1.
Europe
–
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
Europe
–
Reconstruction of
Herodotus ' world map
Europe
Europe
–
A medieval
T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of
Noah — Asia to Sem (
Shem), Europe to Iafeth (
Japheth), and Africa to Cham (
Ham)
Europe
–
Early modern depiction of
Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical
Europa of the 8th century BC.
2.
Chalcolithic Europe
–
Chalcolithic Europe, the Chalcolithic period of Prehistoric Europe, lasted roughly from 3500 to 1700 BC. It was a period of Megalithic culture, the appearance of the first significant economic stratification, mining of metal and stone was particularly developed in some areas, along with the processing of those materials into valuable goods. From c.3500 to 3000 BC, copper started being used in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, however, perhaps more influential on the period than copper itself was the domestication of horses and the resulting increased mobility of cultures. This may be correlated with the fact of the spread of Indo-European languages. Near the end of the period, another branch would leave traces in the lower Danube area. Meanwhile, the Danubian Lengyel culture absorbed its northern neighbours of the Czech Republic and Poland over a number of centuries, in Bulgaria and Wallachia, the Boian-Marica culture evolved into a monarchy with a clearly royal cemetery near the coast of the Black Sea. This model seems to have been copied later in the Tiszan region with the culture of Bodrogkeresztur, labour specialization, economic stratification and possibly the risk of invasion may have been the reasons behind this development. The influx of early Troy is clear in both the expansion of metallurgy and social organization, in the western Danubian region the culture of Michelsberg displaced its predecessor, Rössen. Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean basin, several converged into a functional union. Despite this unity, the signs of conflicts are clear, as many skeletons show violent injuries and this was the time and area where Ötzi, the famous man found in the Alps, lived. This period extends along the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, most significant is the reorganization of the Danubians into the powerful Baden culture, which extended more or less to what would be the Austro-Hungarian Empire in recent times. The new Ezero culture, in Bulgaria, shows the first traits of pseudo-bronze, so does the first significant Aegean group, the Cycladic culture after 2800 BC. In the North, for some time the supposedly Indo-European groups seemed to recede temporarily, in the East, the peoples of beyond the Volga, surely eastern Indo-Europeans, ancestors of Iranians took over southern Russia and Ukraine. In the West the only sign of unity comes from the Megalithic super-culture, but the Mediterranean and Danubian groupings of the previous period appear fragmented into many smaller pieces, some of them apparently backward in technological matters. From c.2800 BC, the Danubian Seine-Oise-Marne culture pushed directly or indirectly southwards, despite the many differences the two civilizations seemed to be in friendly contact and to have productive exchanges. In the area of Dordogne, a new unexpected culture of bowmen appeared, the culture of Artenac, in Poland and nearby regions, the putative Indo-Europeans reorganized and consolidated again with the culture of the Globular Amphoras. Nevertheless, the influence of many centuries in direct contact with the still-powerful Danubian peoples had greatly modified their culture and this period extended from c.2500 BC to c.1800 or 1700 BC. The dates are general for the whole of Europe, and the Aegean area was fully in the Bronze Age
Chalcolithic Europe
–
Double spiral pin, c. 5000 BCE
Chalcolithic Europe
–
Reconstruction of
Ötzi 's copper axe.
3.
Globular Amphora culture
–
The Globular Amphora Culture, German Kugelamphoren-Kultur, ca. 3400–2800 BC, is a culture, thought to be of Indo-European origin. Somewhat to the south and west, it was bordered by the Baden culture, to the northeast was the Narva culture. It occupied much of the area as the earlier Funnelbeaker culture. The name was coined by Gustaf Kossinna because of the characteristic pottery and it was located in the area defined by the Elbe catchment on the west and that of the Vistula on the east, extending southwards to the middle Dniester and eastwards to reach the Dnieper. West of the Elbe, some globular amphorae are found in megalithic graves, the GAC finds in the Steppe area are normally attributed to a rather late expansion between 2950-2350 cal. BC from a centre in Wolhynia and Podolia, the economy was based on raising a variety of livestock, pigs particularly in its earlier phase, in distinction to the Funnelbeaker cultures preference for cattle. Settlements are sparse, and these normally just contain small clusters pits, no convincing house-plans have yet been excavated. It is suggested some of these settlements were not year-round. The GAC is primarily known from its burials, inhumation was in a pit or cist. A variety of offerings were left, including animal parts or even whole animals. Grave gifts include the typical globular amphorae and stone axes, there are also cattle-burials, often in pairs, accompanied by grave gifts. There are also burials in Megalithic graves. The inclusion of animals in the grave is seen as a cultural element by Marija Gimbutas. The practice of suttee, hypothesized by Gimbutas is also seen as an intrusive cultural element. The supporters of the Kurgan hypothesis point to these distinctive burial practices, in this context and given its area of occupation, this culture has been claimed as the underlying culture of a Germanic-Baltic-Slavic continuum. J. P. Mallory, Globular Amphora Culture, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, eastern exodus of the globular amphora people, 2950-2350 BC. Poznań, Adam Mickiewicz University, Institute of Prehistory 1996, Baltic-Pontic studies 4
Globular Amphora culture
–
Globular Amphora
Globular Amphora culture
–
Approximate extent of the Corded Ware horizon with adjacent 3rd millennium cultures (after
EIEC).
Globular Amphora culture
–
Globular Amphora tomb
4.
Corded Ware culture
–
Corded Ware culture encompassed a vast area, from the Rhine on the west to the Volga in the east, occupying parts of Northern Europe, Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The Corded Ware was genetically related to the Yamnaya culture. The Corded Ware culture may have disseminated the Proto-Germanic and Proto-Balto-Slavic Indo-European languages, the Corded Ware Culture also shows genetic affinity with the later Sintashta culture, where the proto-Indo-Iranian language originated. The term Corded Ware culture was first introduced by the German archaeologist Friedrich Klopfleisch in 1883 and he named it after cord-like impressions or ornamentation characteristic of its pottery. The term Single Grave culture comes from its burial custom, which consisted of inhumation under tumuli in a position with various artifacts. Battle Axe culture, or Boat Axe culture, is named from its characteristic grave offering to males, at the same time, they had several shared elements that are characteristic of all Corded Ware groups, such as their burial practices, pottery with cord decoration and unique stone-axes. The contemporary Beaker culture overlapped with the extremity of this culture, west of the Elbe. The origins and dispersal of Corded Ware culture was for a time one of the pivotal unresolved issues of the Indo-European Urheimat problem. Its wide area of distribution indicates rapid expansion at the time of the dispersal of Indo-European languages. Some archaeologists believed it sprang from central Europe while others saw an influence from nomadic societies of the steppes. In favour of the first view was the fact that Corded Ware coincides considerably with the earlier north-central European Funnelbeaker culture, according to Gimbutas, the Corded Ware culture was preceded by the Globular Amphora culture, which she regarded to be an Indo-European culture. The Globular Amphora culture stretched from central Europe to the Baltic sea, however, in other regions Corded Ware appears to herald a new culture and physical type. The degree to which cultural change generally represents immigration were matter of debate, according to controversial radiocarbon dates, Corded Ware ceramic forms in single graves develop earlier in the area that is now Poland than in western and southern Central Europe. The earliest radiocarbon dates for Corded Ware indeed come from Kujawy and Lesser Poland in central and southern Poland, whereas in the area of the present Baltic states and East Prussia, it is seen as an intrusive successor to the southwestern portion of the Narva culture. However, today Corded Ware is now seen as intrusive, though not necessarily aggressively so. A Genetic study conducted by Haak et al, about 75% of the DNA of late Neolithic Corded Ware skeletons found in Germany was a precise match to DNA from individuals of the Yamnaya culture. Haak et al. also note that their results suggest that haplogroups R1b and R1a spread into Europe from the East after 3,000 BCE.5 In terms of phenotypes, Wilde et al. and Haak et al. Autosomal DNA tests also indicate that the Yamnaya migration from the steppes introduced a component of ancestry referred to as Ancient North Eurasian admixture into Europe
Corded Ware culture
–
Boat-shaped battle axe from
Närke
Corded Ware culture
–
Corded Ware culture
Corded Ware culture
–
Corded ware pottery in the
Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Berlin). Ca. 2500 BC
Corded Ware culture
–
Late battle axe from
Gotland
5.
Chalcolithic
–
The Copper Age was originally defined as a transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The archaeological site of Belovode on the Rudnik mountain in Serbia contains the worlds oldest securely dated evidence of copper smelting from 5000 BCE, the multiple names result from multiple recognitions of the period. Originally, the term Bronze Age meant that either copper or bronze was being used as the hard substance for the manufacture of tools. In 1881, John Evans, recognizing that the use of copper often preceded the use of bronze and he did not include the transitional period in the tripartite system of Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age but placed it at the beginning outside of it. He did not, however, present it as a fourth age, in 1884, Gaetano Chierici, perhaps following the lead of Evans, renamed it in Italian as the Eneo-litica, or Bronze-stone transition. The phrase was never intended to mean that the period was the one in which both bronze and stone were used. The Copper Age features the use of copper, excluding bronze, moreover, litica simply names the Stone Age as the point from which the transition began and is not another -lithic age. Subsequently, British scholars used either Evanss Copper Age or the term Eneolithic, around 1900, many writers began to substitute Chalcolithic for Eneolithic, to avoid the false segmentation. It was then that the misunderstanding began among those who did not know Italian, the -lithic was seen as a new -lithic age, a part of the Stone Age in which copper was used, which may appear paradoxical. Today Copper Age, Eneolithic and Chalcolithic are used synonymously to mean Evanss original definition of Copper Age, there was an independent invention of copper and bronze smelting first by Andean civilizations in South America extended later by sea commerce to the Mesoamerican civilization in West Mexico. The literature of European archaeology, in general, avoids the use of Chalcolithic, the Copper Age in the Middle East and the Caucasus began in the late 5th millennium BCE and lasted for about a millennium before it gave rise to the Early Bronze Age. The transition from the European Copper Age to Bronze Age Europe occurs about the same time, an archaeological site in Serbia contains the oldest securely dated evidence of coppermaking from 7,500 years ago. In Serbia, an axe was found at Prokuplje, which indicates that humans were using metals in Europe by 7,500 years ago. Knowledge of the use of copper was far more widespread than the metal itself, the European Battle Axe culture used stone axes modeled on copper axes, even with imitation mold marks carved in the stone. Ötzi the Iceman, who was found in the Ötztal Alps in 1991, examples of Chalcolithic cultures in Europe include Vila Nova de São Pedro and Los Millares on the Iberian Peninsula. Pottery of the Beaker people has found at both sites, dating to several centuries after copper-working began there. The Beaker culture appears to have copper and bronze technologies in Europe. The term Chalcolithic is not generally used by British prehistorians, who disagree whether it applies in the British context, in Bhirrana, the earliest Indus civilization site, copper bangles and arrowheads were found
Chalcolithic
–
Painting of a Copper Age walled city,
Los Millares,
Iberia
Chalcolithic
–
Chalcolithic copper mine in
Timna Valley,
Negev Desert,
Israel
6.
Stone Age
–
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make implements with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 8700 BCE and 2000 BCE with the advent of metalworking, bone tools were used during this period as well but are rarely preserved in the archaeological record. The Stone Age is further subdivided by the types of tools in use. According to the age and location of the current evidence, the cradle of the genus is the East African Rift System, especially toward the north in Ethiopia, where it is bordered by grasslands. The closest relative among the living primates, the genus Pan, represents a branch that continued on in the deep forest. The rift served as a conduit for movement into southern Africa and also north down the Nile into North Africa and through the continuation of the rift in the Levant to the vast grasslands of Asia. The oldest indirect evidence found of stone tool use is fossilised animal bones with tool marks, the oldest stone tools were excavated from the site of Lomekwi 3 in West Turkana, northwestern Kenya, and date to 3.3 million years old. Prior to the discovery of these Lomekwian tools, the oldest known stone tools had been found at sites at Gona, Ethiopia, on the sediments of the paleo-Awash River. All the tools come from the Busidama Formation, which lies above a disconformity, or missing layer, the oldest sites containing tools are dated to 2. 6–2.55 mya. One of the most striking circumstances about these sites is that they are from the Late Pliocene, excavators at the locality point out that. the earliest stone tool makers were skilled flintknappers. The possible reasons behind this seeming abrupt transition from the absence of tools to the presence thereof include. The species who made the Pliocene tools remains unknown, fragments of Australopithecus garhi, Australopithecus aethiopicus and Homo, possibly Homo habilis, have been found in sites near the age of the Gona tools. Innovation of the technique of smelting ore ended the Stone Age, the first most significant metal manufactured was bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, each of which was smelted separately. The Chalcolithic by convention is the period of the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age, the transition out of the Stone Age occurred between 6000 BCE and 2500 BCE for much of humanity living in North Africa and Eurasia. Note the Rudna Glava mine in Serbia, Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy from about 3300 BCE carried with him a copper axe and a flint knife. In regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the Stone Age was followed directly by the Iron Age, the Middle East and southeastern Asian regions progressed past Stone Age technology around 6000 BCE. Europe, and the rest of Asia became post–Stone Age societies by about 4000 BCE, the proto-Inca cultures of South America continued at a Stone Age level until around 2000 BCE, when gold, copper and silver made their entrance
Stone Age
–
Obsidian projectile point
Stone Age
–
Modern
Awash River, Ethiopia, descendant of the Palaeo-Awash, source of the sediments in which the oldest Stone Age tools have been found
Stone Age
–
A variety of
stone tools
Stone Age
–
This is a Mode 1, or Oldowan,
stone tool from the western Sahara.
7.
Neolithic
–
It ended when metal tools became widespread. The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops, the beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant about 10, 200–8800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called proto-Neolithic is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic between 10,200 and 8800 BC. By 10, 200–8800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep. By about 6900–6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture, unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species reached the Neolithic. The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νέος néos, new and λίθος líthos, stone, the term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing in the 10th millennium BC, early development occurred in the Levant and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are attested in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia by around 8000 BC. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards, the Neolithic 1 period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity. At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have been found in Jericho, Israel, Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, the start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree. The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming, in the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour, emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated
Neolithic
–
An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools. Neolithic stone artifacts are by definition polished and, except for specialty items, not chipped.
Neolithic
–
Algerian cave paintings depicting hunting scenes
Neolithic
–
Female figure from
Tumba Madžari,
Republic of Macedonia
Neolithic
–
Skara Brae, Scotland. Evidence of home furnishings (shelves)
8.
Ancient Near East
–
The ancient Near East is studied in the fields of Near Eastern archaeology and ancient history. The ancient Near East is considered one of the cradles of civilization and it also saw the creation of the first writing system and law codes, early advances that laid the foundations of astronomy and mathematics, and the invention of the wheel. During the period, states became increasingly large, until by the end the region was controlled by military empires who had conquered a number of different cultures. The phrase ancient Near East utilizes the 19th-century distinction between Near East and Far East as global regions of interest to the British Empire, the distinction began during the Crimean War. The two theatres were described by the statesmen and advisors of the British Empire as the Near East, shortly, they were to share the stage with Middle East, which came to prevail in the 20th century and continues in modern times. Meanwhile, ancient Near East had become distinct, the Near East ruled by the Ottoman Empire ranged from Vienna to the north to the tip of the Arabian Peninsula to the south, from Egypt in the west to the borders of Iraq in the east. The 19th-century archaeologists added Iran to their definition, which was never under the Ottomans, but they excluded all of Europe and, generally, Egypt, which had parts in the empire. Ancient Near East periodization is the attempt to categorize or divide time into discrete named blocks, or eras, the result is a descriptive abstraction that provides a useful handle on Near East periods of time with relatively stable characteristics. Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia. It was followed by the Sumerian civilization, the late Uruk period saw the gradual emergence of the cuneiform script and corresponds to the Early Bronze Age. Sumer, located in southern Mesopotamia, is the earliest known civilization in the world, the Akkadian Empire, founded by Sargon the Great, lasted from the 24th to the 21st century BC, and was regarded by many as the worlds first Empire. The Akkadians eventually fragmented into Assyria and Babylonia, Ancient Elam lay to the east of Sumer and Akkad, in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of Khuzestan and Ilam Province. In the Old Elamite period, c.3200 BC, it consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered on Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered on Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Elam was absorbed into the Assyrian Empire in the 9th to 7th centuries BC, however, the Proto-Elamite civilization existed from c.3200 BC to 2700 BC, when Susa, the later capital of the Elamites, began to receive influence from the cultures of the Iranian plateau. In archaeological terms, this corresponds to the late Banesh period and this civilization is recognized as the oldest in Iran and was largely contemporary with its neighbour, the Sumerian civilization. The Proto-Elamite script is an Early Bronze Age writing system briefly in use for the ancient Elamite language before the introduction of Elamite Cuneiform, the Amorites were a nomadic Semitic people who occupied the country west of the Euphrates from the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. In the earliest Sumerian sources, beginning about 2400 BC, the land of the Amorites is associated with the West, including Syria and Canaan and they ultimately settled in Mesopotamia, ruling Isin, Larsa, and later Babylon. Assyria, after enduring a period of Mitanni domination, emerged as a great power from the accession of Ashur-uballit I in 1365 BC to the death of Tiglath-Pileser I in 1076 BC
Ancient Near East
–
Overview map of the ancient Near East
9.
Naqada culture
–
The Naqada culture is an archaeological culture of Chalcolithic Predynastic Egypt, named for the town of Naqada, Qena Governorate. A2013 Oxford University radio carbon dating study of the Predynastic period, however and its final phase, Naqada III, is coterminous with the so-called Protodynastic Period of Ancient Egypt. They also imported obsidian from Ethiopia to shape blades and other objects from flakes, charcoal samples found in the tombs of Nekhen, which were dated to the Naqada I and II periods, have been identified as cedar from Lebanon. Dental trait analysis of Naqada fossils found that they were related to other Afroasiatic-speaking populations inhabiting Northeast Africa. The Naqada skeletons and these ancient and recent fossils were also distinct from those belonging to recent Negroid populations in Sub-Saharan Africa
Naqada culture
–
Female figure with bird traits. Naqada II period, 3500-3400 BCE.
Brooklyn Museum
Naqada culture
–
Pre-dynastic Naqada cooking pot. Scientific analysis has shown that this pot once contained a meat stew with honey
10.
Uruk period
–
The Uruk period existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, following the Ubaid period and succeeded by the Jemdet Nasr period. Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia. It was followed by the Sumerian civilization, the late Uruk period saw the gradual emergence of the cuneiform script and corresponds to the Early Bronze Age, it may also be called the Protoliterate period. It was during this period that pottery painting declined as copper started to become popular, the term Uruk period was coined at a conference in Baghdad in 1930, where at the same time the Jemdet Nasr and Ubaid periods were defined. Periodization is after archaeological layers at Uruk, thus, Uruk XVIII–XIV are not part of the Uruk period proper but are comprised by the Ubaid period. The Uruk period proper corresponds to the layers Uruk XIV–IV, with the late phase Uruk IV lasting ca, Uruk III reaches up to 3000 BC and into the Early Dynastic period. Around 3600 BC, during the Middle Uruk period, Uruk trade networks started to expand to other parts of Mesopotamia, according to archaeologist Konstantine Pitskhelauri, this expansion started even earlier, at the end of the 5th millennium BC, and continued in the 4th millennium. Large masses of Uruk migrants settled in the South, and later in the North Caucasus, the sites in this general area include Habuba Kabira in Syria, and Arslantepe in Turkey. Uruk expansion to the northeast included sites like Godin Tepe in Iran, Tepe Gawra, in northwest Iraq, is another important site with deep stratigraphy that includes the Uruk period in later layers. Hamoukar is a site in northeastern Syria that has been recently excavated. Uruk enclaves have also identified at Tell Brak and Nineveh in northern Mesopotamia, and on the Syrian Euphrates at Qrayya. On the Euphrates in Anatolia, Uruk enclaves were found at Hassek Hoyuk, Samsat and these early city-states had strong signs of government organization, evident even in items such as cheap, mass-produced beveled rim bowls which were made to be discarded. These bowls may have handed out at community outings, such as large-scale constructions. The cities grew to cover up to 250 acres and supported up to 10, the Uruk world system, the dynamics of expansion of early Mesopotamian civilisation. Chicago, London, The University of Chicago Press Crawford, Harriet E. W. Sumer, the Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient. Lamb, Hubert H. Climate, History, and the Modern World, History of Mesopotamia History of Sumer Jawa
Uruk period
–
Uruk period
Uruk period
–
Cylinder-seal of the Uruk period, Louvre Museum
Uruk period
–
Geography
11.
Yamna culture
–
The Yamna culture, was a late Copper Age to early Bronze Age culture of the region between the Southern Bug, Dniester and Ural rivers, dating to 3500–2300 BC. The Yamna culture is identified with the late Proto-Indo-Europeans, and is the strongest candidate for the Urheimat of the Proto-Indo-European language, Yamna and Yamnaya are borrowed from Ukrainian, Ямна культура and Russian, Ямная культура respectively, and both mean pit-grave. The root in both cases is яма meaning pit, in these groups, there are present several aspects of the Yamna culture. Studies have also established that these populations derived large parts of their ancestry from the steppes, the Yamna culture originated in the Don-Volga area, and is dated 3300–2500 BC. It was preceded by the middle Volga-based Khvalynsk culture and the Don-based Repin culture, the early Yamnaya horizon spread quickly across the Pontic-Caspian steppes between ca.3400 and 3200 BC. According to Anthony, the spread of the Yamnaya horizon was the expression of the spread of late Proto-Indo-European across the Pontic-Caspian steppes. In its western range, it was succeeded by the Catacomb culture, in the east and these two cultures were followed by the Srubna culture. According to Jones et al. and Haak et al, each of those two populations contributed about half the Yamnaya DNA. Remains of the Eastern European hunter-gatherers have been found in Mesolithic or early Neolithic sites in Karelia and Samara Oblast, Russia, three such hunter-gathering individuals of the male sex have had their DNA results published. Each was found to belong to a different Y-DNA haplogroup, R1a, R1b, the Near East population were most likely hunter-gatherers from the Caucasus c. q. Iran Chalcolithic related people with a CHG-component, who descended from the early neolithic Zagros Farmers. Jones et al. analyzed genomes from males from western Georgia, in the Caucasus, from the Late Upper Palaeolithic and these two males carried Y-DNA haplogroup, J* and J2a. Their genomes showed that a mixture of the Caucasians with Middle Eastern took place up to 25,000 years ago. A population related to the people of the Iran Chalcolithic contributed ~43% of the ancestry of early Bronze Age populations of the steppe. According to Lazaridis et al. these Iranian Chalcolithic people were a mixture of the Neolithic people of western Iran, the Levant, the Yamna culture is identified with the late Proto-Indo-Europeans in the Kurgan hypothesis of Marija Gimbutas. Significantly, animal grave offerings were made, an associated with Proto-Indo-Europeans. The culture was nomadic, with some agriculture practiced near rivers. Characteristic for the culture are the inhumations in pit graves under kurgans, the dead bodies were placed in a supine position with bent knees and covered in ochre
Yamna culture
Yamna culture
–
Yamna culture
12.
Gaudo culture
–
It is sometimes described as an eneolithic culture, due to its use of primitive copper tools. This necropolis occupies about 2000 m² and contains 34 separate tombs and it was discovered late in the year 1943, during the Allied campaign in Italy, when the construction of the Gaudo Airfield unearthed some of the tombs. The tombs were accessed by a more or less circular shaft from above, at the bottom of which was a kind of vestibule or antechamber. There is evidence that the Gaudo funeral rites would have carried out by a team of people, and after the conclusion of the rites. The Gaudo people would apparently use tombs repeatedly, perhaps for different generations of people and it has been seen that the body of the most recently deceased would always be placed at the back of his burial chamber, with the previous tenants of that chamber placed beside him. These accessories were probably symbols of rank, study of the arrangement of bones and accompanying artifacts has led researchers to believe that the Gaudo society was structured into different family groups or warrior clans of some kind. Unfortunately, since the Gaudo people are known almost exclusively through their tombs, little is known about the other facets of their culture. Some other Gaudo sites are known throughout Campania however, such as what is thought to be a Gaudo dwelling in Taurasi, a large collection of Gaudo artifacts is on display at the National Archeological Museum of Paestum
Gaudo culture
–
Gaudo pot
Gaudo culture
–
An example of a Gaudo Culture tomb, made up of an access shaft with antechamber, from which branch off two burial chambers, containing ceremonial ceramics like the one pictured above, and human skeletons bound up in the fetal position.
13.
Monte Claro culture
–
The Monte Claro culture was a Chalcolithic culture that spread throughout the island of Sardinia around the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. It takes its name from a hill located in the city of Cagliari, archaeologists divide the Monte Claro culture into four facies, Sassari, Nuoro, Campidano Oristanese. Within each facies there are recognizable peculiarities that concern not only the culture but also the religious sphere. Its spread appears to have occurred through an expansion, which started from the South to the North of the island
Monte Claro culture
–
Monte Claro pottery
Monte Claro culture
–
Monte Baranta
14.
Central Asia
–
Central Asia stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China in the east and from Afghanistan in the south to Russia in the north. It is also referred to as the -stans as the five countries generally considered to be within the region all have names ending with the Persian suffix -stan. Central Asias five former Soviet republics are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Central Asia has historically been closely tied to its nomadic peoples and the Silk Road. It has acted as a crossroads for the movement of people, goods, the Silk Road connected Muslim lands with the people of Europe, India, and China. This crossroads position has intensified the conflict between tribalism and traditionalism and modernization, in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, Central Asia was predominantly Iranian, peopled by Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians and Chorasmians and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Parthians. Central Asia is sometimes referred to as Turkestan, the idea of Central Asia as a distinct region of the world was introduced in 1843 by the geographer Alexander von Humboldt. The borders of Central Asia are subject to multiple definitions, historically built political geography and geoculture are two significant parameters widely used in the scholarly literature about the definitions of the Central Asia. The most limited definition was the one of the Soviet Union. This definition was also used outside the USSR during this period. However, the Russian culture has two terms, Средняя Азия and Центральная Азия. Since then, this has become the most common definition of Central Asia, the UNESCO general history of Central Asia, written just before the collapse of the USSR, defines the region based on climate and uses far larger borders. An alternative method is to define the region based on ethnicity and these areas include Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Turkic regions of southern Siberia, the five republics, and Afghan Turkestan. Afghanistan as a whole, the northern and western areas of Pakistan, the Tibetans and Ladakhi are also included. Insofar, most of the peoples are considered the indigenous peoples of the vast region. Central Asia is a large region of varied geography, including high passes and mountains, vast deserts. The vast steppe areas of Central Asia are considered together with the steppes of Eastern Europe as a geographical zone known as the Eurasian Steppe. Much of the land of Central Asia is too dry or too rugged for farming, the Gobi desert extends from the foot of the Pamirs, 77° E, to the Great Khingan Mountains, 116°–118° E. Central Asia has the following geographic extremes, The worlds northernmost desert, at Buurug Deliin Els, Mongolia, the Northern Hemispheres southernmost permafrost, at Erdenetsogt sum, Mongolia, 46°17′ N
Central Asia
–
On the southern shore of Issyk Kul lake,
Issyk Kul Region.
Central Asia
–
Central Asia
Central Asia
–
Uzbek men from
Khiva, ca. 1861–1880
Central Asia
–
Kazakh man on a horse with golden eagle
15.
Afanasevo culture
–
The Afanasevo culture is the earliest Eneolithic archaeological culture found until now in south Siberia, occupying the Minusinsk Basin and the Altai Mountains from 3300 to 2500 BC. Afanasevan sites have also claimed for Mongolia and Western China. It is named after the town Afanaseva Gora, also known as Bateni, conventional archaeological understanding tended to date at around 2000–2500 BC. However radiocarbon gave dates as early as 3705 BC on wooden tools and 2874 BC on human remains, the earliest of these dates have now been rejected, giving a date of around 3300 BC for the start of the culture. Mass graves were not usual for this culture, Afanasevo cemeteries include both single and small collective burials with the deceased usually flexed on his back in a pit. The burial pits are arranged in rectangular, sometimes circular, enclosures marked by stone walls and it has been argued that the burials represent family burial plots with four or five enclosures constituting the local social group. The Afanasevo economy included cattle, sheep, and goat, horse remains, either wild or domestic, have also been found. The Afanasevo people became the first food-producers in the area, tools were manufactured from stone, bone and antler. Among the antler pieces are objects that have identified as possible cheek-pieces for horses. Artistic representations of wheeled vehicles found in the area has been attributed to the Afanasevo culture, ornaments of copper, silver and gold have also been found. At Afanasevo Gora, two strains of yersinia pestis have been extracted from dead mens teeth, one is dated 2909–2679 BCE, the other, 2887–2677 BCE. Both are from the grave of seven people, and are presumed near-contemporary. This strains genes express flagellin, which triggers the immune response. According to Allentoft et al. and Haak et al, Afanasevo were genetically indistinguishable from Yamnaya people, putative Proto-Indo-Europeans under the Kurgan hypothesis. Because of its geographical location and early existence, the Afanasevans have been connected to the Tocharian languages. Numerous scholars have suggested that the Afanasevo were responsible for the introduction of metallurgy to China, the Afanasevo culture was succeeded by the Okunev culture, which is considered as an extension of the local non-Indo-European forest culture into the region. The region was occupied by the Andronovo, Karasuk, Tagar and Tashtyk cultures. Allentoft et al. study also confirms that Afanasevo culture was replaced by second wave of Indo-European migrations from Andronovo culture during late Bronze Age, tarim mummies were also found to be genetically closer to Andronovo culture than to Yamnaya culture or Afanasevo culture
Afanasevo culture
–
The geographic area the Afanasevo culture covered
16.
Daimabad
–
This site was discovered by B. P. Bopardikar in 1958. It has been excavated three times so far by the Archaeological Survey of India teams, the first excavation in 1958-9 was carried out under the direction of M. N. Deshpande. The second excavation in 1974-5 was led by S. R. Rao, finally, the excavations between 1975-6 and 1978-9 were carried out under the direction of S. A. Sali. Discoveries at Daimabad suggest that Late Harappan culture extended into the Deccan Plateau in India, Daimabad is famous for the recovery of many bronze goods, some of which were influenced by the Harappan culture. There is a break in occupation for about half-a-century between the Phase II and Phase III, the houses of this phase in Daimabad were of mud walls with rounded end, trilateral, of single room, two rooms and three rooms, with hearths, storage pits and jars. Sometimes there were courtyards in front and in one place, a lane has been traced, the plant remains included barley, lentil, common pea, grass pea and black gram/green gram. The excavation yielded copper-bronze rings, beads of shell, terracotta, carnelian and agate, microliths, tanged arrowheads of bone and stone mullers, a phallus-shaped object made of agate was found inside a house. The ware of this phase was of fabric, made on slow wheel and treated with a thick slip showing crackles and turned light-brown, chocolate, red. It was mostly painted in ochre-red colour and only a few cases in black, the burnished grey ware, the black burnished corrugated ware and the handmade thick coarse red ware with incised and applied decorations were the other ceramics found. During this phase, the size of the settlement increased to about 20 ha, most of the walls of the houses were destroyed by later disturbances. The walls were made of clay with their foundations in the black soil. Large patches of finely plastered floors were found in some of the houses, the houses were arranged on either side of a 30–50 cm thick wall made of black clay. A mud-brick lined grave was found within the deposit, consisting of a skeleton laid out in an extended position. The body seems to have been covered with reeds of fibrous plants. The main ware was a red ware with linear and geometric designs painted on it in black pigment. Its shape included dishes-on-stand, bowls-on-stand, dishes and vases, the most significant discoveries from this phase were two terracotta button-shaped seals with Harappan writings and four inscribed potshreds. Other artifacts found included stone tools such as blades, beads of gold, stone and terracotta, bangles of shell. The plant remains were same as Phase I, except horse gram, the typical pottery of this phase was a black-on-buff-and-cream ware, mainly a slow-wheel-made ceramic, fast-wheel-turned examples
Daimabad
–
Bull racing, late Harappa figure from Daimabad hoard
17.
Jorwe
–
Jorwe is a village and an archaeological site located on the Pravara, a tributary of the Godavari River in Sangamner taluka of Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra state in India. This site was excavated in 1950-51 under the direction of Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia and it has historical background in Indian independence movement. Bhausaheb Thorat, known freedom fighter and milestone of Late Bhausaheb Thorat Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Ltd, as in the preceding culture, it was characterised by a distinct type of painted pottery, a blade-flake industry of chalcedony, as well as tools and ornaments of copper. However, due to the scarcity of the metal, copper was used sparingly and their mixed economy was based on agriculture, stock-raising, hunting and fishing. They cultivated a variety of crops, including cereals and they practised crop rotation because it gave them the facility of irrigation - clear evidence of that has been unearthed at Inamgaon, near Pune. The people of Jorwe lived in rectangular houses with wattle and daub walls. They stored grain in bins and pit silos, cooked food in two armed chulas inside the house and roasted animals in a fire pit in the courtyard. They worshipped a goddess associated with fertility and another headless deity. They believed in life after death, and therefore interred the dead inside the house under the floor, children were buried in two urns that were joined mouth-to-mouth and set horizontally in the pit, while adults were placed in a supine position with the head towards the North. Before the ceremonial burial, the feet were chopped off, possibly because of the fear of the turning into ghosts
Jorwe
–
History
18.
List of Neolithic cultures of China
–
This is a list of Neolithic cultures of China that have been unearthed by archaeologists. They are sorted in order from earliest to latest and are followed by a schematic visualization of these cultures. It would seem that the definition of Neolithic in China is undergoing changes, the discovery in 2012 of pottery about 20,000 years BP indicates that this measure alone can no longer be used to define the period. It will fall to the difficult task of determining when cereal domestication started. These cultures are brought together schematically for the period 8500 to 1500 BC, Neolithic cultures remain unmarked and Bronze Age cultures are marked with *. Northwest China, Gansu, Qinghai and western part of Shaanxi, north-central China, Shanxi, Hebei, western part of Henan and eastern part of Shaanxi. This is called the North China Plain, until recently seen as where Chinese civilization originated from, eastern China, Shandong, Anhui, northern part of Jiangsu and eastern part Henan. East-south-eastern China, Zhejiang and biggest part of Jiangsu, south-central China, Hubei and northern part of Hunan. Southeast China, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, southern part of Hunan, lower Red River in the part of Vietnam. Loewe, Michael en Edward L. Shaughnessy, The Cambridge History of Ancient China, from the Origins of Civilization to 221 B. C. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999, ISBN 0-521-47030-7, trajectories to Early States, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004, ISBN 0-521-81184-8. Maisels, Charles Keith, Early Civilizations of the Old World, the Formative Histories of Egypt, The Levant, Mesopotamia, India and China, Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-10976-0. World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies, Thames & Hudson, London 2005, chapter 7, Higham, Charles, East Asian Agriculture and Its Impact, p. 234-264. Chapter 15, Higham, Charles, Complex Societies of East and Southeast Asia, p. 552-594 Media related to Neolithic cultures of China at Wikimedia Commons
List of Neolithic cultures of China
–
Map of the Chinese Neolithic
19.
Metallurgy in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
–
Metal items crafted throughout Mesoamerica may be broken into three classes, utilitarian objects, objects used for individual ornamentation, and ceremonial/ritual objects. The latter two comprise the bulk of distinctly Mesoamerican artifacts, with metals playing a particularly important role in the sacred. Owing largely to its proximity to southern centers of metallurgy, the Southern Maya area appears to have been an early locus of metal working in Mesoamerica. West Mexican smiths worked primarily in copper during the period, with some low-arsenic alloys, as well as occasional employment of silver. Lost-wax cast bells were introduced from lower Central America and Colombia during this phase, along with classes of cold-worked ornaments and hand tools, such as needles. The prototypes for these small, often utilitarian items appear rooted in southern Ecuador, small copper rings, generally found in burial contexts, are also common to Ecuador and Western Mexico and are abundant during this phase. Excavated assemblages from the initial phase indicate that lost-wax cast bells also occupied a portion of West Mexican artisans efforts. Unlike similar bells recovered from coastal Ecuador, West Mexican bells were cast, rather than worked, Metal smiths demonstrated increasing technical sophistication, producing both utilitarian and status-linked items. During the latter phase, Michoacán emerged as a hub, with metal artifacts also appearing at the adjacent zones of Guerrero. Alloys became more prevalent during the phase, as metal workers experimented with color, strength. Formerly utilitarian assemblages transformed, with new focus placed upon metallic status objects, further, the appearance of a copper-tin bronze alloy suggests contact between West Mexico and Peru during this period. However, many of the concentrations used in West Mexico appear to reflect local innovation. The rather late emergence of metallurgy in ancient Mesoamerica likely contributed to its novelty, Metal smiths in pre-Columbian West Mexico particularly exploited the brilliance inherent in metallic sound and sheen, suggesting that their creations tended to occupy a sacred and symbolic space. Metallic colors, gold and silver, might have connected with solar and lunar deities while bell sounds have been associated with fertility rituals. Chihuahua Tumbaga Traditional copper work in Mexico Axe-monies Hosler, Dorothy, Ancient West Mexican Metallurgy, South and Central American Origins and West Mexican Transformations. Sound, color and meaning in the metallurgy of Ancient West Mexico, Pendergast, David M. Metal Artifacts in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. Simmons, Scott E. David M. Pendergast and Elizabeth Graham, Maya Metals, The Context and Significance of Copper Artifacts in Postclassic and Early Historic Lamanai, Belize. The Maya Archaeometallurgy Project at Lamanai, Belize
Metallurgy in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
–
Copper bells, axe heads and ornaments from various parts of Chiapas (1200-1500) on display at the Regional Museum in
Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas.
Metallurgy in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
–
Gold pendants in the shape of heads,
Mixtec or
Aztec, ca 1400-1515,
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
20.
Metallurgy during the Copper Age in Europe
–
Roughly, the Copper Age could be situated chronologically between the 5th and 6th millennium BC in places like the archaeological sites of Majdanpek, Јarmovac and Pločnik. Somewhat later, in 5th millennium BC, metalwork is attested at Rudna Glava mine in Serbia, 3rd millennium BC copper metalwork is attested in places like Palmela, Cortes de Navarra, and Stonehenge. However, as happens with the prehistoric times, the limits of the age cannot be clearly defined. The theory that metallurgy was imported into Europe from the Near East has been ruled out. Nowadays, the opinion is that the development of metallurgy took place independently in different places, at different times. One fact that supports this interpretation is that, although the products are quite similar throughout Europe. Consequently, the way in which metallurgy was initiated differs considerably depending on the region, there are areas in which copper seems to play a crucial role, whereas other areas show no interest in it at all. Then there are societies that use copper artifacts but do not practice metallurgy, Copper is the eighth most abundant metal in the Earths crust, available all over the world and one of the few that can appear in pure state. It is not complicated to work with, a bare hammering can be enough to transform a nugget into a bead. The eye-catching look of the native copper makes it easy to recognize, and even if converted into jewelry. An evolutive technological process has been described, although there are authors like Javinovic who think that it is not necessary to pass through the first stages to reach the last one, to start with, the raw material must be obtained. Copper can be found in over 160 different minerals, but mining activities are entailed to obtain them in large quantities if a reasonable amount of copper is wanted. Some of the most commonly exploited minerals are cuprite, malachite, azurite, chalcopyrite, chrysocolla and tennantite, e. g. malachite was extracted in Rudna Glava, secondly, the mineral is separated from the gangue. This is only possible by smelting or beneficiation, to do so, it is necessary to use a furnace that is able to reach at least 1,089 °C. Lastly, a range of specific tools and resources have to be available, such as furnaces, moulds, crucibles, mauls. Stage A, Although native copper nowadays is frequently displayed in museum showcases of mineral collections, in Cyprus or Crete, collecting the mineral was once as easy as simply picking it up from the ground. In fact, native copper is no longer as easy to find in that state these days, the treatment of this native mineral was also uncomplicated through cold-hammering. This only permitted the production of a range of artifacts like awls, pins
Metallurgy during the Copper Age in Europe
–
Reconstruction of
Ötzi 's copper axe (c. 3300 BC)
Metallurgy during the Copper Age in Europe
–
Sample of native copper.
Metallurgy during the Copper Age in Europe
–
Polished
chrysocolla.
Metallurgy during the Copper Age in Europe
–
Male tomb of Varna (Bulgaria). 5th millennium BC.
21.
Wheel
–
A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle bearing. The wheel is one of the components of the wheel. Wheels, in conjunction with axles, allow heavy objects to be moved easily facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, wheels are also used for other purposes, such as a ships wheel, steering wheel, potters wheel and flywheel. Common examples are found in transport applications, a wheel greatly reduces friction by facilitating motion by rolling together with the use of axles. In order for wheels to rotate, a moment needs to be applied to the wheel about its axis, cognates within Indo-European include Icelandic hjól wheel, tyre, Greek κύκλος kúklos, and Sanskrit chakra, the latter both meaning circle or wheel. The invention of the falls into the late Neolithic. Note that this implies the passage of several wheel-less millennia even after the invention of agriculture and of pottery, precursors of wheels, known as tournettes or slow wheels, were known in the Middle East by the 5th millennium BCE. These were made of stone or clay and secured to the ground with a peg in the center, but required effort to turn. True potters wheels were apparently in use in Mesopotamia by 3500 BCE and possibly as early as 4000 BCE, and the oldest surviving example, which was found in Ur, dates to approximately 3100 BCE. The earliest well-dated depiction of a vehicle is on the Bronocice pot. The oldest securely dated real wheel-axle combination, that from Stare Gmajne near Ljubljana in Slovenia is now dated in 2σ-limits to 3340–3030 BCE, the axle to 3360–3045 BCE. Two types of early Neolithic European wheel and axle are known, a type of wagon construction. They both are dated to c, in China, the wheel was certainly present with the adoption of the chariot in c.1200 BCE, although Barbieri-Low argues for earlier Chinese wheeled vehicles, c.2000 BC. In Britain, a wooden wheel, measuring about 1 m in diameter, was uncovered at the Must Farm site in East Anglia in 2016. The specimen, dating from 1, 100–800 years BCE, represents the most complete, the wheels hub is also present. A horses spine found nearby suggests the wheel may have part of a horse-drawn cart. The wheel was found in a settlement built on stilts over wetland and it is thought that the primary obstacle to large-scale development of the wheel in the Americas was the absence of domesticated large animals which could be used to pull wheeled carriages. The only large animal that was domesticated in the Western hemisphere, Nubians from after about 400 BCE used wheels for spinning pottery and as water wheels
Wheel
–
Three wheels on an antique
tricycle
Wheel
–
A depiction of an
onager -drawn cart on the
Sumerian "battle standard of
Ur " (c. 2500 BC)
Wheel
–
A figurine featuring the
New World 's independently invented wheel
Wheel
–
An
aluminium alloy wheel
22.
Domestication of the horse
–
A number of hypotheses exist on many of the key issues regarding the domestication of the horse. Although horses appeared in Paleolithic cave art as early as 30,000 BCE, how and when horses became domesticated is disputed. The clearest evidence of use of the horse as a means of transport is from chariot burials dated c.2000 BCE. Regardless of the date of domestication, use of horses spread rapidly across Eurasia for transportation, agricultural work. The date of the domestication of the horse depends to some degree upon the definition of domestication, some zoologists define domestication as human control over breeding, which can be detected in ancient skeletal samples by changes in the size and variability of ancient horse populations. Other researchers look at evidence, including skeletal and dental evidence of working activity, weapons, art, and spiritual artifacts. There is also evidence that horses were kept as meat animals prior to being trained as working animals, attempts to date domestication by genetic study or analysis of physical remains rests on the assumption that there was a separation of the genotypes of domesticated and wild populations. Further, all modern horse populations retain the ability to revert to a state, and all feral horses are of domestic types. Regardless of the date of domestication, use of horses spread rapidly across Eurasia for transportation, agricultural work. A2005 study analyzed the mitochondrial DNA of a range of equids, from 53. A more detailed analysis of the true horses grouped them into two major clades, one of these clades, which seemed to have been restricted to North America, is now extinct. The other clade was broadly distributed from North America to central Europe and it became extinct in Beringia around 14,200 years ago, and in the rest of the Americas around 10,000 years ago. This clade survived in Eurasia, however, and it is from these horses which all domestic horses appear to have descended and these horses showed little phylogeographic structure, probably reflecting their high degree of mobility and adaptability. Therefore, the horse today is classified as Equus ferus caballus. No genetic originals of native wild horses currently exist, other than the never-domesticated Przewalskis Horse, the Przewalski has 66 chromosomes, however, as opposed to 64 among modern domesticated horses, and their Mitochondrial DNA forms a distinct cluster. The horses of the Ice Age were hunted for meat in Europe and across the Eurasian steppes, numerous kill sites exist and many cave paintings in Europe indicate what they looked like. However, more recent study indicates that there was only one wild species and this prototype may have contributed to the development of the warmblood horses of northern Europe, as well as older heavy horses such as the Ardennais. The Oriental subspecies, a taller, slim, refined and agile animal arising in Western Asia, adapted to hot and it is thought to be the progenitor of the modern Arabian horse and Akhal-Teke
Domestication of the horse
–
A 'bred back'
Heck Horse, closely resembling the now-extinct
Tarpan, a subspecies of wild horse extant at the time of original domestication.
Domestication of the horse
–
Replica of a horse painting from a cave in Lascaux
Domestication of the horse
–
Equus caballus germanicus front leg, teeth and upper jaw at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
Domestication of the horse
–
The
Hyksos, c. 1600 BCE
23.
Bronze Age
–
The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
Bronze Age
–
Chalcolithic copper mine in
Timna Valley,
Negev Desert,
Israel.
Bronze Age
–
Diffusion of metallurgy in
Europe and
Asia Minor. The darkest areas are the oldest.
Bronze Age
–
A
Shang Dynasty two-handled bronze gefuding gui (1600–1046 BC).
Bronze Age
–
Spring and Autumn Period pu bronze vessel with interlaced
dragon design (722–481 BC)
24.
German language
–
German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
German language
–
Old Frisian (Alt-Friesisch)
German language
–
The widespread popularity of the
Bible translated into German by
Martin Luther helped establish modern German
German language
–
Examples of German language in
Namibian everyday life
German language
–
German-language newspapers in the U.S. in 1922
25.
Dutch language
–
It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after English and German. Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English and is said to be roughly in between them, Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic and incorporates more Romance loans than German but far fewer than English. In both Belgium and the Netherlands, the official name for Dutch is Nederlands, and its dialects have their own names, e. g. Hollands, West-Vlaams. The use of the word Vlaams to describe Standard Dutch for the variations prevalent in Flanders and used there, however, is common in the Netherlands, the Dutch language has been known under a variety of names. It derived from the Old Germanic word theudisk, one of the first names used for the non-Romance languages of Western Europe. It literarily means the language of the people, that is. The term was used as opposed to Latin, the language of writing. In the first text in which it is found, dating from 784, later, theudisca appeared also in the Oaths of Strasbourg to refer to the Germanic portion of the oath. This led inevitably to confusion since similar terms referred to different languages, owing to Dutch commercial and colonial rivalry in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English term came to refer exclusively to the Dutch. A notable exception is Pennsylvania Dutch, which is a West Central German variety called Deitsch by its speakers, Jersey Dutch, on the other hand, as spoken until the 1950s in New Jersey, is a Dutch-based creole. In Dutch itself, Diets went out of common use - although Platdiets is still used for the transitional Limburgish-Ripuarian Low Dietsch dialects in northeast Belgium, Nederlands, the official Dutch word for Dutch, did not become firmly established until the 19th century. This designation had been in use as far back as the end of the 15th century, one of them was it reflected a distinction with Hoogduits, High Dutch, meaning the language spoken in Germany. The Hoog was later dropped, and thus, Duits narrowed down in meaning to refer to the German language. g, in English, too, Netherlandic is regarded as a more accurate term for the Dutch language, but is hardly ever used. Old Dutch branched off more or less around the same time Old English, Old High German, Old Frisian and Old Saxon did. During that period, it forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, on the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in nowadays France and Germany. The division in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, one of the few moments linguists can detect somewhat of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in the pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age, the Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups, East, West, and North Germanic. They remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration Period, Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, Scots, Frisian, Low German and High German
Dutch language
–
The Utrecht baptismal vow Forsachistu diobolae...
Dutch language
–
Distribution of the Dutch language and its dialects in
Western Europe
Dutch language
–
Second edition of this column decorated with a title of
Charles V 's portrait, with archaic Dutch inscriptions
Dutch language
–
Dutch language street sign in the Netherlands
26.
Archaeological culture
–
An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place, which may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between the artifacts is based on understanding and interpretation and does not necessarily relate to real groups of humans in the past. The concept of culture is fundamental to culture-historical archaeology. Different cultural groups have material culture items which differ both functionally and aesthetically due to varying cultural and social practices and this notion is observably true on the broadest scales. For example, the equipment associated with the brewing of tea varies greatly across the world, social relations to material culture often include notions of identity and status. The classic definition of this comes from Gordon Childe, We find certain types of remains - pots, implements, ornaments, burial rites. Such a complex of associated traits we shall call a group or just a culture. We assume that such a complex is the expression of what today we would call a people. The concept of a culture was crucial to linking the typological analysis of archaeological evidence to mechanisms that attempted to explain why they change through time. The key explanations favoured by culture-historians were the diffusion of forms from one group to another or the migration of the peoples themselves. Conversely, if one pottery-type suddenly replaces a great diversity of types in an entire region. Archaeological cultures were generally equated with separate peoples leading in some cases to distinct nationalist archaeologies, most archaeological cultures are named after either the type artifact or type site that defines the culture. For example, cultures may be named after pottery types such as Linear Pottery Culture or Funnelbeaker culture, more frequently, they are named after the site at which the culture was first defined such as the Halstatt culture or Clovis culture. Since the term culture has different meanings, scholars have also coined a more specific term paleo-culture or paleoculture. Works of Kulturgeschichte were produced by a number of German scholars, particularly Gustav Klemm, from 1780 onwards, the first use of culture in an archaeological context was in Christian Thomsens 1836 work Ledetraad til Nordisk Oldkyndighed. It was not until the 20th century and the works of German prehistorian, Kossinna saw the archaeological record as a mosaic of clearly defined cultures that were strongly associated with race. The strongly racist character of Kossinnas work meant it had direct influence outside of Germany at the time. However, the general culture history approach to archaeology that he began did replace social evolutionism as the dominant paradigm for much of the 20th century
Archaeological culture
–
Taiwanese tea kettle
Archaeological culture
–
British Denby tea set
Archaeological culture
–
Russian decorated
samovar
27.
Mesolithic
–
In archaeology, the Mesolithic is the culture between Paleolithic and Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used for areas outside northern Europe, Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It was originally post-Pleistocene, pre-agricultural material in northwest Europe about 10,000 to 5000 BC, in the archaeology of Northern Europe, for example for archaeological sites in Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Ukraine, and Russia, the term Mesolithic is almost always used. In the archaeology of other areas, the term Epipaleolithic may be preferred by most authors, in the New World, neither term is used. Other authors use the term Mesolithic for a variety of Late Paleolithic cultures subsequent to the end of the last glacial period whether they are transitional towards agriculture or not, conversely, those that are in course of transition toward artificial food production are assigned to the Mesolithic. Therefore, care must be taken in translating Mesolithic as Middle Stone Age, subdivisions of earlier and later were added to the Stone Age by Thomsen and especially his junior colleague and employee Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae. John Lubbock kept these divisions in his work Pre-historic Times in 1865 and he saw no need for an intermediate category. When Hodder Westropp introduced the Mesolithic in 1866, as an intermediate between Paleolithic and Neolithic, a storm of controversy immediately arose around it. A British school led by John Evans denied any need for an intermediate, the ages blended together like the colors of a rainbow, he said. A European school led by Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet asserted that there was a gap between the earlier and later, edouard Piette claimed to have filled the gap with his discovery of the Azilian Culture. Knut Stjerna offered an alternative in the Epipaleolithic, a continuation of the use of Paleolithic technology, the start and end dates of the Mesolithic vary by geographical region. Childes view prevails that the term covers the period between the end of the Pleistocene and the start of the Neolithic. If the Mesolithic is more similar to the Paleolithic it is called the Epipaleolithic, the Paleolithic was an age of purely hunting and gathering while in the Neolithic domestication of plants and animals had occurred. Some Mesolithic peoples continued with intensive hunting, others were practising the initial stages of domestication. The type of remains the diagnostic factor, The Mesolithic featured composite devices manufactured with Mode V chipped stone tools. The Paleolithic had utilized Modes I–IV and the Neolithic mainly abandoned the chipped microliths in favor of polished, not chipped, the first period, known as Mesolithic 1, followed the Aurignacian or Levantine Upper Paleolithic periods throughout the Levant. By the end of the Aurignacian, gradual changes took place in stone industries, small stone tools called microliths and retouched bladelets can be found for the first time. The microliths of this period differ greatly from the Aurignacian artifacts
Mesolithic
–
Mesolithic microliths
Mesolithic
–
Two skeletons of women aged between 25 and 35 years, dated between 6740 and 5680 BP, both of whom died a violent death. Found at
Téviec,
France in 1938.
28.
Elbe
–
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia, then Germany and its total length is 1,094 kilometres. The Elbes major tributaries include the rivers Vltava, Saale, Havel, Mulde, Schwarze Elster, the Elbe river basin, comprising the Elbe and its tributaries, has a catchment area of 148,268 square kilometres, the fourth largest in Europe. The basin spans four countries, with its largest parts in Germany, much smaller parts lie in Austria and Poland. The basin is inhabited by 24.5 million people, the Elbe rises at an elevation of about 1,400 metres in the Krkonoše on the northwest borders of the Czech Republic near Labská bouda. Of the numerous small streams whose waters compose the infant river, here the Elbe enters the vast vale named Polabí, and continues on southwards through Hradec Králové and then to Pardubice, where it turns sharply to the west. At Kolín some 43 kilometres further on, it bends gradually towards the north-west, at the village of Káraný, a little above Brandýs nad Labem, it picks up the Jizera. At Mělník its stream is more than doubled in volume by the Vltava, or Moldau, upstream from the confluence the Vltava is in fact much longer, and has a greater discharge and a larger drainage basin. Some distance lower down, at Litoměřice, the waters of the Elbe are tinted by the reddish Ohře, in its northern section both banks of the Elbe are characterised by flat, very fertile marshlands, former flood plains of the Elbe now diked. At Magdeburg there is a viaduct, the Magdeburg Water Bridge, from the sluice of Geesthacht on downstream the Elbe is subject to the tides, the tidal Elbe section is called the Low Elbe. Within the city-state the Unterelbe has a number of streams, such as Dove Elbe, Gose Elbe, Köhlbrand, Northern Elbe, Reiherstieg. Some of which have been disconnected for vessels from the stream by dikes. In 1390 the Gose Elbe was separated from the stream by a dike connecting the two then-islands of Kirchwerder and Neuengamme. The Dove Elbe was diked off in 1437/38 at Gammer Ort and these hydraulic engineering works were carried out to protect marshlands from inundation, and to improve the water supply of the Port of Hamburg. The Northern Elbe passes the Elbe Philharmonic Hall and is then crossed under by the old Elbe Tunnel, a bit more downstream the Low Elbes two main anabranches Northern Elbe and the Köhlbrand reunite south of Altona-Altstadt, a locality of Hamburg. Right after both anabranches reunited the Low Elbe is passed under by the New Elbe Tunnel, the last structural road link crossing the river before the North Sea. At the bay Mühlenberger Loch in Hamburg at kilometre 634, the Northern Elbe and the Southern Elbe used to reunite, leaving the city-state the Lower Elbe then passes between Holstein and the Elbe-Weser Triangle with Stade until it flows into the North Sea at Cuxhaven. Near its mouth it passes the entrance to the Kiel Canal at Brunsbüttel before it debouches into the North Sea, the Elbe has been navigable by commercial vessels since 1842, and provides important trade links as far inland as Prague
Elbe
–
The Elbe (Labe) near Děčín, Czech Republic
Elbe
–
The middle Elbe in the
North German Plain near the village of
Gorleben. In this section, the river had been part of the
Iron Curtain between West and East Germany during the
Cold War. For that reason, the riverbanks even today look relatively natural and undeveloped.
Elbe
–
View of the River Elbe in
Saxon Switzerland, an area in Germany.
Elbe
–
The Elbe passing
Dresden.
29.
Vistula
–
The Vistula is the longest and largest river in Poland, at 1,047 kilometres in length. The drainage basin area of the Vistula is 194,424 km2, the remainder is in Belarus, Ukraine and Slovakia. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in the south of Poland,1,220 meters above sea level in the Silesian Beskids, where it begins with the White Little Vistula and the Black Little Vistula. It empties into the Vistula Lagoon or directly into the Gdańsk Bay of the Baltic Sea with a delta, the name was first recorded by Pomponius Mela in AD40 and by Pliny in AD77 in his Natural History. Mela names the river Vistula, Pliny uses Vistla, the root of the name Vistula is Indo-European *u̯eis- to ooze, flow slowly and is found in many European rivernames. The diminutive endings -ila, -ula, were used in many Indo-European languages, in writing about the Vistula River and its peoples, Ptolemy uses the Greek spelling Ouistoula. Other ancient sources spell it Istula, ammianus Marcellinus refers to the Bisula, note the absence of the -t-. Jordanes uses Viscla, while the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith refers to it as the Wistla, the Vistula river basin covers 194,424 square kilometres, its average altitude rising to 270 metres above sea level. In addition, the majority of its basin is located at heights of 100 to 200 m above sea level. The highest point of the basin lies at 2,655 metres. The asymmetry of the basin is 73–27%. The most recent glaciation of the Pleistocene epoch, which ended around 10,000 BC, is called the Vistulian glaciation or Weichselian glaciation in regard to north-central Europe. The river forms a delta called the Żuławy Wiślane around the town of Biała Góra near Sztum, about 50 km from the mouth. In the city of Gdańsk the Head of the Leniwka branch separates again into the Szkarpawa branch, the so-called Dead Wisła divides again into the Przegalinie branch flowing into Gdańsk Bay. Until the 14th century the Vistula was divided into an eastern branch, the Elbląg Vistula, and the smaller western branch. Since 1371 the Vistula of Gdańsk is the main artery. After the flood in 1840 an additional branch formed called the Śmiała Wisła, in 1890 through 1895, additional waterworks were carried out up the Świbna. The history of the River Vistula and her valley spans over 2 million years, the river is connected to the geological period called the Quaternary, in which distinct cooling of the climate took place
Vistula
–
Confluence of the
Narew and the Vistula at
Modlin,
Poland
Vistula
–
Vistula River in the vicinity of
Płock, Poland
Vistula
–
Vistula River flowing through
Kraków, Poland
Vistula
–
Medieval
Wawel Castle in
Kraków seen from the Vistula river
30.
Hunter-gatherer
–
A hunter-gatherer is a human living in a society in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, in contrast to agricultural societies, which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was humanitys first and most successful adaptation, occupying at least 90 percent of human history, following the invention of agriculture, hunter-gatherers who did not change have been displaced or conquered by farming or pastoralist groups in most parts of the world. Only a few contemporary societies are classified as hunter-gatherers, and many supplement their activity with horticulture and/or keeping animals. In the 1970s, Lewis Binford suggested that humans were obtaining food via scavenging. Early humans in the Lower Paleolithic lived in forests and woodlands, which allowed them to collect seafood, eggs, nuts, and fruits besides scavenging. Rather than killing large animals for meat, according to this view and this hypothesis does not necessarily contradict the scavenging hypothesis, both subsistence strategies could have been in use – sequentially, alternating or even simultaneously. It remained the only mode of subsistence until the end of the Mesolithic period some 10,000 years ago and this specialization of work also involved creating specialized tools such as, fishing nets, hooks, and bone harpoons. The transition into the subsequent Neolithic period is defined by the unprecedented development of nascent agricultural practices. Agriculture originated and spread in different areas including the Middle East, Asia, Mesoamerica. Forest gardening was also being used as a production system in various parts of the world over this period. Forest gardens originated in prehistoric times along jungle-clad river banks and in the wet foothills of monsoon regions, in the gradual process of families improving their immediate environment, useful tree and vine species were identified, protected and improved, whilst undesirable species were eliminated. Eventually superior introduced species were selected and incorporated into the gardens, many groups continued their hunter-gatherer ways of life, although their numbers have continually declined, partly as a result of pressure from growing agricultural and pastoral communities. Many of them reside in the world, either in arid regions or tropical forests. Areas that were available to hunter-gatherers were—and continue to be—encroached upon by the settlements of agriculturalists. In the resulting competition for use, hunter-gatherer societies either adopted these practices or moved to other areas. In addition, Jared Diamond has blamed a decline in the availability of wild foods, as the number and size of agricultural societies increased, they expanded into lands traditionally used by hunter-gatherers. As a result of the now near-universal human reliance upon agriculture, archaeologists can use evidence such as stone tool use to track hunter-gatherer activities, including mobility. Most hunter-gatherers are nomadic or semi-nomadic and live in temporary settlements, mobile communities typically construct shelters using impermanent building materials, or they may use natural rock shelters, where they are available
Hunter-gatherer
–
A
San man from
Namibia. The San still live full-time the traditional way, as hunter-gatherers.
Hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
–
A 19th century
engraving of an
Indigenous Australian encampment.
Hunter-gatherer
–
A
Shoshone encampment in the
Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, photographed by Percy Jackson, 1870
31.
Germany
–
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
Germany
–
The
Nebra sky disk is dated to c. 1600 BC.
Germany
–
Flag
Germany
–
Martin Luther (1483–1546) initiated the
Protestant Reformation.
Germany
–
Foundation of the
German Empire in
Versailles, 1871.
Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.
32.
Scandinavia
–
Scandinavia /ˌskændᵻˈneɪviə/ is a historical and cultural region in Northern Europe characterized by a common ethnocultural North Germanic heritage and mutually intelligible North Germanic languages. The term Scandinavia always includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the remote Norwegian islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are usually not seen as a part of Scandinavia, nor is Greenland, an overseas territory of Denmark. This looser definition almost equates to that of the Nordic countries, in Nordic languages, only Denmark, Norway and Sweden are commonly included in the definition of Scandinavia. In English usage, Scandinavia sometimes refers to the geographical area, the name Scandinavia originally referred vaguely to the formerly Danish, now Swedish, region Scania. Icelanders and the Faroese are to a significant extent descended from the Norse, Finland is mainly populated by Finns, with a minority of approximately 5% of Swedish speakers. A small minority of Sami people live in the north of Scandinavia. The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish languages form a continuum and are known as the Scandinavian languages—all of which are considered mutually intelligible with one another. Faroese and Icelandic, sometimes referred to as insular Scandinavian languages, are intelligible in continental Scandinavian languages only to a limited extent, Finnish and Meänkieli are closely related to each other and more distantly to the Sami languages, but are entirely unrelated to the Scandinavian languages. Apart from these, German, Yiddish and Romani are recognized minority languages in Scandinavia, the southern and by far most populous regions of Scandinavia have a temperate climate. Scandinavia extends north of the Arctic Circle, but has mild weather for its latitude due to the Gulf Stream. Much of the Scandinavian mountains have a tundra climate. There are many lakes and moraines, legacies of the last glacial period, Scandinavia usually refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Some sources argue for the inclusion of the Faroe Islands, Finland and Iceland, though that broader region is known by the countries concerned as Norden. Before this time, the term Scandinavia was familiar mainly to classical scholars through Pliny the Elders writings, and was used vaguely for Scania, as a political term, Scandinavia was first used by students agitating for Pan-Scandinavianism in the 1830s. After a visit to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism, the term is often defined according to the conventions of the cultures that lay claim to the term in their own use. More precisely, and subject to no dispute, is that Finland is included in the broader term Nordic countries, various promotional agencies of the Nordic countries in the United States serve to promote market and tourism interests in the region. The official tourist boards of Scandinavia sometimes cooperate under one umbrella, Norways government entered one year later. All five Nordic governments participate in the joint promotional efforts in the United States through the Scandinavian Tourist Board of North America, Scandinavia can thus be considered a subset of the Nordic countries
Scandinavia
–
Scandinavia
Scandinavia
–
Late
Baltic Ice Lake around 10,300 years
B.P., with a channel near Mount
Billingen through what is now central
Sweden (political boundaries added)
Scandinavia
–
Kautokeino, the main
Sami city in
Norway
33.
Netherlands
–
The Netherlands is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
Netherlands
–
The Netherlands in 5500 BC
Netherlands
–
Flag
Netherlands
–
The Netherlands in 500 BC
Netherlands
–
An oak figurine found in
Willemstad, North Brabant (4500 BC).
34.
Zuiderzee
–
Its name means southern sea in Dutch, indicating that the name originates in Friesland, to the north of the Zuiderzee. In the 20th century the majority of the Zuiderzee was closed off from the North Sea by the construction of the Afsluitdijk and this land eventually became the province of Flevoland, with a population of nearly 400,000. In classical times there was already a body of water in this location and it was much smaller than its later forms and its connection to the main sea was much narrower, it may have been a complex of lakes and marshes and channels, rather than one lake. Over time these lakes gradually eroded their soft peat shores and spread, some part of this area of water was later called the Vlie, it probably flowed into the sea through what is now the Vliestroom channel between the islands of Vlieland and Terschelling. The Marsdiep was once a river which may have been a distributary of the Vlie, during the early Middle Ages this began to change as rising sea levels and storms started to eat away at the coastal areas which consisted mainly of peatlands. The disaster marked the rise of Amsterdam on the end of the bay. The even more massive St. Lucias flood occurred 14 December 1287, the name Zuiderzee came into general usage around this period. For example, on 18 November 1421, a seawall at the Zuiderzee dike broke and this was the Second St. Elizabeths flood. The Netherlands was part of the First French Empire between 1810 and 1813, a département was formed in 1811 and named as Zuyderzée after the Zuiderzee, of which the territory roughly corresponded to the present provinces of North Holland and Utrecht. In 1928, the 6-meter and 8-meter sailing events for the Amsterdam Summer Olympics were held on the Zuiderzee. These towns traded at first with ports on the Baltic Sea, in England, and in the Hanseatic League, when that lucrative trade diminished, most of the towns fell back on fishing and some industry until the 20th century when tourism became the major source of income. Contained within the Zuiderzee were five islands, the remains of what were once larger islands, peninsulas connected to the mainland, or in the case of Pampus. These were Wieringen, Urk, Schokland, Pampus, and Marken, the inhabitants of these islands also subsisted mainly on fishing and related industries and still do in the case of Urk and Wieringen. All of these islands, except for Pampus, are now part of the mainland or connected to it, the construction in the early 20th century of a large enclosing dam tamed the Zuiderzee. The creation of this dam was a response to the flood of January 1916, plans for closing the Zuiderzee had been made over thirty years earlier but had not yet passed in parliament. With the completion of the Afsluitdijk in 1932, the Zuiderzee became the IJsselmeer and these areas, known as polders, were respectively the Wieringermeer, the Noordoostpolder, and Flevoland. This enormous project under the direction of Cornelis Lely, called the Zuiderzee Works, ran from 1919 to 1986, Zuiderzee Museum, dedicated to the history and culture of the former Zuiderzee Zuiderzee Cycle Route, long-distance cycle route around the former Zuiderzee Pathe newsreel of flooding,1916
Zuiderzee
–
Historical map of the Netherlands (1658) with De Zuyder Zee'
Zuiderzee
–
Approximate landscape in North Holland during the 1st century AD (left) and the 10th century AD (right)
Zuiderzee
–
Vliestroom indicated by arrow
Zuiderzee
–
Landsat photo
35.
Oder
–
The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, the river ultimately flows into the Szczecin Lagoon north of Szczecin and then into three branches that empty into the Gulf of Pomerania of the Baltic Sea. Ptolemy knew the modern Oder as the Συήβος – a name derived from the Suebi. While he also refers to an outlet in the area as the Οὐιαδούα Ouiadoua, the name Suebos may be preserved in the modern name of the Świna river – an outlet from the Szczecin Lagoon to the Baltic. In the Old Church Slavonic language, the name of the river is Vjodr, the Oder is 854 kilometres long,112 km in the Czech Republic,742 km in Poland and is the second longest river in Poland. It drains a basin of 118,861 square kilometres,106,056 km2 of which are in Poland,7,217 km2 in the Czech Republic, channels connect it to the Havel, Spree, Vistula system and Kłodnica. It flows through Silesian, Opole, Lower Silesian, Lubusz, and West Pomeranian voivodeships of Poland, the main branch empties into the Szczecin Lagoon near Police, Poland. The Szczecin Lagoon is bordered on the north by the islands of Usedom, between these two islands, there is only a narrow channel going to the Bay of Pomerania, which forms a part of the Baltic Sea. The largest city on the Oder is Wrocław, in Lower Silesia, the Oder is navigable over a large part of its total length, as far upstream as the town of Koźle, where the river connects to the Gliwice Canal. The upstream part of the river is canalized and permits larger barges to navigate between the sites around the Wrocław area. Further downstream the river is flowing, passing the towns of Eisenhüttenstadt. Downstream of Frankfurt the river Warta forms a connection with Poznań. At Hohensaaten the Oder–Havel Canal connects with the Berlin waterways again, near its mouth the Oder reaches the city of Szczecin, a major maritime port. The river finally reaches the Baltic Sea through the Szczecin Lagoon, the river in Germania Magna was known to the Romans as the Viadrus or Viadua in Classical Latin, as it was a branch of the Amber Road from the Baltic Sea to the Roman Empire. In German language it was and is called the Oder, written in older records as Odera or Oddera in Medieval Latin documents and it was mentioned in the Dagome iudex, which described territory of the Duchy of Poland under Mieszko I of Poland ca. 990, as a part of western frontier. Before Slavs settled along its banks, Oder was an important trade route, a document of the Bishopric of Prague mentions Zlasane, Trebovyane, Poborane, and Dedositze in Silesia. In the 13th century, the first dams were built to protect agricultural lands, the Finow Canal, built for the first time in 1605, connects Oder and Havel
Oder
–
Oder between Kienitz and Zollbrücke, Germany
Oder
–
Oder in
Wrocław,
Ostrów Tumski
Oder
–
Oder in
Wrocław
Oder
–
Oder River view from Ziegenwerder Island in
Frankfurt (Oder), Germany to
Słubice, Poland
36.
Bug River
–
The Bug River is a major European river which flows through three countries with a total length of 830 kilometres. The name Bug probably came from the old Germanic word baug-s which meant something winding, genual, slavs adopted the word Baug from the Goths who previously lived in large numbers near the river. Traditionally the Bug River was also considered the ethnographical border between the Orthodox and Catholic Polish peoples. The Bug was the line between German Wehrmacht and Russian Red Army forces following the 1939 invasion of Poland in the Second World War. Bug River is a tributary of the Narew river. It joins the Narew river at Serock, a few kilometers upstream of the artificial Zegrze Lake and it is connected with the Dnieper River via the Mukhavets River, a right-bank tributary, by the Dnieper-Bug Canal. On the Bug River, a few kilometers from the Vysokaye in Kamenets District of the Brest Region, is the westernmost point of Belarus. The total basin area of Bug River is 39,400 square kilometres of which half,19,300 square kilometres or, 50%, is in Poland. Little over a quarter,11,400 square kilometres or 26%, is in Belarus, the climate of the Bug basin is temperate. The basin experiences annual high-water levels during spring flooding due to thawing snow, occasional summer floods often occur in the headlands, where mountains influence favorable flash-flood conditions. In Autumn the water level increases are inconsiderable, in years they do not happen at all. During the winter the river can have temporary ice-outs that sometimes provoke ice jams, the resultant water levels are changeable due to the instability of ice cover. Significant floods during the last 60 years in Belarus were registered in 1958,1962,1967,1971 and 1974, the largest spring flood was observed in 1979, when the maximum water discharge was 19. A similar spring flood occurred in 1999, when the spring run-off in March–May exceeded the annual value by almost half again. The last time the Bug flooded in Poland and Ukraine was in 2010, southern Bug Bug Landscape Park Rivers of Poland Rivers of Ukraine Geography of Poland Geography of Ukraine Bug in the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland
Bug River
–
Bug River in the vicinity of
Wyszków,
Poland
Bug River
–
Allegory of the Bug River, a statue on the terrace of the Palace on the Island in
Łazienki Palace,
Warsaw
Bug River
–
Bug River in the vicinity of
Włodawa
Bug River
–
Bug River in the vicinity of
Nur
37.
Saale
–
The Saale, also known as the Saxon Saale and Thuringian Saale, is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Franconian Saale, a tributary of the Main, or the Saale in Lower Saxony. The Saale originates on the slope of the Großer Waldstein mountain near Zell in the Fichtelgebirge in Upper Franconia and it pursues a winding course in a northern direction, and after passing the manufacturing town of Hof, enters Thuringia. It flows amid well-wooded low mountains of the Thuringian Forest until it reaches the valley of Saalfeld, after leaving Saalfeld the Saale reaches Rudolstadt. Here it receives the waters of the Schwarza, in whose valley lies the castle of Schwarzburg. From Saalfeld the Saale enters the hill region north of the Thuringian Forest. It finally joins the Elbe just above Barby, after traversing a distance of 413 kilometres —shortened 14 kilometres by a bypass from its length of 427 kilometres. The Saale is navigable from Naumburg and is also planned connected from Leuna with the White Elster near Leipzig by an unfinished canal, the soil of the lower part of its valley is exceptionally fertile, and produces, amongst other crops, large supplies of sugar beet. Among its tributaries are the White Elster, Regnitz and Orla on the bank. Its valley, down to Merseburg, contains many castles which crown the enclosing heights, saale-Unstrut, a wine-growing region Ernst-Otto Luthardt, Reinhard Feldrapp, An der Saale. Vom Fichtelgebirge durch Thüringen bis zur Elbe, ISBN 3-8035-1335-9 Wolf Thieme, Markus Altmann, Mitten ins Herz. Sie entspringt in Bayern, durchquert Thüringen und fließt in Sachsen-Anhalt in die Elbe – die Saale ist ein Fluss, und jedem Spaß macht, dem Sportler, dem Kulturfreund, dem Faulenzer. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
Saale
Saale
–
Saale
Saale
–
Saale in
Bad Kösen
38.
Single Grave culture
–
Corded Ware culture encompassed a vast area, from the Rhine on the west to the Volga in the east, occupying parts of Northern Europe, Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The Corded Ware was genetically related to the Yamnaya culture. The Corded Ware culture may have disseminated the Proto-Germanic and Proto-Balto-Slavic Indo-European languages, the Corded Ware Culture also shows genetic affinity with the later Sintashta culture, where the proto-Indo-Iranian language originated. The term Corded Ware culture was first introduced by the German archaeologist Friedrich Klopfleisch in 1883 and he named it after cord-like impressions or ornamentation characteristic of its pottery. The term Single Grave culture comes from its burial custom, which consisted of inhumation under tumuli in a position with various artifacts. Battle Axe culture, or Boat Axe culture, is named from its characteristic grave offering to males, at the same time, they had several shared elements that are characteristic of all Corded Ware groups, such as their burial practices, pottery with cord decoration and unique stone-axes. The contemporary Beaker culture overlapped with the extremity of this culture, west of the Elbe. The origins and dispersal of Corded Ware culture was for a time one of the pivotal unresolved issues of the Indo-European Urheimat problem. Its wide area of distribution indicates rapid expansion at the time of the dispersal of Indo-European languages. Some archaeologists believed it sprang from central Europe while others saw an influence from nomadic societies of the steppes. In favour of the first view was the fact that Corded Ware coincides considerably with the earlier north-central European Funnelbeaker culture, according to Gimbutas, the Corded Ware culture was preceded by the Globular Amphora culture, which she regarded to be an Indo-European culture. The Globular Amphora culture stretched from central Europe to the Baltic sea, however, in other regions Corded Ware appears to herald a new culture and physical type. The degree to which cultural change generally represents immigration were matter of debate, according to controversial radiocarbon dates, Corded Ware ceramic forms in single graves develop earlier in the area that is now Poland than in western and southern Central Europe. The earliest radiocarbon dates for Corded Ware indeed come from Kujawy and Lesser Poland in central and southern Poland, whereas in the area of the present Baltic states and East Prussia, it is seen as an intrusive successor to the southwestern portion of the Narva culture. However, today Corded Ware is now seen as intrusive, though not necessarily aggressively so. A Genetic study conducted by Haak et al, about 75% of the DNA of late Neolithic Corded Ware skeletons found in Germany was a precise match to DNA from individuals of the Yamnaya culture. Haak et al. also note that their results suggest that haplogroups R1b and R1a spread into Europe from the East after 3,000 BCE.5 In terms of phenotypes, Wilde et al. and Haak et al. Autosomal DNA tests also indicate that the Yamnaya migration from the steppes introduced a component of ancestry referred to as Ancient North Eurasian admixture into Europe
Single Grave culture
–
Boat-shaped battle axe from
Närke
Single Grave culture
–
Corded Ware culture
Single Grave culture
–
Corded ware pottery in the
Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Berlin). Ca. 2500 BC
Single Grave culture
–
Late battle axe from
Gotland
39.
Megalith
–
A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. The word megalithic describes structures made of large stones without the use of mortar or concrete. For later periods, the monolith, with an overlapping meaning, is more likely to be used. The word megalith comes from the Ancient Greek μέγας and λίθος, megalith also denotes an item consisting of rock hewn in definite shapes for special purposes. It has been used to describe buildings built by people from parts of the world living in many different periods. A variety of stones are seen as megaliths, with the most widely known megaliths not being sepulchral. The construction of these took place mainly in the Neolithic and continued into the Chalcolithic. At a number of sites in eastern Turkey, large ceremonial complexes from the 9th millennium BC have been discovered and they belong to the incipient phases of agriculture and animal husbandry. Large circular structures involving carved megalithic orthostats are a feature, e. g. at Nevalı Çori. Although these structures are the most ancient megalithic structures known so far, at Göbekli Tepe, four stone circles have been excavated from an estimated 20. Some measure up to 30 metres across, as well as human figures, the stones carry a variety of carved reliefs depicting boars, foxes, lions, birds, snakes and scorpions. Dolmens and standing stones have been found in areas of the Middle East starting at the Turkish border in the north of Syria close to Aleppo. They can be encountered in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Israel, Jordan, the largest concentration can be found in southern Syria and along the Jordan Rift Valley, however they are being threatened with destruction. They date from the late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age, megaliths have also been found on Kharg Island and pirazmian in Iran, at Barda Balka in Iraq, and at Jaintapur in Bangladesh. A semicircular arrangement of megaliths was found in Israel at Atlit Yam and it is a very early example, dating from the 7th millennium BC. The most concentrated occurrence of dolmens in particular is in an area on both sides of the Jordan Rift Valley, with greater predominance on the eastern side. They occur first and foremost on the Golan Heights, the Hauran, and in Jordan, in Saudi Arabia, only very few dolmen have been identified so far in the Hejaz. They seem, however, to re-emerge in Yemen in small numbers, the standing stone has a very ancient tradition in the Middle East, dating back from Mesopotamian times
Megalith
–
Megalithic grave "
Harhoog " in
Keitum,
Sylt, Germany.
Megalith
–
Clooneen wedge tomb,
the Burren, Co. Clare, Ireland
Megalith
–
Stonehenge,
Wiltshire, United Kingdom, is one of the world's best known megalithic structures.
Megalith
–
Megalithic structure at
Atlit Yam, Israel
40.
Bohemia
–
Bohemia is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech lands in the present-day Czech Republic. Bohemia was a duchy of Great Moravia, later an independent principality, a kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire, and subsequently a part of the Habsburg Monarchy, after World War I and the establishment of an independent Czechoslovak state, Bohemia became a part of Czechoslovakia. Between 1938 and 1945, border regions with sizeable German-speaking minorities of all three Czech lands were joined to Nazi Germany as the Sudetenland, in 1990, the name was changed to the Czech Republic, which become a separate state in 1993 with the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Until 1948, Bohemia was a unit of Czechoslovakia as one of its lands. Bohemia was bordered in the south by Upper and Lower Austria, in the west by Bavaria and in the north by Saxony and Lusatia, in the northeast by Silesia, and in the east by Moravia. In the 2nd century BC, the Romans were competing for dominance in northern Italy, the Romans defeated the Boii at the Battle of Placentia and the Battle of Mutina. After this, many of the Boii retreated north across the Alps, much later Roman authors refer to the area they had once occupied as Boiohaemum. The earliest mention was by Tacitus Germania 28, and later mentions of the name are in Strabo. The name appears to include the tribal name Boi- plus the Germanic element *haimaz home and this Boiohaemum was apparently isolated to the area where King Marobods kingdom was centred, within the Hercynian forest. The Czech name Čechy is derived from the name of the Slavic ethnic group, the Czechs, Bohemia, like neighbouring Bavaria, is named after the Boii, who were a large Celtic nation known to the Romans for their migrations and settlement in northern Italy and other places. Another part of the nation moved west with the Helvetii into southern France, to the south, over the Danube, the Romans extended their empire, and to the southeast in Hungaria, were Sarmatian peoples. In the area of modern Bohemia the Marcomanni and other Suebic groups were led by their king Marobodus and he took advantage of the natural defenses provided by its mountains and forests. In late classical times and the early Middle Ages, two new Suebic groupings appeared to the west of Bohemia in southern Germany, the Alemanni, many Suebic tribes from the Bohemian region took part in such movements westwards, even settling as far away as Spain and Portugal. With them were also tribes who had pushed from the east, such as the Vandals, other groups pushed southwards towards Pannonia. These are precursors of todays Czechs, though the amount of Slavic immigration is a subject of debate. The Slavic influx was divided into two or three waves, the first wave came from the southeast and east, when the Germanic Lombards left Bohemia. Soon after, from the 630s to 660s, the territory was taken by Samos tribal confederation and his death marked the end of the old Slavonic confederation, the second attempt to establish such a Slavonic union after Carantania in Carinthia. Other sources divide the population of Bohemia at this time into the Merehani, Marharaii, Beheimare, Christianity first appeared in the early 9th century, but only became dominant much later, in the 10th or 11th century
Bohemia
–
Karlštejn Castle
Bohemia
–
Historical map with Bohemia proper outlined in pink,
Moravia in yellow, and
Austrian Silesia in orange.
Bohemia
–
The more extreme Hussites became known as
Taborites, after the city of
Tábor that became their center.
Bohemia
–
Bohemia as the heart of
Europa regina, 1570
41.
Denmark
–
Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Scandinavian country in Europe and a sovereign state. The southernmost and smallest of the Nordic countries, it is south-west of Sweden and south of Norway, Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark has an area of 42,924 square kilometres. The country consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, the islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. The unified kingdom of Denmark emerged in the 10th century as a proficient seafaring nation in the struggle for control of the Baltic Sea, Denmark, Sweden and Norway were ruled together under the Kalmar Union, established in 1397 and ending with Swedish secession in 1523. Denmark and Norway remained under the monarch until outside forces dissolved the union in 1814. The union with Norway made it possible for Denmark to inherit the Faroe Islands, Iceland, beginning in the 17th century, there were several cessions of territory to Sweden. In the 19th century there was a surge of nationalist movements, Denmark remained neutral during World War I. In April 1940, a German invasion saw brief military skirmishes while the Danish resistance movement was active from 1943 until the German surrender in May 1945, the Constitution of Denmark was signed on 5 June 1849, ending the absolute monarchy which had begun in 1660. It establishes a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy, the government and national parliament are seated in Copenhagen, the nations capital, largest city and main commercial centre. Denmark exercises hegemonic influence in the Danish Realm, devolving powers to handle internal affairs, Home rule was established in the Faroe Islands in 1948, in Greenland home rule was established in 1979 and further autonomy in 2009. Denmark became a member of the European Economic Community in 1973, maintaining certain opt-outs, it retains its own currency, the krone. It is among the members of NATO, the Nordic Council, the OECD, OSCE. The etymology of the word Denmark, and especially the relationship between Danes and Denmark and the unifying of Denmark as a kingdom, is a subject which attracts debate. This is centred primarily on the prefix Dan and whether it refers to the Dani or a historical person Dan and the exact meaning of the -mark ending. Most handbooks derive the first part of the word, and the name of the people, from a word meaning land, related to German Tenne threshing floor. The -mark is believed to mean woodland or borderland, with references to the border forests in south Schleswig. The first recorded use of the word Danmark within Denmark itself is found on the two Jelling stones, which are believed to have been erected by Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth
Denmark
–
The gilded side of the
Trundholm sun chariot dating from the Nordic Bronze Age.
Denmark
–
Flag
Denmark
–
The
Ladby ship, the largest ship burial found in Denmark.
Denmark
–
Larger of the two Jelling stones, raised by
Harald Bluetooth.
42.
Uppland
–
Uppland is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland and it is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea. It has a short and strangely shaped land border with Åland. The name literally means up land, a name which is encountered in especially older English literature. Its Latinised form, which is used, is Uplandia. The traditional provinces of Sweden serve no administrative or political purposes, the corresponding administrative county, or län, is Uppsala County, which occupies the larger part of the territory. The bulk of the population, however, is within Stockholm County, minor parts of the province are also in Västmanland County, Gävleborg County and Södermanland County. Upplands arms were granted in 1560, distinctive in its depiction of a Globus cruciger, historically, Uppland ranked as a duchy and the coat of arms is represented with a ducal coronet. Blazoned thus, Gules, a Royal Orb Or gemmed of the field, despite the fact that the Uppsala län has a different name and a smaller territory it was granted the same coat of arms in 1940. Uppland was historically divided into chartered cities and districts, within Roslagen they were called skeppslag, and in the rest of the province hundreds. The abovementioned districts and cities have no administrative function today, the provincial population corresponds to the different overlapping counties as follows, Uppland is the birth place of Saint Brigitta of Sweden. The earliest unambiguous mention of the province of Uppland comes from the 1296, the Swedish capital of Stockholm is divided between two provinces. The southern half lies in Södermanland and the half in Uppland. Prince Waldemar Princess Ingiburga, his wife Prince Gustav Prince Sigvard Uppsala is the seat of the archbishop of the Lutheran Church of Sweden. The archaeological site Birka and the castle of Drottningholm are UNESCO World Heritage sites, football in the province is administered by Upplands Fotbollförbund. Uppland - Tourist site Uppland - Tourist information
Uppland
–
Coat of arms
43.
Sweden
–
Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
Sweden
–
A
Vendel-era helmet, at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities.
Sweden
–
Flag
Sweden
–
A
romantic nationalist interpretation of
Valdemar IV taking control over
Gotland. The final battle outside the walls of Visby in 1361 ended with a massacre of 1,800 defenders of the city.
Sweden
–
Stockholm in mid-17th century
44.
Oslofjord
–
The Oslofjord is an inlet in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the Torbjørnskjær and Færder lighthouses and down to Langesund in the south to Oslo in the north. It is part of the Skagerrak strait, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area, the Oslofjord is not a fjord in the geological sense - in Norwegian the term fjord can refer to a wide range of waterways. The bay is divided into the inner and outer Oslofjord at the point of the 17 by 1 kilometre Drøbak Sound, in the period 1624-1925 the name of the fjord was Kristianiafjorden - since this was the name of the capital in this period. The old Norse name of the fjord was Fold, giving names to the counties of Vestfold and Østfold -, each of the islands in the innermost part of the fjord has its own identity and distinguishing history. Among them are Hovedøya, Lindøya, Nakholmen, Bleikøya, Gressholmen and these islands can be reached with the Oslo-boats from Vippetangen. Hovedøya contains monastery ruins, Gressholmen for its rabbits, Nakholmen, Bleikøya, Lindøya for their cabins at the water’s edge. The inner part of the Oslofjord has steep and forest covered hill slopes down towards the fjord, the Oslofjord has Norway’s highest all year temperature,7.5 degrees Celsius. February is the coldest month in the fjord with -1.3 degrees Celsius, the islands in the middle of the fjord are among Norway’s warmest with high summer temperatures and moderate winters. Oslofjord’s relatively high temperatures enable various flora to flourish, the oldest settlements in the area surrounding the Oslofjord date from the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. It was here on the eastern and western shores that three of the best preserved Viking ships were unearthed, in historical times, this bay was known by the current name of the region, Viken. Oslofjord has been an important body of water due to its proximity to Oslo. During WWII, there were German installations at several points on its coastline, one installation in Hovedøya held 1,100 Wehrmacht soldiers and later women deemed Nazi collaborators at the National Internment Camp for Women in Hovedøya. Norwegian painter Edvard Munch had a cottage and studio in Åsgårdstrand on the fjord, the fjord was the scene of a key event in the German invasion of Norway in April 1940, the Battle of Drøbak Sound. The invasion included a landing of 1,000 troops transported by ship to Oslo. Colonel Eriksen, Commander of the Oscarsborg fortress near Drøbak, mainly maintained for historical purposes, the fortresss resistance blocked the route to Oslo, thus delaying the rest of the group long enough for the royal family, government, parliament, and national treasury to be evacuated. The entire population situated around the Oslofjord including Oslo is about 1.96 million, more than 40% of Norway’s population resides under 45 minutes of driving from the Oslofjord. The Oslofjord has Norway’s busiest traffic of ferries and cargo boats, even though the Oslofjord contains hundreds of populated islands, most of the population of the fjord resides on the mainland. In the summer there are boats of all sizes on the fjord, and it is possible to go kayaking, canoeing, fishing, the Oslofjord is one of the nine venues of the Class 1 World Powerboat Championship
Oslofjord
–
Summer houses in the Oslofjord
Oslofjord
–
German cruiser Blücher
Oslofjord
–
False-colour image of middle parts of Oslofjorden. North is to the left
Oslofjord
–
Oslofjord seen from
Holmenkollen.
45.
Norway
–
The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
Norway
–
The
helmet found at Gjermundbu near
Haugsbygd,
Buskerud, is the only
Viking Age helmet that has been found.
Norway
–
Flag
Norway
–
The
Gokstad ship at the
Viking Ship Museum in
Oslo, Norway
Norway
–
The
Battle of the Sound between an allied Dano-Norwegian–
Dutch fleet and the Swedish navy, 8 November 1658 (29 October
O.S.)
46.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
Poland
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Reconstruction of a
Bronze Age,
Lusatian culture settlement in
Biskupin, c. 700 BC
Poland
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Flag
Poland
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Earliest known contemporary depiction of a Polish ruler; King
Mieszko II Lambert of Poland being presented with a
Liturgical book by
Matilda of Swabia, 1025–1031
Poland
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Drawing of the
Battle of Grunwald, which was fought against the
German Order of Teutonic Knights, 15 July 1410
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Baalberge group
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The Baalberge Group was a late neolithic culture whose remains are found in central Germany. It is named after its first findspot, on the Schneiderberg at Baalberge, Salzlandkreis and it appears to be the oldest grouping of the Funnelbeaker culture. In Germany it is the most common of the Funnelbeaker cultures, because of issues with the archaeological use of the term culture it is now often referred to as the Baalberge Ceramic style. It is part of Funnelbeaker phase TRB-MES II and III in the Middle Elbe/Saale region, an early example of the Funnelbeaker culture, the Baalberge ceramic style dates between 3800 -3400 BC and belongs to the central German funnelbeaker phases TRB-MES II and TRB-MES III. It developed out of phase TRB-MES I, innovating under the influence of southeaster, a more complex society developed after 3350 BC in the TRB-MES IV phase, with distinct decorative styles. The Baalberge culture was first identified as a group on the grounds of pottery types by Nils Niklasson. Before this it had included in the Bernburg type. Kupka grouped the finds belonging to the Baalberge culture together under the name Central German Stilthouse Pottery, Paul Grimm followed this with the first division of the material into Early, High, Late and Pre-Unetice periods in 1937. Paul Kupka and C. J. Becker put the Baalberg group in parallel with the northern Funnelbeaker culture, Joachim Preuß divided the Baalberg culture into an older and later phase using burial practices and pottery typologies. Scientific data indicates however that the divisions do not indicate chronological differences, according to Johannes Müller they instead show different social groups. Marija Gimbutas and her followers argue that the Baalberg culture was a hybrid culture deriving ultimately from the Eurasian steppe. In that case it would have been an Indo-European-speaking culture, but other aspects of the burials are very different from burials in the east, such as the placement of the hands over the mouth in an eating gesture and the much less marked use of red ochre. In particular, there are no signs of the steppe kurgans that characterise the Kurgan culture, finally, comparative anatomy suggests the deceased came from a locally derived population, not from the east. Mallory therefore considers the Baalberge group a local development, the main distribution area is the central Elbe-Saale region. Further finds occur in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern und Brandenburg, a distinctive variant is also known from Bohemia, of which numerous individual finds occur from Bohemia into Lower Austria. The distribution area extends further to the north than that of the Rössen culture, the whole settlement area is self-contained. Usually they contain waste pits with characteristic material, hearths, houses are rectangular or square and of medium size. Other pits were used for storage, waste disposal and sacrifices, a large settlement in Pirkau, Hohenmölsen was found in emergency excavations but provides no evidence of houses
Baalberge group
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The Schneiderberg in Baalberge is the namesake of the Baalberge Kultur
Baalberge group
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Jug of the Baalberge group from Winningen,
Saxony-Anhalt;
Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte,
Berlin
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Bernburg
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Bernburg is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the Salzlandkreis district. The former residence of the Anhalt-Bernburg princes is known for its Renaissance castle, the town centre is situated in the fertile Magdeburg Börde lowland on the Saale river, approx. 40 km downstream from Halle and 45 km up stream from Magdeburg and it is dominated by huge Bernburg Castle featuring a museum as well as a popular, recently updated bear pit in its moat. The municipal area comprises the villages of Baalberge, Biendorf, Gröna, Peißen, Poley, Preußlitz, Bernburg is a stop on the scenic Romanesque Road. Several archaeological sites in the area refer to the Walternienburg-Bernburg Culture, agriculture on the fertile Loess soil was already common in prehistoric times. Around 150 AD, a settlement named Luppia was mentioned in the Geography by Ptolemy. In the Early Middle Ages, the Saale river marked the border between the German stem duchies in the west and the lands of the Polabian Slavs in the east, Bernburg itself was first mentioned as civitas Brandanburg in a 961 deed issued by King Otto I of Germany. According to the Annalista Saxo, Berneburch Castle, then a possession of the Ascanian prince Albert the Bear, was set on fire by his enemies in 1138, in 1252 the rebuilt castle became the residence of Alberts great-grandson Prince Bernhard I of Anhalt-Bernburg in 1252. In the Nazi era during World War II, a wing of the mental hospital was used for the so-called T-4 Euthanasia Programme. The site today houses a memorial to commemorate the suffering of more than 14,000 victims, February 24,1950, Johannes R. Becher 19 February 1953, Hermann Henselmann February 5,1967 -. de Bernburg Castle
Bernburg
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Bernburg
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Saxony-Anhalt
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Saxony-Anhalt is a landlocked federal state of Germany surrounded by the federal states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia. Its capital is Magdeburg and its largest city is Halle, Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of 20,447.7 square kilometres and has a population of 2.34 million. Saxony-Anhalt should not be confused with Saxony or Lower Saxony, also German states, Saxony-Anhalt is one of 16 Bundesländer of Germany. It is located in the part of eastern Germany. By size, it is the 8th largest state in Germany and it borders four fellow Bundesländer, Lower Saxony to the north-west, Brandenburg to the north-east, Saxony to the south-east, and Thuringia to the south-west. In the north, the Saxony-Anhalt landscape is dominated by plain, the old Hanseatic towns Salzwedel, Gardelegen, Stendal, and Tangermünde are located in the sparsely populated Altmark. The Colbitz-Letzlingen Heath and the Drömling near Wolfsburg mark the transition between the Altmark region and the Elbe-Börde-Heath region with its fertile, sparsely wooded Magdeburg Börde. Notable towns in the Magdeburg Börde are Haldensleben, Oschersleben, Wanzleben, Schönebeck, Aschersleben, the Harz mountains are located in the south-west, comprising the Harz National Park, the Harz Foreland and Mansfeld Land. The highest mountain of the Harz is Brocken, with an elevation of 1,141 meters, in this area, one can find the towns of Halberstadt, Wernigerode, Thale, Eisleben and Quedlinburg. The wine-growing area Saale-Unstrut and the towns of Zeitz, Naumburg, Weißenfels, the metropolitan area of Halle forms an agglomeration with Leipzig in Saxony. This area is known for its highly developed industry, with major production plants at Leuna, Schkopau. Finally, in the east, Dessau-Roßlau and Wittenberg are situated on the Elbe in the Anhalt-Wittenberg region, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt is Magdeburg. It is the second-largest city in the state, closely after Halle, from 1994 to 2003, the state was divided into three regions, Dessau, Halle and Magdeburg, and, below the regional level,21 districts. Since 2004, however, this system has replaced by 11 rural districts. In April 1945 the US Army took control of most of the western and northern area of the future Saxony-Anhalt, group Control Council, Germany appointed the first non-Nazi officials in leading positions in the area. So Erhard Hübener, furloughed by the Nazis, was reappointed Landeshauptmann. By early July the US Army withdrew from the former Prussian Province of Saxony to make way for the Red Army to take it as part of the Soviet occupation zone, the previously Saxon Erfurt governorate had become a part of Thuringia. For the earlier history see the articles of these entities before 1945
Saxony-Anhalt
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View over Magdeburg, capital of Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt
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Flag
Saxony-Anhalt
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Saxony-Anhalts most populous city
Halle (Saale) is seat of the
State's largest University
Saxony-Anhalt
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Halle is the largest city of Saxony-Anhalt
50.
Alvastra pile-dwelling
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The Alvastra pile-dwelling is a pile dwelling from ca 3000 BC in Ödeshög Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden. Southern Scandinavia has many types of cult centres, but the Alvastra pile dwelling is unique in Northern Europe and is the only of its kind outside of the Alpine Pile Dweller culture. It was the social and religious centre of a tribe that left objects from the Funnelbeaker culture. Ca 2/3 of the dwelling was excavated by archaeologists in the years 1908–18, 1928–39. The archaeologists found stilts made of trees, notably oak, hazel, elm. A dendrochronological study showed that the construction had proceeded in two stages during 18 years, and after a break of 22 years, the work had been finished 40–42 years after the work had begun. During the first years, the construction consisted of two surfaces, which were delimited by rows of oak stakes and the surfaces were placed in an oblique angle. Each rectangle was ca 200 m² and were separated into eight or nine rooms, most of the rooms had floors of logs. The reconstructions and the additions were partly motivated by fires, the construction was connected with the shore by footbridges on both sides. The size of the pile dwelling indicates that it was a communal work and it was also no fortification, because the stilts are too sparse and pushed into the bottom of the swamp too shallowly. The location in the swamp is also unfit for work. The pile dwelling was only inhabited during summer months. It was the tribes or the social centre where they gathered for festivities. There are about 100 hearths of limestone evenly distributed across the dwelling, around the hearths, there is an abundance of residue from meals, charred wheat and barley, split and charred crabapples, hazel nut shells, bone of cattle, sheep and pigs. There are remains of game, such as red deer, moose, wolf, and bear, remains from such as mallard and black grouse. The ceramics are the same as those of the hunter-gatherer Pitted Ware culture, the remains of craftmanship are few, and so the tools have been transported to the pile dwelling from the workshops, where they were probably sacrificed to the gods. Among the most remarkable finds are double edged battle axes, which appear to have played a role in the cult, after the reconstruction, year 40–42, the construction was used as a cemetery, where the dead appear to have been left on platforms raised on stilts. Alvastra Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps Post in ground Nationalencyklopedin An article from the National History Museum
Alvastra pile-dwelling
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The location of the pile dwelling as seen in 2005
