures of Skull 5, which are prominent and massive and its face is one of the largest of any human ancestor discovered to date. The zygomatic arches are massive with the right one displaying many traces of deformations, researchers estimate that the height of the individual was between 146 centimetres and 166 centimetres and his weight between 47 kilograms and 50 kilograms. Until the 1980s, scientists assumed that hominins had been restricted to the African continent for the whole of the Early Pleistocene, thus, the vast majority of archaeological effort was disproportionately focused on Africa.85 million years ago. All of the 5 skulls are roughly the same age, consequently, the paleontological significance of the dating of the Dmanisi skulls is major. It is worth noting that it was not associated with the discovery of skull 5, but with another found at the same site. The variation in morphology of all the Dmanisi skulls is so large that had they discovered on different archaeological sites. However, all Dmanisi skulls have the age and have been found at exactly the same place. They found that while they looked different from one another, the variations among all Dmanisi skulls were no greater than those seen among modern people. Consequently, it was possible that such a discrepancy could be found in Homo erectus. This discovery led the scientists to suggest that two species of early hominins, Homo rudolfensis and Homo habilis, were actually both Homo erectus and this is an ongoing debate among the scientific community. The five Dmanisi skulls are named, D2280 D2282/D211 D2700/D2735 D3444/D3900 D4500/D2600 Homo erectus List of human evolution fossils List of human fossils 41°19′51″N 44°12′11″E
Dmanisi skull
–
Artist rendition of the skull
Dmanisi skull
–
Dmanisi geographical localization in the middle of the
Caucasus
Dmanisi skull
–
David Lordkipanidze (centre) on the archeological site at
Dmanisi, 2010
Dmanisi skull
–
Stone tools found on the
Dmanisi paleontological site
10.
Arab
–
Arabs are an ethnic group inhabiting the Arab world. They primarily live in the Arab states in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Arabs are first mentioned in the mid-ninth century BCE as a tribal people dwelling in the central Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs appear to have been under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, tradition holds that Arabs descend from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The Arabian Desert is the birthplace of Arab, there are other Arab groups as well that spread in the land and existed for millennia. Before the expansion of the Caliphate, Arab referred to any of the largely nomadic Semitic people from the northern to the central Arabian Peninsula and Syrian Desert. Presently, Arab refers to a number of people whose native regions form the Arab world due to spread of Arabs throughout the region during the early Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. The Arabs forged the Rashidun, Umayyad and the Abbasid caliphates, whose borders reached southern France in the west, China in the east, Anatolia in the north, and this was one of the largest land empires in history. The Great Arab Revolt has had as big an impact on the modern Middle East as the World War I, the war signaled the end of the Ottoman Empire. They are modern states and became significant as distinct political entities after the fall and defeat, following adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945. The Charter of the Arab League endorsed the principle of an Arab homeland whilst respecting the sovereignty of its member states. Beyond the boundaries of the League of Arab States, Arabs can also be found in the global diaspora, the ties that bind Arabs are ethnic, linguistic, cultural, historical, identical, nationalist, geographical and political. The Arabs have their own customs, language, architecture, art, literature, music, dance, media, cuisine, dress, society, sports, the total number of Arabs are an estimated 450 million. This makes them the second largest ethnic group after the Han Chinese. Arabs are a group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. In the pre-Islamic era, most Arabs followed polytheistic religions, some tribes had adopted Christianity or Judaism, and a few individuals, the hanifs, apparently observed monotheism. Today, Arabs are mainly adherents of Islam, with sizable Christian minorities, Arab Muslims primarily belong to the Sunni, Shiite, Ibadi, Alawite, Druze and Ismaili denominations. Arab Christians generally follow one of the Eastern Christian Churches, such as the Maronite, Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, or Chaldean churches. Listed among the booty captured by the army of king Shalmaneser III of Assyria in the Battle of Qarqar are 1000 camels of Gi-in-di-buu the ar-ba-a-a or Gindibu belonging to the Arab
Arab
Arab
–
Schoolgirls in
Gaza lining up for class, 2009
Arab
–
Syrian immigrants in New York City, as depicted in 1895
Arab
–
Lebanese–Mexican billionaire
Carlos Slim has been ranked by Forbes as the
second richest person in the world.
11.
Emirate of Tbilisi
–
The Emirs of Tbilisi ruled over the parts of today’s eastern Georgia from their base in the city of Tbilisi, from 736 to 1080. Since then, the city has been the capital of Georgia to this day, the Arabs first appeared in Georgia, namely in Kartli in 645. It was not, however, until 735, when they succeeded in establishing their control over a large portion of the country. In that year, Marwan II took hold of Tbilisi and much of the lands and installed there an Arab emir. During the Arab period, Tbilisi grew into a center of trade between the Islamic world and northern Europe, beyond that, it functioned as a key Arab outpost and a buffer province facing the Byzantine and Khazar dominions. Over time, Tbilisi became largely Muslim, but the Islamic influences were strictly confined to the city itself, Tbilisi was a large city with a strong double wall pierced by three gates. It lay on both banks of the Kura River, and the two parts were connected by a bridge of boats, the contemporary geographers especially mention its thermal springs, which supplied the baths with constant hot waters. The houses were built, to the surprise of contemporary Arab travelers. In the first half of the century, Tbilisi is said to have been the second largest, after Derbend. The Abbasid Caliphate weakened after the Abbasid civil war in the 810s, at the same time, the emirate became a target of the resurgent Georgian Bagrationi dynasty who were expanding their territory from Tao-Klarjeti across Georgian lands. The Emirate of Tbilisi grew in strength under Ishaq ibn Ismail. He withheld his annual payment of tribute to Baghdad, and declared his independence from the Caliph, the Abbasids chose not to rebuild the city extensively, and as a result the Muslim prestige and authority in the region began to wane. Beginning in the 1020s, the Georgian kings pursued a contradictory but generally expansionist policy against the emirs of Tbilisi, the territories of the emirate shrank to Tbilisi and its immediate environs. However, the Seljuk invasions of the 1070s–1080s thwarted the Georgian advance, Georgian King David IV’s victories over the Seljuk Turks inflicted a final blow to Islamic Tbilisi, and a Georgian army entered the city in 1122, ending four hundred years of Muslim rule. The office of emir —now an appointed Georgian royal official—survived in Tbilisi, as well as big cities of Georgia, into the 18th century. Khalil Isa b. ash-Sheikh ash-Shayban Ibrahim Gabuloc Jaffar I b, Jaffar Fadlun of Ganja According to Georgian sources between 1062 and 1068 and again between 1080 and 1122 council of elders rule Emirate of Tbilisi
Emirate of Tbilisi
–
Georgia and the Caucasus around 750, just after the emirate was established.
12.
Early Bronze Age
–
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
Early Bronze Age
–
Chalcolithic copper mine in
Timna Valley,
Negev Desert,
Israel.
Early Bronze Age
–
Diffusion of metallurgy in
Europe and
Asia Minor. The darkest areas are the oldest.
Early Bronze Age
–
A
Shang Dynasty two-handled bronze gefuding gui (1600–1046 BC).
Early Bronze Age
–
Spring and Autumn Period pu bronze vessel with interlaced
dragon design (722–481 BC)
13.
Eastern Orthodox Church
–
The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
Eastern Orthodox Church
–
Orthodox liturgy
Eastern Orthodox Church
–
An
icon of
John the Baptist, 14th century, Macedonia
14.
Seljuk Turks
–
The Seljuqs established both the Seljuk Empire and Sultanate of Rum, which at their heights stretched from Anatolia through Iran and were targets of the First Crusade. During the 10th century, due to events, the Oghuz had come into close contact with Muslim cities. Around 985, Seljuq converted to Islam, in the 11th century the Seljuqs migrated from their ancestral homelands into mainland Persia, in the province of Khurasan, where they encountered the Ghaznavid empire. In 1025,40,000 families of Oghuz Turks migrated to the area of Caucasian Albania, the Seljuqs defeated the Ghaznavids at the battle of Nasa plains in 1035. Tughril, Chaghri, and Yabghu received the insignias of governor, grants of land, at the battle of Dandanaqan they defeated a Ghaznavid army, and after a successful siege of Isfahan by Tughril in 1050/51, they established an empire later called the Great Seljuk Empire. The Seljuqs mixed with the population and adopted the Persian culture. The Great Seljuqs were heads of the family, in theory their authority extended over all the other Seljuq lines, turkish custom called for the senior member of the family to be the Great Seljuq, although usually the position was associated with the ruler of western Persia. Muhammads son Mahmud II succeeded him in western Persia, but Ahmad Sanjar, the rulers of western Persia, who maintained a very loose grip on the Abbasids of Baghdad. Several Turkic emirs gained a level of influence in the region. Kerman was a province in southern Persia, between 1053 and 1154, the territory also included Umman. Kerman was eventually annexed by the Khwarezmid Empire in 1196, the Empire of the Steppes, a History of Central Asia. Early Seljuq History, A New Interpretation, New York, NY, Routledge,2010 Previté-Orton, C. W
Seljuk Turks
–
History of the Turkic peoples Pre-14th century
Seljuk Turks
–
Seljuq dynasty
Seljuk Turks
15.
David the Builder
–
David IV, also known as David the Builder, of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a king of Georgia from 1089 until his death in 1125. His reforms of the army and administration enabled him to reunite the country, a friend of the church and a notable promoter of Christian culture, he was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church. Epigraphic data also provide evidence for the use of Davids other epithet. Scholars in Georgia favor David IV, his namesake predecessors being, David I Curopalates, David II Magistros, the year of Davids birth can be calculated from the date of his accession to the throne recorded in the Life of King of Kings David, written c. 1123–1126, as koronikon 309, that is,1089, when he was 16 years old, thus, he would have been born in koronikon 293 or 294, that is, c. According to the source, he died in koronikon 345. Professor Cyril Toumanoff gives 1070 and 24 January 1125 as the dates for David, the earliest known document that makes mention of David is the royal charter of his father, George II of Georgia, granted to the Mghvime monastery and dated to 1073. According to the Life of King of Kings David, David was the son of George II. The contemporaneous Armenian chronicler Matthew of Edessa mentions Davids brother Totorme, the name of Davids mother, Elene, is recorded in a margin note in the Gospel of Matthew from the Tskarostavi monastery, she is otherwise unknown. David bore the name of the biblical king-prophet, from whom the Georgian Bagratids claimed their descent, Davids father, George II, was confronted by a major threat to the kingdom of Georgia. Watching his kingdom slip into chaos, George II ceded the crown to his 16-year-old son David in 1089, Davids formal cooption into government may have occurred even earlier, in 1083, when George II left Georgia for the negotiations at the court of the Seljuq sultan Malik-Shah I. Despite his age, he was involved in Georgia’s political life. Backed by his tutor and an influential churchman George of Chqondidi, David IV pursued a purposeful policy, between 1089–1100, King David organized small detachments of his loyal troops to restore order and destroy isolated enemy troops. David also supported the establishment and gradual expansion of a well-organized and highly effective spy network and he began the resettlement of devastated regions and helped to revive major cities. In 1101, King David captured the fortress of Zedazeni, a point in his struggle for Kakheti and Hereti. In 1093, he arrested the powerful feudal lord Liparit Baghvashi, an enemy of the Georgian crown. After the death of Liparit’s son Rati, David abolished their duchy of Kldekari in 1103, by 1099 David IVs power was considerable enough that he was able to refuse paying tribute to the Turks. By that time, he rejected a Byzantine title of panhypersebastos thus indicating that Georgia would deal with the Byzantine Empire only on a parity basis
David the Builder
–
A fresco of King David IV from
Gelati Monastery
David the Builder
–
A later depiction of King David by an unknown artist
David the Builder
–
King David the Builder, Shio-Mghvime monastery
David the Builder
–
Gelati Monastery fresco of King David, 12th century
16.
Demetre I of Georgia
–
Demetrius I, from the Bagrationi dynasty, was King of Georgia from 1125 to 1156. He is also known as a poet, Demetrius was the eldest son of King David the Builder by his first wife Rusudan. As a commander, he took part in his father’s battles, particularly at Didgori, Demetrius succeeded on his father’s death on January 24,1125. With his ascent to the throne, the Seljuk Turks attacked the Georgian-held city of Ani, Demetrius I had to compromise and ceded the city to a Seljuk ruler under terms of vassalage. In 1139, he raided the city of Ganja in Arran. He brought the gate of the defeated city to Georgia and donated it to Gelati Monastery at Kutaisi. Despite this brilliant victory, Demetrius could hold Ganja only for a few years, in 1130, Demetrius revealed a plot of nobles, probably involving the kings half-brother Vakhtang. The King arrested the conspirators and executed one of their leaders, Ioanne Abuletisdze, in 1154 David, Demetriuss elder son forced his father to abdicate and become a monk, receiving the monastic name Damian. However, David died six months later and King Demetrius was restored to the throne, David was survived by his son Demna who was regarded by the aristocratic opposition as a lawful pretender. He died in 1156 and was buried at Gelati Monastery and he is regarded as a saint in the Orthodox Church and his feast day is celebrated on May 23 on the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar. Shen Khar Venakhi, a hymn to the Virgin Mary, is the most famous of them, family of David IV of Georgia The Bagrationi Dynasty Listen to the hymn “Thou Art the Vineyard” St Damiane the King and Hymnographer Orthodox synaxarion
Demetre I of Georgia
–
"Coronation of Demetrius I, a fresco by Michael Maglakeli from the Matskhvarishi monastery, 1142
17.
Timur
–
Timur, historically known as Amir Timur and Tamerlane, was a Turco-Mongol conqueror and the founder of the Timurid Empire in Persia and Central Asia. He was also the first ruler in the Timurid dynasty, born into the Barlas confederation in Transoxiana on 9 April 1336, Timur gained control of the western Chagatai Khanate by 1370. From these conquests he founded the Timurid Empire, but this empire fragmented shortly after his death, according to John Joseph Saunders, Timurs background was Iranized and not steppe nomad. Timur envisioned the restoration of the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan, in his formal correspondence Temur continued throughout his life to portray himself as the restorer of Chinggisid rights. He justified his Iranian, Mamluk, and Ottoman campaigns as a re-imposition of legitimate Mongol control over lands taken by usurpers, to legitimize his conquests, Timur relied on Islamic symbols and language, referred to himself as the Sword of Islam and patronized educational and religious institutions. He converted nearly all the Borjigin leaders to Islam during his lifetime, Temur, a non-Chinggisid, tried to build a double legitimacy based on his role as both guardian and restorer of the Mongol Empire. Timur also decisively defeated the Christian Knights Hospitaller at Smyrna, styling himself a ghazi, by the end of his reign, Timur had gained complete control over all the remnants of the Chagatai Khanate, Ilkhanate, and Golden Horde and even attempted to restore the Yuan dynasty. Timurs armies were inclusively multi-ethnic and were feared throughout Asia, Africa, scholars estimate that his military campaigns caused the deaths of 17 million people, amounting to about 5% of the world population. Timur is also recognized as a patron of art and architecture, as he interacted with Muslim intellectuals such as Ibn Khaldun. Timur was born in Transoxiana near the city of Kesh some 80 kilometres south of Samarkand and his father, Taraqai, was a minor noble of the Barlas, a Mongolian tribe that had been turkified in many aspects. According to Gérard Chaliand, Timur was a Muslim, and he saw himself as Genghis Khans heir, though not a Borjigid or a descendent of Genghis Khan, he clearly sought to invoke the legacy of Genghis Khans conquests during his lifetime. His name Temur means Iron in the Chaghatay language, Timurs mother-tongue, later Timurid dynastic histories claim that he was born on April 8,1336, but most sources from his lifetime give ages that are consistent with a birthdate in the late 1320s. At the age of eight or nine, Timur and his mother, in his childhood, Timur and a small band of followers raided travelers for goods, especially animals such as sheep, horses, and cattle. In around 1363, it is believed that Timur tried to steal a sheep from a shepherd but was shot by two arrows, one in his leg and another in his right hand, where he lost two fingers. Both injuries crippled him for life, some believe that Timur suffered his crippling injuries while serving as a mercenary to the khan of Sistan in Khorasan in what is today the Dashti Margo in southwest Afghanistan. Timurs injuries have given him the names of Timur the Lame, Timur was a Muslim, possibly belonging to the Naqshbandi school of Sufism, which was influential in Transoxiana. However, his official religious counsellor and adviser was the Hanafi scholar Abdu l-Jabbar Khwarazmi. In Tirmidh, he had come under the influence of his spiritual mentor Sayyid Baraka, Timur was known to hold Ali and the Ahl al-Bayt in high regard and has been noted by various scholars for his pro-Alid stance
Timur
–
A
Timurid-era illustration of Timur
Timur
–
Emir Timur feasts in the gardens of
Samarkand.
Timur
–
Timur facial reconstruction from skull
Timur
–
Timur commanding the
Siege of Balkh.
18.
Turkoman invasions of Georgia
–
After the devastating invasions by Timur and subsequent enfeeblement of the Kingdom of Georgia, it soon faced a new threat. Timurs death in 1405 marked the beginning of the end of his Empire, unified only by fear, Turkomans, particularly the Kara Koyunlu clan, were among the first to rebel against Shah Rukh who ruled most of the Persia and Mawerannahr. Qara Yusuf, ruler of the Kara Koyunlu, defeated Shah Rukh, captured Baghdad, after they established themselves as the new leading power in the middle east. They took advantage of the weakness of Georgians and launched attacks against them, apparently in which. In captivity Constantine behaved very proudly, which infuriated Qara Yusuf to such an extent, Alexander I of Georgia who sought to strengthen and restore his declining Kingdom, faced constant invasions by the tribal Turkomans. They sacked Akhaltsikhe, city of the regional importance in 1416. Alexander re-conquered Lorri from the Turkomans in 1431, which was of importance in securing of the Georgian borders. Around 1434/5, Alexander encouraged the Armenian prince Beshken II Orbelian to attack the Kara Koyunlu clansmen in Siunia and, for his victory, in 1440, Alexander refused to pay tribute to Jahan Shah of the Kara Koyunlu. In March, Jahan Shah surged into Georgia with 20,000 troops, destroyed the city of Samshvilde and he massacred thousands of Christians, put heavy indemnity on Georgia, and returned to Tabriz. He also mounted a military expedition against Georgia in 1444. His forces met those of Alexander’s successor, King Vakhtang IV at Akhaltsikhe, as a result of foreign and internal struggles unified Kingdom of Georgia stopped to exist after 1466 and was subdivided into several political units. Kara Koyunlu tribal confederation was destroyed by Aq Qoyunlu, their kin tribesmen who formed another confederation, Aq Qoyunlu Turkomans naturally took advantage of the Georgian fragmentation. Georgia was at least twice attacked by Uzun Hasan, the prince of the Aq Qoyunlu in 1466,1472, bagrat VI of Georgia, temporary ruler of most of Georgia at the time, had to make peace with the invaders, abandoning Tbilisi to the enemy. It was only after Uzun Hasan’s death when the Georgians were able to recover their capital, in the winter of 1488, the Ak Koyunlu Turkomans led by Halil Bey attacked Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, and took the city after a long-lasted siege in February 1489. Alexander II of Imereti, another pretender to the throne, took advantage of the Aq Qoyunlu Turkoman invasion of Kartli, occupation of the capital did not last long and Constantine II of Georgia was able to repel them, but it was still costly to Georgians
Turkoman invasions of Georgia
–
Georgian Kingdom in 1460, bordering
Kara Koyunlu to the south.
19.
Dicerorhinus etruscus
–
Stephanorhinus or Mercks rhinoceros is an extinct genus of rhinoceros native to northern Eurasia that lived during the Lower to Early Late Pleistocene epoch. It had two horns and was a relatively large rhino and it weighed over 3,000 kg and measured about 2.00 metres tall and 4.00 metres in length, having a size similar to a white rhino. In the Late Pleistocene, there were two species of Stephanorhinus in Eurasia, the large Mercks rhinoceros and the narrow-nosed rhinoceros, both species may have evolved from Stephanorhinus etruscus. However, it unclear whether another species, Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis. This rhino, which lived in the Early and Middle Pleistocene in the western Palaearctic, could also have been a European side branch and it was probably a relatively unspecialised animal, evolved for grazing and browsing. When about 600,000 years ago the two new rhino species S. kirchbergensis and S. hemiotechus arrived in Europe, it disappeared, the arrival of a specialised browser and a specialised grazer was probably hard competition for this generalist. S. kirchbergensis preferred forest or woodland habitats, while S. hemitoechus was probably adapted to open habitats. S. kirchbergensis is relatively rare in fossil record and known from few Italian, French, German, British, in Asia it is known from Siberia, Central Asia, Central Korea, and China. It may have occurred in Israel and Lebanon, but here it is unclear if it was really S. kirchbergensis or a similar species. In eastern China, S. kirchbergensis was present throughout the Pleistocene between 30°N and 40°N, in eastern Europe S. kirchbergensis disappeared during the earliest Late Pleistocene, where it is recorded in the Eemian in Poland. In the forests of the Caucasus it may have survived even until the early Weichselian, the last occurrences are known from Spain, where it survived until the middle or early Late Weichselian. The narrow-nosed rhinoceros appeared in Europe in the early Middle Pleistocene and it is known here from many localities between, Spain, Italy, Germany and the British Islands. Apart from Europe it is known from Syria, Israel. This is the easternmost point of the known range, the latest fossils of the narrow-nosed rhinoceros are known from the Balkan, where it survived until the early late Weichselian
Dicerorhinus etruscus
–
Stephanorhinus Temporal range: Middle to Late
Pleistocene
Dicerorhinus etruscus
–
S. hemitoechus skull
Dicerorhinus etruscus
–
S. kirchbergensis restoration
20.
Pleistocene
–
The Pleistocene is the geological epoch which lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the worlds most recent period of repeated glaciations. The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period, the Pleistocene is the first epoch of the Quaternary Period or sixth epoch of the Cenozoic Era. In the ICS timescale, the Pleistocene is divided into four stages or ages, all of these stages were defined in southern Europe. In addition to this subdivision, various regional subdivisions are often used. Charles Lyell introduced the term pleistocene in 1839 to describe strata in Sicily that had at least 70% of their molluscan fauna still living today and this distinguished it from the older Pliocene Epoch, which Lyell had originally thought to be the youngest fossil rock layer. The Pleistocene has been dated from 2.588 million to 11,700 years before present and it covers most of the latest period of repeated glaciation, up to and including the Younger Dryas cold spell. The end of the Younger Dryas has been dated to about 9640 BC, the IUGS has yet to approve a type section, Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point, for the upper Pleistocene/Holocene boundary. The proposed section is the North Greenland Ice Core Project ice core 75°06 N 42°18 W, the lower boundary of the Pleistocene Series is formally defined magnetostratigraphically as the base of the Matuyama chronozone, isotopic stage 103. Above this point there are notable extinctions of the calcareous nanofossils, Discoaster pentaradiatus, the Pleistocene covers the recent period of repeated glaciations. The name Plio-Pleistocene has, in the past, been used to mean the last ice age. The revised definition of the Quaternary, by pushing back the date of the Pleistocene to 2.58 Ma. Pleistocene climate was marked by repeated glacial cycles in which continental glaciers pushed to the 40th parallel in some places and it is estimated that, at maximum glacial extent, 30% of the Earths surface was covered by ice. In addition, a zone of permafrost stretched southward from the edge of the sheet, a few hundred kilometres in North America. The mean annual temperature at the edge of the ice was −6 °C, during interglacial times, such as at present, drowned coastlines were common, mitigated by isostatic or other emergent motion of some regions. The effects of glaciation were global, antarctica was ice-bound throughout the Pleistocene as well as the preceding Pliocene. The Andes were covered in the south by the Patagonian ice cap, there were glaciers in New Zealand and Tasmania. The current decaying glaciers of Mount Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro, glaciers existed in the mountains of Ethiopia and to the west in the Atlas mountains. In the northern hemisphere, many glaciers fused into one, the Cordilleran ice sheet covered the North American northwest, the east was covered by the Laurentide
Pleistocene
–
The maximum extent of
glacial ice in the north polar area during the Pleistocene period.
Pleistocene
–
Ice ages as reflected in atmospheric CO 2, stored in bubbles from glacial ice of
Antarctica.
Pleistocene
–
Pleistocene of
Northern Spain showing
woolly mammoth,
cave lions eating a
reindeer,
tarpans, and
woolly rhinoceros.
Pleistocene
–
Pleistocene of
South America showing
Megatherium and two
Glyptodon.
21.
Germany
–
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
Germany
–
The
Nebra sky disk is dated to c. 1600 BC.
Germany
–
Flag
Germany
–
Martin Luther (1483–1546) initiated the
Protestant Reformation.
Germany
–
Foundation of the
German Empire in
Versailles, 1871.
Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.
22.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
–
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
–
Flag
United States
–
The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
23.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
24.
Spain
–
By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
Spain
–
Lady of Elche
Spain
–
Flag
Spain
–
Altamira Cave paintings, in
Cantabria.
Spain
–
Celtic castro in
A Guarda,
Galicia.
25.
Homo erectus georgicus
–
Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived throughout most of the Pleistocene geological epoch. Its earliest fossil evidence dates to 1.9 million years ago and extends to 70,000 years ago, or, possibly, as recently as 35,000 years ago. It is generally thought that H. erectus originated in Africa and spread from there, migrating throughout Eurasia as far as Georgia, India, Sri Lanka, China, a new debate appeared in 2013, with the documentation of the Dmanisi skulls.58 million years ago. From there it migrated, in part, by 2, the fossil record shows that its development from about 1.8 mya to one mya was widely distributed, in Africa, the Transcaucasus, Indonesia, and in Vietnam, China, and India. The second hypothesis is that H. erectus evolved in Eurasia and they occupied the Dmanisi site from 1.85 million to 1.77 million years ago, which was about the same time or slightly before their earliest evidence in Africa. There are several proposed explanations of the dispersal of H. erectus georgicus—including whether or not Africa is the source), the Dutch anatomist Eugène Dubois was fascinated by Darwins theory of evolution especially as it applied to humankind. In 1886, he set out for Asia—which then was the region accepted as the cradle of evolution despite Darwins theory of African origin. In 1891, his team discovered a human fossil on the island of Java, the Java fossil from Indonesia aroused much public interest. It was dubbed by the press as Java Man, but few scientists accepted Dubois argument that his fossil was the transitional form—the so-called missing link—between apes. Java Man is now classified as Homo erectus, most of the spectacular discoveries of H. erectus next took place at the Zhoukoudian Project, now known as the Peking Man Site, in Zhoukoudian, China. This site was first discovered by Johan Gunnar Andersson in 1921 and was first excavated in 1921, canadian anatomist Davidson Blacks initial description of a lower molar as belonging to a previously unknown species prompted widely publicized interest. Extensive excavations followed, which altogether uncovered 200 human fossils from more than 40 individuals including five nearly complete skullcaps, german anatomist Franz Weidenreich provided much of the detailed description of this material in several monographs published in the journal Palaeontologica Sinica. Throughout much of the 20th century, anthropologists debated the role of H. erectus in human evolution, early in the century, due in part to the discoveries at Java and Zhoukoudian, it was widely accepted that modern humans first evolved in Asia. From the 1950s forward, numerous finds in East Africa confirmed the hypothesis of an African genesis and it is now generally accepted that H. erectus descended from either, 1) the earliest hominin genera, or 2) the earliest Homo-species. East Africa provided sympatric coexistence for H. erectus and H, in the 1950s, archaeologists John T. Robinson and Robert Broom named Telanthropus capensis, Robinson had discovered a jaw fragment in 1949 in Swartkrans, South Africa. Later, Simonetta proposed to re-designate it to Homo erectus, in 1961, Yves Coppens discovered a skull of Tchadanthropus uxoris, then the earliest fossil human discovered in north Africa. It was reported that the fossil had been so eroded by sand that it mimicked the appearance of an australopith. Although at first considered to be a specimen of H. habilis, T. uxoris is no longer considered a valid taxon, and has been subsumed into H. erectus
Homo erectus georgicus
Homo erectus georgicus
–
Homo erectus,
University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Homo erectus georgicus
–
Skull of Homo erectus,
Indian Museum
Homo erectus georgicus
–
Dmanisi skull 3, Fossils skull
D2700 and D2735 jaw, two of several found in
Dmanisi in the
Georgian Caucasus.
26.
Hominin
–
Members of the human clade, that is, the Hominina, including Homo and those species of the australopithecines that arose after the split from the chimpanzees, are called homininans. Not all homininans are directly related to the emergence of early Homo and this is a modern cladogram, For each clade, the cladogram above shows approximately when newer extant clades emerged. Some texts refer to Homonini as the Hominina branch, the subtribe Hominina is the human branch, that is, it contains only the genus Homo. Researchers proposed the taxon Hominini on the basis that the least similar species of a trichotomy should be separated from the other two. The common chimpanzee and the bonobo of the genus Pan are the closest living relatives to humans. All the extinct genera listed to the right are ancestral to, or offshoots of, however, both Orrorin and Sahelanthropus existed around the time of the split, and so may be ancestral to both Pan and Homo. In the proposal of Mann and Weiss, the tribe Hominini includes Pan as well as Homo, Homo and all bipedal apes are referred to the subtribe Hominina, while Pan is assigned to the subtribe Panina. Wood discusses the different views of this taxonomy, the assumption of late hybridization was in particular based on the similarity of the X chromosome in humans and chimpanzees, suggesting a divergence as late as some 4 million years ago. Sahelanthropus tchadensis is an extinct species that lived seven million years ago. Human Timeline – Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History
Hominin
27.
Homo erectus
–
Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived throughout most of the Pleistocene geological epoch. Its earliest fossil evidence dates to 1.9 million years ago and extends to 70,000 years ago, or, possibly, as recently as 35,000 years ago. It is generally thought that H. erectus originated in Africa and spread from there, migrating throughout Eurasia as far as Georgia, India, Sri Lanka, China, a new debate appeared in 2013, with the documentation of the Dmanisi skulls.58 million years ago. From there it migrated, in part, by 2, the fossil record shows that its development from about 1.8 mya to one mya was widely distributed, in Africa, the Transcaucasus, Indonesia, and in Vietnam, China, and India. The second hypothesis is that H. erectus evolved in Eurasia and they occupied the Dmanisi site from 1.85 million to 1.77 million years ago, which was about the same time or slightly before their earliest evidence in Africa. There are several proposed explanations of the dispersal of H. erectus georgicus—including whether or not Africa is the source), the Dutch anatomist Eugène Dubois was fascinated by Darwins theory of evolution especially as it applied to humankind. In 1886, he set out for Asia—which then was the region accepted as the cradle of evolution despite Darwins theory of African origin. In 1891, his team discovered a human fossil on the island of Java, the Java fossil from Indonesia aroused much public interest. It was dubbed by the press as Java Man, but few scientists accepted Dubois argument that his fossil was the transitional form—the so-called missing link—between apes. Java Man is now classified as Homo erectus, most of the spectacular discoveries of H. erectus next took place at the Zhoukoudian Project, now known as the Peking Man Site, in Zhoukoudian, China. This site was first discovered by Johan Gunnar Andersson in 1921 and was first excavated in 1921, canadian anatomist Davidson Blacks initial description of a lower molar as belonging to a previously unknown species prompted widely publicized interest. Extensive excavations followed, which altogether uncovered 200 human fossils from more than 40 individuals including five nearly complete skullcaps, german anatomist Franz Weidenreich provided much of the detailed description of this material in several monographs published in the journal Palaeontologica Sinica. Throughout much of the 20th century, anthropologists debated the role of H. erectus in human evolution, early in the century, due in part to the discoveries at Java and Zhoukoudian, it was widely accepted that modern humans first evolved in Asia. From the 1950s forward, numerous finds in East Africa confirmed the hypothesis of an African genesis and it is now generally accepted that H. erectus descended from either, 1) the earliest hominin genera, or 2) the earliest Homo-species. East Africa provided sympatric coexistence for H. erectus and H, in the 1950s, archaeologists John T. Robinson and Robert Broom named Telanthropus capensis, Robinson had discovered a jaw fragment in 1949 in Swartkrans, South Africa. Later, Simonetta proposed to re-designate it to Homo erectus, in 1961, Yves Coppens discovered a skull of Tchadanthropus uxoris, then the earliest fossil human discovered in north Africa. It was reported that the fossil had been so eroded by sand that it mimicked the appearance of an australopith. Although at first considered to be a specimen of H. habilis, T. uxoris is no longer considered a valid taxon, and has been subsumed into H. erectus
Homo erectus
Homo erectus
–
Homo erectus,
University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Homo erectus
–
Skull of Homo erectus,
Indian Museum
Homo erectus
–
Dmanisi skull 3, Fossils skull
D2700 and D2735 jaw, two of several found in
Dmanisi in the
Georgian Caucasus.
28.
Homo
–
On January 1,2009, it was merged with other ombudsman officers into the new Discrimination Ombudsman. HomO was the most recently instituted Swedish ombudsman, in the sense of a government official who addresses the complaints of individual citizens, HomO had the status of a government agency. In 2005 it received around 8 million SEK in government funding, HomO was the officially mandated short form, but is not a true acronym or abbreviation. Instead the word alludes to both homo = homosexual and to traditional Swedish ombudsman abbreviations which do expand into descriptive terms, the HomO office also took a number of initiatives of its own and submitted parliamentary proposals, most recently for a gender neutral marriage act. LGBT rights in Sweden List of LGBT rights organisations Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, RFSL Official site for HomO
Homo
29.
Australopithecus
–
Australopithecus is an extinct genus of hominins. During that time, a number of australopithecine species emerged, including Australopithecus afarensis, A. africanus, A. anamensis, A. bahrelghazali, A. deyiremeda, A. garhi, and A. sediba. For some hominid species of time, such as A. robustus and A. boisei. If so, they would be considered robust australopiths, while the others would be gracile australopiths, however, if these species do constitute their own genus, they may be given their own name, Paranthropus. Australopithecus species played a significant part in human evolution, the genus Homo being derived from Australopithecus at some time after three years ago. Among other things, they were the first hominids to show the presence of a gene that causes increased length and ability of neurons in the brain, the duplicated SRGAP2 gene. One of the species eventually became the Homo genus in Africa around two million years ago, and eventually modern humans, H. sapiens sapiens. Gracile australopiths shared several traits with modern apes and humans, and were widespread throughout Eastern and Northern Africa around 3.5 million years ago, the earliest evidence of fundamentally bipedal hominids can be observed at the site of Laetoli in Tanzania. This site contains hominid footprints that are similar to those of modern humans and have been dated to as old as 3.6 million years. The footprints have generally classified as australopith because that is the only form of prehuman known to have existed in that region at that time. Australopithecus anamensis, A. afarensis, and A. africanus are among the most famous of the extinct hominins, a. africanus was once considered to be ancestral to the genus Homo. However, fossils assigned to the genus Homo have been found that are older than A. africanus, thus, the genus Homo either split off from the genus Australopithecus at an earlier date, or both developed from a yet possibly unknown common ancestor independently. According to the Chimpanzee Genome Project, the human and chimpanzee lineages diverged from a common ancestor about five to six years ago. Sahelanthropus tchadensis, commonly called Toumai, is seven million years old. One theory suggests that the human and chimpanzee lineages diverged somewhat at first, the brains of most species of Australopithecus were roughly 35% of the size of a modern human brain. Most species of Australopithecus were diminutive and gracile, usually standing 1.2 to 1.4 m tall, in several variations is a considerable degree of sexual dimorphism, males being larger than females. According to one scholar, A. Furthermore, thermoregulatory models suggest that Australopithecus species were fully covered, more like chimpanzees and bonobos. Modern humans do not appear to display the same degree of sexual dimorphism as Australopithecus did, in modern populations, males are on average a mere 15% larger than females, while in Australopithecus, males could be up to 50% larger than females
Australopithecus
Australopithecus
–
A reconstruction of Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus
–
The spot where the first Australopithecus boisei was discovered in Tanzania
Australopithecus
–
Original skull of
Mrs. Ples, a female A. africanus
30.
David Lordkipanidze
–
David Otaris dze Lordkipanidze is a Georgian anthropologist and archaeologist, Professor, Dr. Sc. Corresponding Member of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, since 2004 General Director of the Georgian National Museum and he is a son of the archaeologist Otar Lordkipanidze. David Lordkipanidze is best known for his discovery of the fossil, first named Homo georgicus. Conducting excavation at Dmanisi in Georgia, he found skulls of an early hominin thought to be a precursor of Homo erectus and they represent a stage soon after the transition from Homo habilis to Homo erectus, and have been dated at 1.8 million years before the present. He was appointed Director General of the Georgian National Museum in 2004, in 2007 he became both a Foreign Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. Georgian National Museum David Lordkipanidze, Biographical sketch
David Lordkipanidze
–
David O. Lordkipanidze
31.
Neanderthal
–
Neanderthals, or more rarely Neandertals, were a species or subspecies of archaic humans in the genus Homo that went extinct about 40,000 years ago. Neanderthals and modern humans share 99. 7% of their DNA and are closely related. Neanderthals left bones and stone tools in Eurasia, from Western Europe to Central, from the 1950s to the early 1980s, however, Neanderthals were widely considered a subspecies of Homo sapiens and a minority of scholars still hold this view. Several cultural assemblages have been linked to the Neanderthals in Europe, the earliest, the Mousterian stone tool culture, dates to about 160,000 years ago. Late Mousterian artifacts were found in Gorhams Cave on the south-facing coast of Gibraltar, male Neanderthals had cranial capacities averaging 1600 cm3, females 1300 cm3, extending to 1736 cm3 in Amud 1. This is notably larger than the 1250–1400 cm3 typical of modern humans, males stood 164–168 cm and females 152–156 cm tall. Recent studies also show that a few Neanderthals began mating with ancestors of modern humans long before the out of Africa migration of present day non-Africans. Claims that Neanderthals deliberately buried their dead, and if they did, the debate on deliberate Neanderthal burials has been active since the 1908 discovery of the well-preserved Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 skeleton in a small hole in a cave in southwestern France. In 2013, scientists sequenced the genome of a Neanderthal for the first time. The genome was extracted from the bone of a 50. In 2016, elaborate constructions of rings of broken stalagmites made by early Neanderthals around 176,000 years ago were discovered 336 m inside Bruniquel Cave in southwestern France and this would have required a more advanced social structure than previously known for Neanderthals. Thal is a spelling of the German word Tal, which means valley. Nevertheless, Kings name had priority over the proposal put forward in 1866 by Ernst Haeckel, the practice of referring to the Neanderthals and a Neanderthal emerged in the popular literature of the 1920s. The German pronunciation of Neanderthaler or Neandertaler is in the International Phonetic Alphabet, in British English, Neanderthal is pronounced with the /t/ as in German, but different vowels. In laymans American English, Neanderthal is pronounced with a /θ/ and /ɔ/ instead of the longer British /aː/, during the early 20th century the prevailing view was heavily influenced by Arthur Keith and Marcellin Boule, who wrote the first scientific description of a nearly complete Neanderthal skeleton. During the 1930s scholars Ernst Mayr, George Gaylord Simpson and Theodosius Dobzhansky reinterpreted the existing fossil record, Neanderthal man was classified as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis - an early subspecies contrasted with what was now called Homo sapiens sapiens. The obviously unbroken succession of fossil sites of both subspecies in Europe was considered evidence that there was a slow and gradual evolutionary transition from Neanderthals to modern humans, contextual interpretations of similar excavation sites in Asia lead to the hypothesis of multiregional origin of modern man in the 1980s. Current scientific ideas hold that both evolved from a common African ancestor, Homo erectus
Neanderthal
Neanderthal
Neanderthal
–
The site of
Kleine Feldhofer Grotte where the type specimen was unearthed by miners in the 19th century
Neanderthal
–
Skull, found in 1886 in
Spy, Belgium
32.
Lineage (evolution)
–
An evolutionary lineage is a series of organisms, populations, cells, or genes connected by a continuous line of descent from ancestor to descendent. Lineages are subsets of the tree of life. Lineages are often determined by the techniques of molecular systematics, lineages are typically visualized as subsets of a phylogenetic tree. For example, the tree in Figure 1 shows the separation of life into three ancient lineages, bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes, thus a lineage is a single branch of the tree. Phylogenetic trees are created from DNA, RNA or protein sequence data. Apart from this, morphological differences and similarities have been, sequences from different individuals are collected and their similarity is quantified. Mathematical procedures are used to cluster individuals by similarity, just as a map is a scaled approximation of true geography, a phylogenetic tree is an approximation of the true complete evolutionary relationships. For example, in Figure 1, the lineage of animals has been collapsed to a single branch of the tree. However, this is merely a limitation of rendering space, in theory, a true and complete tree for all living organisms or for any DNA sequence could be generated
Lineage (evolution)
–
Fig. 1: A rooted tree for rRNA genes
33.
Prehistoric Georgia
–
Humans have been living in Georgia for an extremely long time, as attested by the discoveries, in 1999 and 2002, of two Homo erectus skulls at Dmanisi in southern Georgia. The archaeological layer in which the remains, hundreds of stone tools. The site yields the earliest unequivocal evidence for presence of early humans outside the African continent, later Lower Paleolithic Acheulian sites have been discovered in the highlands of Georgia, particularly in the caves of Kudaro, and Tsona. Acheulian open-air sites and find-spots are also known in other regions of Georgia, the first uninterrupted primitive settlement on the Georgian territory dates back to the Middle Paleolithic era, more than 200,000 years ago. Sites of this period have been found in Shida Kartli, Imeretia, Abkhazia, buffered by the Caucasus Mountains, and benefiting from the ameliorating effects of the Black Sea, the region appears to have served as a biogeographical refugium throughout the Pleistocene. These geographic features spared the Southern Caucasus from the climatic oscillations. Upper Paleolithic remains have been investigated in Satsurblia, Devis Khvreli, Sakazhia, Sagvarjile, Dzudzuana, Samertskhle Klde, Gvarjilas Klde, a cave at Dzudzuana has yielded the earliest known dyed flax fibers that date back to 36,000 BP. At that time, the area of the South Caucasus appears to have been sparsely populated in contrast to the valleys of the Rioni River. The Paleolithic ended some 10, 000-12,000 years ago to be succeeded by the Mesolithic culture and it was when the geographic medium and landscapes of the Caucasus were finally shaped as we have them today. Signs of Neolithic culture, and the transition from foraging and hunting to agriculture, the so-called early Neolithic sites are chiefly found in western Georgia. These are Khutsubani, Anaseuli, Kistriki, Kobuleti, Tetramitsa, Apiancha, Makhvilauri, Kotias Klde, Paluri, most of these sites relate to the flourishing late Neolithic/Eneolithic archaeological complex known as the Shulaveri-Shomu culture. Radiocarbon dating at Shulaveri sites indicates that the earliest settlements date from the late sixth − early fifth millennium BC. In the highlands of eastern Anatolia and South Caucasus, the combination of domesticable animals and sowable grains. In this sense, the region can justly be considered one of the cradles of civilization. The entire region is surmised to have been, in the beginning in the last quarter of the 4th millennium BC, inhabited by people who were possibly ethnically related. The ethnic and cultural unity of these 2,000 years is characterized by scholars as Chalcolithic or Eneolithic. Early metallurgy started in Georgia during the 6th millennium BC, very early metal objects have been discovered in layers of the Neolithic Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture. From the beginning of the 4th millennium metals became used to extend in East Georgia
Prehistoric Georgia
–
Sketch of
Homo erectus georgicus fossils found at
Dmanisi.
34.
Human evolution
–
Human evolution from its first separation from the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees is characterized by a number of morphological, developmental, physiological, and behavioral changes. The most significant of these adaptations are bipedalism, increased size, lengthened ontogeny. The relationship between these changes is the subject of ongoing debate, other significant morphological changes included the evolution of a power and precision grip, a change first occurring in H. erectus. Bipedalism is the adaptation of the hominin and is considered the main cause behind a suite of skeletal changes shared by all bipedal hominins. The earliest hominin, of presumably primitive bipedalism, is considered to be either Sahelanthropus or Orrorin, Ardipithecus, a full biped, arose somewhat later. The early bipeds eventually evolved into the australopithecines and still later into the genus Homo, There are several theories of the adaptation value of bipedalism. A new study provides support for the hypothesis that walking on two legs, or bipedalism, evolved because it used less energy than quadrupedal knuckle-walking, however, recent studies suggest that bipedality without the ability to use fire would not have allowed global dispersal. This change in gait saw a lengthening of the legs proportionately when compared to the length of the arms, another change is the shape of the big toe. Recent studies suggest that Australopithecines still lived part of the time in trees as a result of maintaining a big toe. This was progressively lost in Habilines, anatomically, the evolution of bipedalism has been accompanied by a large number of skeletal changes, not just to the legs and pelvis, but also to the vertebral column, feet and ankles, and skull. The femur evolved into a more angular position to move the center of gravity toward the geometric center of the body. The knee and ankle joints became increasingly robust to support increased weight. To support the weight on each vertebra in the upright position, the human vertebral column became S-shaped. In the feet the big toe moved into alignment with the toes to help in forward locomotion. The arms and forearms shortened relative to the making it easier to run. The foramen magnum migrated under the skull and more anterior, during human birth, because of the variation in size of the pelvic region, the fetal head must be in a transverse position during entry into the birth canal and rotate about 90 degrees upon exit. The human species developed a much larger brain than that of other primates—typically 1,330 cm3 in modern humans. This pattern of brain increase happened through the pattern of human postnatal brain growth differs from that of other apes
Human evolution
–
Fossil hominid evolution display at
The Museum of Osteology,
Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma,
U.S..
Human evolution
–
Diagrammatic representation of the
divergence of modern
taxonomic groups from their
common ancestor
Human evolution
–
Louis Leakey examining skulls from
Olduvai Gorge,
Tanzania.
Human evolution
–
A global mapping model of human migration, based from divergence of the
mitochondrial DNA (which indicates the
matrilineage). Timescale (
ka) indicated by colours.
35.
List of human evolution fossils
–
The following tables give a brief overview of several notable hominin fossil finds relating to human evolution beginning with the formation of the Hominini tribe in the late Miocene. Deprecated classifications may be found on the fossils page, most of the fossils shown are not considered direct ancestors to Homo sapiens but are closely related to direct ancestors and are therefore important to the study of the lineage. Westview Press, Boulder CO. ISBN 978-0-8133-3482-0, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Larsen, Clark Spencer, Matter, Robert M, Gebo, Daniel L. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Smithsonian Human Origins Program, schultz, J. Phenetic Affinities Among Early Homo Crania from East and South Africa
List of human evolution fossils
–
Dinaledi Chamber hominids
List of human evolution fossils
–
TM 266 (Toumai)
List of human evolution fossils
–
Ardi
36.
The Independent
–
The Independent is a British online newspaper. The printed edition of the paper ceased in March 2016, nicknamed the Indy, it began as a broadsheet newspaper, but changed to tabloid format in 2003. Until September 2011, the paper described itself on the banner at the top of every newspaper as free from party political bias and it tends to take a pro-market stance on economic issues. The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. In June 2015, it had a daily circulation of just below 58,000,85 per cent down from its 1990 peak. On 12 February 2016, it was announced that The Independent, the last print edition of The Independent on Sunday was published on 20 March 2016, with the main paper ceasing print publication the following Saturday. Launched in 1986, the first issue of The Independent was published on 7 October in broadsheet format and it was produced by Newspaper Publishing plc and created by Andreas Whittam Smith, Stephen Glover and Matthew Symonds. All three partners were former journalists at The Daily Telegraph who had left the paper towards the end of Lord Hartwells ownership, marcus Sieff was the first chairman of Newspaper Publishing, and Whittam Smith took control of the paper. The paper was created at a time of a change in British newspaper publishing. Rupert Murdoch was challenging long-accepted practices of the print unions and ultimately defeated them in the Wapping dispute, consequently, production costs could be reduced which, it was said at the time, created openings for more competition. As a result of controversy around Murdochs move to Wapping, the plant was effectively having to function under siege from sacked print workers picketing outside, the Independent attracted some of the staff from the two Murdoch broadsheets who had chosen not to move to his companys new headquarters. Launched with the advertising slogan It is, and challenging both The Guardian for centre-left readers and The Times as the newspaper of record, The Independent reached a circulation of over 400,000 by 1989. Competing in a market, The Independent sparked a general freshening of newspaper design as well as, within a few years. Some aspects of production merged with the paper, although the Sunday paper retained a largely distinct editorial staff. It featured spoofs of the other papers mastheads with the words The Rupert Murdoch or The Conrad Black, a number of other media companies were interested in the paper. Tony OReillys media group and Mirror Group Newspapers had bought a stake of about a third each by mid-1994, in March 1995, Newspaper Publishing was restructured with a rights issue, splitting the shareholding into OReillys Independent News & Media, MGN, and Prisa. In April 1996, there was another refinancing, and in March 1998, OReilly bought the other 54% of the company for £30 million, brendan Hopkins headed Independent News, Andrew Marr was appointed editor of The Independent, and Rosie Boycott became editor of The Independent on Sunday. Marr introduced a dramatic if short-lived redesign which won critical favour but was a commercial failure, Marr admitted his changes had been a mistake in his book, My Trade
The Independent
–
The Independent front page, 15 February 2014
37.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
38.
List of cities in Georgia (country)
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The following list of Georgian cities is divided into three separate lists for Georgia itself, and the disputed territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Although not recognized by most countries, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are de facto independent since, respectively,1992 and 1991 and this is a list of the cities and towns in Georgia, according to the 2014 census data of the Department of Statistics of Georgia. The list does not also includes the smaller urban-type settlements categorized in Georgia as daba, the list does not also include cities and towns in the disputed territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. This is a list of the largest cities and towns in Abkhazia, data for 1989 is official data from the Department of Statistics of Georgia, data for 2010 are unofficial estimates of the World Gazetteer. This is a list of the largest cities and towns in South Ossetia, data for 1989 is official data from the Department of Statistics of Georgia, data for 2010 are unofficial estimates of the World Gazetteer. The intent to construct Lazica, a new city on Georgias Black Sea littoral, was unveiled by President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili on December 4,2011, the construction was scheduled to be launched in 2012. Administrative divisions of Georgia Statistical Yearbook Of Georgia,2009, tbilisi, Georgia, Department of Statistics under the Ministry of Economic Development of Georgia. Georgia, largest cities and towns and statistics of their population, archived from the original on 5 January 2013
List of cities in Georgia (country)
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Tbilisi, Capital of
Georgia
List of cities in Georgia (country)
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Main cities and towns in Georgia
List of cities in Georgia (country)
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Batumi
39.
Abkhazia
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Abkhazia is a partially recognised state on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus Mountains, south of Russia and northwest of Georgia proper. It covers 8,660 square kilometres and has a population of around 240,000, the separatist Abkhazian polity, formally the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny, is recognised only by Russia and a small number of other countries. The status of Abkhazia is an issue of the Georgian–Abkhazian conflict. The region enjoyed autonomy within Soviet Georgia at the time when the Soviet Union began to disintegrate in the late 1980s, despite the 1994 ceasefire agreement and years of negotiations, the dispute remained unresolved. The long-term presence of a United Nations Observer Mission and a Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States peacekeeping force failed to prevent the flare-up of violence on several occasions. On 28 August 2008, the Parliament of Georgia declared Abkhazia a Russian-occupied territory, the Abkhazians call their homeland Аҧсны, popularly etymologised as a land/country of the soul, yet literally meaning a country of mortals. It possibly first appeared in the century in an Armenian text as Psin. The state is designated as the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny. The Russian Абхазия is adapted from the Georgian აფხაზეთი, in Mingrelian, Abkhazia is known as აბჟუა or სააფხაზო. Between the 9th and 6th centuries BC, the territory of modern Abkhazia was part of the ancient Georgian kingdom of Colchis and this kingdom was subsequently absorbed in 63 BC into the Kingdom of Egrisi, known to Byzantine Roman sources as Lazica. Classical authors described various peoples living in the region and the multitude of languages they spoke. Arrian, Pliny and Strabo have given accounts of the Abasgoi and Moschoi peoples somewhere in modern Abkhazia on the shore of the Black Sea. Around the mid 6th century AD, the Byzantines and the neighbouring Sassanid Persia fought for supremacy over Abkhazia for 20 years, Abkhazia, or Abasgia in classic sources, formerly part of Colchis and later of Egrisi until the late 690s, was a princedom under Byzantine authority. The country was mostly Christian, with the seat in Pityus. An Arab incursion into Abkhazia led by Marwan II, was repelled by Leon I jointly with his Egrisian and Kartlian allies in 736, after acquiring Egrisi via a dynastic union in the 780s the Kingdom of Abkhazia was established and became a dominant power in western Caucasus. During this period the Georgian language replaced Greek as the language of literacy, the western Georgian kingdom flourished between 850 and 950 when it annexed significant parts of central Georgia. In the 16th century, after the break-up of the Georgian Kingdom into small kingdoms and principalities, since the 1570s, when the Ottoman navy occupied the fort of Tskhumi, Abkhazia came under the influence of the Ottoman Empire and Islam. Under Ottoman rule, the majority of Abkhaz elite converted to Islam, the principality retained a degree of autonomy
Abkhazia
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Abkhazia in 1899. Abkhazia was administered as Sukhumi District of
Kutaisi Governorate when it was part of the
Russian Empire.
Abkhazia
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Flag
Abkhazia
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Abkhaz and Georgian generals in the
Imperial Russian Army, 19th century
Abkhazia
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The 12th anniversary of ethnic cleansing in Abkhazia which was held in Tbilisi in 2005. One of the visitors of the gallery recognised her dead son on the photograph.
40.
Sokhumi
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Sukhumi or Sokhumi is a city on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of the breakaway Republic of Abkhazia which has controlled it since the 1992-93 war in Abkhazia, sukhumis history can be traced back to the 6th century BC, when it was settled by Greeks, who named it Dioscurias. During this time and the subsequent Roman period, much of the city disappeared under the Black Sea, the city was named Tskhumi when it became part of the Kingdom of Abkhazia. Contested by local princes, it part of the Ottoman Empire in the 1570s. Following a period of conflict during Russian Civil War, it part of the Soviet Union. As the Soviet Union broke up in the early 1990s, the city suffered significant damage during the Georgian–Abkhazian conflict, the present-day population of 60,000 is only half of the population living there towards the end of Soviet rule. In Georgian, the city is known as სოხუმი or აყუ, in Megrelian as აყუჯიხა, the toponym Sokhumi derives from the Georgian word Tskhomi/Tskhumi, meaning beech. It is significant, that dia in several dialects of the Georgian language and among them in Megrelian means mother, in Abkhaz, the city is known as Аҟәа which according to native tradition signifies water. In the ancient Greek sources the city is referred to as Dioscurias, according to the antique traditions this name originates from the mythical Dioskouri, the twin brothers Castor and Pollux, sons of Zeus. It was believed that the town had established by Castors and Polluxs coachmen. However the names of the town may simply be the Greek comprehension of the old Georgian word combination, the medieval Georgian sources knew the town as Tskhumi. Later, under the Ottoman control, the town was known in Turkish as Suhum-Kale, Tskhumi in turn is supposed to be derived from the Svan language word for hot, or the Georgian word for hornbeam tree. The ending -i in the above forms represents the Georgian nominative-suffix, the town was initially officially described in Russian as Сухум, until 16 August 1936 when this was changed to Сухуми. This remained so until 4 December 1992, when the Supreme Council of Abkhazia restored the original version, that was approved in Russia in autumn 2008, even though Сухуми is also still being used. In English, the most common today is Sukhumi, although Sokhumi is increasing in usage and has been adopted by sources including Encyclopædia Britannica, MSN Encarta, Esri. Sukhumi is located on a bay of the eastern coast of the Black Sea and serves as a port, rail junction. It is known for its beaches, sanatoriums, mineral-water spas, Sukhumi is also an important air link for Abkhazia as the Sukhumi Dranda Airport is located nearby the city. Sukhumi contains a number of small-to-medium size hotels serving chiefly the Russian tourists, Sukhumi botanical garden was established in 1840, one of the oldest botanical gardens in the Caucasus
Sokhumi
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Sukhumi სოხუმი, Аҟәа Sokhumi, Akwa
Sokhumi
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The Sohum-Kale fort in the early 19th century.
Sokhumi
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Coin of Dioscurias, late 2nd century BC. Obverse: Two
pilei surmounted by stars Reverse:
Thyrsos, ΔΙΟΣΚΟΥΡΙΑΔΟΣ
Sokhumi
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Sukhumi botanical garden
41.
New Athos
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New Athos or Akhali Atoni is a town in the Gudauta raion of Abkhazia, situated some 22 km from Sukhumi by the shores of the Black Sea. The town was known under the names Nikopol, Acheisos, Anakopia, Nikopia, Nikofia, Nikopsis, Absara. New Athos Cave is one of the tourist attractions of Abkhazia, /Georgia, a large ancient Greek port town of Anacopia was recorded there in the 3rd century. In the 5th century, Georgians built a fortress on the top of the Iverian Mountain. Anacopia was the capital of the Abkhazian princedom in the orbit of the Byzantine Empire, later, the capital was moved to Kutaisi. Located between the Black Sea and the Iverian Mountain, New Athos is 17 km far from Gudauta,22 from Sukhumi and 84 from the Russian borders at Vesyoloye, vitali Smyr was reappointed as Mayor on 10 May 2001 following the March 2001 local elections. On 8 May 2003, Smyr was appointed Minister for Agriculture, on 19 May, Feliks Dautia was appointed his successor. In 1874 Russian monks from the overcrowded Rossikon Monastery on Mount Athos arrived to the Caucasus in order to find a place for possible resettlement and they feared that the Ottoman Empire would oust the Russians from Athos after the outbreak of the impending Russo-Turkish War. They selected Psyrtskha, and the Neo-Byzantine New Athos Monastery, dedicated to St. Simon the Canaanite, was constructed there in the 1880s with funds provided by Tsar Alexander III of Russia. Eventually Russian monks were permitted to stay in the old Athos, in 1924, during the Soviet persecution of religion, the monastery was closed. It was later used as a facility, tourist base, hospital. Its return to the Orthodox Church began in 1994, after the end of the war, the scenic setting of the New Athos monastery by the sea has made it a popular destination with Russian tourists visiting Abkhazia. An older church of St. Simon the Canaanite, dated to the 9th-10th century and reconstructed in the 1880s, is located near the town, on the Psyrtskha stream. New Athos has a hydroelectric power station and artificial lake on the river Psyrtskha. The station was built by the monks of the monastery between 1892 and 1903 and repaired in 1922 and it remained broken for over forty years before being repaired again — it was re-opened on 4 June 2012. It produces an estimated 100 kW per hour for the monastery which still owns it, New Athos cave is a karst cave in the Iverian Mountain, few km far from the town. Since 1975 it is served by the New Athos Cave Railway
New Athos
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New Athos Monastery
New Athos
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Anacopia fortress
New Athos
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St. Simon the Canaanite church in the New Athos (VI–VIII cc.)
New Athos
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Psyrtskha railway station
42.
Gagra
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Gagra is a town in Abkhazia, sprawling for 5 km on the northeast coast of the Black Sea, at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains. Its subtropical climate made Gagra a popular resort in Imperial Russian. It had a population of 26,636 in 1989, but this has fallen due to the ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia and other demographic shifts during. Gagra is the centre of the district of the same name and it is located in the western part of Region of Abkhazia, and river Psou serves as a border with Krasnodar Kray of Russia. According to the Georgian scholars, Gagra is derived from Gakra meaning walnut in the Svan language, according to the Soviet sports tourism master Bondaryev, the name of the city originates from the local Gagaa clan. According to Professor V. Kvarchija, Gagra means ‘the holder of the coast’ in Abkhaz, the town was established as a Greek colony in the kingdom of Colchis, called Triglite, inhabited by Greeks and Colchians. Colchis came under the control of the kingdom of Pontus in the 1st century BC before being absorbed by the Roman Empire and its geographical position led the Romans to fortify the town, which was repeatedly attacked by Goths and other invaders. After the fall of Rome, its successor, the Byzantine Empire, took control of the town and it became a major trading settlement in which Genoan and Venetian merchants were prominent, trading in the towns main exports - wood, honey, wax and slaves. The name Gagra appeared for the first time on a map in 1308, on a map of the caucasus made by the Italian Pietro Visconti, in the 16th century, Gagra and the rest of western Georgia was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The western merchants were expelled and the town entered a period of decline. By the 18th century the town had been reduced to more than a village surrounded by forests. Its fortunes were restored in the 19th century when the Russian Empire expanded into the region, the swamps were drained and the town was rebuilt around a new military hospital. Its population, however, was small, in 1866. The town suffered badly in the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878, when Turkish troops invaded, destroyed the town, Russia won the war, however, and rebuilt Gagra again. After the war, the town was discovered by Duke Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg and he saw the potential of the regions subtropical climate and decided to build a high-class resort there. Having raised a sum of money from the government, he built himself a palace there. A park was laid out with trees and even parrots. Despite the expensive work, the resort was not initially a success, in the Russian Revolution of 1905, a local uprising produced a revolutionary government in the town, which founded a short-lived Republic of Gagra
Gagra
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Old Gagra
Gagra
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Palace of the Prince of Oldenburg
Gagra
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View of Gagra's wharf sometime between 1905 and 1915.
Gagra
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An early medieval church of
the Protection of the Virgin
43.
Gudauta
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Gudauta is a town in Abkhazia and a centre of the eponymous district. It is situated on the Black Sea,37 km northwest to Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia. 43. 10199°N40. 6248°E /43.10199,40.6248 Gudauta used to be home to a Soviet Air Defence Forces base, Bombora airfield, the 171st Fighter Aviation Regiment was then transferred to Ugolnye Kopi, Chukotia Autonomous Okrug. The 529th Fighter Aviation Regiment, flew Su-27 Flankers from the base in the last years of the Cold War and this regiment was under the command of the 19th Army of the Air Defence Forces. Gudauta was a center of Abkhaz separatist resistance to Georgian government forces during the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict in 1992–1993, the unit was subordinated directly to the Russian General Staff. In 1999, its equipment includes 142 AIFV/APC, and 11 self- propelled artillery systems 2S9 Nona-S, the base has always been a significant factor in the Abkhaz conflict. The Georgian side and many Western independent observers claim the Gudauta base provided principal military support to Abkhaz rebels during the war in 1992–1993, in September 1995, Georgia had to legitimize Russian leases of three bases in the country and the Gudauta base among them. However, Abkhaz authorities block OSCE inspection visits and no date is set for withdrawal from the base, Georgia still alleges that it is used to offer military support to the Abkhaz secessionists. The Gudauta base remains one of the problems in complicated Russian-Georgian relations. Гәдоу-ҭа, Гәдоу is a mane of the river, ҭа is a locative suffix, Gudauta is twinned with the following city, Kineshma, Russia Media related to Gudauta at Wikimedia Commons
Gudauta
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View of Gudauta's centre
44.
Ochamchire
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Ochamchire or Ochamchira is a seaside city on the Black Sea coast of Abkhazia, Georgia. And a centre of the eponymous district, according to the 1978 population census, Ochamchire had 18,700 residents. After the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict of 1992-93, Ochamchire experienced a significant population decline due to ethnic cleansing of Georgians, most of the internally displaced persons who were affected by the conflict have yet to return to the city. Ochamchire lies along the bank of the Ghalidzga River at an elevation of 5 metres above sea level. The city is located 53 kilometres southeast of Sukhumi capital city, ochamchires climate is humid subtropical, with mild winters and hot summers. The average annual temperature is 13.6 degrees Celsius, januarys average temperature is 4.5 degrees Celsius while the average temperature in July is 23 degrees Celsius. According to Itar Tass, in 2009, Russia planned to construct a new base for its Black Sea Fleet in Ochamchire. The former Georgian Soviet footballer Vitaly Daraselia was from Ochamchire, Ochamchire is twinned with the following cites, Kostroma, Russia Bendery, Transnistria Georgian State Encyclopedia
Ochamchire
–
International relations [edit]
45.
Tkvarcheli
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Tkvarcheli is a town in Abkhazia, Georgia. It is situated on the river Ghalidzga and a railroad connects it with Ochamchire, coal mining, which began in the area in 1935, grew in importance during the Second World War, especially after the Donbass was lost during the Nazi invasion. Tkvarcheli was given town status on 9 April 1942 During the War in Abkhazia, Tkvarcheli withstood, through Russian humanitarian and military aid, since 1995, it is the centre of the newly formed Tkvarcheli District. On 27 September 2008, President Sergei Bagapsh awarded it the title of Hero City. Coal-mining has been the main industry ever since although now the Soviet mines are closed. Tamsaşs tax payments account for 75% of the Tkvarcheli districts budget however, construction of a new cement plant is planned now, its output to be used for the Olympic construction projects in Sochi. The towns population was 21,744 in 1989, the three main ethnic groups were Abkhaz, Russians and Georgians. At the time of the 2003 census, its population was 4,786, by the time of the 2011 census, it had increased to 5,013. Of these,66. 5% were Abkhaz,16. 0% Georgian,9. 7% Russian,1. 4% Mingrelian,1. 3% Ukrainian,1. 1% Armenian,0. 4% Greek and 0. 1% Svan
Tkvarcheli
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Aerial view of the town
Tkvarcheli
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View of the Akarmara ghost town neat Tkvarcheli
46.
Bichvinta
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Pitsunda or Bichvinta is a resort town in Gagra district of Abkhazia. The town was founded in the 5th century BC as Pityus or Pitiunt, the city was surrounded by a defensive wall, the castellum had a second line of defence built in mid-3rd century AD. Excavations guided by Andria Apakidze unearthed, in 1952, remains of three 4th-century churches and a bath with high-quality mosaic floors, the former Great Pityus harbour is now a mere lake within the town. The Goths attacked the city in 255 CE after taking the Bosporan fleet, the Roman garrison under the command of Successianus repelled the attack, however they returned in the next year, took the city and proceeded further to sack Trebizond. Saint John Chrysostom was being led towards Pityus by the soldiers, in execution of the decree of exile. Like Dioskurias, it remained under Roman control within the Georgian kingdom of Colchis until the 7th century, the city passed under Abasgian control and became one of the major political and religious centres of the kingdom of Egrisi. An archbishopric of Pitiunt was instituted in 541, in medieval Georgia, the towns name was spelled as Bichvinta. At the end of the 10th century, King Bagrat III of Georgia built there the Pitsunda Cathedral which survives to day and contains vestiges of wall-painting from the 13th. Bichvinta also served as the seat of the Georgian Orthodox Catholicate of Abkhazia until the late 16th century when Abkhazia came under the Ottoman hegemony within Georgia. In his 1911 article for the Catholic Encyclopedia, Sophrone Pétridès described Pityus as a titular see, in the late 13th century, the area housed a short-lived Genoese trade colony called Pezonda. Pitsunda was the resort of First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev. In October 1964 he happened to be vacationing in Pitsunda when he was deposed from power, in the end, the dam was built on the Inguri River instead, where the impact upon the coastline was assessed to be considerably less pronounced. On 7 February 2007, after appeals by inhabitants, the Peoples Assembly of Abkhazia resolved to give Pitsunda town-status. Parliamentarians expressed the hope that the decision would help Pitsunda develop as a resort, since becoming a town, the Mayor of Pitsunda is no longer appointed by the Governor of Gagra District but instead directly by the President of Abkhazia. On 29 January 2016, Pitsundas town-status was formally enshrined in Abkhazias constitution, in the 2011 assembly elections, Mayor Beslan Ardzinba and six other incumbent deputies of the Assembly stood for re-election. The winning candidates were Beslan Ardzinba, Badra Avidzba, Olga Grigorenko, Chengiz Bigvava, Georgi Zardania, Gennadi Cherkezia, Gennadi Mikanba, Damia Kokoskeria and Inessa Dzkuia. On 14 February, during the first session of the new convocation, Damir Kokoskeria was elected Chairman of the Assembly over Gennadi Cherkezia, following the May 2014 Revolution and the election of Raul Khajimba as President, on 28 October 2014 he replaced Ardzinba as Mayor with Chingis Bigvava. Bigvava was not reappointed following the 2016 local elections
Bichvinta
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The view of Caucasus mountains from Pitsunda cape.
Bichvinta
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Pine grove
Bichvinta
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Borysthenes
47.
Gantiadi
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Gantiadi or Tsandryphsh, is an urban-type settlement on the Black Sea coast in Georgia, in the Gagra District of Abkhazia,5 km from the Russian border. Gantiadi in historical times, was known as Sauchi, then, until 1944 as Yermolov, after the Russian general Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov. From 1944 until 1991, the settlement was known as Gantiadi, after the 1992-93 war in Abkhazia, Gantiadi was renamed as Tsandrypsh by the de facto government, but the name Gantiadi is still used informally among Abkhazians and widely in other languages. The name Tsandrypsh derives from the princely family Tsanba, Gantiadi is said to have been the historical capital of the principality of Saniga before the 6th century AD. It later became the capital of Sadzen, in 2011, Gantiadi had a population of 5,170. Of these,55. 9% were Armenians,19. 6% Abkhaz,18. 4% Russians,1. 2% Ukrainians,0. 9% Georgians and 0. 7% Greeks, Tsandryphsh houses a 6th century Georgian Christian church. A personal residence of Joseph Stalin is also located here, de facto governments website of Gantiadi
Gantiadi
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Basilica in Gantiadi (6th century AD)
Gantiadi
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Basilica
Georgia
