Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, biofacts or ecofacts and cultural landscapes. Archaeology can be considered a branch of the humanities. In North America archaeology is a sub-field of anthropology, while in Europe it is viewed as either a discipline in its own right or a sub-field of other disciplines. Archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology is distinct from palaeontology, the study of fossil remains, it is important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies across the world. Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time.
The discipline involves surveying and analysis of data collected to learn more about the past. In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research, it draws upon anthropology, art history, ethnology, geology, literary history, semiology, textual criticism, information sciences, statistics, paleography, paleontology and paleobotany. Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, has since become a discipline practiced across the world. Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past. Since its early development, various specific sub-disciplines of archaeology have developed, including maritime archaeology, feminist archaeology and archaeoastronomy, numerous different scientific techniques have been developed to aid archaeological investigation. Nonetheless, archaeologists face many problems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of public interest, opposition to the excavation of human remains.
The science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with particular attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts, as well as historical sites. Antiquarianism focused on the empirical evidence that existed for the understanding of the past, encapsulated in the motto of the 18th-century antiquary, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, "We speak from facts not theory". Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment era in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. In Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Age. Flavio Biondo, an Italian Renaissance humanist historian, created a systematic guide to the ruins and topography of ancient Rome in the early 15th century, for which he has been called an early founder of archaeology. Antiquarians of the 16th century, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, drawing and interpreting the monuments that they encountered.
One of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England. John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other field monuments in southern England, he was ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings. He attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture and shield-shapes. Excavations were carried out by the Spanish military engineer Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, both of, covered by ash during the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79; these excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii, while in Herculaneum they began in 1738. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and human shapes, as well the unearthing of frescos, had a big impact throughout Europe. However, prior to the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard; the father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington. He undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798.
Cunnington made meticulous recordings of Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, the terms he used to categorize and describe them are still used by archaeologists today. One of the major achievements of 19th-century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy; the idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith, James Hutton and Charles Lyell. The application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites. In the third and fourth decades of the 19th-century, archaeologists like Jacques Boucher de Perthes and Christian Jürgensen Thomsen began to put the artifacts they had found in chronological order. A major figure in the development of archaeology into a rigorous science was the army officer and ethnologist, Augustus Pitt Rivers, who began excavations on his land in England in the 1880s, his approach was methodical by the standards of the time, he is regarded as the first scientific archaeologist.
He arranged his artifacts by type or "typologically, within types by date or "chronologically"
Landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, how they integrate with natural or man-made features. A landscape includes the physical elements of geophysically defined landforms such as mountains, water bodies such as rivers, lakes and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of land use and structures, transitory elements such as lighting and weather conditions. Combining both their physical origins and the cultural overlay of human presence created over millennia, landscapes reflect a living synthesis of people and place, vital to local and national identity; the character of a landscape helps define the self-image of the people who inhabit it and a sense of place that differentiates one region from other regions. It is the dynamic backdrop to people's lives. Landscape can be as varied as a landscape park or wilderness; the Earth has a vast range of landscapes, including the icy landscapes of polar regions, mountainous landscapes, vast arid desert landscapes and coastal landscapes, densely forested or wooded landscapes including past boreal forests and tropical rainforests, agricultural landscapes of temperate and tropical regions.
The activity of modifying the visible features of an area of land is referred to as landscaping. There are several definitions of. In common usage however, a landscape refers either to all the visible features of an area of land considered in terms of aesthetic appeal, or to a pictorial representation of an area of countryside within the genre of landscape painting; when people deliberately improve the aesthetic appearance of a piece of land—by changing contours and vegetation, etc.—it is said to have been landscaped, though the result may not constitute a landscape according to some definitions. The word landscape arrived in England—and therefore into the English language—after the fifth century, following the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons; the term landscape emerged around the turn of the sixteenth century to denote a painting whose primary subject matter was natural scenery. Land may be taken in its sense of something; the suffix ‑scape is equivalent to the more common English suffix ‑ship. The roots of ‑ ship are etymologically akin to Old English scyppan, meaning to shape.
The suffix ‑schaft is related to the verb schaffen, so that ‑ship and shape are etymologically linked. The modern form of the word, with its connotations of scenery, appeared in the late sixteenth century when the term landschap was introduced by Dutch painters who used it to refer to paintings of inland natural or rural scenery; the word landscape, first recorded in 1598, was borrowed from a Dutch painters' term. The popular conception of the landscape, reflected in dictionaries conveys both a particular and a general meaning, the particular referring to an area of the Earth's surface and the general being that which can be seen by an observer. An example of this second usage can be found as early as 1662 in the Book of Common Prayer: Could we but climb where Moses stood, And view the landscape over.. There are several words that are associated with the word landscape: Scenery: The natural features of a landscape considered in terms of their appearance, esp. when picturesque: spectacular views of mountain scenery.
Setting: In works of narrative, it includes the historical moment in time and geographic location in which a story takes place, helps initiate the main backdrop and mood for a story. Picturesque: The word means "in the manner of a picture. Gilpin’s Essay on Prints defined picturesque as "a term expressive of that peculiar kind of beauty, agreeable in a picture". A view: "A sight or prospect of some landscape or extended scene. Wilderness: An uncultivated and inhospitable region. See Natural landscape. Cityscape: The urban equivalent of a landscape. In the visual arts a cityscape is an artistic representation, such as a painting, print or photograph, of the physical aspects of a city or urban area. Seascape: A photograph, painting, or other work of art which depicts the sea, in other words an example of marine art. Geomorphology is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical or chemical processes operating at or near Earth's surface.
Geomorphologists seek to understand why landscapes look the way they do, to understand landform history and dynamics and to predict changes through a combination of field observations, physical experiments and numerical modeling. Geomorphology is practiced within physical geography, geodesy, engineering geology and geotechnical engineering; this broad base of interests contributes to many research interests within the field. The surface of Earth is modified by a combination of surface processes that sculpt landscapes, geologic processes that cause tectonic uplift and subsidence, shape the coastal geography. Surface processes comprise the action of water, ice and living things on the surface of the Earth, along with chemical reactions that form soils and alter material properties
Departments of Guatemala
Guatemala is divided into 22 departments which are in turn divided into 340 municipalities. In addition, Guatemala has claimed that all or part of the nation of Belize is a department of Guatemala, this claim is sometimes reflected in maps of the region. Guatemala formally recognized Belize in 1991, but the border disputes between the two nations have not been resolved. ISO 3166-2:GT Interactive map of Guatemalan departments and municipalities statoid site
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of aggregates, a binder, water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a dense solid, it is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture. Stucco may be used to cover less visually appealing construction materials, such as metal, cinder block, or clay brick and adobe. In English, "stucco" refers to a coating for the outside of a building and "plaster" to a coating for interiors. However, other European languages, notably including Italian, do not have the same distinction; this has led to English using "stucco" for interior decorative plasterwork in relief. The difference in nomenclature between stucco and mortar is based more on use than composition; until the latter part of the nineteenth century, it was common that plaster, used inside a building, stucco, used outside, would consist of the same primary materials: lime and sand. Animal or plant fibers were added for additional strength. In the latter nineteenth century, Portland cement was added with increasing frequency in an attempt to improve the durability of stucco.
At the same time, traditional lime plasters were being replaced by gypsum plaster. Traditional stucco is made of lime and water. Modern stucco is made of Portland cement and water. Lime is added to increase the workability of modern stucco. Sometimes additives such as acrylics and glass fibers are added to improve the structural properties of the stucco; this is done with what is considered a one-coat stucco system, as opposed to the traditional three-coat method. Lime stucco is a hard material that can be broken or chipped by hand without too much difficulty; the lime itself is white. Lime stucco has the property of being self-healing to a limited degree because of the slight water solubility of lime. Portland cement stucco is hard and brittle and can crack if the base on which it is applied is not stable, its color was gray, from the innate color of most Portland cement, but white Portland cement is used. Today's stucco manufacturers offer a wide range of colors that can be mixed integrally in the finish coat.
Other materials such as stone and glass chips are sometimes "dashed" onto the finish coat before drying, with the finished product known as "rock dash", "pebble dash", or as roughcast if the stones are incorporated directly into the stucco, used from the early 20th through the early 21st Century. As a building material, stucco is a durable and weather-resistant wall covering, it was traditionally used as both an interior and exterior finish applied in one or two thin layers directly over a solid masonry, brick, or stone surface. The finish coat contained an integral color and was textured for appearance. With the introduction and development of heavy timber and light wood-framed construction methods, stucco was adapted for this new use by adding a reinforcement lattice, or lath, attached to and spanning between the structural supports and by increasing the thickness and number of layers of the total system; the lath added support for the wet tensile strength to the brittle, cured stucco. The traditional application of stucco and lath occurs in three coats — the scratch coat, the brown coat and the finish coat.
The two base coats of plaster are either hand-applied or machine sprayed. The finish coat can be floated to a sand finish or sprayed; the lath material was strips of wood installed horizontally on the wall, with spaces between, that would support the wet plaster until it cured. This lath and plaster technique became used. In exterior wall applications, the lath is installed over a weather-resistant asphalt-impregnated felt or paper sheet that protects the framing from the moisture that can pass through the porous stucco. Following World War II, the introduction of metal wire mesh, or netting, replaced the use of wood lath. Galvanizing the wire made it corrosion resistant and suitable for exterior wall applications. At the beginning of the 21st century, this "traditional" method of wire mesh lath and three coats of exterior plaster is still used. In some parts of the United States, stucco is the predominant exterior for both residential and commercial construction. Stucco has been used as a sculptural and artistic material.
Stucco relief was used in the architectural decoration schemes of many ancient cultures. Examples of Egyptian and Etruscan stucco reliefs remain extant. In the art of Mesopotamia and ancient Persian art there was a widespread tradition of figurative and ornamental internal stucco reliefs, which continued into Islamic art, for example in Abbasid Samarra, now using geometrical and plant-based ornament; as the arabesque reached its full maturity, carved stucco remained a common medium for decoration and calligraphic inscriptions. Indian architecture used stucco as a material for sculpture in an architectural context, it is rare in the countryside. In Roman art of the late Republic and early Empire, stucco was used extensively for the decoration of vaults. Though marble was the preferred sculptural medium in most regards, stucco was better for use in vaults because it was lighter and better suited to adapt to the curvature of the ceiling
TLC (TV network)
TLC is an American pay television channel, owned by Discovery, Inc. Focused on educational and learning content, by the late 1990s, the network began to focus towards reality series involving lifestyles, family life, personal stories; as of February 2015, TLC was available to watch in 95 million American households in the United States. The channel was founded in 1972 by the Department of Health and Welfare and NASA as the Appalachian Community Service Network, was an informative and instructional network focused on providing real education through the medium of television. ACSN was privatized in 1980, its name was changed to The Learning Channel in November of that year; the channel featured documentary content pertaining to nature, history, current events, technology, home improvement, other information-based topics. These are agreed to have been more focused, more technical, of a more academic nature than the content, being broadcast at the time on its rival, The Discovery Channel; the channel was geared toward an inquisitive and narrow audience during this time, had modest ratings except for the boating safety series Captain's Log and hosted by Mark Graves, a.k.a.
Captain Mark Gray. Captain's Log aired weekly in primetime on TLC from 1987 to 1990, it achieved between a 4.5 to 6 share in the ratings and was the highest compensated series in the history of TLC with over 30 times the compensation of any other TLC series. By the early 1990s, The Learning Channel was a sister channel to the Financial News Network, which owned 51 percent of the channel with Infotechnology Inc. After FNN went into bankruptcy in 1991, the Discovery Channel's owners went into discussions to purchase The Learning Channel. An agreement was made with Infotech to buy their shares for $12.75 million. The non-profit Appalachian Community Service Network owned 35 percent of the network, was bought out; the Learning Channel continued to focus on instructional and educational programming through much of the 1990s, but began to air shows less focused on education and themed more toward popular consumption and mass marketing. TLC still aired educational programs such as Paleoworld, though more and more of its programming began to be devoted to niche audiences for shows regarding subjects like home improvement and crafts, crime programs such as The New Detectives, medical programming, other shows that appealed to daytime audiences housewives.
This was to be indicative of a major change in programming content and target audience over the next few years. Due to poor ratings from a narrow target audience, TLC began to explore new avenues starting in the late 1990s, deemphasizing educational material in favor of entertainment. "Ready Set Learn", the network's children's program block, was reduced through the years as the network deliberately redirected viewers towards the full-day lineup of children's programming on Discovery Kids. The block was dropped in late 2008, Cable in the Classroom programming, meant for recording by teachers, had disappeared by the early 2000s. In 1998, the channel began to distance itself from its original name "The Learning Channel", instead began to advertise itself only as "TLC". During this period, there was a huge shift in content, with most new programming being geared towards reality-drama and interior design shows; the huge success of shows like Trading Spaces, Junkyard Wars, A Wedding Story, A Baby Story exemplified this new shift in programming towards more mass-appeal shows.
This came at a time when Discovery itself was overhauling much of its own programming, introducing shows like American Chopper. Much of the old, more educationally focused programming can still be found dispersed amongst other channels owned by Discovery Communications. Most of TLC's programming today is geared towards reality-based drama or interests such as home design, emergency room or medical dramas, extreme weather, law enforcement and human interest programs. On March 27, 2006, the network launched a new look and promotional campaign, dropping the "Life Unscripted" tag and introducing a new theme, "Live and learn", trying to turn around the network's reliance on decorating shows and reality programming; as part of the new campaign, the channel's original name, "The Learning Channel", returned to occasional usage in promotions. The new theme played on life lessons, which featured in the network's advertising and promotional clips; this campaign used humor to appeal to a target audience in their 30s.
In early March 2008, TLC launched a refreshed look and promotional campaign, alongside a new slogan: "Life surprises". This new slogan came as TLC began to shift more to personal stories, away from the once-dominating home improvement shows. Programs focused on family life became the core of the channel. Jon & Kate Plus 8, which by 2008 was the highest-rated program on TLC, Little People, Big World were joined by 17 Kids and Counting, Table for 12 in 20
George S. Stuart
George Stuart is an American sculptor and historian. He has traveled the United States presenting historical monologues about the last four centuries in the Americas, Europe and China. To help audiences visualize the personalities in his monologues, Stuart created over 400 accurate, quarter life-size sculptures of personages with political influence from the 16th to the 19th century, his works have been exhibited in The Smithsonian and Clinton Presidential Library as well as at other museums and libraries throughout the United States. As a young boy, Stuart traveled to Europe and became interested in historical architecture. In his teens, he constructed a scale model of the French Palace of Versailles and began to experiment with the human form after receiving an articulated marionette as a gift. Stuart attended Georgetown University and the American University in Washington, D. C. where he studied history, economics and international law while preparing to become a Foreign Service Officer but his academic career was frustrated by dyslexia, a condition not recognized in those days.
In the early 1950s, he was offered a position at the Smithsonian Institution, where he sculpted figures of inventors to accompany patent models exhibited there. As a member of the Smithsonian staff, he participated in the development of the President's Wives exhibit. Stuart had to abandon his work for a time, he attended the University of California in Santa Barbara, where he was drawn to the performing arts. He began traveling the United States delivering historical monologues about politically influential people from world history in combination with displays of his historical sculptures; when Stuart moved to Ojai, California in 1959, he opened The Gallery of Historical Figures and began teaching workshops on figural construction and sculpting faces. In 1991, the city of Ojai presented Stuart with its Lifetime Achievement in the Arts award, he has been recognized by the United States Congress. Stuart's Historical Figures are on permanent exhibit at the Museum of Ventura County and the Naples Museum of Art in Naples, Florida.
Temporary exhibits have been held at Pasadena Museum of History, the Ojai Valley Museum of History and Art, the Oxnard Library, California State University. He has created more than 400 "Historical Figures" in groups to complement his performances; the groups include, American Revolutionary and Civil Wars, English Monarchies, Bourbon Dynasty, Czarist Russia Manchu Dynasty (Nurhaci to Mao Tse-Tung, Renaissance & Reformation, Conquest of the Americas, Really Awful People, Warriors of the Ages, Germanic Myth & Legend and his earliest works. Stuart's favorite figurine is that of Lincoln, which he describes as "...the most enjoyable thing I did. Compelling." Green, Lee. George Stuart's Historical Figures. Ventura County Museum of History and Art. ISBN 0-9729361-2-2. Davis, Ivor. "Making History: G. S. Stuart and the Art of Fine Detail". Ventana Monthly. Southland Publishing. 4: 32–35. Kettmann, Kevin. "The Art of History, The Fascinating Figurines of George Stuart". Ventura Magazine. "The Historical Figures of George Stuart"
Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America is a private, non-profit Catholic university located in Washington, D. C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U. S. Catholic bishops. Established in 1887 as a graduate and research center following approval by Pope Leo XIII on Easter Sunday, the university began offering undergraduate education in 1904; the university's campus lies within the Brookland neighborhood, known as "Little Rome", which contains 60 Catholic institutions, including Trinity Washington University and the Dominican House of Studies, as well as the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It has been ranked as one of the nation's best colleges by the Princeton Review, one of the best values of any private school in the country by Kiplinger's, "one of the most eco-friendly universities in the country", was awarded the "highest federal recognition an institution can receive" for community service.
In addition, it was ranked in the top 10 of the best Catholic colleges in the country, has been recommended by the Cardinal Newman Society in The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College. It was described as one of the 25 most underrated colleges in the United States. CUA's programs emphasize the liberal arts, professional education, personal development; the school stays connected with the Catholic Church and Catholic organizations. The American Cardinals Dinner is put on by the residential U. S. cardinals each year to raise scholarship funds for CUA. The university has a long history of working with the Knights of Columbus. At the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops first discussed the need for a national Catholic university. At the Third Plenary Council on January 26, 1885, bishops chose the name The Catholic University of America for the institution. In 1882, Bishop John Lancaster Spalding went to Rome to obtain Pope Leo XIII's support for the university persuading his family friend Mary Gwendoline Caldwell to pledge $300,000 to establish it.
On April 10, 1887, Pope Leo XIII sent James Cardinal Gibbons a letter granting permission to establish the university. On March 7, 1889, the Pope issued the encyclical Magni Nobis, granting the university its charter and establishing its mission as the instruction of Catholicism and human nature together at the graduate level. By developing new leaders and new knowledge, the university was intended to strengthen and enrich Catholicism in the United States; the founders wanted to emphasize the church's special role in United States. They believed that scientific and humanistic research, informed by faith, would strengthen the church, they wanted to develop a national institution that would promote the faith in a context of religious freedom, spiritual pluralism, intellectual rigor. The university was incorporated in 1887 on 66 acres of land next to the Old Soldiers Home. President Grover Cleveland was in attendance for the laying of the cornerstone of Divinity Hall, now known as Caldwell Hall, on May 24, 1888, as were members of Congress and the U.
S. Cabinet; when the university first opened on November 13, 1889, the curriculum consisted of lectures in mental and moral philosophy, English literature, the sacred scriptures, the various branches of theology. At the end of the second term, lectures on canon law were added; the first students were graduated in 1889. In 1876 with the opening of the Johns Hopkins University, American universities began dedicating themselves to graduate study and research in the Prussian model. CUA was the "principal channel through which the modern university movement entered the American Catholic community." In 1900 it was one of the 14 colleges that offered doctorate programs who formed the Association of American Universities. In 1904, the university added an undergraduate program; the president of the first undergraduate class was Frank Kuntz, whose memoir of that period was published by the Catholic University of America Press. The university gives an annual award named for Kuntz. Bishop and Rector Thomas J. Shahan gave a speech to the Ancient Order of Hibernians in 1894 in which he advocated for Irish independence in language and politics.
This resulted in the Hibernians endowing a chair in chair of Gaelic Languages and Literature at the university. Only Harvard University had a similar position at the time, this attracted the attention of William Butler Yeats. During a trip to the United States, Yeats spoke to students in McMahon Hall on February 21, 1904. In a followup letter to Shahan, he said "you have a great university and I wish we had its like in Ireland."Despite Washington being a Southern and segregated city when the university was founded, it admitted black Catholic men as students. At the time, the only other college in the District to do so was Howard University, founded for African-American education after the Civil War. In 1895 Catholic University had three black students, all from DC. "They were tested as to their previous education, this being found satisfactory, no notice whatever was taken of their color. They stand on the same footing as other students of equal intellectual calibre and acquirements", according to Keane.
Conaty, speaking to President William McKinley during a visit on June 1, 1900, said that the university, "like the Catholic Church... knows no race line and no color line."President Theodore Roosevelt was out on a morning horseback ride one Sunday morning when he came upon a group of students singing after Mass outside Caldwell Chapel. He had heard of the stat
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