1.
Archaeological culture
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An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place, which may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between the artifacts is based on understanding and interpretation and does not necessarily relate to real groups of humans in the past. The concept of culture is fundamental to culture-historical archaeology. Different cultural groups have material culture items which differ both functionally and aesthetically due to varying cultural and social practices and this notion is observably true on the broadest scales. For example, the equipment associated with the brewing of tea varies greatly across the world, social relations to material culture often include notions of identity and status. The classic definition of this comes from Gordon Childe, We find certain types of remains - pots, implements, ornaments, burial rites. Such a complex of associated traits we shall call a group or just a culture. We assume that such a complex is the expression of what today we would call a people. The concept of a culture was crucial to linking the typological analysis of archaeological evidence to mechanisms that attempted to explain why they change through time. The key explanations favoured by culture-historians were the diffusion of forms from one group to another or the migration of the peoples themselves. Conversely, if one pottery-type suddenly replaces a great diversity of types in an entire region. Archaeological cultures were generally equated with separate peoples leading in some cases to distinct nationalist archaeologies, most archaeological cultures are named after either the type artifact or type site that defines the culture. For example, cultures may be named after pottery types such as Linear Pottery Culture or Funnelbeaker culture, more frequently, they are named after the site at which the culture was first defined such as the Halstatt culture or Clovis culture. Since the term culture has different meanings, scholars have also coined a more specific term paleo-culture or paleoculture. Works of Kulturgeschichte were produced by a number of German scholars, particularly Gustav Klemm, from 1780 onwards, the first use of culture in an archaeological context was in Christian Thomsens 1836 work Ledetraad til Nordisk Oldkyndighed. It was not until the 20th century and the works of German prehistorian, Kossinna saw the archaeological record as a mosaic of clearly defined cultures that were strongly associated with race. The strongly racist character of Kossinnas work meant it had direct influence outside of Germany at the time. However, the general culture history approach to archaeology that he began did replace social evolutionism as the dominant paradigm for much of the 20th century
2.
Cremation
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Cremation is the combustion, vaporization and oxidation of cadavers to basic chemical compounds, such as gases, ashes and mineral fragments retaining the appearance of dry bone. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite as an alternative to the interment of a dead body in a coffin. Cremated remains, which do not constitute a risk, may be buried or interred in memorial sites or cemeteries, or they may be retained by relatives. Cremation is not an alternative to a funeral, but rather an alternative to burial or other forms of disposal, some families prefer to have the deceased present at the funeral with cremation to follow, others prefer that the cremation occur prior to the funeral or memorial service. In many countries, cremation is usually done in a crematorium, some countries, such as India and Nepal, prefer different methods, such as open-air cremation. Cremation dates from at least 20,000 years ago in the record, with the Mungo Lady. Alternative death rituals emphasizing one method of disposal of a body—inhumation, cremation, in the Middle East and Europe, both burial and cremation are evident in the archaeological record in the Neolithic era. Cultural groups had their own preferences and prohibitions, the ancient Egyptians developed an intricate transmigration of soul theology, which prohibited cremation. This was also widely adopted used by Semitic peoples, the Babylonians, according to Herodotus, embalmed their dead. Early Persians practiced cremation, but this became prohibited during the Zoroastrian Period, phoenicians practiced both cremation and burial. From the Cycladic civilisation in 3000 BCE until the Sub-Mycenaean era in 1200–1100 BCE, Cremation appeared around the 12th century BCE, constituting a new practice of burial, probably influenced by Anatolia. Until the Christian era, when inhumation again became the burial practice. Romans practiced both, with cremation generally associated with military honors, in Europe, there are traces of cremation dating to the Early Bronze Age in the Pannonian Plain and along the middle Danube. The custom became dominant throughout Bronze Age Europe with the Urnfield culture, in the Iron Age, inhumation again becomes more common, but cremation persisted in the Villanovan culture and elsewhere. Homers account of Patroclus burial describes cremation with subsequent burial in a tumulus, similar to Urnfield burials, criticism of burial rites is a common form of aspersion by competing religions and cultures, including the association of cremation with fire sacrifice or human sacrifice. Hinduism and Jainism are notable for not only allowing but prescribing cremation, Cremation in India is first attested in the Cemetery H culture, considered the formative stage of Vedic civilization. The Rigveda contains a reference to the practice, in RV10.15.14. Cremation remained common, but not universal, in both ancient Greece and ancient Rome, according to Cicero, in Rome, inhumation was considered the more archaic rite, while the most honoured citizens were most typically cremated—especially upper classes and members of imperial families
3.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
4.
Indonesia
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Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a unitary sovereign state and transcontinental country located mainly in Southeast Asia with some territories in Oceania. Situated between the Indian and Pacific oceans, it is the worlds largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands. At 1,904,569 square kilometres, Indonesia is the worlds 14th-largest country in terms of area and worlds 7th-largest country in terms of combined sea. It has an population of over 260 million people and is the worlds fourth most populous country. The worlds most populous island, Java, contains more than half of the countrys population, Indonesias republican form of government includes an elected legislature and president. Indonesia has 34 provinces, of which five have Special Administrative status and its capital and countrys most populous city is Jakarta, which is also the most populous city in Southeast Asia and the second in Asia. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, other neighbouring countries include Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support the second highest level of biodiversity. The country has abundant natural resources like oil and natural gas, tin, copper, agriculture mainly produces rice, palm oil, tea, coffee, cacao, medicinal plants, spices and rubber. Indonesias major trading partners are Japan, United States, China, the Indonesian archipelago has been an important region for trade since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Indonesia consists of hundreds of native ethnic and linguistic groups. The largest – and politically dominant – ethnic group are the Javanese, a shared identity has developed, defined by a national language, ethnic diversity, religious pluralism within a Muslim-majority population, and a history of colonialism and rebellion against it. Indonesias national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, articulates the diversity that shapes the country, Indonesias economy is the worlds 16th largest by nominal GDP and the 8th largest by GDP at PPP, the largest in Southeast Asia, and is considered an emerging market and newly industrialised country. Indonesia has been a member of the United Nations since 1950, Indonesia is a member of the G20 major economies and World Trade Organization. The name Indonesia derives from the Greek name of the Indós, the name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia. In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms Indunesians—and, his preference, in the same publication, one of his students, James Richardson Logan, used Indonesia as a synonym for Indian Archipelago. However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use Indonesia, they preferred Malay Archipelago, the Netherlands East Indies, popularly Indië, the East, and Insulinde
5.
Lebanon
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Lebanon, officially known as the Lebanese Republic, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, Lebanons location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland facilitated its rich history and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity. At just 10,452 km2, it is the smallest recognized country on the entire mainland Asian continent, the earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back more than seven thousand years, predating recorded history. Lebanon was the home of the Canaanites/Phoenicians and their kingdoms, a culture that flourished for over a thousand years. In 64 BC, the region came under the rule of the Roman Empire, in the Mount Lebanon range a monastic tradition known as the Maronite Church was established. As the Arab Muslims conquered the region, the Maronites held onto their religion, however, a new religious group, the Druze, established themselves in Mount Lebanon as well, generating a religious divide that has lasted for centuries. During the Crusades, the Maronites re-established contact with the Roman Catholic Church, the ties they established with the Latins have influenced the region into the modern era. The region eventually was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1918, following the collapse of the empire after World War I, the five provinces that constitute modern Lebanon came under the French Mandate of Lebanon. The French expanded the borders of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, which was populated by Maronites and Druze. Lebanon gained independence in 1943, establishing confessionalism, a unique, foreign troops withdrew completely from Lebanon on 31 December 1946. Lebanon has been a member of the Organisation internationale de la francophonie since 1973, despite its small size, the country has developed a well-known culture and has been highly influential in the Arab world. Before the Lebanese Civil War, the experienced a period of relative calm and renowned prosperity, driven by tourism, agriculture, commerce. At the end of the war, there were efforts to revive the economy. In spite of troubles, Lebanon has the highest Human Development Index and GDP per capita in the Arab world. The name of Mount Lebanon originates from the Phoenician root lbn meaning white, occurrences of the name have been found in different Middle Bronze Age texts from the library of Ebla, and three of the twelve tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The name is recorded in Ancient Egyptian as Rmnn, where R stood for Canaanite L, the name occurs nearly 70 times in the Hebrew Bible, as לְבָנוֹן. The borders of contemporary Lebanon are a product of the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920 and its territory was the core of the Bronze Age Phoenician city-states. After the 7th-century Muslim conquest of the Levant, it was part of the Rashidun, Umyayad, Abbasid Seljuk, with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Greater Lebanon fell under French mandate in 1920, and gained independence under president Bechara El Khoury in 1943
6.
Palestine (region)
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Palestine is a geographic region in Western Asia between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is sometimes considered to include adjoining territories, the name was used by Ancient Greek writers, and was later used for the Roman province Syria Palaestina, the Byzantine Palaestina Prima, and the Islamic provincial district of Jund Filastin. The region comprises most of the claimed for the biblical regions known as the Land of Israel. Historically, it has known as the southern portion of wider regional designations such as Canaan, Syria, ash-Sham. The boundaries of the region have changed throughout history, today, the region comprises the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories in which the State of Palestine was declared. Modern archaeology has identified 12 ancient inscriptions from Egyptian and Assyrian records recording likely cognates of Hebrew Pelesheth, the term Peleset is found in five inscriptions referring to a neighboring people or land starting from c.1150 BCE during the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt. Neither the Egyptian nor the Assyrian sources provided clear regional boundaries for the term, approximately a century later, Aristotle used a similar definition for the region in Meteorology, in which he included the Dead Sea. The term is accepted to be a translation of the Biblical name Peleshet. The term is used in the Septuagint, who used a transliteration Land of Phylistieim different from the contemporary Greek place name Palaistínē. Following the Muslim conquest, place names that were in use by the Byzantine administration generally continued to be used in Arabic, Modern archaeologists and historians of the region refer to their field of study as Levantine archaeology. The region was among the earliest in the world to see human habitation, agricultural communities, during the Bronze Age, independent Canaanite city-states were established, and were influenced by the surrounding civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Minoan Crete, and Syria. Between 1550–1400 BCE, the Canaanite cities became vassals to the Egyptian New Kingdom who held power until the 1178 BCE Battle of Djahy during the wider Bronze Age collapse. The region became part of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from c.740 BCE, in 539 BCE, the Babylonian empire was replaced by the Achaemenid Empire. In the 330s BCE, Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great conquered the region and it ultimately fell to the Seleucid Empire between 219–200 BCE. In 116 BCE, a Seleucid civil war resulted in the independence of certain regions including the Hasmonean principality in the Judaean Mountains, from 110 BCE, the Hasmoneans extended their authority over much of Palestine, creating a Judaean–Samaritan–Idumaean–Ituraean–Galilean alliance. The Judaean control over the region resulted in it also becoming known as Judaea. Between 73–63 BCE, the Roman Republic extended its influence into the region in the Third Mithridatic War, conquering Judea in 63 BCE, and splitting the former Hasmonean Kingdom into five districts. The three-year Ministry of Jesus, culminating in his crucifixion, is estimated to have occurred from 28–30 CE, in 70 CE, Titus sacked Jerusalem, resulting in the dispersal of the citys Jews and Christians to Yavne and Pella
7.
Taiwan
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Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a state in East Asia. Neighbours include China to the west, Japan to the northeast, Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations, and the one with the largest economy. The island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty, following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROCs loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, in the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage, Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, the PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC, the PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible. There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, the former name Formosa dates from 1542, when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means beautiful island. The name Formosa eventually replaced all others in European literature and was in use in English in the early 20th century. This name was adopted into the Chinese vernacular as the name of the sandbar. The modern word Taiwan is derived from this usage, which is seen in forms in Chinese historical records. Use of the current Chinese name was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture, through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as Taiwan. The official name of the state is the Republic of China and it was a member of the United Nations representing China until 1971, when it lost its seat to the Peoples Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become known as Taiwan. In some contexts, especially ones from the ROC government
8.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
9.
Cambodia
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Cambodia, officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is 181,035 square kilometres in area, bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia has a population of over 15 million. The official religion is Theravada Buddhism, practiced by approximately 95 percent of the population, the countrys minority groups include Vietnamese, Chinese, Chams, and 30 hill tribes. The capital and largest city is Phnom Penh, the political, economic, the kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with Norodom Sihamoni, a monarch chosen by the Royal Throne Council, as head of state. The head of government is Hun Sen, who is currently the longest serving leader in South East Asia and has ruled Cambodia for over 25 years. In 802 AD, Jayavarman II declared himself king, uniting the warring Khmer princes of Chenla under the name Kambuja. The Indianized kingdom built monumental temples including Angkor Wat, now a World Heritage Site, after the fall of Angkor to Ayutthaya in the 15th century, a reduced and weakened Cambodia was then ruled as a vassal state by its neighbours. In 1863 Cambodia became a protectorate of France which doubled the size of the country by reclaiming the north, the Vietnam War extended into the country with the US bombing of Cambodia from 1969 until 1973. Following the Cambodian coup of 1970, the king gave his support to his former enemies. Following the 1991 Paris Peace Accords, Cambodia was governed briefly by a United Nations mission, the UN withdrew after holding elections in which around 90 percent of the registered voters cast ballots. The 1997 coup placed power solely in the hands of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian Peoples Party, important sociopolitical issues includes widespread poverty, pervasive corruption, lack of political freedoms, low human development, and a high rate of hunger. While per capita income remains low compared to most neighbouring countries, agriculture remains the dominant economic sector, with strong growth in textiles, construction, garments, and tourism leading to increased foreign investment and international trade. Cambodia scored dismally in an annual index ranking the rule of law in 102 countries, placing 99th overall, Cambodia also faces environmental destruction as an imminent problem. The most severe activity in this regard is considered to be the countrywide deforestation, the Kingdom of Cambodia is the official English name of the country. The English Cambodia is an anglicisation of the French Cambodge, which in turn is the French transliteration of the Khmer Kampuchea, Kampuchea is the shortened alternative to the countrys official name in Khmer, Preah Reacheanachak Kampuchea. The Khmer endonym Kampuchea derives from the Sanskrit name Kambujadeśa, composed of देश, desa and कम्बोज, Kambujas, colloquially, Cambodians refer to their country as either Srok Khmer, meaning Khmers Land, or the slightly more formal Prateh Kampuchea, literally Country of Kampuchea. The name Cambodia is used most often in the Western world while Kampuchea is more used in the East. Excavations in its lower layers produced a series of dates as of 6000 BC
10.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
11.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
12.
Sumatra
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Sumatra is a large island in western Indonesia that is part of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island that is entirely in Indonesia and the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2, Sumatra is an elongated landmass spanning a diagonal northwest-southeast axis. The Indian Ocean borders the west, northwest, and southwest sides of Sumatra with the chain of Simeulue, Nias. On the northeast side the narrow Strait of Malacca separates the island from the Malay Peninsula, on the southeast the narrow Sunda Strait separates Sumatra from Java. The northern tip of Sumatra borders the Andaman Islands, while on the eastern side are the islands of Bangka and Belitung, Karimata Strait. The Bukit Barisan mountains, which several active volcanoes, form the backbone of the island, while the northeast sides are outlying lowlands with swamps, mangrove. The equator crosses the island at its center on West Sumatra, the climate of the island is tropical, hot and humid with lush tropical rain forest once dominating the landscape. Sumatra was known in ancient times by the Sanskrit names of Swarnadwīpa and Swarnabhūmi, the first word mentioning the name of Sumatra was the name of Srivijayan Haji Sumatrabhumi, who sent an envoy to China in 1017. Arab geographers referred to the island as Lamri in the tenth through thirteenth centuries, late in the 14th century the name Sumatra became popular in reference to the kingdom of Samudra Pasai, which was a rising power until it was replaced by Sultanate of Aceh. Sultan Alauddin Shah of Aceh, on letters written in 1602 addressed to Queen Elizabeth I of England, referred to himself as king of Aceh, the word itself is from Sanskrit Samudra, meaning gathering together of waters, sea or ocean. European writers in the 19th century found that the inhabitants did not have a name for the island. The Melayu Kingdom was absorbed by Srivijaya, Srivijaya was a Buddhist monarchy centred in what is now Palembang. Dominating the region trade and conquest throughout the 7th to 9th centuries. The empire was a thalassocracy or maritime power that extended its influence from island to island, Palembang was a center for scholarly learning, and it was there the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim I Ching studied Sanskrit in 671 CE before departing for India. On his journey to China, he spent four years in Palembang translating Buddhist texts, Srivijayan influence waned in the 11th century after it was defeated by the Chola Empire of southern India. At the same time, Islam made its way to Sumatra through Arabs, by the late 13th century, the monarch of the Samudra kingdom had converted to Islam. Marco Polo visited the island in 1292, and Ibn Battuta visited twice during 1345–1346, Samudra was succeeded by the powerful Aceh Sultanate, which survived to the 20th century. With the coming of the Dutch, the many Sumatran princely states fell under their control
13.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
14.
Malaysia
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Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy located in Southeast Asia. Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam, East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government, with a population of over 30 million, Malaysia is the 44th most populous country. The southernmost point of continental Eurasia, Tanjung Piai, is in Malaysia, located in the tropics, Malaysia is one of 17 megadiverse countries on earth, with large numbers of endemic species. Malaysia has its origins in the Malay kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, the first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946, Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963 to become Malaysia, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. The country is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, which plays a role in politics. About half the population is ethnically Malay, with minorities of Malaysian Chinese, Malaysian Indians. The constitution declares Islam the state religion while allowing freedom of religion for non-Muslims, the government system is closely modelled on the Westminster parliamentary system and the legal system is based on common law. The head of state is the king, known as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and he is an elected monarch chosen from the hereditary rulers of the nine Malay states every five years. The head of government is the prime minister, since its independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with its GDP growing at an average of 6. 5% per annum for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce. Today, Malaysia has a newly industrialised market economy, ranked third largest in Southeast Asia, the name Malaysia is a combination of the word Malay and the Latin-Greek suffix -sia/-σία. The word melayu in Malay may derive from the Tamil words malai and ur meaning mountain and city, land, malayadvipa was the word used by ancient Indian traders when referring to the Malay Peninsula. Whether or not it originated from these roots, the word melayu or mlayu may have used in early Malay/Javanese to mean to steadily accelerate or run. This term was applied to describe the current of the river Melayu in Sumatra. The name was adopted by the Melayu Kingdom that existed in the seventh century on Sumatra
15.
Philippines
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The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelagos earliest inhabitants and they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic nations occurred, then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization, in 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion, during this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. It is a member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte, eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other such as Islas del Poniente. The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history, during the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the name Philippines began to appear, since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. The metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago is the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date and this distinction previously belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were also among the archipelagos earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated, there are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos
16.
Thailand
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Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand, formerly known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula in Southeast Asia. With a total area of approximately 513,000 km2, Thailand is the worlds 51st-largest country and it is the 20th-most-populous country in the world, with around 66 million people. The capital and largest city is Bangkok, Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and has switched between parliamentary democracy and military junta for decades, the latest coup being in May 2014 by the National Council for Peace and Order. Its capital and most populous city is Bangkok and its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. The Thai economy is the worlds 20th largest by GDP at PPP and it became a newly industrialised country and a major exporter in the 1990s. Manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism are leading sectors of the economy and it is considered a middle power in the region and around the world. The country has always been called Mueang Thai by its citizens, by outsiders prior to 1949, it was usually known by the exonym Siam. The word Siam has been identified with the Sanskrit Śyāma, the names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word. The word Śyâma is possibly not its origin, but a learned, another theory is the name derives from Chinese, Ayutthaya emerged as a dominant centre in the late fourteenth century. The Chinese called this region Xian, which the Portuguese converted into Siam, the signature of King Mongkut reads SPPM Mongkut King of the Siamese, giving the name Siam official status until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand. Thailand was renamed Siam from 1945 to 11 May 1949, after which it reverted to Thailand. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai means free man in the Thai language, ratcha Anachak Thai means kingdom of Thailand or kingdom of Thai. Etymologically, its components are, ratcha, -ana- -chak, the Thai National Anthem, written by Luang Saranupraphan during the extremely patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as, prathet Thai. The first line of the anthem is, prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai, Thailand is the unity of Thai flesh. There is evidence of habitation in Thailand that has been dated at 40,000 years before the present. Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, Thailand was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India, Thailand in its earliest days was under the rule of the Khmer Empire, which had strong Hindu roots, and the influence among Thais remains even today. Voretzsch believes that Buddhism must have been flowing into Siam from India in the time of the Indian Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire, later Thailand was influenced by the south Indian Pallava dynasty and north Indian Gupta Empire. The Menam Basin was originally populated by the Mons, and the location of Dvaravati in the 7th century, the History of the Yuan mentions an embassy from the kingdom of Sukhothai in 1282
17.
Vanuatu
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Vanuatu, officially the Republic of Vanuatu, is a Pacific island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people, the first Europeans to visit the islands were a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós, who arrived on the largest island in 1606. An independence movement arose in the 1970s, and the Republic of Vanuatu was founded in 1980, Vanuatus name is derived from the word vanua, which occurs in several Austronesian languages, and the word tu. Together the two indicated the independent status of the new country. The prehistory of Vanuatu is obscure, archaeological evidence supports the theory that people speaking Austronesian languages first came to the islands about 3,300 years ago, pottery fragments have been found dating to 1300–1100 BC. The Spanish established a settlement at Big Bay on the north side of the island. The name Espiritu Santo remains to this day, Europeans did not return until 1768, when Louis Antoine de Bougainville rediscovered the islands. In 1774, Captain Cook named the islands the New Hebrides, during the 1860s, planters in Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, and the Samoa Islands, in need of labourers, encouraged a long-term indentured labour trade called blackbirding. At the height of the trade, more than one-half the adult male population of several of the islands worked abroad. Fragmentary evidence indicates that the current population of Vanuatu is greatly reduced compared to pre-contact times, in the 19th century, Catholic and Protestant missionaries from Europe and North America went to the islands to work with the people. John Gibson Paton was a Scottish missionary who devoted his life to the region, settlers came looking for land on which to establish cotton plantations. When international cotton prices collapsed, planters switched to coffee, cocoa, bananas, initially, British subjects from Australia made up the majority of settlers, but the establishment of the Caledonian Company of the New Hebrides in 1882 attracted more French subjects. By the start of the 20th century, the French outnumbered the British two to one, the jumbling of French and British interests in the islands brought petitions for one or another of the two powers to annex the territory. In 1906, France and the United Kingdom agreed to administer the islands jointly, called the Anglo-French Condominium, it was a unique form of government. The separate governmental systems came together only in a joint court, melanesians were barred from acquiring the citizenship of either power. Challenges to this form of government began in the early 1940s, the arrival of Americans during the Second World War, with their informal habits and relative wealth, contributed to the rise of nationalism in the islands. The belief in a messianic figure named John Frum was the basis for an indigenous cargo cult promising Melanesian deliverance. Today, John Frum is both a religion and a party with a member in Parliament
18.
Vietnam
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Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 92.7 million inhabitants as of 2016, it is the worlds 14th-most-populous country, and its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976, with Ho Chi Minh City as a historical city as well. The northern part of Vietnam was part of Imperial China for over a millennium, an independent Vietnamese state was formed in 939, following a Vietnamese victory in the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Following a Japanese occupation in the 1940s, the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First Indochina War, thereafter, Vietnam was divided politically into two rival states, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified in what is known as the Vietnam War, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975. Vietnam was then unified under a communist government but remained impoverished, in 1986, the government initiated a series of economic and political reforms which began Vietnams path towards integration into the world economy. By 2000, it had established relations with all nations. Since 2000, Vietnams economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world and its successful economic reforms resulted in its joining the World Trade Organization in 2007. It is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Vietnam remains one of the worlds four remaining one-party socialist states officially espousing communism. The name Việt Nam is a variation of Nam Việt, a name that can be traced back to the Triệu Dynasty of the 2nd century BC. The word Việt originated as a form of Bách Việt. The form Vietnam is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình, the name has also been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Haiphong that dates to 1558. Then, as recorded, rewarded Yuenan/Vietnam as their nations name, to also show that they are below the region of Baiyue/Bach Viet. Between 1804 and 1813, the name was used officially by Emperor Gia Long and it was revived in the early 20th century by Phan Bội Châus History of the Loss of Vietnam, and later by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party. The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when both the government in Huế and the Viet Minh government in Hanoi adopted Việt Nam. Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as early as the Paleolithic age, Homo erectus fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam. The oldest Homo sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, teeth attributed to Homo sapiens from the Late Pleistocene have also been found at Dong Can, and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu, Lang Gao and Lang Cuom. The Hồng Bàng dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered the first Vietnamese state, in 257 BC, the last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương
19.
Secondary burial
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The secondary burial is a feature of certain prehistoric grave sites of all types, identified since the New Stone Age, which is a frequent feature of megalithic tombs and tumuli. Secondary burials were also a custom among many Native American cultures. From an archaeological and ethnographic perspective, the types of ceremonies for the dead are divided into two categories, primary burials and secondary burials. Primary burials refers to the burial, with temporary or final severance of all physical contact of family. Secondary burials may occur after the primary ceremony, any remains are the focus of the secondary ceremony. These remains are used to alter the spiritual condition of the deceased, artificial mounds and other, clearly visible, above-ground structures have been re-used since the New Stone Age for burials of bodies, bones or cremated remains. These more recent burials, of form, are referred to by archaeologists as secondary burials. They are found in grave mounds, usually in areas of the site that could at the same time be extended. The mounds of the tombs, which were usually covered with earth, were re-used following a similar shape as the original grave mound. Secondary burial in the Holy Land involved an initial interment in a tomb, for example, prone on a bench, subsequently, the decayed remains would be relegated to a nearby receptacle within the same tomb. Later, another person, typically a member of the same family, would be placed on the same bench. This practice is described in the article on Ketef Hinnom, much of the recordings of burial ceremonies were from the observations of explorers, missionaries, and administrative personnel who lived amongst native peoples. In the late 19th and early 20th century, three important figures in analyzing these accounts were Hertz, Schärer, and Stöher. These scholars characterized the secondary burials of the Ngadju-Daya communities and these communities were part of the Dayak culture in Indonesia, and had a very structured approach to secondary burial ceremonies. These highly structured ceremonies helped the community feel as though they had some semblance of control over death, the translation and interpretation of Hertz’ thesis was seminal in the field, and is still used as a basis for understanding and interpreting current cultural practices of secondary burial. The overarching theme for Hertz was that in the Ngadju-Daya communities there was an obligation from both the family and community to benefit the deceased in the afterlife. In addition to providing for the deceased, this emphasized the greater good of the community over individualism. However, it is important to note that neither Hertz, Schärer, or Stöher lived amongst these people, leaving room for misinterpretation
20.
Crete
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Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, 88th-largest island in the world and the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete, the capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065, Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits. It was once the centre of the Minoan civilization, which is regarded as the earliest recorded civilization in Europe. The island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated later in Neo-Assyrian records and it was also known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu, strongly suggesting a similar Minoan name for the island. The current name of Crete is thought to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek texts written in Linear B, through the words
21.
Ancient Egyptian funerary practices
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The ancient Egyptians had an elaborate set of funerary practices that they believed were necessary to ensure their immortality after death. These rituals and protocols included mummifying the body, casting of magic spells, the burial process used by the ancient Egyptians evolved throughout time as old customs were discarded and new ones adopted, but several important elements of the process persisted. Although specific details changed over time, the preparation of the body, the rituals involved. Though no writing survives from Predynastic Egypt, scholars believe the importance of the physical body and this would explain why people of that time did not follow the common practice of cremation, but rather buried the dead. Some also believe they may have feared the bodies would rise again if mistreated after death, early bodies were buried in simple, shallow oval pits, with a few burial goods. Sometimes multiple people and animals were placed in the same grave, over time, graves became more complex, with the body placed in a wicker basket, then later in wooden or terracotta coffins. The latest tombs Egyptians made were sarcophaguses and these graves contained burial goods like jewelry, food, games and sharpened splint. This demonstrates that this ancient period had a sense of the afterlife and this may be because admission required that the deceased must be able to serve a purpose there. The pharaoh was allowed in because of his role in life, human sacrifices found in early royal tombs reinforce this view. These people were meant to serve the pharaoh during his eternal life. Eventually, figurines and wall paintings begin to replace human victims, some of these figurines may have been created to resemble certain people, so they could follow the pharaoh after their lives ended. Note that not only the classes had to rely on the pharaoh’s favor. They believed that when he died, the became a type of god. This belief existed from the period through the Old Kingdom. In the First Intermediate Period, however, the importance of the pharaoh declined, funerary texts, previously restricted to royal use, became more widely available. The first farmers in Egypt are known from the villages of Omari, the people of these villages buried their dead in a simple, round graves with one pot. The body was neither treated nor arranged in a way as would be the case later in the historical period. Without any written evidence, there is little to provide information about contemporary beliefs concerning the afterlife except for the inclusion of a single pot in the grave
22.
Pithos
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Pithos is the Greek name of a large storage container. The term in English is applied to containers used among the civilizations that bordered the Mediterranean Sea in the Neolithic, the Bronze Age. Pithoi had been used for storage, primarily for fluids and grains, they were comparable to the drums, barrels. The name was different in other languages, for instance, the Hittites used harsi-, secondarily, discarded pithoi found other uses. Like the ceramic bathtubs of some periods, the size of a made it a convenient coffin. In Middle Helladic burials in Mycenae and Crete sometimes the bones of the interred were placed in pithoi, the ancient Iberian culture of El Argar used pithoi for coffins in its B phase. In warfare the pithos full of olive oil was a liability to the defense of a palace. An enemy had only to knock over a full of oil. Most of the palaces of the Bronze Age Aegean were burned at one time or another in this way, jars of this size could not be handled by individuals, especially when full. Various numbers of handles, or lugs, or some combination, pithoi were manufactured and exported or imported over the entire Mediterranean. The term has now been adopted into the English language as a word for a storage jar from any culture. Along with this universality has come a problem of distinguishing the smaller pithoi from other types of pottery, many ceramics are not any easily classifiable shape. If they were used for transport or storage, they are likely to be called pithoi, even though they are not the size of the palace pithoi, reconciliation of pre-classical pottery types with classical types has long been a problem of classical archaeology. Pithos has two irreconcilable derivations, classical and Mycenaean, on the one hand, it was a well-used word of the Iron Age in Greece, dating to as early as the works of Homer. Regardless of the derivation, a pithos certainly seems to be a large purse containing economic goods in quantity. The derivation would have been elegant, tracing fiscality back to prehistoric Greece, it was thought, taking its place with oikos, house, the word for economic. At that time Greek and Latin were believed to have had a common ancestor other than Proto-Indo-European, contemporaneously with Pokornys epic dictionary, Linear B was first being deciphered, and various analyses were being put forward that Greek and Latin were not all that similar. There was no need to prove that developments in Latin were necessarily parallel to those in Greek, if bh- became f- in Latin, it would not necessarily do so in Greek
23.
Grave
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A grave is a location where a dead body is buried. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as graveyards or cemeteries. In some religions, it is believed that the body must be burned for the soul to survive, in others, the formal use of a grave involves several steps with associated terminology. Grave cut The excavation that formed the grave, excavations vary from a shallow scraping, to removal of topsoil to a depth of 6 feet, or more where a vault or burial chamber is to be constructed. Excavated soil The material dug up when the grave is excavated and it is often piled up close to the grave for backfilling and then returned to the grave to cover it. As soil decompresses when excavated and space is occupied by the burial not all the volume of soil fits back in the hole, in cemeteries this may end up as a thick layer of soil overlying the original ground surface. Burial or interment The body may be placed in a coffin or other container, in a range of positions, by itself or in a multiple burial. Burial vault A vault is a structure built within the grave to receive the body. It may be used to prevent crushing of the remains, allow for multiple burials such as a vault, retrieval of remains for transfer to an ossuary. Grave backfill The soil returned to the grave cut following burial and this material may contain artifacts derived from the original excavation and prior site use, deliberately placed goods or artifacts or later material. The fill may be level with the ground or mounded. Monument or marker Headstones are best known, but they can be supplemented by decorative edging, foot stones, posts to support items, in Europe this was often accompanied with a depiction of their family coat of arms. Later graveyards have been replaced by cemeteries
24.
Cardamom Mountains
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Not to be confused with Cardamom Hills in Tamil Nadu, India. The Krâvanh Mountains, literally the Cardamom Mountains, is a range in the south west of Cambodia. The silhouette of the Cardamom Mountains appears in the seal of Trat Province in Thailand. The northwestern end of the range in Chanthaburi Province, Thailand, appears also as the Soi Dao Mountains, dense tropical rain forest prevails on the wet western slopes which annually receive from 150 to 200 inches of rainfall. By contrast only 40 to 60 inches fall in places like Kirirom National Park on the eastern slopes in the rain shadow facing the interior Cambodian plain. On the eastern slopes cardamom and pepper are still grown commercially, the highest elevation of the Cardamom Mountains is Phnom Aural at 1,813 metres high. This is also Cambodias highest peak, Phnom Samkos, Phnom Tumpor and Phnom Kmoch are other important summits. Local legends suggest the bones are the remains of Cambodian royalty, the largely inaccessible range formed one of the last strongholds of the Khmer Rouge, driven out by Vietnamese forces during the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. The Thai border to the west acted as a conduit for Chinese support and, eventually, the inaccessibility of the hills also helped to preserve the area. Tourism is relatively new to the Cardamom Mountains, in 2008, Wildlife Alliance launched a community-based ecotourism program in the village of Chi-Phat, marketed as the gateway to the Cardamoms. However the number of international visitors remains very small in comparison to the development of Siem Reap or Phnom Penh. Among the international conservation organizations working in the area are Wildlife Alliance, Conservation International, Fauna and Flora International and these relatively isolated mountains now form an important tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion, the Cardamom Mountains Moist Forests Ecoregion. One of the largest and still mostly unexplored forests in southeast Asia, the Vietnamese Phú Quốc island off the coast of Cambodia has similar vegetation and is included in the ecoregion. Hopea pierrei, a canopy tree rare elsewhere, is relatively abundant in the Cardamom Mountains. Other angiosperm tree species are Anisoptera costata, Anisoptera glabra, Dipterocarpus costatus, Hopea odorata, Shorea hypochra, Caryota urens, other conifers include Pinus kesiya, Dacrycarpus imbricatus, Podocarpus neriifolius, P. pilgeri and Nageia wallichiana. There are at least 34 species of amphibians, three of them described as new species to science from here, the human population of the Cardamom Mountain Range although very small is extremely poor. Threats to the diversity of the region include habitat loss due to illegal logging, wildlife poaching. While the Cambodian forests in the Cardamom Mountains are fairly intact, about a third of the ecoregion has been designated as protected areas, but the level of active protection in all parks in the mountains has been criticised
25.
Cotabato
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Cotabato, formerly but colloquially known as North Cotabato, is a landlocked province in the Philippines located in the SOCCSKSARGEN region in Mindanao. Cotabato derives its name from the Maguindanao word kuta wato, meaning stone fort, Islam was introduced in this part of the country in the later part of 15th century by Sharif Mohammed Kabungsuwan, an Arabo-Malay Muslim warrior-missionary. Modern historians have pointed to the Cotabato delta as the location of Toupo. Christianity was introduced in 1596, but the Spaniards were unable to penetrate into the region until the half of the 19th century. The district of Cotabato was formed in 1860, covering the areas of what is now Cotabato, Maguindanao, the coming of the Americans ushered in the creation of the Moro Province on July 15,1903, through Act No.787 of the Philippine Commission. Cotabato, covering what are now the provinces of Cotabato, Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Sarangani, during the American period, large companies were established in Cotabato to exploit the vast timber resources of the region. By the 1930s, settlers from Luzon and Visayas established homesteads in Cotabato, in December 1941, Japanese planes bombed and invaded in Cotabato. In 1942, Cotabato was occupied by the Japanese Imperial forces, in 1945, Cotabato was recaptured from the Japanese Imperial forces by the combined Filipino and American troops together with the recognized Moro guerrilla units. The guerrillas used the traditional Moro Kampilan, Barong and Kris swords, the pace of settlement in the region accelerated in the 1950s and 1960s. The former province of Cotabato was once the largest in the Philippines, in 1966, South Cotabato was created as a separate province. In 1992, the province of Sarangani was formed out of South Cotabato, on November 22,1973, through Presidential Decree No. 341, what remained of the old Cotabato was further divided into the provinces of North Cotabato, Maguindanao, North Cotabato was later renamed Cotabato through Batas Pambansa Blg.660 approved on March 7,1984. Cotabato now comprises the city of Kidapawan,17 municipalities. The province currently has three congressional districts, Cotabato covers a total area of 9,008.90 square kilometres occupying the northeastern tip of Region XII and is centrally located in Mindanao. Cotabato is strategically linked to the major Arterial Road System that traverses, the Cotabato via Kabacan - Maramag - Kibawe, Bukidnon Sayre Highway meanwhile serves as its link to the Cagayan de Oro-Iligan City Corridor. Cotabato stretches from the east at Mount Apo, which separates it from Davao, the province’s fertile plains are traversed by tributaries of this great river. Typhoons do not pass through Cotabato and rainfall is distributed throughout the year. Cotabato comprises 17 municipalities and one city, during 2010-2016 Administration, the Bangsamoro ideal sprouted and a newly proposed region was in the making
26.
Jar-Burial Culture
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The culture was characterized by the burial of the dead in a strongly flexed position on their sides in large clay jars. The burial inventory contained articles made of metal, wood, stone, clay, glass, roman, Arsacid, and Sassanid coins have been found in later burials. The Jar-Burial culture belonged to a farming population, which also engaged in stock raising, hunting, fishing. Jar-burials Ivashchenko, M. “Kuvshinnye pogrebeniia Azerbaidzhana i Gruzii. ”Izvestiia AN Azerbaidzhanskoi SSR,1947, kaziev, S. M. AVbom kuvshinnykh pogrebenii. Jar-Burial Culture in The Great Soviet Encyclopedia
27.
Mingachevir
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Mingachevir, is the fourth-largest city in Azerbaijan with a population of about 95,000. It is known as city of lights because of its power station on the Kur River. The area has settled for thousands of years, but the current city was founded in 1948. Mingechevir is also home to Mingachevir Polytechnic Institute, the city forms an administrative division of Azerbaijan. Despite the fact that Mingecevir is a town, the territory where the town is located is known as an ancient abode. The history of this covers a period from the eneolith era to the AD 17th century. It was the chairman of the Caucasus archeological committee, A. I, Berje, who first gave information about the archeological monuments of Mingecevir at the second congress of archeologists in St Petersburg in 1871. Although this information was not precise, Berje presented Mingecevir as an ancient settlement, after this, Mingecevir remained out of archeologists’ attention for many years. Archeological researches resumed in Mingecevir only in mid-1930s as part of the construction of the power station. The researches started under the leadership of Prof. Pakhomov in 1935 and these researches revealed two ancient settlements and cemeteries, which were composed of various types of graves. Unfortunately, World War II prevented the research being completed, the construction of the hydroelectric power station started immediately after the war. This marked a start of systematic and planned research of Mingecevir as an ancient abode, most ancient written monuments in Caucasian Albanian alphabet and other archeological finds proved that Mingecevir was a 5, 000-year-old abode. The majority of finds are currently exhibited in the Azerbaijani Historical Museum. History knows a great deal of facts about ancient Mingecevir, Historical facts also prove that the ancient Silk Road laid via Mingecevir. Renowned Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi, who lived in the AD 17th century, wrote about Mingecevir, according to him, several mosques, workshops manufacturing fiber silk and silk cloth, bathhouses etc. were operating in this settlement. Interestingly, the passing from here used to be called the road of messenger. The road of messenger was connecting lots of camelcade and trade roads to Middle East countries and Azerbaijani towns like Saki, Qabala, Samaxi, Barda, Beylaqan and others. About 10,000 German POWs were among those who contributed to the construction of power station by the end of the 1940s
28.
Azerbaijan
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Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country in the South Caucasus region, situated at the crossroads of Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe. It is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bound by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first democratic state in the Muslim orient world. The country was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, the modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, prior to the official dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. In September 1991, the Armenian majority of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region seceded to form the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the region and seven adjacent districts outside it became de facto independent with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. These regions are recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic, the country is a member state of the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the NATO Partnership for Peace program. It is one of six independent Turkic states, a member of the Turkic Council. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations and it is one of the founding members of GUAM, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Its term of office began on 19 June 2006, Azerbaijan is also a member state of the Non-Aligned Movement, holds observer status in World Trade Organization and is a correspondent at the International Telecommunication Union. The Constitution of Azerbaijan does not declare an official religion and all political forces in the country are secularist. However, the majority of the population are of a Shiite Muslim background, Azerbaijan has a high level of human development which ranks on par with most Eastern European countries. It has a rate of economic development and literacy, as well as a low rate of unemployment. According to the Davos World Economic Forum, Azerbaijans economy has scored 37th place within 138 countries in 2016, Global Competitiveness Index 2015 indicates that Azerbaijan scores highest in its region. ASAN services, established with Presidential Decree, are known for eliminating bribery. ASAN Service has been awarded with United Nations Public Service Award 2015, the ruling party, the New Azerbaijan Party, has been accused of authoritarianism and human rights abuses. The original etymology of name is thought to have its roots in the once-dominant Zoroastrianism. In the Avesta, Frawardin Yasht, there is a mention of âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, the name Atropates itself is the Greek transliteration of an Old Iranian, probably Median, compounded name with the meaning Protected by the Fire or The Land of the Fire
29.
Kalugumalai
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Kalugumalai is a panchayat town in Kovilpatti Taluk of Thoothukudi district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Kalugumalai is 21 km and 22 km from Kovilpatti and Sankarankovil respectively, the place houses the rockcut Kalugasalamoorthy Temple, monolithic Vettuvan Koil and Kalugumalai Jain Beds. Kalugumalai is located at 9.152962,77.704386 and it has an average elevation of 105 metres. It is strategically located in between Kovilpatti and Sankarankoil and served as ancient trade route from Kovilpatti to courtallam and sengottai, the village has two parts Kazhugumalai and South Kazhugumalai or kottai kalugumalai The village may have got its present name from the hill Kalugumalai. Earlier it was known as Araimalai or Thirumalai, even before that it was referred as Nechchuram and Tiruneccuram. Some of the epigraphies mentions that there was a palace for the official called Ettimannan. At the foot of the Kalugumalai a large cemetery was found. However hundreds of urns were destroyed during limestone quarrying, opposite to Kalugasalamoorthy Temple there is a small palace which served as local residence of Raja of Ettaiyapuram. The place was the scene of Kalugumalai riots of 1895, when ten people were killed in caste clashes, as of 2001 India census, Kalugumalai had a population of 14,834. Males constitute 49% of the population and females 51%, Kalugumalai has an average literacy rate of 70%, higher than the national average of 59. 5%, male literacy is 78%, and female literacy is 63%. In Kalugumalai, 9% of the population is under 6 years of age, there are three important Temples in Kalugumalai and a huge Church. The area is known for the Jain cave temple and architecture, there are a number of Jain images with labels in vattezhuthu script. The epigraphs mentions the name of the donors, of the figures, of the made for the offerings. The main deity of the hill was called Araimalai Alwar, the other figures were caused to be made by the followers of Jain faith from a number of villages nearby. The sculptures were caused to be made in memory of the departed souls, there are approximately one hundred and fifty relief sculptures. Among the donors were the carpenters, potters, smiths, cultivators, a number of others were high ranking persons bearing the titles of Enadi, Etti and Kavidi. Provisions are also recorded for expounding Jain siddhanta a Gunasagara bhattara a great Jain ascetic lived here, the sculptures and the epigraphs are to be assigned to the reign of Pandya, Parantaka Nedunjadaiya. From different epigraphies it is found that belong to different era
30.
Tamil Nadu
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Tamil Nadu is one of the 29 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai, Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Puducherry and the South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The state shares a border with the nation of Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu is the eleventh-largest state in India by area and the sixth-most populous, the state was ranked sixth among states in India according to the Human Development Index in 2011, with the second-largest state economy after Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu is the second largest state economy in India with ₹13,842 billion in gross domestic product after Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu was ranked as one of the top seven developed states in India based on a Multidimensional Development Index in a 2013 report published by the Reserve Bank of India and its official language is Tamil, which is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world. Tamil Nadu is home to natural resources. In addition, its people have developed and continue classical arts, classical music, historic buildings and religious sites include Hindu temples of Tamil architecture, hill stations, beach resorts, multi-religious pilgrimage sites, and eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Archaeological evidence points to this area being one of the longest continuous habitations in the Indian peninsula, the ASI archaeologists have proposed that the script used at that site is very rudimentary Tamil Brahmi. Adichanallur has been announced as a site for further excavation. About 60 per cent of the epigraphical inscriptions found by the ASI in India are from Tamil Nadu. A Neolithic stone celt with the Indus script on it was discovered at Sembian-Kandiyur near Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu, according to epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan, this was the first datable artefact bearing the Indus script to be found in Tamil Nadu. Mahadevan claimed that the find was evidence of the use of the Harappan language, the date of the celt was estimated at between 1500 BCE and 2000 BCE. The early history of the people and rulers of Tamil Nadu is a topic in Tamil literary sources known as Sangam literature, numismatic, archaeological and literary sources corroborate that the Sangam period lasted for about six centuries, from 300 BC to AD300. Three dynasties, namely the Chera, Chola and Pandya, ruled the area of present-day Tamil Nadu, the Chera ruled the whole of present-day Kerala and parts of western Tamil Nadu comprising Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Karur, Salem and Erode districts from the capital of Vanchi Muthur. The Chola dynasty ruled the northern and central parts of Tamil Nadu from their capital, Uraiyur, All three dynasties had extensive trade relationships with Rome, Greece, Egypt, Ceylon, Phoenicia, Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia. Trade flourished in commodities such as spices, ivory, pearls, beads, Chera traded extensively from Muziris on the west coast, Chola from Arikamedu and Puhar and Pandya through Korkai port. A Greco-Roman trade and travel document, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea gives a description of the Tamil country, besides these three dynasties, the Sangam era Tamilakam was also divided into various provinces named nadu, meaning country
31.
Manunggul Jar
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The Manunggul Jar is a secondary burial jar excavated from a Neolithic burial site in Manunggul cave of Tabon Caves at Lipuun Point at Palawan dating from 890–710 B. C. The two prominent figures at the top handle of its cover represent the journey of the soul to the afterlife, the Manunggul Jar is widely acknowledged to be one of the finest Philippine pre-colonial artworks ever produced and is a considered a masterpiece. It is denoted a national treasure and it is designated as item 64-MO-74 by the National Museum of the Philippines and it is now housed at the National Museum of Anthropology and is one of the most popular exhibits there. It is made from clay with some sand soil, the Manunggul Jar was found by Dr. Robert B. Fox and Miguel Antonio in 1962 and it was found alongside the discovery of the remains of Tabon Man. It was recovered by Dr. Fox in Chamber A of Manunggul Cave in Southwestern Palawan, Manunggul Cave is one of the Tabon Caves in Lipuun Point. In the expansion, the Tabon Caves is known to be a site of jar burials with artefacts dating a range from 4250-2000 BP, Chamber A dates as a Late Neolithic burial site. Seventy-eight jars and earthenwares, including the Manunggul Jar, was discovered on the subsurface and surface of Chamber A, each artifact varied in design and form but was evidently types of funerary pottery. As mentioned earlier, the first ever excavation that gave way to the discovery of this burial jar is on the year 1964 by Dr. Robert Fox, during that time, he and his team were excavating the Tabon Cave Complex, specifically in the Lipuun Point. In Fox’s excavation, it is yet the most unusual in all angles, the inside of the jar contains human bones which are covered in red paint. Like the Egyptian burial practice, the jar was found to be equipped with numerous bracelets. “. is perhaps unrivaled in Southeast Asia, the work of an artist, the Manunggul Jar shows that the Filipinos maritime culture is paramount that it reflected its ancestors religious beliefs. Many epics around the Philippines would tell how souls go to the life, aboard boats, pass through the rivers. This belief is connected with the Austronesian belief of the anito, the fine lines and intricate designs of the Manunggul Jar reflect the artistry of early Filipinos. These designs are proof of the Filipinos common heritage from the Austronesian-speaking ancestors despite the diversity of the cultures of the Filipinos, the upper part of the Manunggul jar, as well as the cover, is carved with curvilinear scroll designs which are painted with hematite. The depiction of sea-waves on the lid places this Manunggul jar in the Sa Huỳnh culture pottery tradition and these are people that migrated in an East to West migration from the Borneo-Palawan area to Southern Vietnam. Early Filipinos believed that a man is composed of a body, a force called ginhawa. This explains why the design of the cover of the Manunggul Jar features three faces - the soul, the boatman, and the boat itself
32.
Tabon Caves
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The caves are named after the Tabon scrubfowl. It is bordered on the south by the proper of Quezon. Panitian on the west, and the West Philippine Sea on the north, out of 215 known caves,29 have been explored and seven of these are open to the public. The seven include Tabon, Diwata, Igang and Liyang Caves, one of the oldest human bones found in the Philippines, the Tabon Man, was found here in 1962. Other excavated, unexamined remains are stored onsite, the complex is managed by the National Museum and was declared as a National Cultural Treasure by the same institution in February 2011. The caves were researched by Dr. Robert B, Fox and a team from the National Museum of the Philippines between 1962 and 1966. The greatest find of was the cap of the Tabon Man. It is believed to be approximately 22, 000-24,000 years old, the team found over 1,500 burial jars. One jar in particular, the Manunggul Jar, is considered to be a National Cultural Treasure. Other finds included earthenware, jade ornaments and jewelry, many tools, animal bones, and human fossils dating back to 47,000 years ago. The archaeological finds indicate habitation from 50,000 to 700 years ago, the limestone formations in the reservation date back 25 million years to the Lower Middle Miocene Period. In recent years, verification of facts in addition to analysis of previously collected samples has allowed for a greater understanding of the site as a whole. Radioisotope dating techniques have been able to show a period of continuous habitation from 30. Human remains as well as flakes, hammers, and other stone tools indicate the cave may have been used as a workshop. The bone fragments found in the caves have been suggested to have been from the late Pleistocene to early Holocene periods, previous excavations of the site have also revealed evidence of a diet including pig and deer, which are extinct in the Philippines today. While little new data is available because of the location and safety concerns, they are slowly being excavated. Approximately 25% of archaeological sites in the caves have been excavated, recent research conducted by Philip Maise has included the discovery of giant sculptures, which he believes are older than the Sphinx and were made by the seafaring Saliendra during the last ice age. He has also discovered what he believes to be cave paintings within the chambers in the caves depicting the Journey to the West
33.
Palawan
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Palawan, officially the Province of Palawan, is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the Mimaropa region. It is the largest province in the country in terms of area of jurisdiction. Its capital is the City of Puerto Princesa, but it is governed independently from the province as an urbanized city. The islands of Palawan stretch between Mindoro in the northeast and Borneo in the southwest and it lies between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. The province is named after its largest island, Palawan Island, measuring 450 kilometres long, the province is composed of the long and narrow Palawan Island, plus a number of other smaller islands surrounding it, totalling roughly 1,780 islands and islets. The Calamianes Group of Islands to the northeast consists of Busuanga, Coron, Culion, Balabac Island is located off the southern tip, separated from Borneo by the Balabac Strait. In addition, Palawan covers the Cuyo Islands in the Sulu Sea, the disputed Spratly Islands, located a few hundred kilometres to the west, are considered part of Palawan by the Philippines, and is locally called the Kalayaan Group of Islands. Palawans almost 2,000 kilometres of coastline is lined with rocky coves. It also harbors a vast stretch of forests that carpet its chain of mountain ranges. The mountain heights average 3,500 feet in altitude, with the highest peak rising to 6,843 feet at Mount Mantalingahan, the vast mountain areas are the source of valuable timber. The terrain is a mix of coastal plain, craggy foothills, valley deltas, the province has a total land area of 14,649.73 square kilometres. When Puerto Princesa City is included for geographical purposes, its area is 17,030.75 square kilometres. The land area is distributed to its mainland municipalities, comprising 12,239 square kilometres, and the island municipalities, the province has two types of climate. The first, which occurs in the northern and southern extremities, the other, which prevails in the eastern coast, has a short dry season of one to three months and no pronounced rainy period during the rest of the year. The southern part of the province is virtually free from tropical depressions but northern Palawan experiences torrential rains during the months of July, summer months serve as peak season for Palawan. Sea voyages are most favorable from March to early June when the seas are calm, the average maximum temperature is 31 °C with little variation all year. Palawan comprises 433 barangays in 23 municipalities and the capital City of Puerto Princesa, as an archipelago, Palawan has 13 mainland municipalities and 10 island towns. The remaining island municipalities are, Busuanga, Coron, Linapacan and Culion, Cuyo, Agutaya and Magsaysay, Araceli, Cagayancillo, Balabac and Kalayaan
34.
Cemetery
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A cemetery or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word cemetery implies that the land is designated as a burial ground. The term graveyard is used interchangeably with cemetery, but primarily referred to a burial ground within a churchyard. The intact or cremated remains of people may be interred in a grave, commonly referred to as burial, or in a tomb, an above-ground grave, in Western cultures, funeral ceremonies are often observed in cemeteries. These ceremonies or rites of passage according to cultural practices. Modern cemeteries often include crematoria, and some previously used for both, continue as crematoria as a principal use long after the interment areas have been filled. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a cemetery as a burial-ground generally, a large public park or ground laid out expressly for the interment of the dead, and not being the ‘yard’ of any church. Prehistoric cemeteries are referred to by the term grave field. From about the 7th century, European burial was under the control of the Church, practices varied, but in continental Europe, bodies were usually buried in a mass grave until they had decomposed. The bones were exhumed and stored in ossuaries, either along the arcaded bounding walls of the cemetery, or within the church under floor slabs. In Europe this was accompanied with a depiction of their coat of arms. Most others were buried in graveyards again divided by social status, mourners who could afford the work of a stonemason had a headstone engraved with a name, dates of birth and death and sometimes other biographical data, and set up over the place of burial. Usually, the writing and symbols carved on the headstone. Some families hired a blacksmith and had large crosses made from various metals put on the place of burial, in many European states, burial in graveyards was eventually outlawed altogether through government legislation. Instead of graveyards, completely new places of burial were established away from populated areas and outside of old towns. Many new cemeteries became municipally owned or were run by their own corporations, in some cases, skeletons were exhumed from graveyards and moved into ossuaries or catacombs. A large action of this occurred in 18th century Paris when human remains were transferred from graveyards all over the city to the Catacombs of Paris. The bones of an estimated 6 million people are to be found there, an early example of a landscape-style cemetery is Père Lachaise in Paris
35.
Radiocarbon dating
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Radiocarbon dating is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was developed by Willard Libby in the late 1940s, Libby received the Nobel Prize for his work in 1960. The radiocarbon dating method is based on the fact that radiocarbon is constantly being created in the atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric nitrogen. The resulting radiocarbon combines with oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide. When the animal or plant dies, it stops exchanging carbon with its environment, and from that point onwards the amount of 14C it contains begins to decrease as the 14C undergoes radioactive decay. Measuring the amount of 14C in a sample from a plant or animal such as a piece of wood or a fragment of bone provides information that can be used to calculate when the animal or plant died. The idea behind radiocarbon dating is straightforward, but years of work were required to develop the technique to the point where accurate dates could be obtained. Research has been ongoing since the 1960s to determine what the proportion of 14C in the atmosphere has been over the past fifty thousand years. The resulting data, in the form of a curve, is now used to convert a given measurement of radiocarbon in a sample into an estimate of the samples calendar age. Other corrections must be made to account for the proportion of 14C in different types of organisms, additional complications come from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, and from the above-ground nuclear tests done in the 1950s and 1960s. Conversely, nuclear testing increased the amount of 14C in the atmosphere, measurement of radiocarbon was originally done by beta-counting devices, which counted the amount of beta radiation emitted by decaying 14C atoms in a sample. The development of dating has had a profound impact on archaeology. In addition to permitting more accurate dating within archaeological sites than previous methods, histories of archaeology often refer to its impact as the radiocarbon revolution. Radiocarbon dating has allowed key transitions in prehistory to be dated, such as the end of the last ice age, and they synthesized 14C using the laboratorys cyclotron accelerator and soon discovered that the atoms half-life was far longer than had been previously thought. This was followed by a prediction by Serge A. Korff, then employed at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and it had previously been thought that 14C would be more likely to be created by deuterons interacting with 13C. At some time during World War II, Willard Libby, who was then at Berkeley, learned of Korffs research, in 1945, Libby moved to the University of Chicago where he began his work on radiocarbon dating. He published a paper in 1946 in which he proposed that the carbon in living matter might include 14C as well as non-radioactive carbon, by contrast, methane created from petroleum showed no radiocarbon activity because of its age. The results were summarized in a paper in Science in 1947, Libby and James Arnold proceeded to test the radiocarbon dating theory by analyzing samples with known ages
36.
Maritime transport
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Ship transport is watercraft carrying people or goods. Freight transport has been achieved widely by sea throughout recorded history, although the importance of sea travel for passengers has decreased due to aviation, it is effective for short trips and pleasure cruises. Transport by water is cheaper than transport by air, despite fluctuating exchange rates, ship transport can be realized over any distance by boat, ship, sailboat or barge, over oceans and lakes, through canals or along rivers. Virtually any material can be moved by water, however, water transport becomes impractical when material delivery is highly time-critical such as types of perishable produce. Containerization revolutionized ship transport starting in the 1970s, general cargo includes goods packaged in boxes, cases, pallets, and barrels. When a cargo is carried in more than one mode, it is intermodal or co-modal, a nations shipping fleet consists of the ships operated by civilian crews to transport passengers or cargo from one place to another. Ores, Coal, and grains can travel along the rivers of the American midwest to Pittsburgh, professional mariners are merchant seaman, merchant sailor, and merchant mariner, or simply seaman, sailor, or mariners. The terms seaman or sailor may refer to a member of a countrys navy, according to the 2005 CIA World Factbook, the total number of merchant ships of at least 1,000 gross register tons in the world was 30,936. In 2010, it was 38,988, an increase of 26%, statistics for individual countries are available at the list of merchant navy capacity by country. A ships complement can be divided into four categories, the department, the engineering department, the stewards department. Officer positions in the department include but not limited to, Master and his Chief, Second. The official classifications for unlicensed members of the department are Able Seaman. Their time on board is spent learning the operations and tasks of life on a merchant vessel. A ships engineering department consists of the members of a crew that operate and maintain the propulsion. Marine Engineering staff also deal with the Hotel facilities on board, notably the sewage, lighting, air conditioning, on LPG and LNG tankers however, a cargo engineer works with the deck department during cargo operations, as well as being a watchkeeping engineer. Other possible positions include Motorman, Machinist, Electrician, Refrigeration Engineer, engine Cadets are trainee engineers who are completing sea time necessary before they can obtain a watchkeeping license. A typical Stewards department for a ship would be composed of a Chief Steward, a Chief Cook. All three positions are filled by unlicensed personnel
37.
Embalming
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Embalming is the art and science of preserving human remains by treating them to forestall decomposition. The intention is to keep them suitable for display at a funeral, for religious reasons, or for medical. The three goals of embalming are sanitization, presentation, and preservation, Embalming has a very long and cross-cultural history, with many cultures giving the embalming processes a greater religious meaning. Embalming preserves the human body intact, whereas taxidermy is the recreation of a form often using only the creatures skin mounted on an anatomical form. The Chinchorro culture in the Atacama desert of present-day Chile and Peru are among the earliest cultures known to have performed artificial mummification as early as 5000-6000 BC, perhaps the ancient culture that had developed embalming to the greatest extent was Egypt. As early as the First Dynasty, specialized priests were in charge of embalming and they did so by removing organs, ridding the body of moisture, and covering the body with natron. The Ancient Egyptians believed that preservation of the mummy empowered the soul after death, other cultures known to have used embalming techniques in antiquity include the Meroites, Guanches, Peruvians, Jivaro Indians, Aztecs, Toltecs, Mayans, and Tibetan and southern Nigerian tribes. In China, artificially preserved remains have been recovered from the period of the Han dynasty, the examples being that of Xin Zhui. While these remains have been well preserved, the embalming fluids and methods used are unknown. In Europe the knowledge and practice of preservation had spread from these ancient cultures becoming widely spread by about 500 AD. Early methods used are documented by contemporary physicians such as Peter Forestus, the first attempts to inject the vascular system were made by Alessandro Giliani of Persiceto, who died in 1326. Various attempts and procedures have been reported by Leonardo da Vinci, Jacobus Berengar, Bartholomeo Eustachius, Reinier de Graaf, Jan Swammerdam, in the United States, the Civil War era sparked an interest in embalming and it became very common across the nation. The modern method of embalming involves the injection of various chemical solutions into the network of the cadaver to prevent decomposition. William Harvey, the 17th century English physician who was the first to detail the system of blood circulation, the Scottish surgeon William Hunter was the first to apply these methods to the art of embalming as part of mortuary practice. He wrote a widely read report on the methods for arterial. His brother, John Hunter, applied these methods and advertised his services to the general public from the mid-18th century. One of his more notorious customers was the dentist Martin Van Butchell, when his wife Mary died on January 14,1775, he decided to have her embalmed and turn her into an attraction in order to draw more customers. Hunter injected the body with preservatives and color additives that gave a glow to the cheeks, replaced her eyes with glass eyes
38.
Deity
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A deity is a concept conceived in diverse ways in various cultures, typically as a natural or supernatural being considered divine or sacred. A male deity is a god, while a female deity is a goddess, the Oxford reference defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. Various cultures have conceptualized a deity differently than a monotheistic God, a plain deity need not be omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, or eternal, however an almighty monotheistic God generally does have these attributes. Monotheistic religions typically refer to God in masculine terms, while other religions refer to their deities in a variety of ways – masculine, feminine, androgynous, some Avestan and Vedic deities were viewed as ethical concepts. In Indian religions, deities have been envisioned as manifesting within the temple of every living beings body, as sensory organs, but in Indian religions, all deities are also subject to death when their merit runs out. The English language word deity derives from Old French deité, the Latin deitatem or divine nature, deus is related through a common Proto-Indo-European language origin to *deiwos. Deva is masculine, and the feminine equivalent is devi. Etymologically, the cognates of Devi are Latin dea and Greek thea, in Old Persian, daiva- means demon, evil god, while in Sanskrit it means the opposite, referring to the heavenly, divine, terrestrial things of high excellence, exalted, shining ones. The closely linked term god refers to supreme being, deity, which states Douglas Harper, is derived from Proto-Germanic *guthan, from PIE *ghut-, guth in the Irish language means voice. The term *ghut- is also the source of Old Church Slavonic zovo, Sanskrit huta-, from the root *gheu- An alternate etymology for the term god traces it to the PIE root *ghu-to-, the term *gheu- is also the source of the Greek khein to pour. Originally the German root was a noun, but the gender of the monotheistic God shifted to masculine under the influence of Christianity. In contrast, all ancient Indo-European cultures and mythologies recognized both masculine and feminine deities, the term deity often connotes the concept of sacred or divine, as a god or goddess, in a polytheistic religion. However, there is no accepted consensus concept of deity across religions and cultures. Huw Owen states that the deity or god or its equivalent in other languages has a bewildering range of meanings. Some engravings or sketches show animals, hunters or rituals, the Venus of Willendorf, a female figurine found in Europe and dated to about 25,000 BCE has been interpreted as an exemplar of a prehistoric divine feminine. In Buddhist mythology, devas are beings inhabiting certain happily placed worlds of Buddhist cosmology and these beings are mortal and numerous. It is also common for iṣṭadevatās to be called deities, although the nature of Yidams is distinct from what is meant by the term. Buddhism does not believe in a creator deity, however, deities are an essential part of Buddhist cosmology, rebirth and Saṃsāra doctrines
39.
Java
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Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of over 141 million or 145 million as of 2015 Census released in December 2015, the Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is located on western Java. Much of Indonesian history took place on Java and it was the center of powerful Hindu-Buddhist empires, the Islamic sultanates, and the core of the colonial Dutch East Indies. Java was also the center of the Indonesian struggle for independence during the 1930s and 1940s, Java dominates Indonesia politically, economically and culturally. Formed mostly as the result of eruptions, Java is the 13th largest island in the world. A chain of mountains forms an east–west spine along the island. Three main languages are spoken on the island, Javanese, Sundanese, of these, Javanese is the dominant, it is the native language of about 60 million people in Indonesia, most of whom live on Java. Furthermore, most residents are bilingual, speaking Indonesian as their first or second language, while the majority of the people of Java are Muslim, Java has a diverse mixture of religious beliefs, ethnicities, and cultures. Java is divided into four provinces, West Java, Central Java, East Java, and Banten, the origins of the name Java are not clear. One possibility is that the island was named after the plant, which was said to be common in the island during the time. There are other sources, the word jaú and its variations mean beyond or distant. And, in Sanskrit yava means barley, a plant for which the island was famous, Yawadvipa is mentioned in Indias earliest epic, the Ramayana. Sugriva, the chief of Ramas army dispatched his men to Yawadvipa and it was hence referred to in India by the Sanskrit name yāvaka dvīpa. Java is mentioned in the ancient Tamil text Manimekalai by Chithalai Chathanar that states that Java had a kingdom with a capital called Nagapuram, another source states that the Java word is derived from a Proto-Austronesian root word, Iawa that meaning home. The great island of Iabadiu or Jabadiu was mentioned in Ptolemys Geographia composed around 150 CE Roman Empire, Iabadiu is said to mean barley island, to be rich in gold, and have a silver town called Argyra at the west end. The name indicate Java, and seems to be derived from Hindu name Java-dvipa, Java lies between Sumatra to the west and Bali to the east. Borneo lies to the north and Christmas Island is to the south and it is the worlds 13th largest island. Java is surrounded by the Java Sea to the north, Sunda Strait to the west, Java is almost entirely of volcanic origin, it contains thirty-eight mountains forming an east–west spine that have at one time or another been active volcanoes
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Bali
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Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and it is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital, Denpasar, is located in the part of the island. With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesias Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census,83. 5% of Balis population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13. 4% Muslim, Christianity at 2. 5%, Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in tourists since the 1980s. Tourism-related business makes up 80% of its economy and it is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali, in March 2017, Tripadvisor named the island the worlds top destination in its Travelers choice award. Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species, in this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean, most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit,2013 APEC and Miss World 2013. Bali is the home of the Subak Irrigation System, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the islands west. In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora, each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead. Inscriptions from 896 and 911 dont mention a king, until 914 and they also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindoks great-granddaughter, Mahendradatta, married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa around 989 and this marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150, jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204. Balinese culture was influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture. The name Bali dwipa has been discovered from inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD. It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation, some religious and cultural traditions still practiced today can be traced to this period
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Sulawesi
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Sulawesi, formerly known as Celebes, is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the worlds eleventh-largest island, within Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger populations. The landmass of Sulawesi includes four peninsulas, the northern Minahasa Peninsula, the East Peninsula, the South Peninsula, the Strait of Makassar runs along the western side of the island and separates the island from Borneo. The name Sulawesi possibly comes from the words sula and besi, the term sula also means tines, horn or spikes, derived from Sanskrit, as trishula refer to trident. Thus sulawesi means iron spikes, which suggested that the island was also a producer of iron edged weapons, the name came into common use in English following Indonesian independence. The name Celebes was originally given to the island by Portuguese explorers and it is widely considered a Portuguese rendering of the native name Sulawesi. Sulawesi is the worlds eleventh-largest island, covering an area of 174,600 km2, the central part of the island is ruggedly mountainous, such that the islands peninsulas have traditionally been remote from each other, with better connections by sea than by road. The three bays that divide Sulawesis peninsulas are, from north to south, the Tomini, the Tolo and these separate the Minahassa or Northern Peninsula, the East Peninsula, the Southeast Peninsula and the South Peninsula. The Strait of Makassar runs along the side of the island. The island is surrounded by Borneo to the west, by the Philippines to the north, by Maluku to the east, the Selayar Islands make up a peninsula stretching southwards from Southwest Sulawesi into the Flores Sea are administratively part of Sulawesi. All the above-mentioned islands, and many smaller ones, are part of Sulawesis six provinces. The island slopes up from the shores of the seas surrounding the island to a high, mostly non-volcanic. Active volcanoes are found in the northern Minahassa Peninsula, stretching north to the Sangihe Islands, the northern peninsula contains several active volcanoes such as Mount Lokon, Mount Awu, Soputan and Karangetang. Because of its several tectonic origin, faults scar the land, as a result, Sulawesi, in contrast to most of the other islands in the biogeographical region of Wallacea, is not truly oceanic, but a composite island at the centre of the Asia-Australia collision zone. Parts of the island were attached to either the Asian or Australian continental margin. In the west, the opening of the Makassar Strait separated West Sulawesi from Sundaland in the Eocene c.45 Mya. Before October 2014, the settlement of South Sulawesi by modern humans had been dated to c.30,000 BC on the basis of dates obtained from rock shelters in Maros. Initial settlement was probably around the mouth of the Sadan river, on the northwest coast of the peninsula, although the south coast has also been suggested
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Sumba
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Sumba is an island in eastern Indonesia. It is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands and is in the province of East Nusa Tenggara, Sumba has an area of 11,153 square kilometres, and the population was 656,259 at the 2010 Census. Before colonization by western Europeans in the 1500s, Sumba was inhabited by Melanesian and Austronesian people, in 1522, through the Portuguese, the first ships from Europe arrived. By 1866 Sumba belonged to the Dutch East Indies, although the island did not come under real Dutch administration until the 20th century, jesuits opened a mission in Laura, West Sumba in 1866. Historically, this island exported sandalwood and was known as Sandalwood Island, despite contact with western cultures, Sumba is one of the few places in the world where megalithic burials are used as a living tradition to inter prominent individuals when they die. Burial in megaliths is a practice that was used in parts of the world during the Neolithic. It has survived to this day in Sumba and has raised significant interest from scholars, at Anakalang, for instance, quadrangular adzes have been unearthed. Another long-lasting tradition is the sometimes lethal game of pasola, in teams of often several hundred horse-riders fight with spears. On August 19,1977, an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale occurred and caused a tsunami,316 people were killed on the island and islands off the west coast. The largest town on the island is the port of Waingapu. The landscape is low, limestone hills, rather than the steep volcanoes of many Indonesian islands, there is a dry season from May to November and a rainy season from December to April. The western side of the island is fertile and more heavily populated than the east. Due to its flora and fauna Sumba has been categorised by the World Wildlife Fund as the Sumba deciduous forests ecoregion. Although generally thought to be part of the Gondwana southern hemisphere supercontinent, recent research suggests that it might have detached from the South East Asia margin. Sumba is in the Wallacea ecozone, having a mixture of plants, most of the island was originally covered in deciduous monsoon forest while the south-facing slopes, which remain moist during the dry season, were evergreen rainforest. Saltwater crocodiles can still be found in some areas, the Sumba hornbill or Julang Sumba is under increasing threat of extinction. Indiscriminate deforestation is threatening their survival, the population is estimated at less than 4,000 with an average density of six individuals per square kilometer. A hornbill can fly to and fro over an area of up to 100 square kilometers, most of the original forest has been cleared for the planting of maize, cassava, and other crops so only small isolated patches remain
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Social stratification
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Social stratification is a societys categorization of people into socioeconomic strata, based upon their occupation and income, wealth and social status, or derived power. As such, stratification is the social position of persons within a social group, category, geographic region. The upper-stratum, the middle-stratum, and the lower stratum, moreover, a social stratum can be formed upon the bases of kinship or caste, or both. Determining the structures of social stratification arises from inequalities of status among persons, therefore, generally, the greater the social complexity of a society, the more social strata exist, by way of social differentiation. Social stratification is a used in the social sciences to describe the relative social position of persons in a given social group, category. In modern Western societies, stratification is often classified into three major divisions of social class, upper class, middle class, and lower class. Each of these classes can be subdivided into smaller classes. Social strata may also be delineated on the basis of kinship ties or caste relations, the concept of social stratification is often used and interpreted differently within specific theories. So-called conflict theories, such as Marxism, point to the inaccessibility of resources, talcott Parsons, an American sociologist, asserted that stability and social order are regulated, in part, by universal values. Such values are not identical with consensus but can as well be an impetus for ardent social conflict as it has multiple times through history. Parsons never claimed that universal values, in and by themselves, indeed, the constitution of society is a much more complicated codification of emerging historical factors. Theorists such as Ralf Dahrendorf alternately note the tendency toward an enlarged middle-class in modern Western societies due to the necessity of a workforce in technological economies. Various social and political perspectives concerning globalization, such as dependency theory, four principles are posited to underlie social stratification. First, social stratification is socially defined as a property of a society rather than individuals in that society, second, social stratification is reproduced from generation to generation. Third, social stratification is universal but variable, fourth, social stratification involves not just quantitative inequality but qualitative beliefs and attitudes about social status. Although stratification is not limited to complex societies, all complex societies exhibit features of stratification, the term stratification system is sometimes used to refer to the complex social relationships and social structure that generate these observed inequalities. Social mobility is the movement of individuals, social groups or categories of people between the layers or strata in a stratification system and this movement can be intragenerational or intergenerational. Such mobility is used to classify different systems of social stratification
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Niah National Park
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Niah National Park, located within Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia, is the site of the Niah Caves, a limestone cave and archeological site. Niah National Park was 31.4 km² when it was gazetted in 1974, nomination for World Heritage status of the Niah Caves was sent to UNESCO in 2010. Alfred Russel Wallace learned about the caves during his 1855 expedition to Borneo and he wrote about the caves as a potential site for discovering important hominin fossils in a letter to Charles Darwin. British archaeologists excavated the site in 1869-1870, but failed to make significant discoveries, in the 1950s and 1960s, Barbara and Tom Harrisson excavated the site and made significant discoveries. They discovered the Deep Skull in 1958, since then local universities and foreign scientists have continued the archaeological research, and many articles have been published in the Sarawak Museum Journal. The site has been re-excavated by The Niah Caves Project, a joint British-Malaysian expedition, the main cave, Niah Great Cave, is located in Gunung Subis and is made up of several voluminous chambers with high ceilings. The main Gunung Subis complex rises to about 394 meters above sea level at its highest point. The whole Gunung Subis Limestone Complex lies some 17 kilometres inland from the South China Sea coast, near the town of Batu Niah and it is roughly heart shaped measuring five kilometres from its northern tip to the south and four kilometres across. Though it is not an extensive cave system compared to others in Sarawak, it has estimated to cover some 10 hectares. In geological terms, the limestones are part of the Subis Formation and this is dated to some 20 to 16 million years ago during the Early Miocene. The cave is an important prehistorical site where remains dating to 40,000 years have been found. This is the oldest recorded settlement in east Malaysia. More recent studies published in 2006 have shown evidence of the first human activity at the Niah caves from ca.46,000 to ca.34,000 years ago. Painted Cave, situated in a much smaller block of its own. Archeologists have claimed a much earlier date for stone tools found in the Mansuli valley, near Lahad Datu in Sabah, the most famous find is the human skull dated at around 38,000 years BCE. Painted Cave has paintings and wooden coffin death ships, the caves are also well known for the birds nest industry. They are a popular tourist destination in Sarawak, every section of the ceiling in the caves where there are birds roosting is privately owned and only the owner has the right to collect the nests. The collector climbs up hundreds of feet on a pole to the cave ceiling
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Sarawak
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Sarawak is one of the two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. The capital city, Kuching, is the centre of the state. Other cities and towns in Sarawak include Miri, Sibu, as of the 2015 census, the total population of Sarawak is 2,636,000. Sarawak has a climate with tropical rainforests and abundant animal. It has several prominent cave systems at Gunung Mulu National Park, Rajang River is the longest river in Malaysia, Bakun Dam, one of the largest dams in Southeast Asia, is located on one of its tributaries, the Balui River. Mount Murud is the highest point in Sarawak, the earliest known human settlement in Sarawak, located at the Niah Caves, dates back to 40,000 years ago. A series of Chinese ceramics dated from the 8th to 13th century AD was uncovered at the site of Santubong. The coastal regions of Sarawak came under the influence of the Bruneian Empire in the 16th century, in 1839, James Brooke, a British explorer, arrived in Sarawak. He, and his descendants, governed the state from 1841 to 1946, during World War II, it was occupied by the Japanese for three years. After the war, the last White Rajah, Charles Vyner Brooke, ceded Sarawak to Britain, on 22 July 1963, Sarawak was granted self-government by the British and subsequently became one of the founding members of the Federation of Malaysia, established on 16 September 1963. However, the federation was opposed by Indonesia leading to a three-year confrontation, the creation of the Federation also resulted in a communist insurgency that lasted until 1990. The head of state is the Governor, also known as the Yang di-Pertua Negeri, Sarawak exhibits notable diversity in ethnicity, culture, and language, major ethnic groups in Sarawak are, Iban, Malay, Chinese, Melanau, Bidayuh and Orang Ulu. English and Malay are the two official languages of the state, there is no official religion. The Gawai Dayak is a festival celebrated on a public holiday. The official explanation of the word Sarawak is that it is derived from the Sarawak Malay word serawak, which means antimony. A popular alternative explanation is that it is a contraction of the four Malay words purportedly uttered by Pangeran Muda Hashim, Saya serah pada awak, James Brooke became the first of the White Rajah dynasty to govern Sarawak. Sarawak is nicknamed Land of the Hornbills and these birds are important cultural symbols for the Dayak people, representing the spirit of God. It is also believed if a hornbill is seen flying over residences
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Neolithic
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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
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Luzon
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Luzon (/luːˈzɒn/, Tagalog pronunciation, is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. It is ranked 15th largest in the world, with a population of 52.99 million as of 2015, it is the fourth most populous island in the world, containing about 53% of the countrys total population. Luzon may also refer to one of the three island groups in the country. The name Luzon is thought to derive from the Tagalog word lusong, from just before the first millennium, the Tagalog and Kapampangan peoples of south and central Luzon had established several Indianized kingdoms, notably among them those of Tundok and Namayan. The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the first Philippine document written in 900AD, names places in and these kingdoms were based on leases between village rulers and landlords or Rajahs, to whom tributes and taxes were levied. These kingdoms were coastal thalassocracies based on trade with neighboring Asian political entities at that time, some parts of Luzon were Islamized when the Sultanate of Brunei expanded its realms from Borneo to the Philippines and set up the Kingdom of Maynila as its puppet-state. In addition, other kingdoms like the Wangdom of Pangasinan had become tributary states to China and were largely Sinified kingdoms, certain kilns were renowned over others and prices depended on the reputation of the kiln. Of this flourishing trade, the Burnay jars of Ilocos are the large clay jar manufactured in Luzon today with origins from this time. The Yongle Emperor instituted a Chinese Governor on Luzon during Zheng Hes voyages, China also had vassals among the leaders in the archipelago. China attained ascendancy in trade with the area in Yongles reign, in the 1500s, people from Luzon were called Lucoes and were actively employed in trading, seafaring and military campaigns across Southeast Asia. The Portuguese were the first European explorers who recorded it in their charts as Luçonia or Luçon, edmund Roberts, who visited Luzon in the early 19th century, wrote that Luzon was discovered in 1521. Many people from Luzon had active-employment in Portuguese Malacca and his father and wife carried on his maritime trading business after his death. Another important Malacca trader was Curia de Raja who also hailed from Luzon, the surname of de Raja or diraja could indicate that Regimo and Curia, and their families, were of noble or royal descent as the term is an abbreviation of Sanskrit adiraja. Pinto noted that there were a number of Lucoes in the Islamic fleets that went to battle with the Portuguese in the Philippines during the 16th century, the Sultan of Aceh gave one of them the task of holding Aru in 1540. Pinto also says one was named leader of the Malays remaining in the Moluccas Islands after the Portuguese conquest in 1511, pigafetta notes that one of them was in command of the Brunei fleet in 1521. However, the Luções did not only fight on the side of the Muslims, pinto says they were also apparently among the natives of the Philippines who fought the Muslims in 1538. On Mainland Southeast Asia, Lusung/Lucoes warriors aided the Burmese king in his invasion of Siam in 1547 AD, at the same time, Lusung warriors fought alongside the Siamese king and faced the same elephant army of the Burmese king in the defence of the Siamese capital at Ayuthaya. Scholars have thus suggested that they could be valued by all sides
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Marinduque
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Marinduque is an island province in the Philippines located in Mimaropa region. Its capital is the municipality of Boac, Marinduque lies between Tayabas Bay to the north and Sibuyan Sea to the south. It is west of the Bondoc Peninsula of Quezon province, east of Mindoro Island, furthermore, for almost 200 years, the province is home to one of the oldest religious festivals of the country, the Moriones Festival celebrated annually every Holy Week. Legend has it that the island of Marinduque was formed as a consequence of a love affair between two people, Mariin and Gatduke. Mariins father, a chieftain, did not approve of this affair. Before this could be done, the couple sailed out to sea and drowned themselves, during the Philippine-American War, Marinduque was the first island to have American concentration camps. Marinduque is the site of the Battle of Pulang Lupa, where 250 Filipino soldiers under Colonel Maximo Abad and it is one of the few battles during the pacification of the Philippines where the tenacity and bravery of the Filipinos prevailed over the well armed Americans. In 1902, the US-Philippine Commission annexed the islands of Mindoro, four months later, the province became part of the province of Tayabas. On February 21,1920, Act 2280 was passed by the Philippine Congress, in 1942, the Japanese Imperial forces landed in Marinduque. In 1945, combined American and Philippine Commonwealth troops attacked from the Japanese Troops liberated to the Battle of Marinduque in the Second World War. The general headquarters of the Philippine Commonwealth Army was active in 1935 to 1942 and 1945 to 1946, archaeology in the Philippines began in Marinduque. Prior to 1900, only one important archaeological investigation had been carried out in the country, after Marche, the next important archaeological work was undertaken by Dr. Carl Gunthe in the Visayas Island Group in 1922. An abundant yield of Chinese urns, vases, gold ornaments, skulls and he brought back to France the Marinduque artifacts he uncovered in 40 crates. Part of it now is said to be housed at the Musée de lHomme in France, the finds also included a wooden image of the Marinduque anito called Pastores by the natives. One of these also found its way into the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. These fragile jarlets traveled from China to the pre-colonial Philippines, buried in a cave in Marinduque for centuries, excavated in the late 19th century, brought to Paris and eventually one ended up at the Smithsonian Institution museum. Part of Marinduques history lies at the Marinduque Museum in Poblacion at Boac and it will take some time to analyze these artifacts to piece together its pre-colonial past. Marinduque is considered as the center of the Philippine archipelago by the Luzon Datum of 1911
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