1.
Colored gold
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Pure gold is slightly reddish yellow in color, but colored gold in various other colors can be produced. White gold is an alloy of gold and at least one metal, usually nickel. Like yellow gold, the purity of gold is given in karats. White golds properties vary depending on the metals and proportions used, the term white gold is used very loosely in the industry to describe karat gold alloys with a whitish hue. It is a misconception that the color of the rhodium plating. The term white covers a spectrum of colors that borders or overlaps pale yellow, tinted brown. The jewelry industry often conceals these off-white colors by rhodium plating, a common white gold formulation consists of 90 wt. % gold and 10 wt. % nickel. Copper can be added to increase malleability, the strength of gold–nickel–copper alloys is caused by formation of two phases, a gold-rich Au–Cu, and a nickel-rich Ni–Cu, and the resulting hardening of the material. The alloys used in industry are gold–palladium–silver and gold–nickel–copper–zinc. Palladium and nickel act as primary bleaching agents for gold, zinc acts as a bleaching agent to attenuate the color of copper. The nickel used in white gold alloys can cause an allergic reaction when worn over long periods. This reaction, typically a minor skin rash from nickel dermatitis, occurs in one out of eight people and because of this. Rose gold is a gold and copper alloy used for specialized jewelry. Rose gold, also known as gold and red gold, was popular in Russia at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Rose gold jewelry is becoming popular in the 21st century and is commonly used for wedding rings, bracelets. Although the names are used interchangeably, the difference between red, rose, and pink gold is the copper content, the higher the copper content. Pink gold uses the least copper, followed by rose gold, up to 15% zinc can be added to copper-rich alloys to change their color to reddish yellow or dark yellow. During ancient times, due to impurities in the smelting process and this is why many Greco-Roman texts, and even many texts from the Middle Ages, describe gold as red
2.
Wedding ring
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A wedding ring or wedding band is a finger ring that indicates that its wearer is married. It is usually forged from metal, and traditionally is forged of gold or another precious metal, the earliest examples of wedding rings are from ancient Egypt. Western customs for wedding rings can be traced to ancient Rome and Greece, and were transmitted to the present through Christendom in Europe, depending on culture, a wedding ring is typically worn on the base of the left or right ring finger. Many spouses wear their wedding day and night, causing an indentation in the skin that is visible even when the ring is removed. Another indication of their importance is that wedding rings are among the few items that prison inmates. It is commonly believed that the first examples of wedding rings were found in ancient Egypt, relics dating to 6,000 years ago, including papyrus scrolls, are evidence of the exchange of braided rings of hemp or reeds between spouses. Ancient Egypt considered the circle to be a symbol of eternity, the Western traditions of wedding rings can be traced to ancient Rome and Greece, and were first associated with the marital dowry and later with a promise of fidelity. The modern exchange of rings derived from the customs of Europe in the Middle Ages as part of Christendom, in the United States, wedding rings were initially only worn by wives, but became customary for both husbands and wives during the 20th century. During the 16th and 17th centuries, European husbands bestowed a gimmel ring upon their wives, similar to the puzzle ring, the gimmel ring consisted of two interlocking bands. The bride and groom both wore one of bands after their engagement, and the two bands were reunited during the wedding ceremony. Subsequently, the wife wore the combined ring, the poesy ring was a style of ring that was popular during the Renaissance era. It was a band of sterling silver inscribed with a poem or poesy, different cultures used many other historical styles of wedding ring. For example, see the image below of the Byzantine ring depicting Christ uniting bride, also, in the Middle East the puzzle ring was a historical custom, this ring consisted of several pieces that joined together into a cohesive band when worn properly. The object of this style of ring was to render it difficult to put on the finger properly such that, if the wife removed it. The fede ring, being a band consisting of two hands clasped in betrothal, is another custom of Europe that ostensibly dates from antiquity. The double-ring ceremony describes the exchange of wedding rings by and for both spouses, although not without historical precedent, it is largely an American innovation of the 20th century. The American jewelry industry started a campaign to encourage this practice in the late 19th century. In the 1920s, advertising campaigns tried to introduce a male engagement ring, rising expectations of equality between the sexes in nearly all aspects of life during the 20th century cemented the trend, and double-ring ceremonies are preponderant in America in the 21st century
3.
Diamond
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Diamond is a metastable allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at standard conditions. Diamond is renowned as a material with superlative physical qualities, most of which originate from the covalent bonding between its atoms. In particular, diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any bulk material and those properties determine the major industrial application of diamond in cutting and polishing tools and the scientific applications in diamond knives and diamond anvil cells. Because of its extremely rigid lattice, it can be contaminated by very few types of impurities, such as boron, small amounts of defects or impurities color diamond blue, yellow, brown, green, purple, pink, orange or red. Diamond also has relatively high optical dispersion, most natural diamonds are formed at high temperature and pressure at depths of 140 to 190 kilometers in the Earths mantle. Carbon-containing minerals provide the source, and the growth occurs over periods from 1 billion to 3.3 billion years. Diamonds are brought close to the Earths surface through deep volcanic eruptions by magma, Diamonds can also be produced synthetically in a HPHT method which approximately simulates the conditions in the Earths mantle. An alternative, and completely different growth technique is chemical vapor deposition, several non-diamond materials, which include cubic zirconia and silicon carbide and are often called diamond simulants, resemble diamond in appearance and many properties. Special gemological techniques have developed to distinguish natural diamonds, synthetic diamonds. The word is from the ancient Greek ἀδάμας – adámas unbreakable, the name diamond is derived from the ancient Greek αδάμας, proper, unalterable, unbreakable, untamed, from ἀ-, un- + δαμάω, I overpower, I tame. Diamonds have been known in India for at least 3,000 years, Diamonds have been treasured as gemstones since their use as religious icons in ancient India. Their usage in engraving tools also dates to early human history, later in 1797, the English chemist Smithson Tennant repeated and expanded that experiment. By demonstrating that burning diamond and graphite releases the same amount of gas, the most familiar uses of diamonds today are as gemstones used for adornment, a use which dates back into antiquity, and as industrial abrasives for cutting hard materials. The dispersion of light into spectral colors is the primary gemological characteristic of gem diamonds. In the 20th century, experts in gemology developed methods of grading diamonds, four characteristics, known informally as the four Cs, are now commonly used as the basic descriptors of diamonds, these are carat, cut, color, and clarity. A large, flawless diamond is known as a paragon and these conditions are met in two places on Earth, in the lithospheric mantle below relatively stable continental plates, and at the site of a meteorite strike. The conditions for diamond formation to happen in the mantle occur at considerable depth corresponding to the requirements of temperature and pressure
4.
Gold
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Gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79. In its purest form, it is a bright, slightly yellow, dense, soft, malleable. Chemically, gold is a metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions, Gold often occurs in free elemental form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, in veins, and in alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the element silver and also naturally alloyed with copper. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium, golds atomic number of 79 makes it one of the higher numbered, naturally occurring elements. It is thought to have produced in supernova nucleosynthesis, from the collision of neutron stars. Because the Earth was molten when it was formed, almost all of the present in the early Earth probably sank into the planetary core. Gold is resistant to most acids, though it does dissolve in aqua regia, a mixture of acid and hydrochloric acid. Gold also dissolves in solutions of cyanide, which are used in mining and electroplating. Gold dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, but this is not a chemical reaction, as a precious metal, gold has been used for coinage, jewelry, and other arts throughout recorded history. A total of 186,700 tonnes of gold is in existence above ground, the world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry. Gold is also used in infrared shielding, colored-glass production, gold leafing, certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatories in medicine. As of 2014, the worlds largest gold producer by far was China with 450 tonnes, Gold is cognate with similar words in many Germanic languages, deriving via Proto-Germanic *gulþą from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃-. The symbol Au is from the Latin, aurum, the Latin word for gold, the Proto-Indo-European ancestor of aurum was *h₂é-h₂us-o-, meaning glow. This word is derived from the root as *h₂éu̯sōs, the ancestor of the Latin word Aurora. This etymological relationship is presumably behind the frequent claim in scientific publications that aurum meant shining dawn, Gold is the most malleable of all metals, a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, and an avoirdupois ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be thin enough to become semi-transparent
5.
Azerbaijan
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Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country in the South Caucasus region, situated at the crossroads of Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe. It is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bound by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first democratic state in the Muslim orient world. The country was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, the modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, prior to the official dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. In September 1991, the Armenian majority of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region seceded to form the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the region and seven adjacent districts outside it became de facto independent with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. These regions are recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic, the country is a member state of the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the NATO Partnership for Peace program. It is one of six independent Turkic states, a member of the Turkic Council. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations and it is one of the founding members of GUAM, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Its term of office began on 19 June 2006, Azerbaijan is also a member state of the Non-Aligned Movement, holds observer status in World Trade Organization and is a correspondent at the International Telecommunication Union. The Constitution of Azerbaijan does not declare an official religion and all political forces in the country are secularist. However, the majority of the population are of a Shiite Muslim background, Azerbaijan has a high level of human development which ranks on par with most Eastern European countries. It has a rate of economic development and literacy, as well as a low rate of unemployment. According to the Davos World Economic Forum, Azerbaijans economy has scored 37th place within 138 countries in 2016, Global Competitiveness Index 2015 indicates that Azerbaijan scores highest in its region. ASAN services, established with Presidential Decree, are known for eliminating bribery. ASAN Service has been awarded with United Nations Public Service Award 2015, the ruling party, the New Azerbaijan Party, has been accused of authoritarianism and human rights abuses. The original etymology of name is thought to have its roots in the once-dominant Zoroastrianism. In the Avesta, Frawardin Yasht, there is a mention of âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, the name Atropates itself is the Greek transliteration of an Old Iranian, probably Median, compounded name with the meaning Protected by the Fire or The Land of the Fire
6.
Jewelry ring
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A ring is a round band, usually of metal, worn as an ornamental piece of jewellery around the finger, or sometimes the toe, it is the most common current meaning of the word ring. Rings are most often made of metal but can be of almost any material, metal, plastic, stone, wood, bone, glass and they may be set with a stone or stones, often a gemstone such as diamond, ruby, sapphire or emerald. Although tracing the history is difficult, the custom of giving and receiving finger rings dates back over approximately 6,000 years. The Hittite civilization produced rings, including rings, only a few of which have been discovered. People in Old Kingdom Egypt wore a variety of rings, of which a few examples have been found. Rings became more common during the Egyptian middle kingdom, with complex designs. Egyptians made metal rings but also made rings from faience some of which were used as new year gifts, native styles were superseded by Greek and Roman fashions during the Ptolemaic dynasty. Archaic Greek rings were to some extent influenced by Egyptian rings, although they tended to be less substantial, a lack of locally available gold meant that rings made in the eastern colonies tended to be made from silver and bronze while Etruria used gold. The classical period showed a shift away from bronze to wider adoption of silver, the most typical design of the period involved a lozenge bezel mounting an intaglio device. Over time the bezel moved towards a circular form. During the early and middle imperial era the closest there is to a typical Roman ring consisted of a hoop that tapered directly into a slightly wider bezel. An engraved oval gem would be embedded within the bezel with the top of the gem only rising slightly above the ring material. Such rings are referred to Henig II and III/Guiraud 2 in formal academic parlance or simply as Roman rings by modern jewellers, in general Roman rings became more elaborate in the third and fourth centuries AD. The fourth digit or ring finger of the hand has become the customary place to wear a wedding ring in much of the world. This custom was established as the norm during World War II. The use of the finger of the left hand is associated with an old belief that the left hands ring finger is connected by a vein directly to the heart. This idea was known in 16th and 17th century England, when Henry Swinburne referred to it in his book about marriage. It can be traced back to ancient Rome, when Aulus Gellius cited Appianus as saying the ancient Egyptians had found a fine nerve linking that particular finger to the heart, occasionally rings have been re-purposed to hang from bracelets or necklaces
7.
Engagement
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An engagement, betrothal, or fiancer is a promise to wed, and also the period of time between a marriage proposal and a marriage. During this period, a couple is said to be betrothed, intended, affianced, engaged to be married, future brides and grooms may be called the betrothed, a wife-to-be or husband-to-be, fiancée or fiancé, respectively. The duration of the courtship varies vastly, and is dependent on cultural norms or upon the agreement of the parties involved. Long engagements were once common in formal arranged marriages, and it was not uncommon for parents betrothing children to arrange marriages many years before the couple were old enough. Erusin changes the couples interpersonal status, while nissuin brings about the consequences of the change of status. This was later adopted in Ancient Greece as the gamos and engeysis rituals, Betrothal is a formal state of engagement to be married. Since the Middle Ages the two ceremonies have taken place as a ceremony performed in public. The betrothal is now part of the Jewish wedding ceremony. As mentioned above, betrothal in Judaism is separate from engagement, breaking a betrothal requires a formal divorce, for adults, it may be anywhere from several hours to a period of several years. A year and a day are common in neo-pagan groups today, in the case of child marriage, betrothal might last from infancy until the age of marriage. The responsibilities and privileges of betrothal vary, in most cultures, the betrothed couple is expected to spend much time together, learning about each other. In some historical cultures, the betrothal was essentially a trial marriage, almost all cultures are loosening restrictions against physical contact between partners, even in cultures that normally had strong prohibitions against it. The betrothal period was considered to be a preparatory time, in which the groom built a house. A betrothal is considered to be a semi-binding contract, in some common law countries, including England and Wales and many US states, it was once possible for the spurned partner to sue the other for breach of promise or heart-balm. The Rite of Betrothal in the Anglican Communion is found within The Book of Common Prayer, the Anglican Communion, as well as the Methodist Church and Presbyterian Church, has questions & responses for family members in its Rite of Betrothal. In the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Rite of Betrothal is traditionally performed in the narthex of the church, the priest blesses the couple and gives them lit candles to hold. Then, after a litany, and a prayer at which everyone bows, he places the ring on the ring finger of the grooms right hand. The rings are exchanged three times, either by the priest or by the best man, after which the priest says a final prayer
8.
Marriage
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The definition of marriage varies according to different cultures, but it is principally an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually sexual, are acknowledged. In some cultures, marriage is recommended or considered to be compulsory before pursuing any sexual activity, when defined broadly, marriage is considered a cultural universal. Individuals may marry for several reasons, including legal, social, libidinal, emotional, financial, spiritual, whom they marry may be influenced by socially determined rules of incest, prescriptive marriage rules, parental choice and individual desire. In some areas of the world, arranged marriage, child marriage, polygamy, conversely, such practices may be outlawed and penalized in parts of the world out of concerns for womens rights and because of international law. These trends coincide with the human rights movement. Marriage can be recognized by a state, an organization, an authority, a tribal group. It is often viewed as a contract, Marriages can be performed in a secular civil ceremony or in a religious setting via a wedding ceremony. The act of marriage usually creates normative or legal obligations between the individuals involved, and any offspring they may produce, some cultures allow the dissolution of marriage through divorce or annulment. In some areas, child marriages and polygamy may occur in spite of laws against the practice. For example, the number of marriages in Europe decreased by 30% from 1975 to 2005 and these changes have occurred primarily in Western countries. The word marriage derives from Middle English mariage, which first appears in 1250–1300 CE and this in turn is derived from Old French, marier, and ultimately Latin, marītāre, meaning to provide with a husband or wife and marītāri meaning to get married. The adjective marīt-us -a, -um meaning matrimonial or nuptial could also be used in the form as a noun for husband. Anthropologists have proposed several competing definitions of marriage in an attempt to encompass the wide variety of marital practices observed across cultures, even within Western culture, definitions of marriage have careened from one extreme to another and everywhere in between. The anthropological handbook Notes and Queries defined marriage as a union between a man and a such that children born to the woman are the recognized legitimate offspring of both partners. In recognition of a practice by the Nuer people of Sudan allowing women to act as a husband in certain circumstances, Kathleen Gough suggested modifying this to a woman, none of these men had legal rights to the womans child. Economic anthropologist Duran Bell has criticized the definition on the basis that some societies do not require marriage for legitimacy. He argued that a definition of marriage is circular in societies where illegitimacy has no other legal or social implications for a child other than the mother being unmarried. In 1955 article in Man, Leach argued that no one definition of marriage applied to all cultures and he offered a list of ten rights associated with marriage, including sexual monopoly and rights with respect to children, with specific rights differing across cultures
9.
Gemstone
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A gemstone is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks or organic materials that are not minerals are used for jewelry and are therefore often considered to be gemstones as well. Most gemstones are hard, but some soft minerals are used in jewelry because of their luster or other properties that have aesthetic value. Rarity is another characteristic that lends value to a gemstone, apart from jewelry, from earliest antiquity engraved gems and hardstone carvings, such as cups, were major luxury art forms. A gem maker is called a lapidary or gemcutter, a worker is a diamantaire. The carvings of Carl Fabergé are significant works in this tradition, the traditional classification in the West, which goes back to the ancient Greeks, begins with a distinction between precious and semi-precious, similar distinctions are made in other cultures. In modern usage the precious stones are diamond, ruby, sapphire, other stones are classified by their color, translucency and hardness. Another unscientific term for semi-precious gemstones used in art history and archaeology is hardstone, in modern times gemstones are identified by gemologists, who describe gems and their characteristics using technical terminology specific to the field of gemology. The first characteristic a gemologist uses to identify a gemstone is its chemical composition, for example, diamonds are made of carbon and rubies of aluminium oxide. Next, many gems are crystals which are classified by their crystal system such as cubic or trigonal or monoclinic, another term used is habit, the form the gem is usually found in. For example, diamonds, which have a crystal system, are often found as octahedrons. Gemstones are classified into different groups, species, and varieties, for example, ruby is the red variety of the species corundum, while any other color of corundum is considered sapphire. Other examples are the Emerald, aquamarine, red beryl, goshenite, heliodor, and morganite, gems are characterized in terms of refractive index, dispersion, specific gravity, hardness, cleavage, fracture, and luster. They may exhibit pleochroism or double refraction and they may have luminescence and a distinctive absorption spectrum. Material or flaws within a stone may be present as inclusions, gemstones may also be classified in terms of their water. This is a grading of the gems luster, transparency. Very transparent gems are considered first water, while second or third water gems are those of a lesser transparency, there is no universally accepted grading system for gemstones. Diamonds are graded using a system developed by the Gemological Institute of America in the early 1950s, historically, all gemstones were graded using the naked eye
10.
Ring finger
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The ring finger is the fourth proximal digit of the human hand, and the second most ulnar finger, located between the middle finger and the little finger. It is also called digitus medicinalis, the finger, digitus annularis, digitus quartus. It may also be referred to as the finger, excluding the thumb. According to László A. Magyar, the names of the finger in many languages reflect an ancient belief that it is a magical finger. It is named after magic or rings, or called nameless, in Sanskrit and other languages like Finnish or Russian, the ring finger is called respectively - Anamika, Nimetön and Безымянный. In Arabic and Hebrew, the finger is called respectively - bansur -. Before medical science discovered how the system functioned, people believed that a vein ran directly from the fourth finger on the left hand to the heart. Because of the connection, they chose the descriptive name vena amoris, Latin for the vein of love. Based upon this name, their contemporaries, purported experts in the field of matrimonial etiquette, wrote that it would only be fitting that the ring be worn on this finger. By wearing the ring on the finger of the left hand. In Western cultures, a ring is traditionally worn on the ring finger. This developed from the Roman anulus pronubis when the man gave a ring to the woman at the betrothal ceremony, blessing the wedding ring and putting it on the brides finger dates from the 11th century. In medieval Europe, the Christian wedding ceremony placed the ring in sequence on the thumb, index, middle, the ring was then left on the ring finger. In a few European countries, the ring is worn on the hand prior to marriage. For example, a Greek Orthodox bride wears the ring on the hand prior to the ceremony. In England, the 1549 Prayer Book declared the ring shall be placed on the left hand, by the 17th and 18th centuries the ring could be found on any finger after the ceremony — even on the thumb. The wedding ring is worn on the ring finger of the left hand in the former British Empire, certain parts of Western Europe, certain parts of Catholic Central and Eastern Europe. In Eastern Europe, these include, Bulgaria, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Serbia, in Central or Western Europe, these include, Austria, Denmark, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, and Spain
11.
Aulus Gellius
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Aulus Gellius was a Latin author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome, the only source for the life of Aulus Gellius is the details recorded in his writings. He was of good family and connections, possibly of African origin and he traveled much, especially in Greece, and resided for a considerable period in Athens. He returned to Rome, where he held a judicial office and he was appointed by the praetor to act as an umpire in civil causes, and much of the time which he would gladly have devoted to literary pursuits was consequently occupied by judicial duties. The precise date of his birth, as of his death, is unknown, but from the names of his teachers and companions, he must have lived under Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. His only known work, the Attic Nights, takes its name from having been begun during the nights of a winter which he spent in Attica. He afterwards continued it in Rome, one story is the fable of Androcles, which is often included in compilations of Aesops fables, but was not originally from that source. The work, deliberately devoid of sequence or arrangement, is divided into twenty books, all these have come down to us except the eighth, of which nothing remains but the index. The Attic Nights are valuable for the insight they afford into the nature of the society and pursuits of those times, the Attic Nights found many readers in Antiquity. The editio princeps appeared at Rome in 1469, the earliest critical edition is that of Jakob Gronovius. A later edition is that of M. Hertz, revised by C, a volume of selections, with notes and vocabulary, was published by Nall. There is an English translation by W. Beloe, and a French translation, a more recent English translation is by John Carew Rolfe for the Loeb Classical Library. Gellia Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, george Herbert Nall, ed. Stories from Aulus Gellius. John Carew Rolfe, The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, ISBN0674992156, ISBN0674992202, ISBN0674992342 G. Anderson, Aulus Gellius, a Miscellanist and His World, in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, vol. Marie-Luise Lakmann, Der Platoniker Tauros in der Darstellung des Aulus Gellius Leofranc Holford-Strevens, an Antonine Scholar and his Achievement Leofranc Holford-Strevens and Amiel Vardi, eds. The Worlds of Aulus Gellius Wytse Keulen, Gellius the Satirist, Works by Aulus Gellius at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Aulus Gellius at Internet Archive The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius,1795 translation, Vol. I, Vol. II, Vol. III
12.
Bride price
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Some cultures may practice both dowry and bride price simultaneously. Many cultures practiced bride pricing prior to existing records, bridewealth is commonly paid in a currency that is not generally used for other types of exchange. According to French anthropologist Philippe Rospabé, its payment does not entail the purchase of a woman. Instead, it is a symbolic gesture acknowledging the husbands permanent debt to the wifes parents. Dowry exists in societies where capital is more important than manual work, for instance, in Middle Age Europe, a wife had to bring a dowry - land, cattle and money. Bridewealth exists in societies where manual work is more important than capital, in South-Saharan Africa, land was abundant, there were few or no domesticated animals, manual work was therefore important, and therefore bridewealth dominated. An evolutionary psychology explanation for dowry and bride price is that price is common in polygynous societies which have a relative scarcity of available women. In monogamous societies where women have little personal wealth, dowry is common since there is a relative scarcity of wealthy men who can choose from many potential women when marrying. The Code of Hammurabi mentions bride price in various laws as an established custom, exodus 22, 16–17 says, If a man entices a virgin who isnt pledged to be married, and lies with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to be his wife. 17 If her father refuses to give her to him. This is inconsistent with Deuteronomy 22, 25-26, which states that a rapist is to be stoned to death, in the Jewish tradition, the rabbis in ancient times insisted on the marriage couples entering into a marriage contract, called a ketubah. The ketubah provided for an amount to be paid by the husband in the event of a divorce or by his estate in the event of his death. This amount was a replacement of the biblical dower or bride price, so, to enable these young men to marry, the rabbis, in effect, delayed the time that the amount would be payable, when they would be more likely to have the sum. It may also be noted both the dower and the ketubah amounts served the same purpose, the protection for the wife should her support cease. The only difference between the two systems was the timing of the payment, however, the husband could refuse to pay the ketubah amount if a divorce was on account of adultery of the wife. In traditional Jewish weddings, to day, the groom gives the bride an object of value. The ring must have a minimal value, and it is considered to be a way to fulfill the halachic legal requirement of the husband making a payment to or for the bride. Some of the settlements mentioned in the Iliad and Odyssey suggest that bride price was a custom of Homeric society
13.
Seal (emblem)
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A seal is a device for making an impression in wax, clay, paper, or some other medium, including an embossment on paper, and is also the impression thus made. The original purpose was to authenticate a document, a wrapper for one such as a modern envelope, the seal-making device is also referred to as the seal matrix or die, the imprint it creates as the seal impression. In most traditional forms of dry seal the design on the matrix is in intaglio. The design on the impression will reverse that of the matrix and this will not be the case if paper is embossed from behind, where the matrix and impression read the same way, and both matrix and impression are in relief. However engraved gems were carved in relief, called cameo in this context. The process is essentially that of a mould and these pendent seal impressions dangled below the documents they authenticated, to which the attachment tag was sewn or otherwise attached. Some jurisdictions consider rubber stamps or specified signature-accompanying words such as seal or L. S. to be the equivalent of, i. e. an equally effective substitute for. In Europe, although coats of arms and heraldic badges may well feature in such contexts as well as on seals, the study of seals is known as sigillography or sphragistics. Seals were used in the earliest civilizations and are of importance in archaeology. In ancient Mesopotamia carved or engraved cylinder seals in stone or other materials were used and these could be rolled along to create an impression on clay, and used as labels on consignments of trade goods, or for other purposes. They are normally hollow and it is presumed that they were worn on a string or chain round the neck, many have only images, often very finely carved, with no writing, while others have both. From Ancient Egypt seals in the form of signet-rings, including some with the names of kings, have been found, recently, seals have come to light in South Arabia datable to the Himyarite age. One example shows a name written in Aramaic engraved in reverse so as to read correctly in the impression, from the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC until the Middle Ages, seals of various kinds were in production in the Aegean islands and mainland Greece. In the Early Minoan age these were formed of stone and ivory. By the Middle Minoan age a new set for seal forms, motifs, hard stone requires new rotary carving techniques. The Late Bronze Age is the par excellence of the lens-shaped seal and the seal ring. These were a luxury art form and became keenly collected. His collection fell as booty to Pompey the Great, who deposited it in a temple in Rome, engraved gems continued to be produced and collected until the 19th century
14.
Social class in ancient Rome
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Social class in ancient Rome was hierarchical, but there were multiple and overlapping social hierarchies, and an individuals relative position in one might be higher or lower than in another. Men who lived in towns outside Rome might hold citizenship, but lack the right to vote, free-born Roman women were citizens, there were also classes of non-citizens with different legal rights, such as peregrini. Under Roman law, slaves were considered property and had no rights as such, however, some laws regulated slavery and offered slaves protections not extended to other forms of property such as animals. Slaves who had been manumitted were freedmen, and for the most part enjoyed the legal rights. A patron could be the client of a superior or more powerful patron. Adult males who were not Roman citizens, whether free or slave, from the Late Republic era onwards many members of the elite, including an increasing proportion of senators, came from plebeian families. The first Roman Emperor, Augustus, was of plebeian origin, by the Late Empire, few members of the Senate were from the original patrician families, most of which had died out. Rome continued to have a class system, but it was no longer dominated by the distinction between patricians and plebeians. Originally, all offices were open only to patricians. Plebeians and Patricians were always at odds due to the fact that Plebeians wanted to increase their power, a series of social struggles saw the plebs secede from the city on three occasions, the last in 297 BC, until their demands were met. They won the right to stand for office, the abolition of the law. This office, founded in 494 BC as a result of a secession, was the main legal bulwark against the powers of the patrician class. The tribunes originally had the power to any plebeian from a patrician magistrate. Later revolts forced the Senate to grant the tribunes additional powers, a tribunes person was sacrosanct, and he was obliged to keep an open house at all times while in office. The conflict between the classes came to a climax in 287 BC when patricians and plebeians were declared equal under the law, following these changes the distinction between patrician and plebeian status became less important, and by the Late Republic the only patrician prerogatives were certain priesthoods. Over time, some patrician families declined, some plebeian families rose in status, a plebeian who was the first of his line to become consul was known as a novus homo, and he and his descendants became noble. During the Empire, patricius became a title of nobility bestowed by emperors, the census divided citizens into six complex classes based on property. The wealth of the class was based on ownership of large agricultural estates
15.
Justinian I
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Justinian I, traditionally known as Justinian the Great and also Saint Justinian the Great in the Eastern Orthodox Church, was a Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the empires greatness, because of his restoration activities, Justinian has sometimes been called the last Roman in modern historiography. This ambition was expressed by the recovery of the territories of the defunct western Roman Empire. His general, Belisarius, swiftly conquered the Vandal kingdom in North Africa, the prefect Liberius reclaimed the south of the Iberian peninsula, establishing the province of Spania. These campaigns re-established Roman control over the western Mediterranean, increasing the Empires annual revenue by over a million solidi, during his reign Justinian also subdued the Tzani, a people on the east coast of the Black Sea that had never been under Roman rule before. A still more resonant aspect of his legacy was the rewriting of Roman law, the Corpus Juris Civilis. His reign also marked a blossoming of Byzantine culture, and his building program yielded such masterpieces as the church of Hagia Sophia, a devastating outbreak of bubonic plague in the early 540s marked the end of an age of splendour. Justinian was born in Tauresium around 482, a native speaker of Latin, he came from a peasant family believed to have been of Illyro-Roman or Thraco-Roman origins. The cognomen Iustinianus, which he later, is indicative of adoption by his uncle Justin. During his reign, he founded Justiniana Prima not far from his birthplace and his mother was Vigilantia, the sister of Justin. Justin, who was in the guard before he became emperor, adopted Justinian, brought him to Constantinople. As a result, Justinian was well educated in jurisprudence, theology, Justinian served for some time with the Excubitors but the details of his early career are unknown. Chronicler John Malalas, who lived during the reign of Justinian, tells of his appearance that he was short, fair skinned, curly haired, round faced, another contemporary chronicler, Procopius, compares Justinians appearance to that of tyrannical Emperor Domitian, although this is probably slander. When Emperor Anastasius died in 518, Justin was proclaimed the new emperor, during Justins reign, Justinian was the emperors close confidant. As Justin became senile near the end of his reign, Justinian became the de facto ruler, Justinian was appointed consul in 521 and later commander of the army of the east. Upon Justins death on 1 August 527, Justinian became the sole sovereign, as a ruler, Justinian showed great energy. He was known as the emperor who never sleeps on account of his work habits, nevertheless, he seems to have been amiable and easy to approach. Around 525, he married his mistress, Theodora, in Constantinople and she was by profession a courtesan and some twenty years his junior
16.
Freedman
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A freedman or freedwoman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed either by manumission or emancipation, a fugitive slave is one who escaped slavery by fleeing. Rome differed from Greek city-states in allowing freed slaves to become plebeian citizens, the act of freeing a slave was called manumissio, from manus, hand, and missio, the act of releasing. After manumission, a slave who had belonged to a Roman citizen enjoyed not only freedom from ownership. A slave who had acquired libertas was known as a libertus in relation to his former master, as a social class, freed slaves were liberti, though later Latin texts used the terms libertus and libertini interchangeably. Libertini were not entitled to public office or state priesthoods. During the early Empire, however, freedmen held key positions in the government bureaucracy, any future children of a freedman would be born free, with full rights of citizenship. The Claudian Civil Service set a precedent whereby freedmen could be used as servants in the Roman bureaucracy. In addition, Claudius passed legislation concerning slaves, including a law stating that sick slaves abandoned by their owners became freedmen if they recovered, the emperor was criticized for using freedmen in the Imperial Courts. Some freedmen enjoyed enormous success and became quite wealthy, the brothers who owned House of the Vettii, one of the biggest and most magnificent houses in Pompeii, are thought to have been freedmen. A freedman who became rich and influential might still be looked down on by the aristocracy as a vulgar nouveau riche. Trimalchio, a character in the Satyricon of Petronius, is a caricature of such a freedman, for centuries Arab slave traders took and transported an estimated 10 to 15 million sub-Saharan Africans to slavery in North Africa and the Middle East. They also enslaved Europeans from coastal areas and the Balkans, many Arabs took women slaves as concubines in their harems. In the patrilineal societies, mixed-race children of concubines and Arab men were considered free and were given inheritance rights related to their fathers property. In the United States, the freedmen and freedwomen refer chiefly to former slaves emancipated during and after the American Civil War, by the Emancipation Proclamation. Slaves freed before the war, usually by individual manumissions, often in wills, were referred to as Free Negroes or free blacks. There were numerous such families formed in the Upper South before the Revolution, for the first two decades after the Revolution, thousands of slaves were freed in the Upper South, and most northern states abolished slavery, some on a gradual basis. In Louisiana and other areas of the former New France, free people of color were classified in French as gens de couleur libres and they were born to African or African-European mothers and white fathers of mixed-race African and French or other European ancestry
17.
Visigothic Code
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The Visigothic Code, also called Lex Visigothorum comprises a set of laws first promulgated by the king Chindasuinth of the Visigothic Kingdom in his second year of rule. His law code survives only in fragments, in this way, all the subjects of the kingdom were gathered under the same jurisdiction, eliminating social and legal differences, and allowing greater assimilation of the populations. As such, the Code marks transition from the Roman law to Germanic law and is one of the best surviving examples of leges barbarorum and it combines elements of the Roman law, Catholic church law and Germanic tribal customary law. During the first centuries of Visigothic rule, Romans and Goths were ruled by separate laws, the earliest Code of Euric was compiled at some time around 480. The first written laws of the Visigothic kingdom were compiled during the rule of king Alaric II and were meant to regulate lives of Romans and these early laws were based on the existing Roman imperial laws and their interpretations. The Breviarium was promulgated during the meeting of Visigothic nobles in Toulouse on February 2,506, during the reign of king Leovigild an attempt was made to unite laws regulating lives of Goths and Romans and a revised law code was issued. In 589, at the Third Council of Toledo the ruling Visigoths and Suebi, from now on the former Roman population and Goths shared the same faith. King Reccared issued laws that applied to the both populations. The code of 654 was enlarged by the legislation of Recceswinth and later kings Wamba, Erwig, Egica. Recceswinths code was edited by Braulio of Zaragoza, since Chindasuinths original code had been hastily written, during the Twelfth Council of Toledo in 681, King Erwig asked for the law code to be clarified and revised. Some new laws were added, out of which 28 dealt with Jews, the laws were far-reaching and long in effect, in 10th century Galicia, monastic charters make reference to the Code. The laws combine the Catholic Churchs Canon law, and have a strongly theocratic tone, thus it may be presumed that it was the recognized legal authority of Christian magistrates while the Iberian Peninsula remained under Muslim control. The Catalan translation of this document, Llibre Jutge, is among the oldest literary texts found in that language, the following list has the book and titles from the Visigothic Code. D. King Chindasvind and the First Territorial Law-code of the Visiogothic Kingdom, Lex Visigothorum - Latin text Visigothic Code - Forum Iudicum. 1908 English Translation of Full Text by Samuel Parsons Scott R. A. Fletcher,1984
18.
Pope Nicholas I
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Pope Saint Nicholas I, also called Saint Nicholas the Great, was Pope from 24 April 858 to his death in 867. Nicholas I asserted that the pope should have authority over all Christians, even royalty, in matters of faith. He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church and he refused to grant an annulment to King Lothair II of Lotharingia from Teutberga so that Lothair could marry his mistress Waldrada. When a Council pronounced in favor of annulment, Nicholas I declared the Council to be deposed, its messengers excommunicated, despite pressure from the Carolingians, who laid siege to Rome, his decision held. During his reign, relations with the Byzantine Empire soured over his support for Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople, born to a distinguished family in Rome, son of the Defensor Theodore, Nicholas received excellent training. Distinguished for his piety, benevolence, competence, knowledge, and eloquence and he was made a subdeacon by Pope Sergius II and a deacon by Leo IV. After the death of Benedict III, Holy Roman Emperor Louis II, on 24 April Nicholas was elected pope, consecrated, and enthroned in St. Peters Basilica in the presence of the emperor. To a spiritually exhausted and politically uncertain Western Europe beset by Muslim and Norse incursions and he was filled with a high conception of his mission for the vindication of Christian morality and the defence of Gods law. His co-operation with Emperor Louis II and Byzantine forces temporarily stemmed the Muslim advance in southern Italy and he also strengthened the Ostian fortifications against any future Muslim raids. Archbishop John of Ravenna oppressed the inhabitants of the territory, treated his suffragan bishops with violence, made unjust demands upon them for money. He also forged documents to support his claims against the Roman See, as the warnings of the pope were without result, and the archbishop ignored a thrice-repeated summons to appear before the papal tribunal, he was excommunicated. Having first visited the Emperor Louis at Pavia, the archbishop repaired with two delegates to Rome, where Nicholas cited him before the Roman synod assembled in the autumn of 860. Upon this John fled from Rome, going in person to Ravenna, the pope then investigated and equitably regulated everything. Again appealing to the emperor, the archbishop was recommended by him to submit to the pope, which he did at the Roman Synod of November 861. Later on, however, he entered into a pact with the excommunicated Archbishops of Trier and Cologne, was again excommunicated. Another conflict arose between Nicholas and Archbishop Hincmar of Reims, this concerned the prerogatives of the papacy, bishop Rothad of Soissons had appealed to the pope against the decision of the Synod of Soissons of 861, which had deposed him. Hincmar opposed the appeal to the pope, but eventually had to acknowledge the right of the papacy to take cognizance of important legal causes, Nicholas showed the same zeal in other efforts to maintain ecclesiastical discipline, especially as to the marriage laws. Ingiltrud, wife of Count Boso, had left her husband for a paramour, as she paid no attention to the summons to appear before the Synod of Milan in 860, she was put under the ban
19.
Boris I of Bulgaria
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Boris I, also known as Boris-Mikhail and Bogoris, was the ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire in 852–889. At the time of his baptism in 864, Boris was named Michael after his godfather, the historian Steven Runciman called him one of the greatest persons in history. Despite a number of setbacks, the reign of Boris I was marked with significant events that shaped Bulgarian and European history. With the Christianization of Bulgaria the traditional state religion Tengriism was abolished, when in 885 the disciples of Saints Cyril and Methodius were banished from Great Moravia, Boris I gave them refuge and provided assistance to develop the Bulgarian alphabet and literature. After he abdicated in 889, his eldest son and successor tried to restore the old pagan religion but was deposed by Boris I. He is regarded as a saint in the Orthodox Church, as the Prince and baptizer of Bulgaria, after his official act of conversion to Christianity, Boris adopted the Christian name Michael. He is sometimes called Boris-Michael in historical research, the only direct evidence of Boriss title are his seals and the inscription found near the town of Ballsh, modern Albania, and at Varna. There he is called by the Byzantine title Archon of Bulgaria, which is translated as ruler. In the Bulgarian sources from that period, Boris I is called Knyaz or Tsar, in modern historiography Boris is called by different titles. Most historians accept that he changed his title after his conversion to Christianity, according to them, before the baptism he had the title Khan or Kanasubigi, and after that Knyaz. According to another theory, the title Knyaz was used by Bulgarian rulers since the reign of Asparukh, as early as 781, the Empress Irene began to seek a closer relationship with the Carolingian dynasty and the Papacy. She negotiated a marriage between her son, Constantine, and Rotrude, a daughter of Charlemagne by his third wife Hildegard. Irene went as far as to send an official to instruct the Frankish princess in Greek, however, Irene herself broke off the engagement in 787, against her sons wishes. While this improved relations with the Papacy, it did not prevent the outbreak of a war with the Franks, when Charlemagne was proclaimed Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Leo III, the Pope was effectively nullifying the legitimacy of Irene. He certainly desired to increase the influence of the papacy and to honour his protector Charlemagne, Irene, like many of her predecessors since Justinian I, was too weak to protect Rome and its much reduced citizenry and the city was not being ruled by any emperor. Thus, Charlemagnes assumption of the title was not seen as an usurpation in the eyes of the Franks or Italians. It was, however, seen as such in Byzantium, but protests by Irene, mojmír I managed to unite some Slavic princes and established Great Moravia in 833. His successor, Rastislav, also fought against the Germans, both states tried to maintain good relations with Bulgaria on account of its considerable military power
20.
Pope Innocent III
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Pope Innocent III reigned from 8 January 1198 to his death. His birth name was Lotario dei Conti di Segni, sometimes anglicised to Lothar of Segni, Pope Innocent was one of the most powerful and influential popes. He exerted an influence over the Christian states of Europe. Pope Innocent was central in supporting the Catholic Churchs reforms of ecclesiastical affairs through his decretals and this resulted in a considerable refinement of Western canon law. Pope Innocent is notable for using interdict and other censures to compel princes to obey his decisions, Innocent called for Christian crusades against Muslim Spain and the Holy Land, as well as the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in southern France. One of Pope Innocents critical decisions was organizing the Fourth Crusade, originally intended to attack Jerusalem through Egypt, a series of unforeseen circumstances led the crusaders to Constantinople, where they ultimately sacked the city in 1204. Lotario de Conti was born in Gavignano, near Anagni and his father was Count Trasimund of Segni and was a member of a famous house, Conti, which produced nine Popes, including Gregory IX, Alexander IV and Innocent XIII. Lotario was the nephew of Pope Clement III, his mother, as Pope, Lotario was to play a major role in the shaping of canon law through conciliar canons and decretal letters. He subscribed the papal bulls between 7 December 1190 and 4 November 1197, as a cardinal, Lotario wrote De miseria humanae conditionis. The work was popular for centuries, surviving in more than 700 manuscripts. Although he never returned to the work he intended to write, On the Dignity of Human Nature. Celestine III died on 8 January 1198 and he was only thirty-seven years old at the time. He took the name Innocent III, maybe as a reference to his predecessor Innocent II, as pope, Innocent III began with a very wide sense of his responsibility and of his authority. The Muslim recapture of Jerusalem in 1187 was to him a divine judgment on the moral lapses of Christian princes and he was also determined to protect what he called the liberty of the Church from inroads by secular princes. The patrimonium was routinely threatened by Hohenstaufen German kings who, as Roman emperors, the early death of Henry VI left his 4-year-old son Frederick II as king. Henry VI’s widow Constance of Sicily ruled over Sicily for her son before he reached the age of majority. She was as eager to remove German power from the kingdom of Sicily as was Innocent III, before her death in 1198, she named Innocent as guardian of the young Frederick until he reached his maturity. In exchange, Innocent was also able to recover papal rights in Sicily that had been surrendered decades earlier to King William I of Sicily by Pope Adrian IV, the Pope invested the young Frederick II as King of Sicily in November 1198
21.
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
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Maximilian I was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never crowned by the Pope, as the journey to Rome was always too risky. He was the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and he ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of his fathers reign, from c.1483 to 1493. Charles father Philip died in 1506, so Charles succeeded Maximilian as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, Maximilian was born at Wiener Neustadt on 22 March 1459. His father, Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, named him for an obscure saint whom Frederick believed had once warned him of imminent peril in a dream, in his infancy, he and his parents were besieged in Vienna by Albert of Austria. One source relates that, during the sieges bleakest days, the prince would wander about the castle garrison, begging the servants. The young prince was an excellent hunter, his hobby was the hunting for birds as a horse archer. The reigning duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was the political opponent of Maximilians father Frederick III. After the Siege of Neuss, he was successful, the wedding between Maximilian and Mary took place on the evening of 16 August 1477. Maximilians wife had inherited the large Burgundian domains in France and the Low Countries upon her fathers death in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477. Already before his coronation as the King of the Romans in 1486, Maximilian decided to secure this distant and extensive Burgundian inheritance to his family, the House of Habsburg, at all costs. Maximilian undertook the defence of his wifes dominions from an attack by Louis XI and defeated the French forces at Guinegate, the wedding contract between Maximilian and Mary stipulated that only the children of bride and groom had a right to inherit from each, not the surviving parent. Mary tried to bypass this rule with a promise to transfer territories as a gift in case of her death, but her plans were confounded. After Marys death in an accident on 27 March 1482 near the Wijnendale Castle, Maximilians aim was now to secure the inheritance to one of his and Marys children. Some of the Netherlander provinces were hostile to Maximilian, and they signed a treaty with Louis XI in 1482 that forced Maximilian to give up Franche-Comté and they openly rebelled twice in the period 1482–1492, attempting to regain the autonomy they had enjoined under Mary. Flemish rebels managed to capture Philip and even Maximilian himself, Maximilian continued to govern Marys remaining inheritance in the name of Philip the Handsome. After the regency ended, Maximilian and Charles VIII of France exchanged these two territories for Burgundy and Picardy in the Treaty of Senlis, thus a large part of the Netherlands stayed in the Habsburg patrimony. Maximilian was elected King of the Romans on 16 February 1486 in Frankfurt-am-Main at his fathers initiative and he became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire upon the death of his father in 1493. Much of Austria was under Hungarian rule when he took power, in 1490, Maximilian reconquered the territory and entered Vienna
22.
Mary of Burgundy
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Mary, Duchess of Burgundy, reigned over many of the territories of the Duchy of Burgundy, now mainly in France and the Low Countries, from 1477 until her death. As the only child of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, due to the great prosperity of many of the territories that comprised the duchy, Mary was often referred to as Mary the Rich. Mary of Burgundy was born in Brussels at the castle of Coudenberg, to Charles the Bold, then known as the Count of Charolais. Her birth, according to the court chronicler Georges Chastellain, was attended by a clap of thunder ringing from the otherwise clear twilight sky. Her godfather was Louis, Dauphin of France, in exile in Burgundy at that time and she was assigned Anne of Burgundy as her governess. Philip the Good died in 1467 and Marys father assumed control of the duchy of Burgundy, since her father had no living sons at the time of his accession, Mary became his heiress presumptive. Her father controlled a vast and wealthy domain made up of the Duchy of Burgundy, the Free County of Burgundy, as a result, her hand in marriage was eagerly sought by a number of princes. The first proposal was received by her father when she was five years old. Mary assumed the rule of her fathers domains upon his defeat in battle, King Louis XI of France seized the opportunity to attempt to take possession of the Duchy of Burgundy proper and also the regions of Franche-Comté, Picardy and Artois. The king was anxious that Mary should marry his son Charles and thus secure the inheritance of the Low Countries for his heirs, by force of arms if necessary. Mary was compelled to sign a charter of rights known as the Great Privilege in Ghent on 10 February 1477 on the occasion of her recognition as her fathers heir. The duchess also had to not to declare war, make peace, or raise taxes without the consent of these provinces and towns. Mary soon made her choice among the suitors for her hand by selecting Archduke Maximilian of Austria, the future Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. The marriage took place at Ghent on the evening of 16 August 1477, in the Netherlands, affairs now went more smoothly, the French aggression was temporarily checked, and internal peace was in large measure restored. On 27 March 1482, the duchess died after a fall from her horse near Wijnendale Castle and she loved riding and was falconing with Maximilian when her horse tripped, threw her, and then landed on top of her, breaking her back. She died several days later, having made a detailed will and she is buried in the Church of Our Lady in Bruges. Marys marriage into the House of Habsburg would prove to be a disaster for France, since the Burgundian inheritance would later bring it into conflict with Spain, Marys son Philip succeeded to her dominions under the guardianship of his father. Her children were as follows, Philip the Handsome, who succeeded his mother as Philip IV of Burgundy and became Philip I of Castile through his marriage to Joanna of Castile
23.
Reformation
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The period is usually considered to have begun with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Luther in 1517 to the Thirty Years War and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The Protestant position, however, would come to incorporate doctrinal changes such as sola scriptura, the initial movement within Germany diversified, and other reform impulses arose independently of Luther. The spread of Gutenbergs printing press provided the means for the dissemination of religious materials in the vernacular. The largest groups were the Lutherans and Calvinists, Lutheran churches were founded mostly in Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia, while the Reformed ones were founded in Switzerland, Hungary, France, the Netherlands and Scotland. The new movement influenced the Church of England decisively after 1547 under Edward VI and Elizabeth I, there were also reformation movements throughout continental Europe known as the Radical Reformation, which gave rise to the Anabaptist, Moravian and other Pietistic movements. The Roman Catholic Church responded with a Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent, much work in battling Protestantism was done by the well-organised new order of the Jesuits. In general, Northern Europe, with the exception of most of Ireland, southern Europe remained Roman Catholic, while Central Europe was a site of a fierce conflict, culminating in the Thirty Years War, which left it devastated. The oldest Protestant churches, such as the Unitas Fratrum and Moravian Church, the later Protestant Churches generally date their doctrinal separation from the Roman Catholic Church to the 16th century. The Reformation began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church, by priests who opposed what they perceived as false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice. They especially objected to the teaching and the sale of indulgences, and the abuses thereof, and to simony, the reformers saw these practices as evidence of the systemic corruption of the Churchs hierarchy, which included the pope. Unrest due to the Great Schism of Western Christianity excited wars between princes, uprisings among the peasants, and widespread concern over corruption in the Church, New perspectives came from John Wycliffe at Oxford University and from Jan Hus at the Charles University in Prague. Hus rejected indulgences and adopted a doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone, the Roman Catholic Church officially concluded this debate at the Council of Constance by condemning Hus, who was executed by burning despite a promise of safe-conduct. Wycliffe was posthumously condemned as a heretic and his corpse exhumed and burned in 1428, the Council of Constance confirmed and strengthened the traditional medieval conception of church and empire. The council did not address the national tensions or the theological tensions stirred up during the century and could not prevent schism. Pope Sixtus IV established the practice of selling indulgences to be applied to the dead, Pope Alexander VI was one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes. He was the father of seven children, including Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia, in response to papal corruption, particularly the sale of indulgences, Luther wrote The Ninety-Five Theses. The Reformation was born of Luthers dual declaration – first, the discovering of Jesus and salvation by faith alone, the Protestant reformers were unanimous in agreement and this understanding of prophecy furnished importance to their deeds. It was the point and the battle cry that made the Reformation nearly unassailable
24.
Age of Enlightenment
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The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, The Century of Philosophy. In France, the doctrines of les Lumières were individual liberty and religious tolerance in opposition to an absolute monarchy. French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between 1715, the year that Louis XIV died, and 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution, some recent historians begin the period in the 1620s, with the start of the scientific revolution. Les philosophes of the widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffee houses. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Church, a variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism and neo-classicism, trace their intellectual heritage back to the Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the scientific revolution, earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon, René Descartes, John Locke, and Baruch Spinoza. The major figures of the Enlightenment included Cesare Beccaria, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and later incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence, others like James Madison incorporated them into the Constitution in 1787. The most influential publication of the Enlightenment was the Encyclopédie, the ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789. After the Revolution, the Enlightenment was followed by an intellectual movement known as Romanticism. René Descartes rationalist philosophy laid the foundation for enlightenment thinking and his attempt to construct the sciences on a secure metaphysical foundation was not as successful as his method of doubt applied in philosophic areas leading to a dualistic doctrine of mind and matter. His skepticism was refined by John Lockes 1690 Essay Concerning Human Understanding and his dualism was challenged by Spinozas uncompromising assertion of the unity of matter in his Tractatus and Ethics. Both lines of thought were opposed by a conservative Counter-Enlightenment. In the mid-18th century, Paris became the center of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines, the political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution. Francis Hutcheson, a philosopher, described the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words. Much of what is incorporated in the method and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by his protégés David Hume and Adam Smith. Hume became a figure in the skeptical philosophical and empiricist traditions of philosophy. Immanuel Kant tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority, as well as map out a view of the sphere through private
25.
Posie ring
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Posie rings are gold finger rings with a short inscription on their surface. They were popular during the 15th through the 17th centuries in both England and France as lovers gifts, the language used in many early posy rings was Norman French, with French, Latin and English used in later times. The quotations were often from contemporary courtship stories or chapbooks and usually inscribed on the surface of the ring. The rings were given to show regard or as a gift. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, has an outstanding collection, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London also has a good collection bequeathed by Joan Evans. She compiled a list of more than 3000 posies for her book English Posies, English posies and posy rings, a catalogue with an introduction by Joan Evans. Posie rings in the Ashmolean Posie ring messages, Wartski, London
26.
Great Depression
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The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, in most countries it started in 1929 and it was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the economy can decline. The depression originated in the United States, after a fall in stock prices that began around September 4,1929. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, by comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s, however, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. The Great Depression had devastating effects in both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%, unemployment in the U. S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries, farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most. Even after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 optimism persisted for some time, john D. Rockefeller said These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come, prosperity has always returned and will again. The stock market turned upward in early 1930, returning to early 1929 levels by April and this was still almost 30% below the peak of September 1929. Together, government and business spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom had suffered losses in the stock market the previous year. In addition, beginning in the mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U. S, by mid-1930, interest rates had dropped to low levels, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment were depressed. By May 1930, automobile sales had declined to below the levels of 1928, prices in general began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930
27.
De Beers
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The De Beers Group of Companies has a leading role in the diamond exploration, diamond mining, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial, coastal. The company operates in 28 countries and mining takes place in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, until the start of the 21st century, De Beers effectively had total control over the diamond market as both a monopoly and monopsony of diamonds. The company was founded in 1888 by British businessman Cecil Rhodes, who was financed by the South African diamond magnate Alfred Beit and the London-based N M Rothschild & Sons bank. In 1926, Ernest Oppenheimer, a German immigrant to Britain who had earlier founded mining giant Anglo American plc with American financier J. P. Morgan, was elected to the board of De Beers. He built and consolidated the companys global monopoly over the industry until his death in 1957. After they discovered diamonds on their land, the demands of the British government forced them to sell their farm on July 31,1871. Vooruitzicht would become the site of the Big Hole and the De Beer Mine and their name, which was given to one of the mines, subsequently became associated with the company. He invested the profits of this operation into buying up claims of small mining operators and he soon secured funding from the Rothschild family, who would finance his business expansion. The agreement soon proved to be very successful — for example during the slump of 1891–1892. The Second Boer War proved to be a time for the company. Kimberley was besieged as soon as war broke out, thereby threatening the companys valuable mines, in 1898, diamonds were discovered on farms near Pretoria, Transvaal. One led to the discovery of the Premier Mine, the Premier Mine was registered in 1902 and the Cullinan Diamond, the largest rough diamond ever discovered, was found there in 1905. However, its owner refused to join the De Beers cartel, instead, the mine started selling to a pair of independent dealers named Bernhard and Ernest Oppenheimer, thereby weakening the De Beers cartel. Francis Oats, who became chairman of De Beers in 1908, was dismissive of the threats from the Premier Mine, however, production soon equalled all of the De Beers mines combined. Ernest Oppenheimer was appointed the agent for the powerful London Syndicate. During World War I, the Premier Mine was finally absorbed into De Beers, when Rhodes died in 1902, De Beers controlled 90% of the worlds diamond production. Ernest Oppenheimer took over the chairmanship of the company in 1929, after buying shares, Oppenheimer was very concerned about the discovery of diamonds in 1908 in German South West Africa, fearing that the increased supply would swamp the market and force prices down
28.
Diamond (gemstone)
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A diamond is one of the best-known and most sought-after gemstones. Diamonds have been known to mankind and used as decorative items since ancient times, the hardness of diamond and its high dispersion of light—giving the diamond its characteristic fire—make it useful for industrial applications and desirable as jewelry. Diamonds are such a highly traded commodity that multiple organizations have created for grading and certifying them based on the four Cs, which are color, cut, clarity. Other characteristics, such as presence or lack of fluorescence, also affect the desirability, the most famous use of the diamond in jewelry is in engagement rings. The practice is documented among European aristocracy as early as the 15th century, though ruby, the modern popularity of diamonds was largely created by De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. which established the first large-scale diamonds mines in South Africa. Through an advertising campaign beginning in the 1930s and continuing into the century, De Beers made diamonds into a key part of the betrothal process. The diamonds high value has been the force behind dictators and revolutionary entities, especially in Africa, using slave. The value of diamonds is attributed largely to the tight control over this supply. Early references to diamonds in India come from Sanskrit texts, the Arthashastra of Kautilya mentions diamond trade in India. Buddhist works dating from the 4th century BC describe the diamond as a well-known and precious stone, golconda served as an important center for diamonds in central India. Diamonds were traded to both the east and west of India and were recognized by various cultures for their gemological or industrial uses. In his work Naturalis Historia, the Roman writer Pliny the Elder noted diamonds ornamental uses, diamonds eventually spread throughout the world, even though India had remained the only major source of the gemstone until the discovery of diamonds in Brazil in 1725. A Chinese work from the 3rd century BC mentions, Foreigners wear it in the belief that it can ward off evil influences. The Chinese, who did not find diamonds in their country, initially did not use diamond as a jewel, diamonds reached ancient Rome from India. Diamonds were also discovered in 700 AD in Borneo, and were used by the traders of southeast Asia, the modern era of diamond mining began in the 1860s in Kimberley, South Africa with the opening of the first large-scale diamond mine. The first diamond there was found in 1866 on the banks of the Orange River, in 1869, an even larger 83.50 carat diamond was found on the slopes of Colesberg Kopje on the farm Vooruitzigt belonging to the De Beers brothers. This sparked off the famous New Rush and within a month,800 claims were cut into the hillock which were worked frenetically by two to three thousand men, as the land was lowered so the hillock became a mine—in time, the world-renowned Kimberley Mine. Following agreement by the British government on compensation to the Orange Free State for its land claims
29.
Sapphire
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Sapphire is a gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide. It is typically blue in color, but natural fancy sapphires also occur in yellow, purple, orange, the only color which sapphire cannot be is red - as red colored corundum is called ruby, another corundum variety. This variety in color is due to amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, copper. Commonly, natural sapphires are cut and polished into gemstones and worn in jewelry and they also may be created synthetically in laboratories for industrial or decorative purposes in large crystal boules. Sapphire is the birthstone for September and the gem of the 45th anniversary, a sapphire jubilee occurs after 65 years. Sapphire is one of the two gem-varieties of corundum, the other being ruby, although blue is the best-known sapphire color, they occur in other colors, including gray and black, and they can be colorless. A a pinkish orange variety of sapphire is called padparadscha, significant sapphire deposits are found in Eastern Australia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, China, Madagascar, East Africa, and in North America in a few locations, mostly in Montana. Sapphire and rubies are often found in the geological setting. Every sapphire mine produces a range of quality - and origin is not a guarantee of quality. For sapphire, Kashmir receives the highest premium although Burma, Sri Lanka, the cost of natural sapphires varies depending on their color, clarity, size, cut, and overall quality. For gems of exceptional quality, an independent determination from a respected laboratory such as the GIA, gemstone color can be described in terms of hue, saturation, and tone. Hue is commonly understood as the color of the gemstone, saturation refers to the vividness or brightness of the hue, and tone is the lightness to darkness of the hue. Blue sapphire exists in various mixtures of its primary and secondary hues, various tonal levels, blue sapphires are evaluated based upon the purity of their primary hue. Purple, violet, and green are the most common secondary hues found in blue sapphires, violet and purple can contribute to the overall beauty of the color, while green is considered to be distinctly negative. Blue sapphires with up to 15% violet or purple are generally said to be of fine quality, gray is the normal saturation modifier or mask found in blue sapphires. Gray reduces the saturation or brightness of the hue, and therefore has a negative effect. The 423-carat Logan sapphire in the National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, sapphires in colors other than blue are called fancy or parti colored sapphires. Fancy sapphires are found in yellow, orange, green sapphires, brown, purple
30.
Ruby
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A ruby is a pink to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapphires, Ruby is one of the traditional cardinal gems, together with amethyst, sapphire, emerald, and diamond. They word ruby comes from ruber, Latin for red, the color of a ruby is due to the element chromium. The quality of a ruby is determined by its color, cut, and clarity, the brightest and most valuable red called blood-red or pigeon blood, commands a large premium over other rubies of similar quality. After color follows clarity, similar to diamonds, a stone will command a premium. Ruby is the birthstone for July and is usually more pink than garnet. The worlds most expensive ruby is the Sunrise Ruby, rubies have a hardness of 9.0 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. Among the natural gems only moissanite and diamond are harder, with diamond having a Mohs hardness of 10.0, when a chromium atom replaces an occasional aluminum atom, it too loses 3 electrons to become a chromium3+ ion to maintain the charge balance of the Al2O3 crystal. However, the Cr3+ ions are larger and have electron orbitals in different directions than aluminum, the octahedral arrangement of the O2− ions is distorted, and the energy levels of the different orbitals of those Cr3+ ions are slightly altered because of the directions to the O2− ions. Those energy differences correspond to absorption in the ultraviolet, violet, if one percent of the aluminum ions are replaced by chromium in ruby, the yellow-green absorption results in a red color for the gem. Additionally, absorption at any of the above wavelengths stimulates fluorescent emission of 694-nanometer-wavelength red light, after absorbing short-wavelength light, there is short interval of time when the crystal lattice of ruby is in an excited state before fluorescence occurs. If 694-nanometer photons pass through the crystal during that time, they can stimulate more fluorescent photons to be emitted in-phase with them, thus strengthening the intensity of that red light. By arranging mirrors or other means to pass emitted light repeatedly through the crystal, all natural rubies have imperfections in them, including color impurities and inclusions of rutile needles known as silk. Gemologists use these needle inclusions found in natural rubies to distinguish them from synthetics, simulants, usually, the rough stone is heated before cutting. These days, almost all rubies are treated in some form, untreated rubies of high quality command a large premium. Some rubies show a three-point or six-point asterism or star and these rubies are cut into cabochons to display the effect properly. Asterisms are best visible with a source and move across the stone as the light moves or the stone is rotated. Such effects occur when light is reflected off the silk in a certain way and this is one example where inclusions increase the value of a gemstone
31.
Emerald
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Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7. 5–8 on the Mohs scale, most emeralds are highly included, so their toughness is classified as generally poor. The word emerald is derived, from Vulgar Latin, esmaralda/esmaraldus, a variant of Latin smaragdus, emeralds, like all colored gemstones, are graded using four basic parameters–the four Cs of Connoisseurship, Color, Clarity, Cut and Carat weight. Before the 20th century, jewelers used the water, as in a gem of the finest water. Normally, in the grading of colored gemstones, color is by far the most important criterion, however, in the grading of emeralds, clarity is considered a close second. A fine emerald must possess not only a pure verdant green hue as described below, in the 1960s, the American jewelry industry changed the definition of emerald to include the green vanadium-bearing beryl as emerald. As a result, vanadium emeralds purchased as emeralds in the United States are not recognized as such in the UK, in America, the distinction between traditional emeralds and the new vanadium kind is often reflected in the use of terms such as Colombian Emerald. In gemology, color is divided into three components, hue, saturation, and tone, emeralds occur in hues ranging from yellow-green to blue-green, with the primary hue necessarily being green. Yellow and blue are the normal secondary hues found in emeralds, only gems that are medium to dark in tone are considered emerald, light-toned gems are known instead by the species name green beryl. The finest emerald are approximately 75% tone on a scale where 0% tone would be colorless, in addition, a fine emerald should be well saturated and have a hue that is bright. Gray is the normal saturation modifier or mask found in emerald, Emerald tends to have numerous inclusions and surface breaking fissures. Unlike diamond, where the standard, i. e. 10× magnification, is used to grade clarity. Thus, if an emerald has no visible inclusions to the eye it is considered flawless, stones that lack surface breaking fissures are extremely rare and therefore almost all emeralds are treated to enhance the apparent clarity. The inclusions and fissures within an emerald are sometime described as jardin, imperfections are unique for each emerald and can be used to identify a particular stone. Eye-clean stones of a vivid primary green hue, with no more than 15% of any hue or combination of a medium-dark tone. The relative non-uniformity motivates the cutting of emeralds in cabochon form, faceted emeralds are most commonly given an oval cut, or the signature emerald cut, a rectangular cut with facets around the top edge. Most emeralds are oiled as part of the process, in order to fill in surface-reaching cracks so that clarity and stability are improved. Cedar oil, having a refractive index, is often used in this widely adopted practice
32.
Socially responsible
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Social responsibility is an ethical framework and suggests that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act for the benefit of society at large. Social responsibility is a duty every individual has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystems. A trade-off may exist between economic development, in the sense, and the welfare of the society and environment. Social responsibility means sustaining the equilibrium between the two and it pertains not only to business organizations but also to everyone whose any action impacts the environment. This responsibility can be passive, by avoiding engaging in harmful acts, or active. Businesses can use ethical decision making to secure their businesses by making decisions that allow for government agencies to minimize their involvement with the corporation, a significant element of current thinking about privacy, however, stresses self-regulation rather than market or government mechanisms for protecting personal information. A significant number of studies have shown no negative influence on results from CSR. Student social responsibility is the responsibility of every student for their actions and it is morally binding, and suggests that each individual act in such a way that minimizes the adverse effect on those immediately around them. CSR is one of the newest management strategies where companies try to create an impact on society while doing business. Evidence suggests that CSR taken on voluntarily by companies will be more effective than CSR mandated by governments. There is no definition of what CSR comprises. Every company has different CSR objectives though the main motive is the same, all companies have a two-point agenda—to improve qualitatively and quantitatively. The other motive behind this is that the companies should not be focused only on maximization of profits, while many corporations include social responsibility in their operations, it is still important for those procuring the goods and services to ensure the products are socially sustainable. Verification tools are available from a multitude of entities internationally, such as the Underwriters Laboratories environmental standards, BIFMA, BioPreferred, one common view is that scientists and engineers are morally responsible for the negative consequences which result from the various applications of their knowledge and inventions. Furthermore, scientists and engineers have a responsibility for the choice. Many professional societies and national organizations, such as the National Academy of Science, first, there is the common problem of fragmentation and diffusion of responsibility. This fragmentation of both work and decision-making results in fragmented moral accountability, often to the point where everybody involved was responsible, the scientists and engineers cannot predict how their newly generated knowledge and technological innovations may be abused or misused for destructive purposes in the near or distant future. For example, most corporations conduct research on products or services that promise to yield the greatest possible profit for share-holders
33.
Blood diamond
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Blood diamonds is a term used for a diamond mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, an invading armys war efforts, or a warlords activity. The term is used to highlight the consequences of the diamond trade in certain areas. Diamonds mined during the recent civil wars in Angola, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, the term conflict resource refers to analogous situations involving other natural resources. Reports estimated that as much as 20% of the production in the 1980s was being sold for illegal and unethical purposes. By 1999, the diamond trade was estimated by the World Diamond Council to have been reduced to 3. 06% of the worlds diamond production. The World Diamond Council reported that by 2004 this percentage had fallen to approximately 1%, despite the UN Resolution, UNITA was able to continue to sell or trade some diamonds in order to finance its war effort. The UN set out to find how this remaining illicit trade was being conducted and appointed Canadian ambassador Robert Fowler to investigate, in 2000, he produced the Fowler Report, which named those countries, organizations and individuals involved in the trade. Ivory Coast began to develop a diamond mining industry in the early 1990s. A coup overthrew the government in 1999, starting a civil war, the country became a route for exporting diamonds from Liberia and war-torn Sierra Leone. Foreign investment began to withdraw from Ivory Coast, to curtail the illegal trade, the nation stopped all diamond mining and the UN Security Council banned all exports of diamonds from Ivory Coast in December 2005. Despite UN sanctions the illicit diamond trade still exists in Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has suffered numerous looting wars in the 1990s, but has become a member of the Kimberley Process and now exports about 8% of the worlds diamonds. From 1989 to 2003, Liberia was engaged in a civil war, in 2000, the UN accused Liberian president Charles G. Taylor of supporting the Revolutionary United Front insurgency in neighboring Sierra Leone with weapons and training in exchange for diamonds. In 2001, the United Nations applied sanctions on the Liberian diamond trade, in August 2003, Taylor stepped down as president and, after being exiled to Nigeria, faced trial in The Hague. On July 21,2006 he pleaded not guilty to crimes against humanity and war crimes, on May 30,2012, he began a 50-year sentence in a high security prison in the United Kingdom. Around the time of the 1998 United States embassy bombings, al-Qaeda allegedly bought gems from Liberia as some of its financial assets were frozen. Having regained peace, Liberia is attempting to construct a diamond mining industry. The UN has lifted sanctions and Liberia is now a member of the Kimberley Process. In December 2014 however, Liberian diamonds were reported to be produced using child labor according to the U. S. Department of Labors List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor
34.
Gold mining
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Gold mining is the resource extraction of gold by mining. As of 2015, the worlds largest gold producer by far was China with 455 tonnes, the second-largest producer, Australia, mined 270 tonnes in the same year, followed by Russia with 250 tonnes. It is impossible to know the date that humans first began to mine gold. The graves of the necropolis were built between 4700 and 4200 BC, indicating that gold mining could be at least 7000 years old. A group of German and Georgian archaeologists claims the Sakdrisi site in southern Georgia, dating to the 3rd or 4th millennium BC, bronze age gold objects are plentiful, especially in Ireland and Spain, and there are several well known possible sources. Romans used hydraulic mining methods, such as hushing and ground sluicing on a scale to extract gold from extensive alluvial deposits. Mining was under the control of the state but the mines may have been leased to civilian contractors some time later, Gold was a prime motivation for the campaign in Dacia when the Romans invaded Transylvania in what is now modern Romania in the second century AD. The legions were led by the emperor Trajan, and their exploits are shown on Trajans Column in Rome, under the Eastern Roman Empire Emperor Justinians rule, gold was mined in the Balkans, Anatolia, Armenia, Egypt, and Nubia. In the area of the Kolar Gold Fields in Bangarpet Taluk, Kolar District of Karnataka state, India, gold was first mined prior to the 2nd and 3rd century AD by digging small pits. The Champion reef at the Kolar gold fields was mined to a depth of 50 metres during the Gupta period in the fifth century AD, during the Chola period in the 9th and 10th century AD, the scale of the operation grew. The metal continued to be mined by the eleventh century kings of South India, the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1560, and later by Tipu Sultan, the king of Mysore state and it is estimated that the total gold production in Karnataka to date is 1000 tons. The mining of the Slovak deposit primarily around Kremnica was the largest of the Medieval period in Europe, the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand led to the Second Boer War and ultimately the founding of South Africa. The Carlin Trend of Nevada, U. S. was discovered in 1961, as of 2015, the worlds largest gold producer by far was China with 455 tonnes/year. The second-largest producer, Australia, mined 270 tonnes in the same year, despite the decreasing gold content of ores, the production is increasing. This can be achieved with industrial installations, and new process, placer mining is the technique by which gold that has accumulated in a placer deposit is extracted. Placer deposits are composed of loose material that makes tunneling difficult. Gold panning is mostly a manual technique of separating gold from other materials, wide, shallow pans are filled with sand and gravel that may contain gold. The pan is submerged in water and shaken, sorting the gold from the gravel, as gold is much denser than rock, it quickly settles to the bottom of the pan
35.
Gold cyanidation
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Gold cyanidation is a metallurgical technique for extracting gold from low-grade ore by converting the gold to a water-soluble coordination complex. It is the most commonly used process for gold extraction, due to the highly poisonous nature of cyanide, the process is controversial and its usage is banned in a number of countries and territories. In 1783, Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovered that dissolved in aqueous solutions of cyanide. Through the work of Bagration, Elsner, and Faraday, it was determined that each atom of gold required two cyanide ions, i. e. the stoichiometry of the soluble compound. The expansion of mining in the Rand of South Africa began to slow down in the 1880s. The gold could not be extracted from this compound with any of the available chemical processes or technologies. By suspending the crushed ore in a solution, a separation of up to 96 percent pure gold was achieved. The process was first used on the Rand in 1890 and, despite operational imperfections, in 1896, Bodländer confirmed that oxygen was necessary for the process, something that had been doubted by MacArthur, and discovered that hydrogen peroxide was formed as an intermediate. The ore is comminuted using grinding machinery, depending on the ore, it is sometimes further concentrated by froth flotation or by centrifugal concentration. Water is added to produce a slurry or pulp, the basic ore slurry can be combined with a solution of sodium cyanide or potassium cyanide, however many operations utilize calcium cyanide, which is more cost effective. Lead nitrate can improve gold leaching speed and quantity recovered, particularly in processing partially oxidized ores, oxygen is one of the reagents consumed during cyanidation, and a deficiency in dissolved oxygen slows leaching rate. Air or pure oxygen gas can be purged through the pulp to maximize the oxygen concentration. Oxygen can also be added by dosing the pulp with hydrogen peroxide solution, specifically, the oxidation of iron to iron oxide and subsequent precipitation as iron hydroxide minimizes loss of cyanide from the formation of ferrous cyanide complexes. The oxidation of sulfur compounds to sulfate ions avoids the consumption of cyanide to thiocyanate byproduct and this reduces the concentrations of these cyanide compounds, but does not completely eliminate them from the stream. The two major processes utilised are the INCO-licensed process or the Caros acid process, hydrogen peroxide and basic chlorination can also be used, although these are typically less common. One of the alternative oxidants for the degradation of cyanides that has been attracting industrial interest is Caros acid – peroxomonosulphuric acid, Caros acid converts cyanide to cyanate. Cyanate then hydrolyses in the water to ammonium and carbonate ions, the Caros acid process is able to achieve discharge levels of WAD below 50 mg/L, which is generally suitable for discharge to tailings. Over 90 mines worldwide now use an Inco SO2/air detoxification circuit to convert cyanide to the less toxic cyanate before waste is discharged to a tailings pond
36.
Cubic zirconia
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Cubic zirconia is the cubic crystalline form of zirconium dioxide. The synthesized material is hard, optically flawless and usually colorless and it should not be confused with zircon, which is a zirconium silicate. It is sometimes erroneously called cubic zirconium and its main competitor as a synthetic gemstone is a more recently cultivated material, synthetic moissanite. Cubic zirconia is crystallographically isometric, an important attribute of a diamond simulant. During synthesis zirconium oxide would naturally form monoclinic crystals, its stable form under normal atmospheric conditions, therefore, the physical and optical properties of synthesized CZ vary, all values being ranges. It is a substance, with a specific gravity between 5.6 and 6.0 — at least 1.6 times that of diamond. Cubic zirconia is relatively hard, 8–8.5 on the Mohs scale— slightly harder than most semi-precious natural gems and its refractive index is high at 2. 15–2.18 and its luster is adamantine. Its dispersion is very high at 0. 058–0.066, Cubic zirconia has no cleavage and exhibits a conchoidal fracture. Because of its hardness, it is generally considered brittle. Under shortwave UV cubic zirconia typically fluoresces a yellow, greenish yellow or beige, under longwave UV the effect is greatly diminished, with a whitish glow sometimes being seen. Colored stones may show a strong, complex rare earth absorption spectrum, discovered in 1892, the yellowish monoclinic mineral baddeleyite is a natural form of zirconium oxide. The high melting point of zirconia hinders controlled growth of single crystals, however, stabilization of cubic zirconium oxide had been realized early on, with the synthetic product stabilized zirconia introduced in 1929. Although cubic, it was in the form of a ceramic, it was used as a refractory material. In 1937, German mineralogists M. V. Stackelberg and K. Chudoba discovered naturally occurring cubic zirconia in the form of microscopic grains included in metamict zircon. This was thought to be a byproduct of the metamictization process, the discovery was confirmed through X-ray diffraction, proving the existence of a natural counterpart to the synthetic product. Its production eventually exceeded that of earlier synthetics, such as strontium titanate, synthetic rutile, YAG. Some of the earliest research into controlled single-crystal growth of cubic zirconia occurred in 1960s France, though promising, these attempts yielded only small crystals. Later, Soviet scientists under V. V. Osiko at the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow perfected the technique and they named the jewel Fianit after the institutes name FIAN, but the name was not used outside of the USSR
37.
Moissanite
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Moissanite is the name given to naturally occurring silicon carbide and to its various crystalline polymorphs. It has the chemical formula SiC and is a rare mineral, silicon carbide is useful for commercial and industrial applications due to its hardness, optical properties and thermal conductivity. Efforts to synthesize silicon carbide in a laboratory began in the late 1800s, mineral moissanite was discovered by Henri Moissan while examining rock samples from a meteor crater located in Canyon Diablo, Arizona, in 1893. At first, he identified the crystals as diamonds. Artificial silicon carbide had been synthesized in the lab by Edward G. Acheson just two years prior to Moissans discovery, the mineral form of silicon carbide was named moissanite in honor of Moissan later on in his life. The discovery in the Canyon Diablo meteorite and other places was challenged for a time as carborundum contamination from man-made abrasive tools. Until the 1950s no other source, apart from meteorites, had been encountered, later moissanite was found as inclusions in kimberlite from a diamond mine in Yakutia in 1959, and in the Green River Formation in Wyoming in 1958. The existence of moissanite in nature was questioned even in 1986 by Charles Milton, moissanite, in its natural form, is very rare. It has only been discovered in a variety of places from upper mantle rock to meteorites. Discoveries have shown that moissanite occurs naturally as inclusions in diamonds, xenoliths and they have also been identified in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites as presolar grains. Analysis of silicon carbide grains found in the Murchison meteorite has revealed anomalous isotopic ratios of carbon and silicon, 99% of these silicon carbide grains originate around carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch stars. Silicon carbide is found around these stars, as deduced from their infrared spectra. All applications of silicon carbide today use synthetic material, as the material is very scarce. Silicon carbide was first synthesized by Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who is best known for his discovery of silicon, years later, Edward Goodrich Acheson produced viable minerals that could substitute for diamond as an abrasive and cutting material. This was possible, as moissanite is one of the hardest substances known, with a hardness below that of diamond and comparable with those of boron nitride. Pure synthetic moissanite can be made from thermal decomposition of the polymer poly, requiring no binding matrix. The crystalline structure is held together with strong covalent bonding similar to diamonds, colors vary widely and are graded from D to K range on the diamond color grading scale. Charles & Colvard currently makes and distributes moissanite jewelry and loose gems under the trademarks Forever One, Forever Brilliant, other manufacturers market silicon carbide gemstones under trademarked names such as Amora and Berzelian
38.
E-commerce
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E-commerce is a transaction of buying or selling online. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at least one part of the life cycle although it may also use other technologies such as e-mail. 1979, Michael Aldrich demonstrates the first online shopping system,1981, Thomson Holidays UK is the first business-to-business online shopping system to be installed. 1982, Minitel was introduced nationwide in France by France Télécom,1983, California State Assembly holds first hearing on electronic commerce in Volcano, California. Testifying are CPUC, MCI Mail, Prodigy, CompuServe, Volcano Telephone and it is the first comprehensive electronic commerce service. 1989, In May 1989, Sequoia Data Corp, introduced Compumarket The first internet based system for e-commerce. Sellers and buyers could post items for sale and buyers could search the database,1990, Tim Berners-Lee writes the first web browser, WorldWideWeb, using a NeXT computer. 1992, Book Stacks Unlimited in Cleveland opens a sales website selling books online with credit card processing. 1993, Paget Press releases edition No.3 of the first app store, The Electronic AppWrapper 1994, Netscape 1.0 is introduced in late 1994 with SSL encryption that made transactions secure. 1994, Ipswitch IMail Server becomes the first software available online for sale,1994, Ten Summoners Tales by Sting becomes the first secure online purchase through NetMarket. 1995, The US National Science Foundation lifts its former strict prohibition of commercial enterprise on the Internet, the shopping service at launch featured W H Smith, Tesco, Virgin Megastores/Our Price, Great Universal Stores, Interflora, Dixons Retail, Past Times, PC World and Innovations. 1995, Jeff Bezos launches Amazon. com and the first commercial-free 24-hour, internet-only radio stations, Radio HK, eBay is founded by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb. 1996, IndiaMART B2B marketplace established in India,1996, ECPlaza B2B marketplace established in Korea. 1996, The use of Excalibur BBS with replicated Storefronts was an implementation of electronic commerce started by a group of SysOps in Australia. 1998, Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web,1999, Alibaba Group is established in China. Business. com sold for US $7.5 million to eCompanies, the peer-to-peer filesharing software Napster launches. ATG Stores launches to sell items for the home online. 2000, Complete Idiots Guide to E-commerce released on Amazon 2000,2001, Alibaba. com achieved profitability in December 2001
39.
Blue Nile (company)
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Blue Nile is an online specialty retailer of fine jewelry. Blue Nile was founded in 1999 and today is the largest online retailer of diamonds, the company that became Blue Nile began in 1995 when Doug Williams of Williams & Son Inc. of Seattle started a website to sell diamonds online. Vadon, then a management consultant at Bain & Company, purchased an engagement ring from the site in 1998. In 1999, Vadon raised $6 million to purchase 85% of the company, the company’s name was changed to Blue Nile in November 1999. During the next year, the company raised an additional $44 million, investors included Bessemer Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Blue Nile raised $76 million in its IPO on May 18,2004, bear Stearns Cos. and Thomas Weisel Partners LLC managed the IPO, sharing fees of $5.4 million. The initial public offering of shares in Blue Nile Inc, rose 39% in first-day trading, closing at $28.40, although the company had $44 million in revenue in 2000, it lost $30 million because it spent $40 million in television advertising. Its investors contributed an additional $7 million in 2001, in 2006, Blue Nile sold $197 million in engagement rings and wedding bands, compared to $186 million for Tiffany & Co. On Nov,8,2011, CEO Diane Irvine, who had been with the company for 12 years and its CEO since 2008, Irvine was replaced on an interim basis by senior vice president and general manager of international Vijay Talwar. In March 2012, Harvey Kanter, former CEO of MooseJaw, was named the new CEO, in 2015, Blue Nile reported net sales of US$473 million and net income of US$9.7 million. Blue Nile promotes itself as a supplier of ethically sourced diamonds, a group of investors including Bain Capital Private Equity, Bow Street and Adama Partners completed the acquisition of Blue Nile, on February 17,2017, for $40.75 per share. First announced on November 7,2016, shares of Blue Nile Inc. jumped 34%, the transaction was approved by company shareholders on February 2,2017. Trading in Blue Nile’s common stock on NASDAQ ended February 21
40.
Brilliant Earth
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Brilliant Earth is a company that designs and sells engagement rings and other jewelry which is certified as being ethically produced. According to Businessweek it has been influential in creating a market for ethically-sourced jewelry, the idea for Brilliant Earth was conceived in 2004 by two Stanford alumni, Beth Gerstein and Eric Grossberg. The two founded Brilliant Earth in August 2005, the companys website was launched in July 2006. The companys diamonds were initially sourced exclusively from the Diavik and Ekati mines in Canada, canadian mines are the industrys primary source of ethically mined diamonds, because the working conditions are regulated by the government. Since then Brilliant Earth has also started sourcing diamonds from Namibia, Africa and Botswana, Africa, Brilliant Earth uses recycled gold, silver and platinum materials or obtains them from co-ops that meet standards set by the Alliance for Responsible Mining. The companys sapphires are from either Australia or Malawi and it also sells vintage rings that have had previous owners. Brilliant Earth donates five percent of its profits to charities that help African communities affected by conflict diamonds and it also the concept of buying conflict-free diamonds that don’t contribute to warfare and dictatorships. Brilliant Earth sells jewelry via its website as well as in showrooms in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago
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Costco
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As of 2016, Costco was the worlds no.1 retailer of choice and prime beef, organic foods, rotisserie chicken, and wine. Costcos worldwide headquarters are in Issaquah, Washington, but the company opened its first warehouse in nearby Seattle in 1983, through mergers, Costcos overall corporate history dates back to 1976, when its former competitor Price Club was founded in San Diego, California. As of 9 February 2017, Costco had a total of 727 warehouses, spread throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, and Spain. Costco is known for offering low-price, limited-selection retail treasure hunts with expensive luxury goods next to cheap bulk goods, Costco opened its first warehouse in Seattle, Washington, on September 15,1983, by James Sinegal and Jeffrey H. Brotman. In 1993, Costco and Price Club agreed to merge operations themselves after Price declined an offer from Sam Walton and Walmart to merge Price Club with their warehouse store chain, Sams Club. Costcos business model and size were similar to those of Price Club, the combined company took the name PriceCostco, and memberships became universal, meaning that a Price Club member could use their membership to shop at Costco and vice versa. PriceCostco boasted 206 locations generating $16 billion in annual sales, in 1997, the company changed its name to Costco Wholesale Corporation and all remaining Price Club locations were rebranded as Costco. In 2014, Costco was the third largest retailer in the United States and that year Costco announced plans to open an online store in China using Alibaba Group. Costco today In the United States, Costcos main competitors operating membership warehouses are Sams Club, Costco employs about 174,000 full and part-time employees. In 2016, Costco had 85 million members, Costco was the first company to grow from zero to $3 billion in sales in under six years. For the fiscal year ending on August 31,2012, the companys sales totaled $97.062 billion, Costco is 18th on the 2015 Fortune 500. The ACSI named Costco number one in the specialty retail store industry with a score of 84 in 2014. As of December 2013, Costcos board of directors is chaired by co-founder Jeffrey H. Brotman, Costco focuses on selling products at low prices, often at very high volume. These goods are usually bulk-packaged and marketed primarily to families and businesses. Furthermore, Costco does not carry multiple brands or varieties where the item is essentially the same except when it has a brand to sell. This results in a volume of sales from a vendor, allowing further reductions in price. A typical Costco warehouse carries only 3,700 distinct products, if Costco management feels the wholesale price of a product is too high, they will refuse to stock the product. For example, on November 16,2009, Costco announced that it would stop selling Coca-Cola products because the soft-drink maker refused to lower its wholesale prices, Costco resumed selling Coca-Cola products on December 14,2009
