1.
Ibiza
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Ibiza is an island in the Mediterranean Sea off the east coast of Spain. It is 150 kilometres from the city of Valencia and it is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. Its largest settlements are Ibiza Town, Santa Eulària des Riu and its highest point, called Sa Talaiassa, is 475 metres above sea level. The islands government and the Spanish Tourist Office have been working to promote more family-oriented tourism, the port in Ibiza Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ibiza and the island of Formentera to its south are called the Pine Islands. The official name of the island is in Catalan Eivissa and its name in Spanish is Ibiza. In British English, the name is pronounced in an approximation of the Spanish /ɪˈbiːθə/, whereas in American English the pronunciation is more anglicized. Phoenician colonists called the island Ibossim and it was later known to Romans as Ebusus. The Greeks called the two islands of Ibiza and Formentera the Pityûssai, in the 18th and 19th centuries the island was known to the British, and especially to the Royal Navy, as Ivica. In 654 BC, Phoenician settlers founded a port on Ibiza, with the decline of Phoenicia after the Assyrian invasions, Ibiza came under the control of Carthage, also a former Phoenician colony. The island produced dye, salt, fish sauce, and wool, a shrine with offerings to the goddess Tanit was established in the cave at Es Cuieram, and the rest of the Balearic Islands entered Eivissas commercial orbit after 400 BC. Ibiza was a trading post along the Mediterranean routes. During the Second Punic War, the island was assaulted by the two Scipio brothers in 209 BC but remained loyal to Carthage. With the Carthaginian military failing on the Iberian mainland, Ibiza was last used by the fleeing Carthaginian General Mago to gather supplies and men before sailing to Minorca, for this reason, Ibiza today contains excellent examples of late Carthaginian-Punic civilization. During the Roman Empire, the became a quiet imperial outpost. Ibiza together with the islands of Formentera and Minorca were invaded by the Norwegian King Sigurd I of Norway in the spring of 1110 on his crusade to Jerusalem. The king had previously conquered the cities of Sintra, Lisbon, King Sigurd continued to Sicily where he visited King Roger II of Sicily. The island was conquered by Aragonese King James I in 1235, the local Muslim population got deported as was the case with neighboring Majorca and elsewhere, and Christians arrived from Girona
2.
Balearic Islands
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The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The four largest islands are Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, there are many minor islands and islets close to the larger islands, including Cabrera, Dragonera and SEspalmador. The islands have a Mediterranean climate, and the four islands are all popular tourist destinations. Ibiza in particular is known as a party destination, attracting many of the worlds most popular DJs to its nightclubs. The islands culture and cuisine are similar to that of the rest of Spain but have their own distinctive features, the archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain, with Palma de Mallorca as the capital. The 2007 Statute of Autonomy declares the Balearic Islands as one nationality of Spain, the co-official languages in the Balearic Islands are Catalan and Spanish. Though now a part of Spain, throughout history the Balearic Islands have been under the rule of a number of different kingdoms, the official name of the Balearic Islands in Catalan is Illes Balears, while in Spanish they are known as the Islas Baleares. The term Balearic derives from Greek, of the various theories on the origins of the two ancient Greek and Latin names for the islands—Gymnasiae and Baleares—classical sources provide two. According to the Lycophrons Alexandra verses, the islands were called Γυμνησίαι/Gymnesiae because its inhabitants were often nude, the Greek and Roman writers generally derive the name of the people from their skill as slingers, although Strabo regards the name as of Phoenician origin. He observed it was the Phoenician equivalent for lightly armoured soldiers the Greeks would have called γυμνῆτας/gymnetas, the root bal does point to a Phoenician origin, perhaps the islands were sacred to the god Baal and the resemblance to the Greek root ΒΑΛ is accidental. Indeed, it was usual Greek practice to assimilate local names into their own language, but the common Greek name of the islands is not Βαλεαρεῖς/Baleareis, but Γυμνησίαι/Gymnesiai. The former was the used by the natives, as well as by the Carthaginians and Romans. The Balearic Islands are on a platform called the Balearic Promontory. They are cut by a network of northwest to southeast faults, the main islands of the autonomous community are Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, all popular tourist destinations. Amongst the minor islands is Cabrera, the location of the Cabrera Archipelago Maritime-Terrestrial National Park, the islands can be further grouped, with Majorca, Minorca, and Cabrera as the Gymnesian Islands, and Ibiza and Formentera as the Pityusic Islands, also referred to as the Pityuses. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, the Balearic Islands unsurprisingly have typical mediterranean climates, the below-listed climatic data of the capital Palma is typical for the archipelago, with minor differences to other stations in Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca. Little is recorded on the earliest inhabitants of the islands, though many legends exist, the story, preserved by Lycophron, that certain shipwrecked Greek Boeotians were cast nude on the islands, was evidently invented to account for the name Gymnesiae. There is also a tradition that the islands were colonised by Rhodes after the Trojan War, the islands had a very mixed population, of whose habits several strange stories are told
3.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
4.
The Kennel Club
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The Kennel Club is the official kennel club of the United Kingdom. It is the oldest recognised kennel club in the world and its role is to act as governing body for various canine activities including dog shows, dog agility and working trials. It also operates the national register of pedigree dogs in the United Kingdom and its headquarters are located on Clarges Street in Mayfair, London, with business offices in Aylesbury. The Kennel Club registration system divides dogs into seven breed groups, the Kennel Club Groups are, Hound, Working, Terrier, Gundog, Pastoral, Utility and Toy. As of 2011, the Kennel Club recognised 210 breeds of dog and this was increased to 211 breeds with the addition of the Turkish Kangal dog in 2013. The Kennel Club licenses dog shows throughout the UK but the dog show actually run by the KC is the Crufts conformation show. The show has held since 1928 and attracts competitors from all over the world. Crufts is held every March at the NEC, Birmingham, the Kennel Club also holds the dog event Discover Dogs in London every November, featuring the Scruffts dog show for crossbreed and mixed breed dogs. The Kennel club was founded in 1873 after Sewallis E Shirley became frustrated by trying to dog shows without a consistent set of rules to work with. Since the first dog show held in 1859, shows had become popular during the Victorian era. Shirley is listed as an exhibitor of Fox Terriers at the Birmingham Dog Show Society show in 1865, together with a group of other gentlemen he organised the First Grand Exhibition of Sporting and Other Dogs held at Crystal Palace in June 1870. The show was not a success and the gentlemen of the committee had to make up the loss. This seems to have been the trigger for Shirley calling a meeting with others who had deep seated interests in judging and exhibiting pedigree dogs. The Meeting was held at 2 Albert Mansions, Victoria Street, London, all business was conducted from there until a move to Pall Mall in May 1877. It was decided they would be responsible for publishing a Stud Book, the Kennel Club saw particular change under the chairmanship of John MacDougall during the period 1981 to 1996. It was also under his stewardship that the system became computerised. The Kennel Club acquired Crufts dog show after the widow of Charles Cruft was unable to devote the time to running such a large undertaking, no shows were held during the Second World War. The first Crufts show held by the Kennel Club was in 1948 at Olympia, the show was first televised by the BBC in 1950
5.
Dog
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The domestic dog is a member of genus Canis that forms part of the wolf-like canids, and is the most widely abundant carnivore. The dog and the extant gray wolf are sister taxa, with modern wolves not closely related to the wolves that were first domesticated, the dog was the first domesticated species and has been selectively bred over millennia for various behaviors, sensory capabilities, and physical attributes. Their long association with humans has led dogs to be attuned to human behavior. Dogs vary widely in shape, size and colours, dogs perform many roles for people, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and military, companionship and, more recently, aiding handicapped individuals. This influence on society has given them the sobriquet mans best friend. The term domestic dog is used for both domesticated and feral varieties. The English word dog comes from Middle English dogge, from Old English docga, the term may possibly derive from Proto-Germanic *dukkōn, represented in Old English finger-docce. The word also shows the familiar petname diminutive -ga also seen in frogga frog, picga pig, stagga stag, wicga beetle, worm, the term dog may ultimately derive from the earliest layer of Proto-Indo-European vocabulary. In 14th-century England, hound was the word for all domestic canines, and dog referred to a subtype of hound. It is believed this dog type was so common, it became the prototype of the category hound. By the 16th century, dog had become the general word, the word hound is ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *kwon-, dog. This semantic shift may be compared with in German, where the corresponding words Dogge, a male canine is referred to as a dog, while a female is called a bitch. The father of a litter is called the sire, and the mother is called the dam, the process of birth is whelping, from the Old English word hwelp, the modern English word whelp is an alternate term for puppy. A litter refers to the offspring at one birth which are called puppies or pups from the French poupée, doll. The term dog typically is applied both to the species as a whole, and any male member of the same. An adult female is a bitch, in some countries, especially in North America, dog is used instead due to the vulgar connotation of bitch. An adult male capable of reproduction is a stud, an adult female capable of reproduction is a brood bitch, or brood mother. Immature males or females are pups or puppies, a group of pups from the same gestation period is a litter
6.
Hound
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A Hound is a type of dog, used by hunters to track or chase prey. Hounds can be contrasted with gundogs, which assist hunters by identifying the location of prey and/or recovering shot quarry, the hound breeds were the first hunting dogs. They have either a sense of smell or great speed. There are three types of hound, with several breeds within each type, Sighthounds, which follow prey predominantly by speed and these dogs are fast and assist hunters in catching game—fox, hare, deer and elk. Scenthounds, which follow prey or others by tracking its scent and these dogs have endurance but are not fast runners. The remaining breeds of hound follow their prey using both sight and scent, difficult to classify as they are neither sighthound nor scent hound and this may not include all hound-type dogs. Breed Groups Dog type Hound Group Hunting dog Scent hound Sighthound Sighthound & Pariah Group
7.
Veterinary physician
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In many cases, the activities that may be undertaken by a veterinarian are restricted only to those professionals who are registered as a veterinarian. Most veterinary physicians work in clinical settings, treating animals directly, as with other healthcare professionals, veterinarians face ethical decisions about the care of their patients. The word veterinary comes from the Latin veterinae meaning working animals, Veterinarian was first used in print by Thomas Browne in 1646. The first veterinary college was founded in Lyon, France in 1762 by Claude Bourgelat, according to Lupton, after observing the devastation being caused by cattle plague to the French herds, Bourgelat devoted his time to seeking out a remedy. The Odiham Agricultural Society was founded in 1783 in England to promote agriculture and industry, a 1785 Society meeting resolved to promote the study of Farriery upon rational scientific principles. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons was established by charter in 1844. Veterinary science came of age in the late 19th century, with contributions from Sir John McFadyean. Veterinarians treat disease, disorder or injury in animals, which includes diagnosis, treatment, the scope of practice, specialty and experience of the individual veterinarian will dictate exactly what interventions they perform, but most will perform surgery. Unlike in human medicine, veterinarians must rely primarily on clinical signs, additionally, there are scenarios where euthanasia is considered due to the constrains of the clients finances. As with human medicine, much work is concerned with prophylactic treatment. Common interventions include vaccination against common illnesses, such as distemper or rabies. This may also involve owner education so as to future medical or behavioral issues. Additionally veterinarians have important roles in health and the prevention of zoonoses. The majority of veterinarians are employed in private practice treating animals, small animal veterinarians typically work in veterinary clinics, veterinary hospitals, or both. Large animal veterinarians often spend time travelling to see their patients at the primary facilities which house them. Other employers include charities treating animals, colleges of medicine, research laboratories, animal food companies. In many countries, the government may also be an employer of veterinarians. State and local governments also employ veterinarians, Veterinarians and their practices may be specialized in certain areas of veterinary medicine
8.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
9.
Rabbit
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Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. There are eight different genera in the classified as rabbits, including the European rabbit, cottontail rabbits. There are many species of rabbit, and these, along with pikas and hares. The male is called a buck and the female is a doe, Rabbit habitats include meadows, woods, forests, grasslands, deserts and wetlands. Rabbits live in groups, and the best known species, the European rabbit, lives in underground burrows, a group of burrows is called a warren. More than half the worlds rabbit population resides in North America and they are also native to southwestern Europe, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, some islands of Japan, and in parts of Africa and South America. They are not naturally found in most of Eurasia, where a number of species of hares are present, rabbits first entered South America relatively recently, as part of the Great American Interchange. Much of the continent has just one species of rabbit, the tapeti, the European rabbit has been introduced to many places around the world. Male rabbits are called bucks, females are called does, an older term for an adult rabbit is coney, while rabbit once referred only to the young animals. Another term for a rabbit is bunny, though this term is often applied informally to rabbits generally, especially domestic ones. More recently, the kit or kitten has been used to refer to a young rabbit. A young hare is called a leveret, this term is sometimes applied to a young rabbit as well. A group of rabbits is known as a colony, or nest, a group of young rabbits with the same parentage is referred to as a litter, and a group of domestic rabbits is sometimes called a herd. Because the rabbits epiglottis is engaged over the soft palate except when swallowing, rabbits have two sets of incisor teeth, one behind the other. This way they can be distinguished from rodents, with which they are often confused, the rabbits long ears, which can be more than 10 cm long, are probably an adaptation for detecting predators. They have large, powerful hind legs, the two front paws have 5 toes, the extra called the dewclaw. The hind feet have 4 toes and they are plantigrade animals while at rest, however, they move around on their toes while running, assuming a more digitigrade form. Unlike some other paw structures of quadruped mammals, especially those of domesticated pets and their nails are strong and are used for digging, along with their teeth, they are also used for defense
10.
Pharaoh Hound
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The Pharaoh Hound is a breed of dog and the national hound of Malta. Its native name is Kelb tal-Fenek in Maltese, which means Rabbit dog, the dog is traditionally used for hunting rabbit in the Maltese Islands. Based on DNA analysis, the breed has no link with Ancient Egypt, however, a popular myth holds that the breed is descended from the Tesem, one of the ancient Egyptian hunting dogs. Some believe that there are similarities between the breed and images of dogs found on the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs and this myth proposes that the Pharaoh Hound was brought by the Phoenicians to Malta, where it has existed for over 2,000 years. The breed has variously been classified as a member of the sighthound group, at first glance, the Pharaoh Hound appears both graceful and elegant as well as powerful and athletic. Its build is one of strength without bulkiness or excessive musculature and its head is elegant without being fine or extreme. The skull resembles a blunt wedge, and is long and chiseled with only a slight stop and its eyes are oval with a keen, alert, and intelligent expression. It has a long, lean, and muscular neck that is slightly arched and it has a deep chest that extends down to the elbows and a moderate tuck up. Its shoulders are long and well laid back and its front legs are long and straight. The back legs are moderately angled, parallel to each other and it has a long, fine, straight tail that reaches down to a bit below the point of the hocks, and has a whip-like shape. The tail is carried down when relaxed, when the dog is in motion or is excited, the tail is carried up, either level with, or loosely curled above, the back. The Pharaoh Hounds ears are large and point upward when alert. They usually come in tan or chestnut colors, most commonly seen is any solid white spot on their neck, back, or shoulders. Mainly seen on the back or sides of the dog, Pharaoh Hounds tend to weigh up to 45-55 pounds on average. Weight depends on the sex of the dog, or its eating habits, male Pharaoh Hounds are normally considered larger than the females. Males usually are 23-25, while females are 21-24, size and weight also relate to the amount of exercise it receives. The coat is fine and short with no feathering, the texture varies from silky to somewhat hard and it must never be so profuse as to stand away from the dogs skin. The coat can also be glossy and short in most cases, the only colour accepted by most kennel clubs is red, though the shades of red colour varies, and accepted shades range from a tan to a deep chestnut and all shades in between
11.
Portuguese Podengo
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The Portuguese Podengo is an ancient multi-sensory hound breed of dog from Portugal. As a breed, the Podengo is divided into three categories that are not interbred, small, medium and large. Their coats are short and smooth, or longer and wired. The smooth coated variety is traditional, dating back to the 5th century, in general, the breed is healthy, the Pequeno variety has an average lifespan of approximately 15–17 years. All Podengo types are hardy, intelligent and lively dogs, excelling at agility, loyal and fearless, Podengos are also good house guards and are amenable to training by dog experienced people and those that enjoy primitive dog behavior. Keen hunting dogs, the Podengo has an affinity for game regardless of size, typically, the dogs hunt in a pack with their handler following. When game is found, they kill and retrieve it, or flush it towards the hunter to be shot, each size category traditionally hunts game appropriate to their size and temperament. The Portuguese Podengo in the UK is represented by The Portuguese Podengo Club of Great Britain, the Breed Standard was approved on January 1,2006. The Podengo Pequeno was transferred from the Import Register into the Breed Register on January 1,2008 at the Kennel Club, the Podengo Pequeno now has its own breed classes at Championship Shows and Open Shows. The Podengo Pequeno was shown at Crufts for the first time in 2009, there are approximately 500 Podengos now resident in the UK. All three sizes and varieties of the Portuguese Podengo have been registered at the United Kennel Club since 2004 and are in the Sighthound & Pariah Group, the Podengo Pequeno became AKC recognized in January 2013 and is now registered there. Incorporated in 2009, Portuguese Podengo Pequenos of America is the AKC club for the breed in the US and is mostly in a few western states and the Midwest. The Portuguese Podengo Pequeno Club of America, founded in 2001, is the first and largest club of Podengo Pequeno owners in the USA and is in 40 states and they are the only club dedicated to BOTH the wire coat and the smooth coat varieties of the breed. The PPPCA was incorporated in January 2003 in Newport, Rhode Island, other organizations that recognize the Podengo in the US are the United Kennel Club, American Rare Breed Association, North American Kennel Club and The American Sighthound Field Association. The Portuguese Podengo Medio and Grande are represented in the United States by The American Portuguese Podengo Medio/Grande Club, the United Kingdom registers the most Podengos, followed by Finland, the United States and Portugal. In Europe, the Podengo is classified by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale as Group 5, Spitz and primitive type, Section 7, the FCI breed standard, which originates in Portugal, governs all types and varieties of the Portuguese Podengo. In both the United States and the UK the Portuguese Podengo is classified in the Hound Group, there are three sizes of Podengos, Podengo Pequeno, Podengo Medio and Podengo Grande. Within each size type are two varieties, smooth and wire, all of these types are called Portuguese Podengo as a breed, although none of these six types are interbred
12.
Ancient Egypt
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Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
