1.
European Beech
–
Fagus sylvatica, the European beech or common beech, is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae. Fagus sylvatica is a tree, capable of reaching heights of up to 50 m tall and 3 m trunk diameter, though more typically 25–35 m tall. A 10-year-old sapling will stand about 4 m tall and it has a typical lifespan of 150–200 years, though sometimes up to 300 years. In cultivated forest stands trees are harvested at 80–120 years of age. 30 years are needed to attain full maturity, like most trees, its form depends on the location, in forest areas, F. sylvatica grows to over 30 m, with branches being high up on the trunk. In open locations, it will become shorter and more massive. The leaves are alternate, simple, and entire or with a crenate margin, 5–10 cm long and 3–7 cm broad. When crenate, there is one point at each vein tip, the buds are long and slender, 15–30 mm long and 2–3 mm thick, but thicker where the buds include flower buds. The leaves of beech are often not abscissed in the autumn and this particularly occurs when trees are saplings or when plants are clipped as a hedge, but it also often continues to occur on the lower branches when the tree is mature. Small quantities of seeds may be produced around 10 years of age, F. sylvatica male flowers are borne in the small catkins which are a hallmark of the Fagales order. Flower and seed production is abundant in years following a hot, sunny and dry summer. In the Balkans, it shows some hybridisation with oriental beech, in the southern part of its range around the Mediterranean, it grows only in mountain forests, at 600–1,800 m altitude. Although often regarded as native in southern England, recent evidence suggests that F, the beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is often removed from native woods. Localised pollen records have recorded in the North of England from the Iron Age by Sir Harry Godwin. It is often planted in Britain, similarly, the nature of Norwegian beech populations is subject to debate. If native, they would represent the range of the species. However, molecular analyses support the hypothesis that these populations represent intentional introduction from Denmark before. However, the beech in Vestfold and at Seim north of Bergen in Norway is now spreading naturally, though not demanding of its soil type, the European beech has several significant requirements, a humid atmosphere and well-drained soil
European Beech
–
Fagus sylvatica European beech
European Beech
–
Copper beech in autumn
European Beech
–
European beech shoot with nut cupules
European Beech
–
Fagus sylvatica -
MHNT
2.
Eifel
–
The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, the Eifel is part of the Rhenish Massif, within its northern portions lies the Eifel National Park. The Eifel lies between the cities of Aachen to the north, Trier to the south and Koblenz to the east and it descends in the northeast along a line from Aachen via Düren to Bonn into the Lower Rhine Bay. In the east and south it is bounded by the valleys of the Rhine, to the west it transitions in Belgium and Luxembourg into the geologically related Ardennes and the Luxembourg Ösling. In the north it is limited by the Jülich-Zülpicher Börde, within Germany it lies within the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, in BeNeLux the area of Eupen, St. Vith and Luxembourg. Its highest point is the cone of the Hohe Acht. Originally the Carolingian Eifelgau only covered the region roughly around the sources of the rivers Ahr, Kyll. Its name was recently transferred to the entire region. Individual mountain chains, up to 700 m, such as the Schneifel and High Fens, run through the western part of the plateau. The rivers draining into the Moselle, Rhine and Meuse, such as the Our, Kyll, Ahr, Brohl and Rur, have cut deep into the edge of the Eifel and formed larger valleys. The Eifel covers an area of 5,300 km² and is divided into the North and South Eifel. It is further divided into several natural regional landscapes, some with further subdivisions, there are several distinct chains within the Eifel. The northernmost parts are called North Eifel including Rur Eifel the origin of the river Rur, High Fens, the northeastern part is called Ahr Hills and rise north of the Ahr river in the district of Ahrweiler. South of the Ahr is the High Eifel, with the Hohe Acht being the highest mountain of the Eifel, in the west, on the Belgian border, the hills are known as Schneifel, rising up to 698 m. Also in the west, by the Belgian and Luxembourg border, the southern half of the Eifel is lower. It is cut by rivers running north-south towards the Moselle. The largest of these is the Kyll, and the hills on either side of river are called the Kyllwald. In the south the Eifel is concluded by the Voreifel above the Moselle, since 2004 about 110 km² of the Eifel within the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have been protected as the Eifel National Park nature reserve
Eifel
Eifel
–
Eifel scenery
Eifel
–
View of the
Laacher See, one of the lakes in the Volcanic Eifel
Eifel
–
Lissingen Castle
3.
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.
4.
Shrub
–
A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized woody plant. It is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, plants of many species may grow either into shrubs or trees, depending on their growing conditions. Small, low shrubs, generally less than 2 m tall, such as lavender, periwinkle, an area of cultivated shrubs in a park or a garden is known as a shrubbery. When clipped as topiary, suitable species or varieties of shrubs develop dense foliage, many shrubs respond well to renewal pruning, in which hard cutting back to a stool results in long new stems known as canes. Other shrubs respond better to selective pruning to reveal their structure, shrubs in common garden practice are generally considered broad-leaved plants, though some smaller conifers such as mountain pine and common juniper are also shrubby in structure. Species that grow into a shrubby habit may be deciduous or evergreen
Shrub
–
A
broom shrub in flower
Shrub
–
A
rhododendron shrubbery in
Sheringham Park
5.
Windbreak
–
A windbreak is a plantation usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs planted in such a manner as to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil from erosion. They are commonly planted in hedgerows around the edges of fields on farms, if designed properly, windbreaks around a home can reduce the cost of heating and cooling and save energy. Windbreaks are also planted to keep snow from drifting onto roadways. Other benefits include contributing to a microclimate around crops, providing habitat for wildlife, windbreaks and intercropping can be combined in a farming practice referred to as alleycropping. Fields are planted in rows of different crops surrounded by rows of trees and these trees provide fruit, wood, or protect the crops from the wind. Alley cropping has been successful in India, Africa, and Brazil. A further use for a shelterbelt is to screen a farm from a road or motorway. This improves the farm landscape by reducing the visual incursion of the motorway, mitigating noise from the traffic, the term windbreak is also used to describe an article of clothing worn to prevent wind chill. Americans tend to use the term windbreaker whereas Europeans favor the term windbreak, fences called windbreaks are also used. Normally made from cotton, nylon, canvas, and recycled sails, the poles are then hammered into the ground and a windbreak is formed. Windbreaks or wind fences are used to wind speeds over erodible areas such as open fields, industrial stockpiles. As erosion is proportional to wind speed cubed a reduction of speed of 1/2 will reduce erosion by over 80%. In essence, when the wind encounters an obstacle such as a windbreak or shelterbelt, air pressure increases on the windward side. As a result, the approaching the barrier is retarded. The result is that wind speed occurs not at or within the windbreak, nor at its downwind edge. Beyond that point wind speed recovers, aided by downward momentum transport from the overlying, faster-moving stream, not only is the mean wind speed reduced in the lee of the shelter, the wind is also less gusty, for turbulent wind fluctuations are also damped. As a result, turbulent vertical mixing is weaker in the lee of the barrier than it is upwind, of course this effect is attenuated with increasing downwind distance and indeed, beyond about 8H downstream a zone may exist that is actually cooler than upwind. Wilson,1985, Journal of Wind Engineering & Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol.21 Argete & Wilson,1989, Agricultural & Forest Meteorology, Vol 48 Withgott, Jay, environment, The Science Behind the Stories
Windbreak
–
Aerial view of field windbreaks in
North Dakota
Windbreak
–
An
East German windbreak promotion poster, 1952
6.
Microclimate
–
A microclimate is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few meters or square feet or as large as many square kilometers or square miles. Microclimates can be found in most places, another contributing factor of microclimate is the slope or aspect of an area. The terminology micro-climate first appeared in the 1950s in publications such as Climates in Miniature, microclimates can be used to the advantage of gardeners who carefully choose and position their plants. Cities often raise the temperature by zoning, and a sheltered position can reduce the severity of winter. Roof gardening, however, exposes plants to more extreme temperatures in summer and winter. Tall buildings create their own microclimate, both by overshadowing large areas and by channeling strong winds to ground level, wind effects around tall buildings are assessed as part of a microclimate study. Microclimates can also refer to environments, such as those in a room or other enclosure. Microclimates are commonly created and carefully maintained in museum display and storage environments and this can be done using passive methods, such as silica gel, or with active microclimate control devices. Usually, if the areas have a humid continental climate. The type of soil found in an area can also affect microclimates, for example, soils heavy in clay can act like pavement, moderating the near ground temperature. On the other hand, if soil has many air pockets, then the heat could be trapped underneath the topsoil, two main parameters to define a microclimate within a certain area are temperature and humidity. A source of a drop in temperature and/or humidity can be attributed to different sources or influences, often microclimate is shaped by a conglomerate of different influences and is a subject of microscale meteorology. The well known examples of cold air pool effect are Gstettneralm Sinkhole in Austria, the presence of permafrost close to the surface in a crater creates a unique microclimate environment. As similar as lava tubes can be to caves which are not formed due to volcanic activity the microclimate within the former is different due to dominant presence of basalt, lava tubes and basaltic caves are important astrobiological targets on Earth and Mars. Artificial reservoirs as well as natural ones create microclimates and often influence the climate as well. Northern California above the Bay Area is also known for microclimates with significant differences of temperatures. Even as far north as the Klamath River valley around the 41st parallel north between Willow Creek and Eureka averages such temperatures, which is hot for such northerly areas
Microclimate
–
Microclimate on rock located in
intertidal zone in Sunrise-on-Sea,
South Africa
Microclimate
–
Tree ferns thrive in a protected
dell area in the
Lost Gardens of Heligan, in
Cornwall, England, latitude 50° 15'N.
7.
Topiary
–
The term also refers to plants which have been shaped in this way. As an art form it is a type of living sculpture, the plants used in topiary are evergreen, mostly woody, have small leaves or needles, produce dense foliage, and have compact and/or columnar growth habits. Common species chosen for topiary include cultivars of European box, arborvitae, bay laurel, holly, myrtle, yew, the hedge is a simple form of topiary used to create boundaries, walls or screens. European topiary dates from Roman times, the clipping and shaping of shrubs and trees in China and Japan have been practised with equal rigor, but for different reasons. The goal is to achieve an artful expression of the form of venerably aged pines, given character by the forces of wind. Their most concentrated expressions are in the arts of Chinese penjing. Japanese cloud-pruning is closest to the European art, the forms of clipped growth are designed to be best appreciated after a fall of snow. Japanese Zen gardens make use of Karikomi and Hako-zukuri. Since its European revival in the 16th century, topiary has been seen on the parterres and terraces of gardens of the European elite, traditional topiary forms use foliage pruned and/or trained into geometric shapes such as balls or cubes, obelisks, pyramids, cones, or tapering spirals. Representational forms depicting people, animals, and man-made objects have also been popular, sculptural forms were provided by stone and lead sculptures. In Holland, however, the fashion was established for more complicated topiary designs, the tower of Babel, not yet finished. St George in box, his arm scarce long enough, a quickset hog, shot up into a porcupine, by its being forgot a week in rainy weather. In the 1720s and 1730s, the generation of Charles Bridgeman and William Kent swept the English garden clean of its hedges, mazes and he accordingly built an authentically styled Tudor village to accommodate the overflow, with an Old English Garden including buttressed hedges and free-standing topiary. Topiary, which had featured in very few 18th-century American gardens, came into favour with the Colonial Revival gardens and the grand manner of the American Renaissance, 1880–1920. Interest in the revival and maintenance of gardens in the 20th century led to the replanting of the topiary maze at the Governors Palace, Colonial Williamsburg. American portable style topiary was introduced to Disneyland around 1962, walt Disney helped bring this new medium into being - wishing to recreate his cartoon characters throughout his theme park in the form of landscape shrubbery. This style of topiary is based on a suitably shaped steel wire frame through which the plants eventually extend as they grow, the frame, which remains as a permanent trimming guide, may be either stuffed with sphagnum moss and then planted, or placed around shrubbery. The sculpture slowly transforms into a permanent topiary as the fill in the frame
Topiary
–
Squirrel topiary,
Rufford Old Hall, Lancashire, England
Topiary
–
York Gate Garden in
Leeds
Topiary
–
Castelo Branco Portugal.
Topiary
–
Cloud-pruning in Hallyeo Haesang National Park,
Geoje, South Korea
8.
Neolithic Age
–
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 Age
–
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 Age
–
Algerian cave paintings depicting hunting scenes
Neolithic Age
–
Female figure from
Tumba Madžari,
Republic of Macedonia
Neolithic Age
–
Skara Brae, Scotland. Evidence of home furnishings (shelves)
9.
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)
10.
Iron Age
–
The Iron Age is an archaeological era, referring to a period of time in the prehistory and protohistory of the Old World when the dominant toolmaking material was iron. It is commonly preceded by the Bronze Age in Europe and Asia with exceptions, meteoric iron has been used by humans since at least 3200 BC. Ancient iron production did not become widespread until the ability to smelt ore, remove impurities. The start of the Iron Age proper is considered by many to fall between around 1200 BC and 600 BC, depending on the region, the earliest known iron artifacts are nine small beads dated to 3200 BC, which were found in burials at Gerzeh, Lower Egypt. They have been identified as meteoric iron shaped by careful hammering, meteoric iron, a characteristic iron–nickel alloy, was used by various ancient peoples thousands of years before the Iron Age. Such iron, being in its metallic state, required no smelting of ores. Smelted iron appears sporadically in the record from the middle Bronze Age. While terrestrial iron is abundant, its high melting point of 1,538 °C placed it out of reach of common use until the end of the second millennium BC. Tins low melting point of 231, similarly, recent archaeological remains of iron working in the Ganges Valley in India have been tentatively dated to 1800 BC. By the Middle Bronze Age, increasing numbers of smelted iron objects appeared in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, African sites are turning up dates as early as 1200 BC. Modern archaeological evidence identifies the start of iron production in around 1200 BC. Between 1200 BC and 1000 BC, diffusion in the understanding of iron metallurgy and use of objects was fast. As evidence, many bronze implements were recycled into weapons during this time, more widespread use of iron led to improved steel-making technology at lower cost. Thus, even when tin became available again, iron was cheaper, stronger, and lighter, and forged iron implements superseded cast bronze tools permanently. Increasingly, the Iron Age in Europe is being seen as a part of the Bronze Age collapse in the ancient Near East, in ancient India, ancient Iran, and ancient Greece. In other regions of Europe, the Iron Age began in the 8th century BC in Central Europe, the Near Eastern Iron Age is divided into two subsections, Iron I and Iron II. Iron I illustrates both continuity and discontinuity with the previous Late Bronze Age, during the Iron Age, the best tools and weapons were made from steel, particularly alloys which were produced with a carbon content between approximately 0. 30% and 1. 2% by weight. Steel weapons and tools were nearly the same weight as those of bronze, however, steel was difficult to produce with the methods available, and alloys that were easier to make, such as wrought iron, were more common in lower-priced goods
Iron Age
–
Archaeological artifact from the work developed in the area of
Citânia de Briteiros
Iron Age
Iron Age
–
Cross or cruzado in Citânia de Breteiros
Iron Age
–
A pedra formosa
11.
Medieval
–
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
Medieval
–
The
Cross of Mathilde, a
crux gemmata made for
Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the
enamel plaque. The body of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in
Cologne or
Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques:
cast figurative sculpture,
filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical
cameos and
engraved gems.
Medieval
–
A late Roman statue
depicting the four Tetrarchs, now in
Venice
Medieval
–
Coin of
Theodoric
Medieval
–
Mosaic showing
Justinian with
the bishop of
Ravenna, bodyguards, and courtiers
12.
Heath (habitat)
–
A heath is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler, heaths are widespread worldwide, but are fast disappearing and considered a rare habitat in Europe. They form extensive and highly diverse communities across Australia in humid and sub-humid areas where fire regimes with recurring burning are required for the maintenance of the heathlands, even more diverse though less widespread heath communities occur in Southern Africa. Extensive heath communities can also be found in the California chaparral, New Caledonia, central Chile, in addition to these extensive heath areas, the vegetation type is also found in scattered locations across all continents, except Antarctica. Heaths are dominated by low shrubs,20 centimetres to 2 metres tall, heath vegetation can be extremely plant-species rich, and heathlands of Australia are home to some 3,700 endemic or typical species in addition to numerous less restricted species. The fynbos heathlands of South Africa are second only to tropical rainforests in plant biodiversity with over 7,000 species, in marked contrast, the tiny pockets of heathland in Europe are extremely depauperate with a flora consisting primarily of heather, heath and gorse. The bird fauna of heathlands are usually species of the region. In the depauperate heathlands of Europe bird species tend to be characteristic of the community and include Montagus harrier. Australian heathlands are also home to the worlds only nectar-feeding terrestrial mammal, the bird fauna of the South African fynbos includes sunbirds, warblers and siskins. Heathlands are also an excellent habitat for insects including ants, moths, butterflies and these heaths were originally created or expanded by centuries of human clearance of the natural forest and woodland vegetation, by grazing and burning. Referring to heathland in England, Rackham says, “Heaths are clearly the product of human activities and need to be managed as heathland, in recent years the conservation value of even these man-made heaths has become much more appreciated, and consequently most heathlands are protected. However they are threatened by tree incursion because of the discontinuation of traditional management techniques such as grazing and burning that mediated the landscapes. Some are also threatened by urban sprawl, anthropogenic heathlands are maintained artificially by a combination of grazing and periodic burning, or mowing, if not so maintained, they are rapidly re-colonised by forest or woodland. The re-colonising tree species will depend on what is available as the seed source. Bolster heath Chalk heath Garrigue Maquis shrubland Matorral Scrubland The Countryside Agency information on types of open land Origin of the word heath
Heath (habitat)
–
Heathland at
Woodbury Common, Devon (England), featuring purple flowers of
Calluna vulgaris and yellow flowers of
Ulex gallii
Heath (habitat)
–
Heath landscape in the
Stirling Range, Western Australia, with a
dieback -infested valley in the mid-ground
Heath (habitat)
–
Fynbos heathland,
South Africa
Heath (habitat)
–
Lüneburg Heath, an anthropogenic heath in
Lower Saxony, northern Germany
13.
Enclosure
–
Enclosure was the legal process in England during the 18th century of enclosing a number of small landholdings to create one larger farm. Once enclosed, use of the land became restricted to the owner, in England and Wales the term is also used for the process that ended the ancient system of arable farming in open fields. Under enclosure, such land is fenced and deeded or entitled to one or more owners, the process of enclosure began to be a widespread feature of the English agricultural landscape during the 16th century. By the 19th century, unenclosed commons had become restricted to rough pasture in mountainous areas. Enclosure could be accomplished by buying the rights and all common rights to accomplish exclusive rights of use. The other method was by passing laws causing or forcing enclosure, the latter process of enclosure was sometimes accompanied by force, resistance, and bloodshed, and remains among the most controversial areas of agricultural and economic history in England. Marxist and neo-Marxist historians argue that rich landowners used their control of processes to appropriate public land for their private benefit. The process of created a landless working class that provided the labour required in the new industries developing in the north of England. For example, In agriculture the years between 1760 and 1820 are the years of wholesale enclosure in which, in village after village, thompson argues that Enclosure was a plain enough case of class robbery. We should be not to ascribe to developments that were the consequence of a much broader. He impact of eighteenth and nineteenth century enclosure has been grossly exaggerated, Enclosure is considered one of the causes of the British Agricultural Revolution. Enclosed land was under control of the farmer who was free to adopt better farming practices, there was widespread agreement in contemporary accounts that profit making opportunities were better with enclosed land. Following enclosure, crop yields increased while at the same time productivity increased enough to create a surplus of labour. The increased labour supply is considered one of the causes of the Industrial Revolution, Enclosure of manorial common land was authorized by the Statute of Merton and the Statute of Westminster. Throughout the medieval and modern periods, piecemeal enclosure took place in which adjacent strips were fenced off from the common field and this was sometimes undertaken by small landowners, but more often by large landowners and lords of the manor. Significant enclosures took place to establish deer parks, some of these enclosures took place with local agreement. Most if not all emparkments were of already fenced land, there was a significant rise in enclosure during the Tudor period. These enclosures largely resulted in conversion of land use from arable to pasture – usually sheep farming and these enclosures were often undertaken unilaterally by the landowner
Enclosure
–
Conjectural map of a mediaeval English
manor. The part allocated to ‘common pasture’ is shown in the north-east section, shaded green.
Enclosure
–
Decaying hedges mark the lines of the straight field boundaries created by the 1768 Parliamentary Act of Enclosure of Boldron Moor,
County Durham.
Enclosure
–
View of the Scafell massif from Yewbarrow, Wasdale, Cumbria. In the valley are older enclosures and higher up on the fell-side are the parliamentary enclosures following straight lines regardless of terrain.
Enclosure
–
A parliamentary enclosure road near Lazonby in Cumbria. The roads were made as straight as possible, and the boundaries much wider than a cart width to reduce the ground damage of driving sheep and cattle.
14.
United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
United Kingdom
–
Stonehenge, in
Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC.
United Kingdom
–
Flag
United Kingdom
–
The
Bayeux Tapestry depicts the
Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.
United Kingdom
–
The
Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.
15.
Ireland
–
Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
Ireland
–
Satellite image of Ireland on 11 October 2010
Ireland
–
The
Gowran Ogham Stone,
Christianised c.6th Century. On display in
St. Mary's Collegiate Church Gowran.
Ireland
–
The Uragh Stone Circle a
Neolithic stone circle in Gleninchaquin Park,
County Kerry
16.
Low Countries
–
Most of the Low Countries are coastal regions bounded by the North Sea or the English Channel. The countries without access to the sea have linked themselves politically and economically to those with access to one union of port. The Low Countries were the scene of the northern towns, newly built rather than developed from ancient centres. In that period, they rivaled northern Italy for the most densely populated region of Europe, all of the regions mainly depended on trade, manufacturing and the encouragement of the free flow of goods and craftsmen. Germanic languages such as Dutch and Luxembourgish were the predominant languages, secondary languages included French, Romance-speaking Belgium, the Romance Flanders, and Namur. Governor Mary of Hungary used both the expressions les pays de par deça and Pays dEmbas, which evolved to Pays-Bas or Low Countries, today the term is typically fitted to modern political boundaries and used in the same way as the term Benelux, which also includes Luxembourg. The name of the country the Netherlands has the same meaning. The same name of countries can be found in other European languages, for example German Niederlande, French, les Pays-Bas, and so on. In the Dutch language itself no plural is used for the name of the modern country, so Nederland is used for the modern nation and de Nederlanden for the 16th century domains of Charles V. In Dutch, and to an extent in English, the Low Countries colloquially means the Netherlands and Belgium, sometimes the Netherlands. For example, a Derby der Lage Landen, is an event between Belgium and the Netherlands. Belgium was renamed only in 1830, after splitting from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, politically, before the Napoleonic wars, it was referred to as the Southern, Spanish or later Austrian Netherlands. It is still referred to as part of the low countries, the region politically had its origins in Carolingian empire, more precisely, most of it was within the Duchy of Lower Lotharingia. After the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia, the Low Countries were brought under the rule of various lordships until they came to be in the hands of the Valois Dukes of Burgundy. Hence, a part of the low countries came to be referred to as the Burgundian Netherlands also called the Seventeen Provinces up to 1581. Even after the secession of the autonomous Dutch Republic in the north. The Low Countries were part of the Roman provinces of Gallia Belgica, Germania Inferior and they were inhabited by Belgic and Germanic tribes. In the 4th and 5th century, Frankish tribes had entered this Roman region and they came to be ruled by the Merovingian dynasty, under which dynasty the southern part was re-Christianised
Low Countries
–
The Low Countries as seen from space with modern day boundaries drawn in thin blue.
17.
Old English language
–
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is the earliest historical form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers probably in the mid 5th century, Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. As the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in England, their language replaced the languages of Roman Britain, Common Brittonic, a Celtic language, Old English had four main dialects, associated with particular Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish and West Saxon. It was West Saxon that formed the basis for the standard of the later Old English period, although the dominant forms of Middle. The speech of eastern and northern parts of England was subject to strong Old Norse influence due to Scandinavian rule, Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, and its closest relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon. Like other old Germanic languages, it is different from Modern English. Old English grammar is similar to that of modern German, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs have many inflectional endings and forms. The oldest Old English inscriptions were using a runic system. Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of 700 years, from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century to the late 11th century, some time after the Norman invasion. While indicating that the establishment of dates is a process, Albert Baugh dates Old English from 450 to 1150, a period of full inflections. Perhaps around 85 per cent of Old English words are no longer in use, Old English is a West Germanic language, developing out of Ingvaeonic dialects from the 5th century. It came to be spoken over most of the territory of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which became the Kingdom of England and this included most of present-day England, as well as part of what is now southeastern Scotland, which for several centuries belonged to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Other parts of the island – Wales and most of Scotland – continued to use Celtic languages, Norse was also widely spoken in the parts of England which fell under Danish law. Anglo-Saxon literacy developed after Christianisation in the late 7th century, the oldest surviving text of Old English literature is Cædmons Hymn, composed between 658 and 680. There is a corpus of runic inscriptions from the 5th to 7th centuries. The Old English Latin alphabet was introduced around the 9th century, with the unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms by Alfred the Great in the later 9th century, the language of government and literature became standardised around the West Saxon dialect. In Old English, typical of the development of literature, poetry arose before prose, a later literary standard, dating from the later 10th century, arose under the influence of Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester, and was followed by such writers as the prolific Ælfric of Eynsham. This form of the language is known as the Winchester standard and it is considered to represent the classical form of Old English
Old English language
–
A detail of the first page of the
Beowulf manuscript, showing the words "ofer hron rade", i.e. "over the whale's road (=sea)". It is an example of an Old English stylistic device, the
kenning.
Old English language
–
"Her swutelað seo gecwydrædnes ðe" Old English inscription over the arch of the south porticus in the 10th-century
St Mary's parish church, Breamore, Hampshire
Old English language
–
The first page of the
Beowulf manuscript with its opening Hƿæt ƿē Gārde/na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon... "Listen! We of the Spear-Danes from days of yore have heard of the glory of the folk-kings..."
18.
The Hague
–
The Hague is a city on the western coast of the Netherlands, and the capital city of the province of South Holland. With a population of 520,704 inhabitants and more than one million including the suburbs, it is the third-largest city of the Netherlands. The Rotterdam The Hague Metropolitan Area, with a population of approximately 2.7 million, is the 12th-largest in the European Union and the most populous in the country. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government, parliament, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State, but the city is not the capital of the Netherlands, which constitutionally is Amsterdam. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands plans to live at Huis ten Bosch and works at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, the Hague is also home to the world headquarters of Royal Dutch Shell and numerous other major Dutch companies. The Hague originated around 1230, when Count Floris IV of Holland purchased land alongside a pond, in 1248, his son and successor William II, King of the Romans, decided to extend the residence to a palace, which would later be called the Binnenhof. He died in 1256 before this palace was completed but parts of it were finished by his son Floris V, of which the Ridderzaal and it is still used for political events, such as the annual speech from the throne by the Dutch monarch. From the 13th century onwards, the counts of Holland used The Hague as their administrative centre, the village that originated around the Binnenhof was first mentioned as Haga in a charter dating from 1242. In the 15th century, the smarter des Graven hage came into use, literally The Counts Wood, with connotations like The Counts Hedge, s-Gravenhage was officially used for the city from the 17th century onwards. Today, this name is used in some official documents like birth. The city itself uses Den Haag in all its communication and their seat was located in The Hague. At the beginning of the Eighty Years War, the absence of city walls proved disastrous, in 1575, the States of Holland even considered demolishing the city but this proposal was abandoned, after mediation by William of Orange. From 1588, The Hague also became the seat of the government of the Dutch Republic, in order for the administration to maintain control over city matters, The Hague never received official city status, although it did have many of the privileges normally granted only to cities. In modern administrative law, city rights have no place anymore, only in 1806, when the Kingdom of Holland was a puppet state of the First French Empire, was the settlement granted city rights by Louis Bonaparte. After the Napoleonic Wars, modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands were combined in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands to form a buffer against France, as a compromise, Brussels and Amsterdam alternated as capital every two years, with the government remaining in The Hague. After the separation of Belgium in 1830, Amsterdam remained the capital of the Netherlands, when the government started to play a more prominent role in Dutch society after 1850, The Hague quickly expanded. The growing city annexed the rural municipality of Loosduinen partly in 1903, the city sustained heavy damage during World War II
The Hague
The Hague
The Hague
The Hague
19.
Count
–
Count or countess is a title in European countries for a noble of varying status, but historically deemed to convey an approximate rank intermediate between the highest and lowest titles of nobility. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning “companion”, the adjective form of the word is comital. The British and Irish equivalent is an earl, alternative names for the count rank in the nobility structure are used in other countries, such as Graf in Germany and Hakushaku during the Japanese Imperial era. In the Western Roman Empire, Count came to indicate generically a military commander, in the Eastern Roman Empire, from about the seventh century, count was a specific rank indicating the commander of two centuries. Military counts in the Late Empire and the Germanic successor kingdoms were often appointed by a dux, the position of comes was originally not hereditary. By virtue of their estates, many counts could pass the title to their heirs—but not always. For instance, in Piast Poland, the position of komes was not hereditary, the title had disappeared by the era of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the office had been replaced by others. Only after the Partitions of Poland did the title of count resurface in the title hrabia, in the United Kingdom, the equivalent Earl can also be used as a courtesy title for the eldest son of a duke or marquess. In Italy, by contrast, all the sons of certain counts were counts, in Sweden there is a distinction between counts created before and after 1809. All children in comital families elevated before 1809 are called count/countess, the following lists are originally based on a Glossary on Heraldica. org by Alexander Krischnig. The male form is followed by the female, and when available, apart from all these, a few unusual titles have been of comital rank, not necessarily to remain there. Dauphin was a comital title in southern France, used by the Dauphins of Vienne and Auvergne. The Dauphin was the lord of the province known as the région Dauphiné. Conde-Barão Count-Baron is a title used in Portugal, notably by D. Luís Lobo da Silveira, 7th Baron of Alvito. His palace in Lisbon still exists, located in a named after him. The German Graf and Dutch graaf stems from the Byzantine-Greek grapheus meaning he who calls a meeting together), the Ottoman military title of Serdar was used in Montenegro and Serbia as a lesser noble title with the equivalent rank of a Count. Since Louis VII, the highest precedence amongst the vassals of the French crown was enjoyed by those whose benefice or temporal fief was a pairie, i. e. In the eleventh century, conti like the Count of Savoy or the Norman Count of Apulia, were virtually sovereign lords of broad territories
Count
–
Countly ephemera: a Count's coronet and crest on a
doily.
Count
–
Coronet of a count (Spanish heraldry)
20.
Charles the Bald
–
Charles the Bald was the King of West Francia, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor. After a series of wars during the reign of his father, Louis the Pious. He was a grandson of Charlemagne and the youngest son of Louis the Pious by his second wife and he was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder brothers were already adults and had been assigned their own regna, or subkingdoms, by their father. The attempts made by Louis the Pious to assign Charles a subkingdom, first Alemannia, at a diet in Aachen in 837, Louis the Pious bade the nobles do homage to Charles as his heir. Pepin of Aquitaine died in 838, whereupon Charles at last received that kingdom, which angered Pepins heirs, the death of the emperor in 840 led to the outbreak of war between his sons. In the following year, the two confirmed their alliance by the celebrated Oaths of Strasbourg. The war was brought to an end by the Treaty of Verdun in August 843, Louis received the eastern part of the Carolingian Empire, known then as East Francia and later as Germany. Lothair retained the title and the Kingdom of Italy. He also received the regions from Flanders through the Rhineland. The first years of Charless reign, up to the death of Lothair I in 855, were comparatively peaceful, during these years the three brothers continued the system of confraternal government, meeting repeatedly with one another, at Koblenz, at Meerssen, and at Attigny. In 858, Louis the German, invited by disaffected nobles eager to oust Charles, Charles was so unpopular that he was unable to summon an army, and he fled to Burgundy. He was saved only by the support of the bishops, who refused to crown Louis the German king, and by the fidelity of the Welfs, in 860, he in his turn tried to seize the kingdom of his nephew, Charles of Provence, but was repulsed. On the death of his nephew Lothair II in 869, Charles tried to seize Lothairs dominions, besides these family disputes, Charles had to struggle against repeated rebellions in Aquitaine and against the Bretons. Led by their chiefs Nomenoë and Erispoë, who defeated the king at the Battle of Ballon and the Battle of Jengland, the Bretons were successful in obtaining a de facto independence. Charles also fought against the Vikings, who devastated the country of the north, the valleys of the Seine and Loire, at the Vikings successful siege and sack of Paris in 845 and several times thereafter Charles was forced to purchase their retreat at a heavy price. By the same edict, he ordered fortified bridges to be put up at all rivers to block the Viking incursions, two of these bridges at Paris saved the city during its siege of 885–886. In 875, after the death of the Emperor Louis II, Charles the Bald, supported by Pope John VIII, traveled to Italy, receiving the crown at Pavia. Louis the German, also a candidate for the succession of Louis II, revenged himself by invading and devastating Charles dominions, and Charles had to return hastily to West Francia
Charles the Bald
–
Charles the Bald in old age; picture from his Psalter
Charles the Bald
–
Denier of Charles the Bald struck at Paris
Charles the Bald
–
Denier (type Temple and cross) of Charles the Bald, minted at
Reims between 840-864 (pre-
Edict of Pistres).
Charles the Bald
–
Seal of Charles the Bald
21.
Palisade
–
A palisade—sometimes called a stakewall or a paling—is typically a fence or wall made from wooden stakes or tree trunks and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Typical construction consisted of small or mid-sized tree trunks aligned vertically, the trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were driven into the ground and sometimes reinforced with additional construction. The height of a palisade ranged from around a metre to as high as 3-4 m, as a defensive structure, palisades were often used in conjunction with earthworks. Palisades were an excellent option for small forts or other hastily constructed fortifications, since they were made of wood, they could often be quickly and easily built from readily available materials. They proved to be effective protection for short-term conflicts and were a deterrent against small forces. However, because they were wooden constructions they were vulnerable to fire. Often, a palisade would be constructed around a castle as a wall until a permanent stone wall could be erected. They were frequently used in New France, both the Greeks and Romans created palisades to protect their military camps. The Roman historian Livy describes the Greek method as being inferior to that of the Romans during the Second Macedonian War, the Greek stakes were too large to be easily carried and were spaced too far apart. This made it easy for enemies to them and create a large enough gap in which to enter. In contrast, the Romans used smaller and easier to carry stakes which were placed closer together, many settlements of the native Mississippian culture of the Midwestern United States also made use of palisades. The most prominent example is the Cahokia Mounds site in Collinsville, a wooden stockade with a series of watchtowers or bastions at regular intervals formed a 2-mile-long enclosure around Monks Mound and the Grand Plaza. Archaeologists found evidence of the stockade during excavation of the area and indications that it was several times. The stockade seems to have separated Cahokias main ceremonial precinct from other parts of the city, the English settlements in Jamestown, Virginia and Plymouth, Massachusetts were originally fortified towns surrounded by palisades. In the late century, when milled lumber was not available or practical. The walls were made of vertical half timbers, the outside, rounded half with its still on faced Adirondack weather. Typically, the cracks between the logs were filled with moss and sometimes covered with small sticks. Inside, the cracks were covered with narrow wooden battens and it also presented a more finished look inside
Palisade
–
Palisade in a Celtic village
Palisade
–
A section of reconstructed palisade at the
Angel Mounds Site, a
Mississippian site in
Evansville, Indiana
Palisade
–
The
Kincaid Site, a
Mississippian culture palisaded settlement in southern
Illinois
Palisade
–
Residential electric palisade fence in
Johannesburg,
South Africa. The top spikes are electrified while the bottom of the palisade is grounded
22.
Common hawthorn
–
Crataegus monogyna, known as common hawthorn or single-seeded hawthorn, is a species of hawthorn native to Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia. It has been introduced in other parts of the world. It can be an invasive weed, other common names include may, mayblossom, maythorn, quickthorn, whitethorn, motherdie, and haw. This species is one of several that have been referred to as Crataegus oxyacantha, the common hawthorn is a shrub or small tree 5–14 metres tall, with a dense crown. The bark is brown with vertical orange cracks. The younger stems bear sharp thorns, approximately 12. 5mm long, the leaves are 20 to 40mm long, obovate and deeply lobed, sometimes almost to the midrib, with the lobes spreading at a wide angle. The upper surface is green above and paler underneath. The flowers are pollinated by midges, bees and other insects, the haw is a small, oval dark red fruit about 10mm long, berry-like, but structurally a pome containing a single seed. Haws are important for wildlife in winter, particularly thrushes and waxwings, however they are inter-fertile and hybrids occur frequently, they are only entirely distinct in their more typical forms. Crataegus monogyna is one of the most common species used as the hawthorn of traditional herbalism, the plant parts used are usually sprigs with both leaves and flowers, or alternatively the fruit. Hawthorne has been investigated by evidence-based medicine for treating cardiac insufficiency, Crataegus monogyna is a source of antioxidant phytochemicals, especially extracts of hawthorn leaves with flowers. Common hawthorn is extensively planted as a plant, especially for agricultural use. Its spines and close branching habit render it effectively stock- and human-proof, the traditional practice of hedge laying is most commonly practised with this species. It is a good fire wood which burns with a good heat, numerous hybrids exist, some of which are used as garden shrubs. The most widely used hybrid is C. × media, of several cultivars are known. The fruit of hawthorn, called haws, are edible raw but are made into jellies, jams. Botanically they are pomes, but they look similar to berries, a haw is small and oblong, similar in size and shape to a small olive or grape, and red when ripe. Haws develop in groups of 2-3 along smaller branches and they are pulpy and delicate in taste
Common hawthorn
–
Crataegus monogyna
Common hawthorn
–
Common Hawthorn flowers
Common hawthorn
–
Common Hawthorn thorns, leaves, and
stipules
Common hawthorn
–
Common Hawthorn fruit
23.
Open field system
–
The open-field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe during the Middle Ages and lasted into the 20th century in parts of western Europe, Russia, Iran and Turkey. Under the open-field system, each manor or village had two or three fields, usually several hundred acres each, which were divided into many narrow strips of land. The strips or selions were cultivated by individuals or peasant families, the holdings of a manor also included woodland and pasture areas for common usage and fields belonging to the lord of the manor and the church. The farmers customarily lived in houses in a nucleated village with a much larger manor house. The open-field system necessitated co-operation among the inhabitants of the manor, the Lord of the Manor, his officials, and a Manorial court administered the manor and exercised jurisdiction over the peasantry. The Lord levied rents and required the peasantry to work on his personal lands, in medieval times, little land was owned outright. Instead the lord had rights given to him by the king, lords demanded rents, often ruinous, and labour from the tenants, but the tenants had firm user rights to cropland and common land and those rights were passed down from generation to generation. A medieval lord could not evict a tenant nor hire labour to him without legal cause. Most tenants likewise were not free without penalty to depart the manor for other locations or occupations, the rise of capitalism and the concept of land as a commodity to be bought and sold led to the demise of the open-field system. The open-field system was replaced over several centuries by private ownership of land. France, Germany, and other northern European countries had similar to England. Some elements of the system were practised by early settlers in the New England region of the United States. The most visible characteristic of the system was that the arable land belonging to a manor was divided into many long narrow furlongs for cultivation. The fields of cultivated land were unfenced, hence the name open-field system, each tenant of the manor cultivated several strips of land scattered around the manor. The village of Elton, Cambridgeshire is representative of a medieval manor in England. The manor, whose Lord was an abbot from a monastery, had 13 hides of arable land of six virgates each. The acreage of a hide and virgate varied, but at Elton a hide was 144 acres, thus, the total of arable land amounted to 1,872 acres. The abbots demesne land consisted of three hides plus 16 acres of meadow and 3 acres of pasture, the remainder of the land was cultivated by 113 tenants who lived in a village on the manor
Open field system
–
Generic map of a medieval
manor, showing strip farming. The mustard-colored areas are part of the
demesne, the
hatched areas part of the
glebe. William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, 1923
Open field system
–
The method of ploughing the fields created a distinctive
ridge and furrow pattern in open-field agriculture. The outlines of the medieval strips of cultivation, called selions, are still clearly visible in these now enclosed fields.
Open field system
–
A four-ox-team plough, circa 1330. The ploughman is using a
mouldboard plough to cut through the heavy soils. A team could plough about one acre (0.4 ha) per day.
Open field system
–
Fiddleford Manor in Dorset, England, a manor house built about 1370. The part of the house in the background was added in the 16th century.
24.
Blackthorn
–
Prunus spinosa is a species of Prunus native to Europe, western Asia, and locally in northwest Africa. It is also naturalised in New Zealand and eastern North America. The specific name spinosa is a Latin term indicating the pointed, the common name blackthorn is due to the thorny nature of the shrub, and its very dark bark. The word commonly used for the fruit, sloe comes from Old English slāh, the names related to sloe come from the Common Germanic root *slaiχwōn. West Slavic / Polish śliwa, plum of any species, including sloe śliwa tarnina—root present in other Slavic languages, the expression sloe-eyed for a person with dark eyes comes from the fruit, and is first attested in A. J. Wilsons 1867 novel Vashti. Prunus spinosa is a deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 5 metres tall, with blackish bark and dense, stiff. The leaves are oval, 2–4.5 centimetres long and 1. 2–2 centimetres broad, the flowers are 1.5 centimetres diameter, with five creamy-white petals, they are produced shortly before the leaves in early spring, and are hermaphroditic and insect-pollinated. Sloes are thin-fleshed, with a strongly astringent flavour when fresh. Prunus spinosa is frequently confused with the related P. cerasifera and they can be distinguished by flower colour, creamy white in P. spinosa, pure white in P. cerasifera. Prunus spinosa has a set of chromosomes. Dead blackthorn wood provides food for the caterpillars of the concealer moth Esperia oliviella, the pocket plum gall of the fruit caused by the fungus Taphrina pruni produces an elongated and flattened gall, devoid of a stone. The shrub, with its savage thorns, is used in Britain. The fruit is similar to a small damson or plum, suitable for preserves and this effect can be reproduced by freezing harvested sloes. The juice is used in the manufacture of spurious port wine, in rural Britain, so-called sloe gin is made from the fruit, though this is not a true gin, but an infusion of gin with the fruit and sugar to produce a liqueur. In Navarre, Spain, a liqueur called pacharán is made with sloes. In France a similar liqueur called épine or épinette or troussepinette is made from the shoots in spring. In Italy, the infusion of spirit with the fruits and sugar produces a liqueur called bargnolino - as well as in France where it is called prunelle or veine dépine noire, wine made from fermented sloes is made in Britain, and in Germany and other central European countries. Sloes can also be made into jam and, used in fruit pies, the juice of the fruits dyes linen a reddish colour that washes out to a durable pale blue
Blackthorn
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Prunus spinosa
Blackthorn
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Sloe (Prunus spinosa) flower, fruit, seed and leaves as illustrated by Otto Wilhelm Thomé (1885).
Blackthorn
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Plant in flower in early spring
Blackthorn
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Pocket Plum gall on Blackthorn, caused by the fungus
Taphrina pruni
25.
Corylus avellana
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It is an important component of the hedgerows that were the traditional field boundaries in lowland England. The wood was grown as coppice, the poles cut being used for wattle-and-daub building. Common hazel is cultivated for its nuts, the name hazelnut applies to the nuts of any of the species of the genus Corylus. This hazelnut or cob nut, the kernel of the seed, is edible and used raw or roasted, the cob is round, compared with the longer filbert nut. Common hazel is typically a shrub reaching 3–8 m tall, the leaves are deciduous, rounded, 6–12 cm long and across, softly hairy on both surfaces, and with a double-serrate margin. The flowers are produced early in spring, before the leaves. Male catkins are yellow and 5–12 cm long, while female catkins are very small. The fruit is a nut, produced in clusters of one to five together, the nut is roughly spherical to oval, 15–20 mm long and 12–20 mm broad, yellow-brown with a pale scar at the base. The nut falls out of the involucre when ripe, about 7–8 months after pollination and it is readily distinguished from the closely related filbert by the short involucre, in the filbert the nut is fully enclosed by a beak-like involucre longer than the nut. That name was taken in turn from Pliny the Elders first century A. D. encyclopedia Naturalis Historia, the leaves provide food for many animals, including Lepidoptera such as the case-bearer moth, Coleophora anatipennella. Caterpillars of the moth, Alabonia geoffrella, have been found feeding inside dead common hazel twigs. See also List of Lepidoptera that feed on hazels, the fruit are possibly even more important animal food, both for invertebrates adapted to circumvent the shell and for vertebrates which manage to crack them open. Both are considered pests by hazelnut growers, according to the New Sunset Western Garden Book, the European hazelnut is among the most widely grown hazelnut plants for commercial nut production. The common hazel is a common in many European woodlands. It is an important component of the hedgerows that were the field boundaries in lowland England. The wood was grown as coppice, the poles cut being used for wattle-and-daub building. A selection with twisted branches has been propagated horticulturally as Corylus avellana Contorta, the hazelnut, also known as the cobnut, is the nut of the hazel. It is roughly spherical to oval in shape, about 15–25 mm long and 10–15 mm in diameter, the nut falls out of the husk when ripe, about seven to eight months after pollination
Corylus avellana
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Corylus avellana
Corylus avellana
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The Common Hazel in the forest near Kyiv in winter.
Corylus avellana
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Male catkins on common hazel
Corylus avellana
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Corylus avellana 'Contorta'
26.
Ilex aquifolium
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Ilex aquifolium, is a species of holly native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia. I. aquifolium is the familiar in Christmas decoration, and is regarded as the type species of the genus Ilex. It is a tree or shrub found, for example, in shady areas of forests of oak. It has a capacity to adapt to different conditions and is a pioneer species that repopulates the margins of forests or clearcuts. As a tree, Christmas holly can exceed 10 m in height and it is usually found as a shrub or a small tree about 1 m tall with a straight trunk and pyramidal crown, which branches from the base. It grows slowly and does not usually fully mature due to grazing, cutting and it can live 500 years, but usually does not reach 100. The flowers are white, four-lobed, and pollinated by bees, Holly is dioecious, meaning that there are male plants and female plants. The sex cannot be determined until the plants begin flowering, usually between 4 and 12 years of age, in male specimens, the flowers are yellowish and appear in axillary groups. In the female, flowers are isolated or in groups of three and are small and white or slightly pink, and consist of four petals and four sepals partially fused at the base and they are eaten by rodents, birds and larger herbivores. Each fruit contains 3 to 4 seeds which do not germinate until the second or third spring, the fruit only appears on female plants, which require male plants nearby to fertilise them. Today, holly is found in western Asia and Europe in the undergrowth of oak forest and beech forest in particular and it requires moist, shady environments, found within forests or in shady slopes, cliffs, and mountain gorges. It has been placed on the Washington State Noxious Weed Control Boards monitor list, during the Cenozoic Era, the Mediterranean region, Europe, and northwest Africa had a wetter climate and were largely covered by laurel forests. Holly was a representative species of this biome, where many current species of the genus Ilex were present. With the drying of the Mediterranean Basin during the Pliocene, the forests gradually retreated, replaced by more drought-tolerant sclerophyll plant communities. The modern Ilex aquifolium resulted from this change, most of the last remaining laurel forests around the Mediterranean are believed to have died out approximately 10,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene. Holly is a pioneer species that prefers relatively moist areas. The plant is common in the garrigue and maquis and is found in deciduous forest. Pure stands of hollies can grow into a labyrinth of vaults in which thrushes and deer take refuge, after the first frost of the season, holly fruits become soft and fall to the ground serving as important food for winter birds at a time of scarce resources
Ilex aquifolium
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Ilex aquifolium
Ilex aquifolium
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European holly foliage with berries
Ilex aquifolium
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European holly flowers; male above, female below (leaves cut to show flowers more clearly)
Ilex aquifolium
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Cultivated specimen in North America
27.
Fagus sylvatica
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Fagus sylvatica, the European beech or common beech, is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae. Fagus sylvatica is a tree, capable of reaching heights of up to 50 m tall and 3 m trunk diameter, though more typically 25–35 m tall. A 10-year-old sapling will stand about 4 m tall and it has a typical lifespan of 150–200 years, though sometimes up to 300 years. In cultivated forest stands trees are harvested at 80–120 years of age. 30 years are needed to attain full maturity, like most trees, its form depends on the location, in forest areas, F. sylvatica grows to over 30 m, with branches being high up on the trunk. In open locations, it will become shorter and more massive. The leaves are alternate, simple, and entire or with a crenate margin, 5–10 cm long and 3–7 cm broad. When crenate, there is one point at each vein tip, the buds are long and slender, 15–30 mm long and 2–3 mm thick, but thicker where the buds include flower buds. The leaves of beech are often not abscissed in the autumn and this particularly occurs when trees are saplings or when plants are clipped as a hedge, but it also often continues to occur on the lower branches when the tree is mature. Small quantities of seeds may be produced around 10 years of age, F. sylvatica male flowers are borne in the small catkins which are a hallmark of the Fagales order. Flower and seed production is abundant in years following a hot, sunny and dry summer. In the Balkans, it shows some hybridisation with oriental beech, in the southern part of its range around the Mediterranean, it grows only in mountain forests, at 600–1,800 m altitude. Although often regarded as native in southern England, recent evidence suggests that F, the beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is often removed from native woods. Localised pollen records have recorded in the North of England from the Iron Age by Sir Harry Godwin. It is often planted in Britain, similarly, the nature of Norwegian beech populations is subject to debate. If native, they would represent the range of the species. However, molecular analyses support the hypothesis that these populations represent intentional introduction from Denmark before. However, the beech in Vestfold and at Seim north of Bergen in Norway is now spreading naturally, though not demanding of its soil type, the European beech has several significant requirements, a humid atmosphere and well-drained soil
Fagus sylvatica
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Fagus sylvatica European beech
Fagus sylvatica
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Copper beech in autumn
Fagus sylvatica
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European beech shoot with nut cupules
Fagus sylvatica
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Fagus sylvatica -
MHNT
28.
Quercus robur
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Quercus robur, commonly known as pedunculate oak or English oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family Fagaceae. It is native to most of Europe west of the Caucasus, the tree is widely cultivated in temperate regions and has escaped into the wild in scattered parts of China and North America. Quercus robur is the species of the genus, and a member of the white oak section Quercus section Quercus. The populations in Italy, southeast Europe, and Asia Minor, a close relative is the sessile oak, which shares much of its range. Q. robur is distinguished from this species by its leaves having only a short stalk 3–8 mm long. The two often hybridise in the wild, the hybrid being known as Quercus × rosacea, Q. robur should not be confused with Q. rubra, the red oak, which is a native of North America and only distantly related. Quercus robur is a deciduous tree, with circumference of grand oaks from 4 m to exceptional 12 m. The Majesty Oak with a circumference of 12.2 m is the thickest tree in Great Britain, Quercus robur has lobed and nearly sessile leaves 7–14 cm long. Flowering takes place in mid spring, and their fruit, called acorns, the acorns are 2–2.5 cm long, pedunculate with one to four acorns on each peduncle. Q. robur is very tolerant to soil conditions and the climate but it prefers fertile. It is a tree, with a large wide spreading crown of rugged branches. While it may live to an age of a few centuries, many of the oldest trees are pollarded or coppiced. Yet another can be found in Kvilleken, Sweden, that is over 1,000 years old and 14 metres around, of maiden specimens, one of the oldest is the great oak of Ivenack, Germany. Tree-ring research of this tree and other oaks nearby gives an age of 700 to 800 years. Also the Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire, England is estimated to be 1,000 years old, making it the oldest in the UK, highest density of the grand oak trees Q. robur with a circumference 4 metres and more is in Latvia. Within its native range Q. robur is valued for its importance to insects, numerous insects live on the leaves, buds, and in the acorns. Q. robur supports the highest biodiversity of insect herbivores of any British plant, the acorns form a valuable food resource for several small mammals and some birds, notably Eurasian jays Garrulus glandarius. Mammals, notably squirrels who tend to hoard acorns and other nuts most often leave them too abused to grow in the action of moving or storing them
Quercus robur
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Quercus robur
Quercus robur
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Ancient pedunculate oaks at
Wistman's Wood in Devon, England
Quercus robur
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An old English oak in
Baginton, England
Quercus robur
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Seedling sprouting from its acorn
29.
Fraxinus excelsior
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Fraxinus excelsior — known as the ash, or European ash or common ash to distinguish it from other types of ash — is a flowering plant species in the olive family Oleaceae. It is native throughout mainland Europe east to the Caucasus and Alborz mountains, the northernmost location is in the Trondheimsfjord region of Norway. The species is cultivated and reportedly naturalised in New Zealand and in scattered locales in the United States. It is a deciduous tree growing to 12–18 m tall with a trunk up to 2 m diameter, with a tall. The bark is smooth and pale grey on young trees, becoming thick, the shoots are stout, greenish-grey, with jet black buds. These features distinguish ash from ash in which the leaves are alternate with paired stipules. The leaves are often among the last to open in spring, the flowers are borne in short panicles, open before the leaves, and have no perianth. The female flowers are longer than the male flowers, dark purple, without petals. Both male and female flowers can occur on the same tree, a tree that is all male one year can produce female flowers the next, and similarly a female tree can become male. The fruit is a samara 2. 5–4.5 cm long and 5–8 mm broad, often hanging in bunches through the winter, European Ash rarely exceeds 250 years of age. However, there are numerous specimens estimated between 200 and 250 years old and there are a few over 250, the largest is in Clapton Court, England and is 9 m in girth. There are several examples over 4.5 metres in Derbyshire alone, Fraxinus excelsior is native to Europe from northern Spain to Russia, and from southern Scandinavia to northern Greece. It is also considered native in southwestern Asia from northern Turkey east to the Caucasus, the northernmost location is in the Trondheimsfjord region of Norway. It is native throughout the British Isles, particularly on limestone, as in northern Scotland, Ash occurs on a wide range of soil types, but is particularly associated with basic soils on calcareous substrates. As a young seedling it is tolerant, but as an older tree is light demanding. It is an early succession species and may well out compete beech and oak, unlike other Fraxinus species, F. excelsior does not form ectomycorrhizas. A number of Lepidoptera use the species as a food source, see Lepidoptera which feed on ashes. In the UK, many invertebrates have also been found to feed on Ash
Fraxinus excelsior
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European ash
Fraxinus excelsior
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Male flowers
Fraxinus excelsior
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Veneer of Common Ash Wood.
Fraxinus excelsior
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Replica of the body frame from the
Volvo ÖV 4 car, made primarily from ash wood.
"Hedge". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
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