1.
Limestone
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Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
2.
Bust (sculpture)
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A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a persons head and neck, and a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual and these may be of any medium used for sculpture, such as marble, bronze, terracotta or wood. A parallel term, aust, is a representation of the part of an animal or mythical creature. Sculptural portrait heads from classical antiquity are sometimes displayed as busts, however, these are often fragments from full-body statues, or were created to be inserted into an existing body, these portrait heads are not included in this article. Herma Portraiture Livius. org, Bust gallery of famous ancient Greeks Oxford definition Dictionary. com definition
3.
Elche
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Elche, or Elx, is a town located in the comarca of Baix Vinalopó, Spain. According to the 2014 census, Elche has a population of some 228,647 inhabitants, ranking as the third most populated city in the Valencian Community, part of the municipality is coastal but the main city is some 11 km from the Mediterranean Sea. A small creek called Vinalopó flows through the city splitting it in two parts, la Alcudia is 10 km from the current citys location and the immediate predecessor of current day Elche. This original location was settled by the Greeks and then occupied by Carthaginians and Romans, Greeks Ionian colonists from the achaian city Helice established their new colony, naming it Helike around 600 BC. The Romans called the city Ilici and granted it the status of colonia, after a brief Byzantine rule, Elche lost importance during the period of Moorish occupation, when it was moved slightly north to its present location. James II of Aragon took the city from the Moors in the 13th century, many archaeological remains have been found in Elche, with the stone bust of the Lady of Elche being the most important. This may date from the Iberian period, the original is in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain. There are other activities in Elche, agriculture, although it has lost importance in recent years, rubber industry, trade, which employs 20% of the workforce. Elche has a centre, an international airport a public University, Universidad Miguel Hernández. Elche has a hot subtropical semi-arid climate and it is an orchard of over 200,000 palm trees that was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. Altamira Castle, also known as Alcázar de la Señoría, located next to the Municipal Park It was originally built in Almohad times, basilica of Santa Maria Calahorra Tower, of rectangular plan and Rabic origin, it represent the last relic of the old city walls. It is played every year in mid August, in the context of the local holidays dedicated to the Assumption of Virgin Mary. Also as a part of celebration, on the 13th of August is the date of a celebration in Elche called Nit de lAlbà in which a city-wide night-long show of fireworks takes place
4.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
5.
National Archaeological Museum of Spain
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The National Archaeological Museum of Spain is a museum in Madrid, Spain. It is located on Serrano Street beside the Plaza de Colón, the museum was founded in 1867 by a Royal Decree of Isabella II as a depository for numismatic, archaeological, ethnographical and decorative art collections of the Spanish monarchs. The museum was located in the Embajadores district of Madrid. In 1895, it moved to a building designed specifically to house it, in 1968, renovation and extension works considerably increased its area. The museum closed for renovation in 2008 and reopened in April 2014, the remodelled museum concentrates on its core archaeological role, rather than decorative arts. The collection includes, among others, Prehistoric, Egyptian, Celtic, Iberian, Greek and Roman antiquities and medieval objects
6.
Iberians
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The Iberians were a set of peoples that Greek and Roman sources identified with that name in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula, at least from the 6th century BC. The Roman sources also use the term Hispani to refer to the Iberians, the term Iberian, as used by the ancient authors, had two distinct meanings. One, more general, referred to all the populations of the Iberian peninsula without regard to ethnic differences and this non-Indo-European cultural group spoke the Iberian language from the 7th to the 1st century BC. Other peoples possibly related to the Iberians are the Vascones, though related to the Aquitani than to the Iberians. The Iberian culture developed from the 6th century BC, and perhaps as early as the fifth to the third millennium BC in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula, the Iberians lived in villages and oppida and their communities were based on a tribal organization. The Iberians in the Spanish Levant, were more urbanized than their neighbors in the central, the peoples in the central and northwest regions were mostly Celtic, semi-pastoral and lived in scattered villages, though they also had a few fortified towns like Numantia. They had a knowledge of writing, metalworking, including bronze, in the centuries preceding Carthaginian and Roman conquest, Iberian settlements grew in social complexity, exhibiting evidence of social stratification and urbanization. This process was aided by trading contacts with the Phoenicians, Greeks. The settlement of Castellet de Banyoles in Tivissa was one of the most important ancient Iberian settlements in Catalonia that was discovered in 1912, also, the Treasure of Tivissa, a unique collection of silver Iberian votive offerings was found here in 1927. Lucentum was another ancient Iberian settlement, as well as Castelldefels Castle, mausoleum of Pozo Moro near the town of Chinchilla de Monte-Aragón in Castile-La Mancha seems to mark the location of another big settlement. Sagunto is the location of an ancient Iberian and later Roman city of Saguntum, Greek colonists made the first historical reference to the Iberians in the 6th century BC. They defined Iberians as non-Celtic peoples south of the Ebro river, the Greeks also dubbed as Iberians another people in the Caucasus region, currently known as Caucasian Iberians. It is not known if there had any type of connection between the two peoples. The Iberians traded extensively with other Mediterranean cultures, Iberian pottery and metalwork has been found in France, Italy, and North Africa. The Iberians had extensive contact with Greek colonists in the Spanish colonies of Emporion, Rhode, Zakynthos, the Iberians may have adopted some of the Greeks artistic techniques. Statues such as the Lady of Baza and the Lady of Elx are thought to have made by Iberians relatively well acquainted with Greek art. Thucydides stated that one of the three tribes of Sicily, the Sicani, were of Iberian origin, though Iberian at the time could have included what we think of as Gaul. The Iberians also had contacts with the Phoenicians, who had established colonies in southern Andalucia
7.
Tanit
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Tanit was a Berber Punic and Phoenician goddess, the chief deity of Carthage alongside her consort Baal Hammon. She was also adopted by the Punic Berber people, Tanit is also called Tinnit, Tannou or Tangou. The name appears to have originated in Carthage, though it not appear in local theophorous names. She was equivalent to the moon-goddess Astarte, and later worshipped in Roman Carthage in her Romanized form as Dea Caelestis, in modern-day Tunisian Arabic, it is customary to invoke Omek Tannou or Oumouk Tangou, in years of drought to bring rain. Similarly, Tunisian and many other forms of Arabic refer to Baali farming to refer to non-irrigated agriculture. Tanit was worshiped in Punic contexts in the Western Mediterranean, from Malta to Gades into Hellenistic times, from the fifth century BCE onwards, Tanits worship is associated with that of Baal Hammon. She is given the epithet pene baal and the title rabat and her shrine excavated at Sarepta in southern Phoenicia revealed an inscription that identified her for the first time in her homeland and related her securely to the Phoenician goddess Astarte. One site where Tanit is uncovered is at Kerkouane, in the Cap Bon peninsula in Tunisia, the origins of Tanit are to be found in the pantheon of Ugarit, especially in the Ugaritic goddess Anat, a consumer of blood and flesh. There is significant, albeit disputed, evidence, both archaeological and within ancient written sources, pointing towards child sacrifice forming part of the worship of Tanit, some archaeologists theorised that infant sacrifices have occurred. Lawrence E. Stager, who directed the excavations of the Carthage Tophet in the 1970s, paolo Xella of the National Research Council in Rome summarized the textual, epigraphical, and archaeological evidence for Carthaginian infant sacrifice. Tophet is a derived from the Bible, used to refer to a site near Jerusalem at which Canaanites and Israelites who strayed from Judaism by practicing Canaanite idolatry would sacrifice children. It is now used as a term for all such sites with cremated human. The Hebrew Bible does not specify that the Israelite victims were buried, only burned and we have no idea how the Phoenicians themselves referred to the places of burning or burial, or to the practice itself. Several apparent Tophets have been identified, chiefly a large one in Carthage, dubbed the Tophet of Salammbó, soil in the Tophet of Salammbó was found to be full of olive wood charcoal, probably from the sacrificial pyres. It was the location of the temple of the goddess Tanit, animal remains, mostly sheep and goats, found inside some of the Tophet urns, strongly suggest that this was not a burial ground for children who died prematurely. The animals were sacrificed to the gods, presumably in place of children and it is conjectured that the children unlucky enough not to have substitutes were also sacrificed and then buried in the Tophet. The area covered by the Tophet in Carthage was probably over an acre, about 20,000 urns were deposited between 400 BCE and 200 BCE, with the practice continuing until the early years of the Christian period. The urns contained the bones of newborns and in some cases the bones of fetuses
8.
Carthaginian Iberia
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The Carthaginian presence in Iberia lasted from 575 BC to 206 BC when the Carthaginians were defeated by the Roman Republic at the Battle of Ilipa in the Second Punic War. The Phoenicians were a people from the eastern Mediterranean who were traders from the cities of Tyre, Sidon. They colonised much of the Mediterranean and in the year 814 BC and they also annexed territory in Sicily, Africa, Sardinia and in 575 BC, they created colonies on the Iberian peninsula. In eight years, by force of arms and diplomacy, he secured an extensive territory in Hispania, the fall of Carthages Iberian territories came in the Second Punic War. In the year 209, after the Romans had landed on Iberia under the command of Scipio Africanus, they captured the centre of Punic power in Iberia, Cartagena. They then moved south and faced the Punic army of Hasdrubal in the Battle of Baecula but were not able to prevent him continuing his march to Italy in order to reinforce his brother Hannibal. This catastrophic defeat sealed the fate of the Carthaginian presence in Iberia and it was followed by the Roman capture of Gades in 206 BC after the city had already rebelled against Carthaginian rule. A last attempt was made by Mago in 205 BC to recapture New Carthage while the Roman presence was shaken by a mutiny, so in the same year he left Iberia, setting sail from the Balearic islands to Italy with his remaining forces. Four Iberian Ladies, Lady of Cerro de los Santos, Lady of Baza, Lady of Guardamar, the Lady of Guardamar, found in 1987, is in the Museum of Alicante. This series of sculptures can be seen as types of funerary urns to hold ashes, there has been speculation that the Elche bust was originally full-length. Mythological animals of an earlier period – 6th–5th century BC, the Bull of Osuna, the Sphinx of Agost, Carthaginian currency, including the Barcid mints in Iberia Timeline of Portuguese history
9.
Iberian sculpture
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Iberian sculpture, a subset of Iberian art, describes the various sculptural styles developed by the Iberians from the Bronze age up to the Roman conquest. For this reason it is described as Pre-Roman Iberian sculpture. Overall the degree of influence is correlated to the region of origin. The sculptures that comprise the Levantine group were made between the 5th century B. C. and the period of Roman domination, this group is best represented in museum collections. The most famous among them is the bust known as The Lady of Elche, works in this style number over 670, though there are stylistic differences, which testify to the successive influences of conquering peoples. They include, The Bicha of Balazote, or the man-bull The Sphinx of Agost, in Alicante, and that of Salobral, which guards the Louvre Museum, though mutilated. In the period between the 5th century BC and the 5th century AD, sanctuaries like Montealegre used small bronze castings, rather than stone carvings, as votive offerings. Approximately 4,000 sculptures in this style have been excavated, depicting Iberian warriors, riders, religious celebrants, small horses, the oldest have been dated to the 8th century B. C. and they most likely continued to be made up to the Roman domination. These include, The Lady of Ibiza Praying Terracotta Figurines Pieces also considered to be of Phoenician or Punic origin, a very early Phoenician piece from Galera depicts a seated female, perhaps Astarte, flanked by sphinxes. The Lady of Galera The southern group is composed of sculptures found in sepulchers. Most of them display heavy Phoenician influence and they are as follows, The sculptural set of Cerrillo Blanco the sculptural set of The Pajarillo The Punic stela of Villaricos, of conical form and with Phoenician inscription The Lady of Baza. The plates and combs of ivory reliefs of Carmonas necropolis. These sculptures are relatively coarsely worked, some of them bear Roman inscriptions, which were probably added long after the figures were carved. In the center of the Peninsula, between the rivers Douro and Tagus there are many granite sculptures roughly carved in the form of bulls, some of these also have Roman inscriptions, which again were probably added later. The most famous of these monuments are the four known as the Bulls of Guisando, archeologists consider them to be works of the same culture that carved the sphinxes of the Levantine region. South-Western Iberian Bronze Iberian schematic art VV. AA, escultura ibérica en el Museo Provincial de Jaén. Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Andalucía
10.
Polychrome
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Polychrome is the practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc. in a variety of colors. The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, some very early polychrome pottery has been excavated on Minoan Crete such as at the Bronze Age site of Phaistos. In ancient Greece sculptures were painted in strong colors, the paint was frequently limited to parts depicting clothing, hair, and so on, with the skin left in the natural color of the stone. But it could cover sculptures in their totality, the painting of Greek sculpture should not merely be seen as an enhancement of their sculpted form but has the characteristics of a distinct style of art. On high-quality bronzes like the Riace bronzes, an early example of polychrome decoration was found in the Parthenon atop the Acropolis of Athens. By the time European antiquarianism took off in the 18th century, however, however, some classicists such as Jacques Ignace Hittorff noticed traces of paint on classical architecture and this slowly came to be accepted. An example of classical Greek architectural polychrome may be seen in the full size replica of the Parthenon exhibited in Nashville, Tennessee, throughout medieval Europe religious sculptures in wood and other media were often brightly painted or colored, as were the interiors of church buildings. The exteriors of churches were painted as well, but little has survived, exposure to the elements and changing tastes and religious approval over time acted against their preservation. With the arrival of European porcelain in the 18th century, brightly colored pottery figurines with a range of colors became very popular. Polychrome brickwork is a style of brickwork which emerged in the 1860s. It was often used to replicate the effect of quoining and to decorate around windows, early examples featured banding, with later examples exhibiting complex diagonal, criss-cross, and step patterns, in some cases even writing using bricks. In the 1970s and 1980s, especially, architects working with bold colors included Robert Venturi, Michael Graves, Polychrome building facades later rose in popularity as a way of highlighting certain trim features in Victorian and Queen Anne architecture in the United States. The rise of the paint industry following the civil war also helped to fuel the use of multiple colors. These earned the endearment Painted Ladies, a term that in modern times is considered kitsch when it is applied to describe all Victorian houses that have painted with period colors. John Joseph Earley developed a process of concrete slab construction and ornamentation that was admired across America. In the Washington, D. C. metropolitan area, his products graced a variety of buildings — all formed by the staff of the Earley Studio in Rosslyn, earleys Polychrome Historic District houses in Silver Spring, Maryland were built in the mid-1930s. The concrete panels were pre-cast with colorful stones and shipped to the lot for on-site assembly, less well-known, but just as impressive, is the Dr. Fealy Polychrome House that Earley built atop a hill in Southeast Washington, D. C. overlooking the city. His uniquely designed polychrome houses were outstanding among prefabricated houses in the country, appreciated for their Art Deco ornament, the term polychromatic means having several colors
11.
Headdress
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Headgear, headwear or headdress is the name given to any element of clothing which is worn on ones head. Some styles of bonnets had peaks so large that they prevented women from looking right or left without turning their heads. Bonnets worn by men and boys are generally distinguished from hats by being soft, caps are generally soft and often have no brim or just a peak. For many centuries women wore a variety of head-coverings which were called caps, an ochipok is part of traditional Ukrainian costume. Some headgear, such as the crown, coronet, and tiara, have evolved into jewelry and these headgear are worn as a symbol of nobility or royal status. Kokoshnik is part of Russian traditional dress, often worn by nobility, a fillet or circlet is a round band worn around the head and over the hair. Elaborate and costly versions of these evolved into crowns, but fillets could be made from woven bands of fabric, leather. Fillets are unisex, and are prevalent in archaic to renaissance dress. Hairnets are used to prevent loose hair from contaminating food or work areas, a snood is a net or fabric bag pinned or tied on at the back of a womans head for holding the hair. Scarves are used to protect styled hair or keep it tidy, shower caps and swim caps prevent hair from becoming wet or entangled during activity. Hats often have an all the way around the rim. Depending on the type of hat, they may be worn by men. Helmets are designed to protect the head, and sometimes the neck and they are usually rigid, and offer protection from blows. Helmets are commonly worn in battle, on sites and in many contact sports. In most of the United States they are required by law for operating a range of vehicles including motorcycles. Modern hoods are generally soft headcoverings which are a part of a larger garment, like an overcoat. Historically, hoods were either similar to modern hoods, or a form of headgear. In medieval Europe hoods with short capes, called chaperons in French, were extremely common, a mask is worn over part or all of the face, frequently to disguise the wearer, but sometimes to protect the face
12.
Urn
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An urn is a vase, often with a cover, that usually has a somehat narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an urn, as opposed to a vase or other terms, large sculpted vases are often called urns, whether placed outdoors, in gardens or as architectural ornaments on buildings, or kept inside. Funerary urns have been used by many civilizations, after a person died, survivors cremated the body and collected the ashes in an urn. Pottery urns, dating from about 7000 BC, have found in an early Jiahu site in China, where a total of 32 burial urns are found. There are about 700 burial urns unearthed over the Yangshao areas and consisting more than 50 varieties of form, the burial urns were used mainly for children, but also sporadically for adults. The Urnfield culture, a late Bronze Age culture of central Europe, the discovery of a Bronze Age urn burial in Norfolk, England, prompted Sir Thomas Browne to describe the antiquities found. He expanded his study to survey burial and funerary customs, ancient and current, in ancient Greece, cremation was usual, and the ashes typically placed in a painted Greek vase. In particular the lekythos, a shape of vase, was used for holding oil in funerary rituals, romans placed the urns in a niche in a collective tomb called a columbarium. The interior of a dovecote usually has niches to house doves, cremation urns were also commonly used in early Anglo Saxon England, and in many Pre-Columbian cultures. Biodegradable urns are sometimes used for human and animal burial. Besides the traditional funeral or cremation ashes urns, it is possible to keep a part of the ashes of the loved one or beloved pet in keepsake urns or ash jewelry. It is even possible to place the ashes of two people in so-called companion urns, cremation or funeral urns are made from a variety of materials such as wood, nature stone, ceramic, glass, or steel. Scattering of ashes has become popular over recent decades, as a result, urns designed to scatter the ashes from have been developed. Some are biodegradable, and some recyclable after being used, a Figural urn is a style of vase or larger container where the basic urn shape, of either a classic amphora or a crucible style, is ornamented with figures. These may be attached to the body, forming handles or simply extraneous decorations. The Ashes, the prize in the biennial Test cricket competition between England and Australia, are contained in a miniature urn, urns are a common form of architectural detail and garden ornament. Well-known ornamental urns include the Waterloo Vase, in mathematics, an urn problem is a thought experiment in probability theory. A tea urn is a metal container traditionally used to brew tea or boil water in large quantities in factories
13.
Lady of Guardamar
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A large piece of a stone rodete was found first, at a shallow depth. There followed other fragments of the bust of an Iberian lady, and one large piece included the headdress, face and neck, the sculpture had been hammered to fragments and even burnt in places. The delicate and painstaking task of restoration began in October 1987 and was completed in June 1988, the restored sculpture is of fine-grained greyish limestone. The Lady is wearing a tunic with a round neckline, a scalloped headband crosses the brow and connects the rodetes, which represent hollow wheels, probably of thin metal, on each side. Above the headband and rodetes the Lady wears a mantle with finely carved drapery details, the necklaces the Lady wears are each different, one is composed of seven bullae which are all the same except for the central one, which is grooved. Below it is another necklace that has larger bullae, some shaped like curved triangles, the string of beads worn second from the neck has olive-shaped, spherical and flat beads, above it is a string of spherical beads with two plates at the center. In real life these beads would have made of glassy paste. In style the Lady of Guardamar is a bit more archaic than the other contemporary Iberian sculptures Lady of Baza or the Lady of Elche, with features more Iberian. As nothing from the site is more recent than 300 BCE, and the site flourished between 430 and 350 BCE, it seems likely that the Lady dates from 400 to 370 BCE
14.
Dama del Cerro de los Santos
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Dama del Cerro de los Santos, also known as Gran Dama Oferente, is an Iberian sculpture from the 2nd century BCE, that is now in National Archaeological Museum of Spain in Madrid. This limestone sculpture depicts a standing female figure 1.3 metres high. It was found in 1870 in the sanctuary of Cerro de los Santos in Montealegre del Castillo in Albacete province, the statue is sometimes called the Gran Dama Oferente because she is holding a container in her two hands and appears to be offering it. She is richly clad in three overlapping robes clasped with a fibula, or brooch, at the neck, braided hair falls past her three necklaces. A rodete or wheel headgear appears on one side of her hair, if there was a one on the other side. Like another contemporary Phoenician-influenced Iberian female sculpture, the Lady of Baza, carthaginian Iberia Lady of Elche Iberian sculpture Spain, A History, by Raymond Carr ISBN 0-19-280236-4 F. Gómez, Una réplica en barro de la Dama del Cerro de los Santos in Homenaje a C
15.
Province of Albacete
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Albacete is a province of central Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. As of 2012, Albacete had a population of 402,837 people and its capital lies at Albacete,262 kilometres by road southeast of Madrid. The territory occupied by the province of Albacete has been inhabited since ancient times, as evidenced by cave paintings in the Cueva del Niño, in Roman times, the territory of the present province of Albacete was part of Carpetania and Celtiberia, Contestania, Bastetania and Oretania. In Roman times, the Romans built a significant settlement at Libisosa, during the Muslim era, territories of the province were under different zones of influence, and numerous farmhouses, castles and watchtowers developed to fight off invaders. In 1822 the province of ephemeral Province of Chinchilla was created, composed of municipalities in the provinces of La Mancha, Cuenca and the Kingdom of Murcia. Its capital at Chinchilla de Monte-Aragón, very close to the city of Albacete, following the adoption of the Constitution in 1978, the province of Albacete joined the Castile-La Mancha Region from the Murcia Region, and its Statute of Autonomy was approved in 1982. The province is divided into 87 municipalities and seven judicial districts and its seat of government is Albacete. Other important towns are, Hellín, Villarrobledo, Almansa, La Roda, the main river of the province is the Jucar river, which crosses the province in the northeast, renowned for its deep gorges and trees. The Lagunese de Ruidera flows in the west. and Taibilla rivers in the south
16.
Bicha of Balazote
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The Bicha of Balazote is an Iberian sculpture that was found in the borough of Balazote in Albacete province, Spain. Bicha is a Spanish word, one meaning of which is a hybrid man/animal, carlos Fuentes has called it the Beast of Balazote. The sculpture has been dated to the 6th century BCE, and has been in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain in Madrid, the Bicha was found at the site of Majuelos not far from the city center. Recent excavations in the Balazote plain revealed a tomb and burial mound where this piece may have originated, nearby, important mosaics from a Roman villa were also discovered. Carved of two blocks in the second half of the 6th century BCE, the statue is 93 cm long and 73 cm high. It is a synthesis of man and a bull. The body is in repose and shows good knowledge of the traits of that animal, with the forelegs bent under the chest, the tail is curved on the left thigh and ends in a tuft of hair. The head is that of a horned, bearded man with bulls ears, details of the sculpture are similar to archaic Greek hieratic sculpture in that the hair and beard are rendered by straight grooves. The piece is not carved in entirely in the round, one appears to be ashlar and designed to adhere to some place. It may have belonged to a tomb or temple, there is some possibility that it represents a god of fertility, as did the man-headed bull statues used by the Greeks to represent river gods which made the fields fertile. According to A. García and Bellido, the Bicha represents the Greek river god Achelous whose image on Sicilian coins it resembles. This sculpture is a daughter of the Greeks, and if you will, granddaughter of the Phoenicians and great-granddaughter of Mesopotamia, A. García, Balazote Oretani Almagro Gorbea Pozo Moro and the Phoenician Influence in the Orientalizing Period of the Iberian Peninsula. La Biche dAlbacete, Cernunnos substrate and the indigenous, seminar on history and archeology of Albacete. Blazquez, J. M. Animalist Figures Turdetanas, CSIC, chapa Brunet, Teresa El Toro Androcefalo de Balazote, Nueva Puesta a Punto de su Problematica, Al-Basit, Revista de estudios albacetenses, ISSN 0212-8632, No. 10,1981, pp. 145–158 Heuzey, Léon Alexandre, le taureau chaldéen à tête humaine et ses dérivés, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Monuments et Mémoires Piot 6 Paris, Pierre. Essai sur lart et lindustri de lEspasgne primitif, vol
17.
Moors
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Moors are not a distinct or self-defined people, and mainstream scholars observed in 1911 that The term Moors has no real ethnological value. Medieval and early modern Europeans variously applied the name to Arabs, Berber North Africans and Muslim Europeans. The term has also used in Europe in a broader, somewhat derogatory sense to refer to Muslims in general, especially those of Arab or Berber descent. During the colonial era, the Portuguese introduced the names Ceylon Moors and Indian Moors in Sri Lanka, in 711, troops mostly formed by Moors from North Africa led the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. The Iberian peninsula then came to be known in classical Arabic as Al-Andalus, in 827, the Moors occupied Mazara on Sicily, developing it as a port. They eventually consolidated the rest of the island and some of southern Italy, in 1224 the Muslims were expelled from Sicily to the settlement of Lucera, which was destroyed by European Christians in 1300. The fall of Granada in 1492 marked the end of Muslim rule in Iberia, the Berber tribes of the region were noted in Classical literature as Mauri, which was subsequently rendered as Moors in English and in related variations in other European languages. Mauri is recorded as the name by Strabo in the early 1st century. This appellation was also adopted into Latin, whereas the Greek name for the tribe was Maurusii, in medieval Romance languages, variations of the Latin word for the Moors developed different applications and connotations. During the context of the Crusades and the Reconquista, the term Moors included the suggestion of infidels. Apart from these associations and context, Moor and Moorish designate a specific ethnic group speaking Hassaniya Arabic. They inhabit Mauritania and parts of Algeria, Western Sahara, Tunisia, Morocco, Niger, in Niger and Mali, these peoples are also known as the Azawagh Arabs, after the Azawagh region of the Sahara. Some authors have pointed out that in modern colloquial Spanish use of the term moro is derogatory for Moroccans in particular, however, this designation has gained more acceptance in the south. In the Philippines, a former Spanish colony, many modern Filipinos call the large, local Muslim minority concentrated in Mindanao, the word is a catch-all term, as Moro may come from several distinct ethno-linguistic groups such as the Maranao people. The term was introduced by Spanish colonisers, and has since been appropriated by Filipino Muslims as an endonym, moreno can mean dark-skinned in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and the Philippines. Also in Spanish, morapio is a name for wine, especially that which has not been baptized or mixed with water. Among Spanish speakers, moro came to have a broader meaning, Moro refers to all things dark, as in Moor, moreno, etc. It was also used as a nickname, for instance, the Milanese Duke Ludovico Sforza was called Il Moro because of his dark complexion, in Portugal, mouro may refer to supernatural beings known as enchanted moura, where moor implies alien and non-Christian
18.
Abdon and Sennen
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In some places they have been honoured on 20 March, and the first Sunday of May. Nothing is known historically about these saints except their names, that they were martyrs, the rank of their celebration was given as Simple in the Tridentine Calendar and remained such until the classification was changed to that of Commemoration in the General Roman Calendar of 1960. They relate that their bodies were buried by a subdeacon, Quirinus, a fresco found on the sarcophagus supposed to contain their remains represents them receiving crowns from Christ. According to Martigny, this dates from the seventh century. Several cities, notably Florence and Soissons, claim possession of their bodies, the Abbey Benedictine Sainte Marie in Arles-sur-Tech, France also claims a tomb. Abdon and Sennen are patron saints of Calasparra, in Murcia, the feasts days celebrated in their honor in this Spanish town date back to the 16th century. Germany St. Abdon & Sennen Church, Salzgitter-Ringelheim, Lower Saxony Spain Hermitage of the saints, Cullera. Hermitage of the saints, Sueca, Valencia. St. Sennens Church in Sennen, Cornwall is in fact dedicated to St Sinninus, catholic Culture This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles, ed. Sts
19.
Basilica
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The Latin word basilica has three distinct applications in modern English. The word was used to describe an ancient Roman public building where courts were held, as well as serving other official. To a large extent these were the halls of ancient Roman life. The basilica was centrally located in every Roman town, usually adjacent to the main forum, later, the term came to refer specifically to a large and important Roman Catholic church that has been given special ceremonial rights by the Pope. Roman Catholic basilicas are Catholic pilgrimage sites, receiving tens of millions of visitors per year. In December 2009 the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City set a new record with 6.1 million pilgrims during Friday and Saturday for the anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Roman basilica was a public building where business or legal matters could be transacted. The first basilicas had no function at all. The central aisle tended to be wide and was higher than the flanking aisles, the oldest known basilica, the Basilica Porcia, was built in Rome in 184 BC by Cato the Elder during the time he was Censor. Other early examples include the basilica at Pompeii, probably the most splendid Roman basilica is the one begun for traditional purposes during the reign of the pagan emperor Maxentius and finished by Constantine I after 313 AD. In the 3rd century AD, the elite appeared less frequently in the forums. They now tended to dominate their cities from opulent palaces and country villas, rather than retreats from public life, however, these residences were the forum made private. Seated in the tribune of his basilica, the man would meet his dependent clientes early every morning. A private basilica excavated at Bulla Regia, in the House of the Hunt and its reception or audience hall is a long rectangular nave-like space, flanked by dependent rooms that mostly also open into one another, ending in a semi-circular apse, with matching transept spaces. Clustered columns emphasised the crossing of the two axes, the remains of a large subterranean Neopythagorean basilica dating from the 1st century AD were found near the Porta Maggiore in Rome in 1915. The ground-plan of Christian basilicas in the 4th century was similar to that of this Neopythagorean basilica, the usable model at hand, when Constantine wanted to memorialise his imperial piety, was the familiar conventional architecture of the basilicas. In, and often also in front of, the apse was a platform, where the altar was placed. Constantine built a basilica of this type in his complex at Trier, later very easily adopted for use as a church
20.
Codex
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A codex is a book constructed of a number of sheets of paper, vellum, papyrus, or similar materials, with hand-written contents. The book is bound by stacking the pages and fixing one edge. Some codices are continuously folded like a concertina, the alternative to paged codex format for a long document is the continuous scroll. Examples of folded codices include the Maya codices, sometimes people use the term for a book-style format, including modern printed books but excluding folded books. The Romans developed the form from wooden writing tablets, the codexs gradual replacement of the scroll—the dominant book form in the ancient world—has been called the most important advance in book making before the invention of printing. The codex transformed the shape of the book itself, and offered a form that lasted for centuries, the spread of the codex is often associated with the rise of Christianity, which adopted the format for use with the Bible early on. In fact, any combination of codices and scrolls with papyrus and parchment is technically feasible, the codex began to replace the scroll almost as soon as it was invented. In Egypt, by the century, the codex outnumbered the scroll by ten to one based on surviving examples. By the sixth century, the scroll had almost vanished as a medium for literature, technically, even modern paperbacks are codices, but publishers and scholars reserve the term for manuscript books produced from Late antiquity until the Middle Ages. The scholarly study of manuscripts from the point of view of the bookbinding craft is called codicology. The study of ancient documents in general is called paleography, the Romans used precursors made of reusable wax-covered tablets of wood for taking notes and other informal writings. Two ancient polyptychs, a pentatych and octotych, excavated at Herculaneum used a connecting system that presages later sewing on of thongs or cords. Julius Caesar may have been the first Roman to reduce scrolls to pages in the form of a note-book. At the turn of the 1st century AD, a kind of folded parchment notebook called pugillares membranei in Latin became commonly used for writing in the Roman Empire, theodore Cressy Skeat theorized that this form of notebook was invented in Rome and then spread rapidly to the Near East. Codices are described in works by the Classical Latin poet. He wrote a series of five couplets meant to accompany gifts of literature that Romans exchanged during the festival of Saturnalia. ”Early codices of parchment or papyrus appear to have widely used as personal notebooks. The parchment notebook pages were commonly washed or scraped for re-use and consequently, writings in a codex were often considered informal, as early as the early 2nd century, there is evidence that a codex—usually of papyrus—was the preferred format among Christians. In the library of the Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum, however, in the Nag Hammadi library, hidden about AD390, all texts are codices
21.
Toledo, Spain
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Toledo is a city and municipality located in central Spain, it is the capital of the province of Toledo and the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 for its cultural and monumental heritage and historical co-existence of Christian, Muslim. Toledo has a history in the production of bladed weapons, which are now popular souvenirs of the city, people who were born or have lived in Toledo include Brunhilda of Austrasia, Al-Zarqali, Garcilaso de la Vega, Eleanor of Toledo, Alfonso X and El Greco. It was also the place of important historic events such as the Visigothic Councils of Toledo, as of 2015, the city has a population of 83,226 and an area of 232.1 km2. The town was granted arms in the 16th century, which by special royal privilege was based on the royal of arms of Spain, Toledo is mentioned by the Roman historian Livy as urbs parva, sed loco munita. At that time, Toletum was a city of the Carpetani tribe and it was incorporated into the Roman Empire as a civitas stipendiaria, that is, a tributary city of non-citizens. It later achieved the status of municipium by Flavian times, with this status, city officials, even of Carpetani origin, obtained Roman citizenship for public service, and the forms of Roman law and politics were increasingly adopted. At approximately this time were constructed in Toletum a Roman circus, city walls, public baths, and a municipal water supply and storage system. The Roman circus in Toledo was one of the largest in Hispania, at 423 metres long and 100 metres wide, chariot races were held on special holidays and were also commissioned by private citizens to celebrate career achievements. A fragmentary stone inscription records circus games paid for by a citizen of unknown name to celebrate his achieving the sevirate, archaeologists have also identified portions of a special seat of the sort used by the city elites to attend circus games, called a sella curulis. The circus could hold up to 15000 spectators, during Roman times, Toledo was never a provincial capital nor a conventus iuridicus. It started to gain importance in late antiquity, there are indications that large private houses within the city walls were enlarged, while several large villas were built north of the city through the third and fourth centuries. Games were held in the circus into the fourth and early fifth centuries C. E. also an indication of active city life. A church council was held in Toledo in the year 400 to discuss the conflict with Priscillianism, a second council of Toledo was held in 527. The Visigothic king Theudis was in Toledo in 546, where he promulgated a law and this is strong though not certain evidence that Toledo was the chief residence for Theudis. King Athanagild died in Toledo, probably in 568 and this changed with Liuvigild, who brought the peninsula under his control. The Visigoths ruled from Toledo until the Moors conquered the Iberian peninsula in the years of 8th century. Today the historic center is pierced of basements, passages, wells, baths, a series of church councils was held in Toledo under the Visigoths
22.
Humanism
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The term was coined in 1808 by the early nineteenth century German educational reformer and theologian Friedrich Niethammer and gradually adopted into English. Niethammer had wished to introduce into German education the humane values of ancient Greece, the word Humanism is ultimately derived from the Latin concept humanitas, and, like most other words ending in -ism, entered English in the nineteenth century. Those who earnestly desire and seek after these are most highly humanized. For the desire to pursue of that kind of knowledge, and the training given by it, has granted to humanity alone of all the animals. Gellius says that in his day humanitas is commonly used as a synonym for philanthropy – or kindness and he himself was involved in public affairs. By assigning pride of place to Paideia in his comment on the etymology of humanitas, gelliuss writings fell into obscurity during the middle ages, but during the Italian Renaissance, Gellius became a favorite author. Teachers and scholars of Greek and Latin grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, during the French Revolution, and soon after, in Germany, humanism began to refer to an ethical philosophy centered on humankind, without attention to the transcendent or supernatural. The designation Religious Humanism refers to organized groups that sprang up during the late-nineteenth and it is similar to Protestantism, although centered on human needs, interests, and abilities rather than the supernatural. The first Humanist Manifesto was issued by a conference held at the University of Chicago in 1933, signatories included the philosopher John Dewey, but the majority were ministers and theologians. But in the century, during the French Enlightenment, a more ideological use of the term had come into use. In 1765, the author of an article in a French Enlightenment periodical spoke of The general love of humanity. A virtue hitherto quite nameless among us, and which we will venture to call humanism, for the time has come to create a word for such a beautiful and necessary thing. The latter part of the 18th and the early 19th centuries saw the creation of numerous philanthropic and benevolent societies dedicated to human betterment. Humanism began to acquire a negative sense, the Oxford English Dictionary records the use of the word humanism by an English clergyman in 1812 to indicate those who believe in the mere humanity of Christ, i. e. Unitarians and Deists. Human-centered philosophy that rejected the supernatural may also be found circa 1500 BCE in the Lokayata system of Indian philosophy, nasadiya Sukta, a passage in the Rig Veda, contains one of the first recorded assertions of agnosticism. Another instance of ancient humanism as a system of thought is found in the Gathas of Zarathustra. Zarathustras philosophy in the Gathas lays out a conception of humankind as thinking beings, dignified with choice, in China, Yellow Emperor is regarded as the humanistic primogenitor. Sage kings such as Yao and Shun are humanistic figures as recorded, king Wu of Zhou has the famous saying, Humanity is the Ling of the world
23.
Archaeology
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Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. In North America, archaeology is considered a sub-field of anthropology, archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology as a field is distinct from the discipline of palaeontology, Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies across the world, Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time. The discipline involves surveying, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past, in broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past. Nonetheless, today, archaeologists face many problems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of public interest, the science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts. Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment era in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, in Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Age. Antiquarians, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, one of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England. John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other monuments in southern England. He was also ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings and he attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture, costume, and shield-shapes. Excavations were also carried out in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and these excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii, while in Herculaneum they began in 1738. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and even human shapes, however, prior to the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard, the importance of concepts such as stratification and context were overlooked. The father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington and he undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798, funded by Sir Richard Colt Hoare. Cunnington made meticulous recordings of neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, one of the major achievements of 19th century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy. The idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith, James Hutton, the application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites
24.
Real Academia de la Historia
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The Academy was established in 1738. Since 1836 it has occupied an 18th-century building designed by the neoclassical architect Juan de Villanueva, the building, which was originally occupied by the Hieronymites, had become available as a result of the Ecclesiastical confiscations of Mendizábal. As formerly the main Spanish institution for antiquaries, the Academy retains significant libraries and collections of antiquities, the keeper of antiquities is the prehistorian Martín Almagro Gorbea. It is one of the best surviving examples of Late Antique Imperial imagery, some Spanish historians have considered it an obsolete misogynist institution, that still considers history as a matter of kings and battles. However, the image has changed since Gonzalo Anes was director, in 2011 the Academy published the first 20 volumes of a dictionary of national biography, the Diccionario Biográfico Español, to which some five thousand historians contributed. The publicly funded publication has been subject of controversy for failing to achieve the standards of objectivity associated with, for example, however, while there was criticism of entries for some living people, the main allegations of bias concern articles relating to Francoist Spain. A notable example is the entry on Francisco Franco, written by Luis Suárez Fernández, in contrast, the administration of the democratically elected President Negrín is described as dictatorial. Most objections came from voices on the such as the party United Left. For his part, Green party senator Joan Saura asked for publication of the dictionary to be stopped, there was also a call for corrections from the Ministry of Education. The Academy announced in June 2011 that amendments would be made to the text on line and in future paper editions. In 2012, when the Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, made a statement on the subject of the dictionary, however, by 2015 with Carmen Iglesias as director, the situation had changed. In 2015 the Academy entered into an initiative in collaboration with Metro de Madrid to provide information about people who have given their names to metro stations. The Real Academia de la Historia is composed of 36 members, with Academic Correspondents covering all the provinces of Spain, the Director since 2014 has been Carmen Iglesias
25.
Mystery Play of Elche
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In 2001, UNESCO declared it one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It commemorates the Assumption of Mary, two stories exist regarding the date of creation of the Elche play. The most ancient and strange locates its origins in the 13th century, after confessing that he had not been able to prove his history, he proposed that the earliest inhabitants of the city had celebrated it in 1276. The work carried out by Esplá, and his importance as a composer and its antiquity is possibly as old as current play, since as early as 1530, older stage directions already seem to indicate its presence. The Pomegranate The appliance intended to transport the Angel with the palm to Mary, until recently, the term pomegranate was thought to be quite modern, the result of having changed the traditional color to the current. The term cloud was considered to be ancient and correct. The Araceli The Araceli enters the scene on two occasions, first, the angels descend to carry the soul of Mary to heaven, and appear to the apostles, who organized a procession to bury her body. In the second, great final scene, angel with the soul is replaced by the image of Mary, the Araceli is not a statue unique to the mystery play. It is similar to sculptures of the end of the 15th century, the Corridor is the name of the great walkway that, extending the entire length of the building, connects the cadafal with the principal door of the basilica. It is the representation of the spiritual road that everyone travels. Mary also travels this path, symbolizing that she carries out the ideal of the Christianity, the Cadafal is the platform on which a large part of the play takes place. It is located in the section of the nave. It is totally covered in wood, to conceal from the public the hollow that it contains, the term cadafal appears early on in the first reports of mystery plays in the interior of churches with an invariable meaning, dais or platform where the dramatic action takes place. In Elche, the cadafal is, in words of Quirante Santacruz, Marys area, here, the Virgin experiences all the process of sacralization and glorification that contains the work, it is the only place where celestial personages and earthly people live together. The Consueta The term consueta, a combination of the words Consuetudine and Ordinatio and those manuscripts contain precious annotations on stage directions, musical score, and stage devices, and date from as early as 1625. Normal August 14 is La Vesprà and this first session represents the death of Mary, surrounded by the apostles. August 15 is La Festa, the plot of which is the burial, also on August 15, at 10 oclock, El Misteri takes place in the street, the procession of the El Soterrar of Mary, with the songs of La Festa and participation of the actors. Prior to this, there have been a series of actions that lead up to these days of August
26.
Louvre
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The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the worlds largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the citys 1st arrondissement, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. The Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II, remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace, in 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nations masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum renamed Musée Napoléon, the collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic, whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den, in the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris to a monastery. This territory probably did not correspond exactly to the modern site, the Louvre Palace was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvres holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed, however, on 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. Under Louis XVI, the museum idea became policy. The comte dAngiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the French Museum, many proposals were offered for the Louvres renovation into a museum, however, none was agreed on. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution, during the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences, on 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property
27.
French franc
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The franc, also commonly distinguished as the French franc, was a currency of France. Between 1450 and 1999, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it was revalued in 1960, with each new franc being worth 100 old francs. The French franc was a commonly held reserve currency of reference in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first franc was a gold coin introduced in 1360 to pay the Ransom of King John II of France and this coin secured the kings freedom and showed him on a richly decorated horse earning it the name franc à cheval. The obverse legend, like other French coins, gives the title as Francorum Rex. Its value was set as one livre tournois, john’s son, Charles V, continued this type. It was copied exactly at Brabant and Cambrai and, with the arms on the horse cloth changed, conquests led by Joan of Arc allowed Charles VII to return to sound coinage and he revived the franc à cheval. John II, however, was not able to strike enough francs to pay his ransom, John II died as a prisoner in England and his son, Charles V was left to pick up the pieces. Charles V pursued a policy of reform, including stable coinage, an edict dated 20 April 1365 established the centerpiece of this policy, a gold coin officially called the denier d’or aux fleurs de lis which had a standing figure of the king on its obverse. Its value in money of account was one livre tournois, just like the franc à cheval, in accordance with the theories of the mathematician, economist and royal advisor Nicolas Oresme, Charles struck fewer coins of better gold than his predecessors. In the accompanying deflation both prices and wages fell, but wages fell faster and debtors had to settle up in better money than they had borrowed, the Mayor of Paris, Etienne Marcel, exploited their discontent to lead a revolt which forced Charles V out of the city. The States General which met at Blois in 1577 added to the pressure to stop currency manipulation. Henry III agreed to do this and he revived the franc and this coin and its fractions circulated until 1641 when Louis XIII of France replaced it with the silver Écu. Nevertheless, the franc continued in accounting as a synonym for the livre tournois. The decimal franc was established as the currency by the French Revolutionary Convention in 1795 as a decimal unit of 4.5 g of fine silver. This was slightly less than the livre of 4.505 g, silver coins now had their denomination clearly marked as “5 FRANCS” and it was made obligatory to quote prices in francs. e. Coinage with explicit denominations in decimal fractions of the franc also began in 1795, decimalization of the franc was mandated by an act of 7 April 1795, which also dealt with of weights and measures. France’s first decimal coinage used allegorical figures symbolizing revolutionary principles, like the designs the United States had adopted in 1793
28.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
29.
Montauban
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Montauban is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies 50 kilometres north of Toulouse, Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, and the sixth most populated of Languedoc Roussillon Midi Pyrenees behind Toulouse, Montpellier, Nîmes, Perpignan and Béziers. In 2013, there were 57,921 inhabitants, called “Montalbanais”, the town has been classified “Ville d’art et d’histoire” since 2015. The town, built mainly of a brick, stands on the right bank of the Tarn River at its confluence with the Tescou. Montauban is the second oldest of the bastides of southern France and its foundation dates from 1144 when Count Alphonse Jourdain of Toulouse, granted it a liberal charter. The inhabitants were chiefly from Montauriol, a village which had grown up around the neighbouring monastery of St Théodard. In 1360, under the Treaty of Brétigny, it was ceded to the English, in 1560 the bishops and magistrates embraced Protestantism, expelled the monks, and demolished the cathedral. Ten years later it became one of the four Huguenot strongholds under the Peace of Saint-Germain and it was the headquarters of the Huguenot rebellion of 1621, and successfully withstood an 86-day siege by Louis XIII. It did not submit to royal authority until after the fall of La Rochelle in 1629, the Protestants again suffered persecution after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. In the 17th century, the King of France revoked “l’Édit de Nantes”, Montauban was considered as an intellectual city. Because Montauban was a Protestant town, it started to resist and hold its position against the royal power, to scare off the King’s opponents and speed up the end of the siege,400 cannonballs were fired, but Montauban resisted and the royal army was vanquished. Saint Jacques church is marked by the cannonballs, and every year in September, the city celebrates “les 400 coups”. During World War II, Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa was briefly hidden in a secret vault behind a cellar at Montauban. Montauban’s climate is temperate and oceanic, temperatures are rather mild in winter and hot in summer. The town experienced severe droughts in 2003,2006,2012 and 2015, on August 31,2015, the Tarn-et-Garonne area was particularly struck by a wave of violent storms. These storms, accompanied by very important winds, created a tornado, Montauban was particularly affected, with winds measured between 130 and 150 kilometers per hour in the city center. This bridge is known as Pont Vieux, King Philip the Fair of France officially launched the building of the bridge in 1303 while on a tour to Toulouse. The project took 30 years to complete, and the bridge was inaugurated in 1335, the main architects were Étienne de Ferrières and Mathieu de Verdun
30.
Vichy France
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Vichy France is the common name of the French State headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. In particular, it represents the southern, unoccupied Free Zone that governed the southern part of the country, from 1940 to 1942, while the Vichy regime was the nominal government of France as a whole, Germany militarily occupied northern France. Thus, while Paris remained the de jure capital of France, following the Allied landings in French North Africa in November 1942, southern France was also militarily occupied by Germany and Italy. The Vichy government remained in existence, but as a de facto client and it vanished in late 1944 when the Allies occupied all of France. After being appointed Premier by President Albert Lebrun, Marshal Pétain ordered the French Governments military representatives to sign an armistice with Germany on 22 June 1940, Pétain subsequently established an authoritarian regime when the National Assembly of the French Third Republic granted him full powers on 10 July 1940. At that point, the Third Republic was dissolved, calling for National Regeneration, the French Government at Vichy reversed many liberal policies and began tight supervision of the economy, with central planning a key feature. Labour unions came under government control. The independence of women was reversed, with a put on motherhood. Paris lost its status in European art and culture. The media were tightly controlled and stressed virulent anti-Semitism, and, after June 1941, the French State maintained nominal sovereignty over the whole of French territory, but had effective full sovereignty only in the unoccupied southern zone libre. It had limited and only civil authority in the zones under military occupation. The occupation was to be a state of affairs, pending the conclusion of the war. The French Government at Vichy never joined the Axis alliance, Germany kept two million French soldiers prisoner, carrying out forced labour. They were hostages to ensure that Vichy would reduce its forces and pay a heavy tribute in gold, food. French police were ordered to round up immigrant Jews and other such as communists. Public opinion in some quarters turned against the French government and the occupying German forces over time, when it became clear that Germany was losing the war, and resistance to them increased. Most of the legal French governments leaders at Vichy fled or were subject to show trials by the GPRF, thousands of collaborators were summarily executed by local communists and the Resistance in so-called savage purges. The last of the French State exiles were captured in the Sigmaringen enclave by de Gaulles French 1st Armoured Division in April 1945, in 1940, Marshal Pétain was known as a First World War hero, the victor of the battle of Verdun
31.
Francoist Spain
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It is the opinion of several historians that during the Spanish Civil War, Francos goal was to turn Spain into a totalitarian state based on fascism like Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Franco was also able to take advantage of the resources of the Axis Powers, Francos regime evolved into a more classic autocratic regime. The Spanish Civil War started as a coup by the Spanish military on the peninsula, the coup escalated into a civil war lasting for three years once Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany agreed to support Franco, starting with airlifting of the africanistas onto the mainland. However, the Falange remained the party throughout Francos regime and its ideology, National Syndicalism. At the end of the Spanish Civil War, according to the regimes own figures, there were more than 270,000 men and women held in prisons, large numbers of those captured were returned to Spain or interned in Nazi concentration camps as stateless enemies. Between six and seven thousand exiles from Spain died in Mauthausen and it has been estimated that more than 200,000 Spaniards died in the first years of the dictatorship, from 1940–42, as a result of political repression, hunger, and disease related to the conflict. This changed with the Cold War that soon followed the end of hostilities in 1945, independent political parties and trade unions were banned throughout the duration of the dictatorship. On July 26,1947 Spain was declared a kingdom, Franco was to be succeeded by his Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco as head of government with the intention of continuing the Francoist regime, but those hopes ended with his 1973 assassination. With the death of Franco on 20 November 1975, Juan Carlos became the King of Spain and he initiated the countrys subsequent transition to democracy, ending with Spain becoming a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. After Francos victory in 1939, the Falange was declared the legal party in Spain. The Organic Law made the government ultimately responsible for passing all laws, as all ministers were appointed and dismissed by Franco as the Chief of state and government, he was effectively the only source of legislation. The law of national referendums, passed in 1945 approved for all laws to be approved by a popular referendum. Local municipal councils were appointed similarly by heads of families and local corporations through elections, however, Carrero Blanco was assassinated on the same year and Franco named a civilian, Carlos Arias Navarro as the countrys new Prime Minister. Concerns about the situation, Spains possible entry into World War II. The army maintained a strength of about 400,000 men until the end of the war, Spain attempted to retain control of the last remnants of its colonial empire throughout Francos rule. During the Algerian War, Madrid became the base of the Organisation armée secrète right-wing French Army group which sought to preserve French Algeria, despite this, Franco was forced to make some concessions. Henceforth, when French Morocco became independent in 1956, he surrendered Spanish Morocco to Mohammed V, the year after, Mohammed V invaded Spanish Sahara during the Ifni War. Only in 1975, with the Green March and the military occupation, in 1968, under United Nations pressure, Franco granted Spains colony of Equatorial Guinea its independence, and the next year, ceded the exclave of Ifni to Morocco
32.
Treasure of Guarrazar
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The most valuable of all is the votive crown of king Reccesuinth with its blue sapphires from Sri Lanka and pendilia. Though the treasure is now divided and much has disappeared, it represents the best surviving group of Early Medieval Christian votive offerings. The treasure, which represents the point of Visigothic goldsmiths work, was dug between 1858 and 1861 in an orchard called Guarrazar, in Guadamur, very close to Toledo. The treasure was divided, with some going to the Musée de Cluny in Paris. In 1921 and 1936, some items of the Treasure of Guarrazar were stolen and have disappeared, some comparable Visigothic filigree gold was found in 1926 at Torredonjimeno in the province of Jaén, consisting of fragments of votive crowns and crosses. The jewellery found at Guarrazar is part of a tradition of Iberian metalworking that goes back to prehistoric times. The crowns, however, were purely Byzantine in form and never meant to be worn and they were gifts to the church, to be hung above the altar. The most valuable remaining pieces of the find are the two royal crowns, one of King Reccesuinth and one of King Suinthila. Both are made of gold, encrusted with sapphires, pearls, suinthilas was stolen in 1921 and never recovered. There are several other small crowns and many votive crosses, there were belts in the original find as well, but these have since vanished. Royal Palace of Madrid, a crown and a gold cross, a crown, and other fragments of a tiller with a crystal ball were stolen from the Royal Palace of Madrid in 1921 and its whereabouts are still unknown. National Museum of the Middle Ages, Paris, three crowns, two crosses, links and gold pendants, there were also many fragments of sculptures and the remains of a building, perhaps a Roman sanctuary or place of purification. After its dedication to Christian worship as a church or oratory, a skeleton lying on a bed of lime and sand was found in the best preserved grave. Its well-preserved stone slate has a Latin inscription that mentions a priest named Crispín and this slate is now in the National Archeological Museum of Spain in Madrid. The inscription on the Sónnica cross, a piece preserved in Paris, el arte latino-bizantino en España y las coronas visigodas de Guarrazar, ensayo histórico-crítico. Guerra, Maria Filomena, Calligaro, Thomas, Perea, Alicia, the treasure of Guarrazar, Tracing the gold supplies in the visigothic Iberian peninsula. The arts and crafts of older Spain, querré, G. Salomon, J. Zwaan, J. C. PIXE/PIGE characterisation of emeralds using an external micro-beam, nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B
33.
Osuna
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Osuna is a town and municipality in the province of Seville, southern Spain, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. As of 2009, it has a population of c and it is the location of the Andalusian Social Economy School. Among famous people associated with Osuna is Juan de Ayala, the commander of the first European ship to enter the San Francisco Bay in California. The battle of Munda, the last battle won by Julius Caesar in person, was fought outside Osuna. In Michelangelo Antonionis film, The Passenger, the character of Locke is assassinated in a located in Osuna. In 2014, parts of the season of HBOs Game of Thrones were filmed in the town. List of Dukes of Osuna Turdetani University of Osuna Collegiate Church of Osuna Information about Osuna from the Andalusian Statistical Institute
34.
Mariana of Austria
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Mariana of Austria was Queen consort of Spain as the second spouse of King Philip IV, who was also her maternal uncle. At the death of her husband in 1665, Queen Mariana became regent for her son Charles II, the last Spanish Habsburg, born as Maria Anna on 24 December 1634 in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, she was the granddaughter of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. Her parents were Ferdinand III and Maria Anna of Spain, the sister of Maria Annas future husband, King Philip IV of Spain. Her father, who would become emperor in 1637, was as yet only King of Hungary and Bohemia and her grandfather Emperor Ferdinand II died when she was 3 and her father became Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III. Maria Anna, was the second of six children, three of which died in early childhood and her oldest brother, Ferdinand IV of Hungary died young. Only Maria Anna and her brother, the future Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. Maria Anna was destined from her years to continue the policy of intermarriage between the two branches of the Habsburg family, the Austrian and the Spanish. In 1646 Maria Anna, then eleven years old, was engaged to her Spanish Habsburg first cousin Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias, however, he died only three months later age 16. With Balthasar Charless death, Philip IV was left without a male heir, Philip was a widower, as his beautiful and beloved French wife, Elisabeth of France, had just died a few years prior. The forty-four-year-old Philip decided to marry his fourteen-year-old niece himself, after a marriage by proxy, they were wedded on 7 October 1649 in Navalcarnero, near Madrid, and spent their wedding night at El Escorial. From then on, she went by her name in Spanish, Mariana and Philips marriage was not a happy one due to both Philips infidelities and the age difference between them. Mariana had nothing to do with governance while her husband reigned, instead she buried herself in religion to an extent that was excessive even for her time and place. Mariana and Philips marriage produced five children, however, only two lived into adulthood. Their first child was Margaret Theresa, who was born on 12 July 1651, just as her mother did, she went on to marry her own maternal uncle Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1655, Mariana then had another daughter, Maria Ambrosia de la Concepción, during this time, there were those at court who wanted Philip to officially name his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, as his heir, as she was already heir presumptive according to Spanish tradition. Mariana began feeling the pressure to have a son, eventually, her first son, Philip Prospero, was born on 28 November 1657, who was joyously received. She then gave birth to the Infante Ferdinand Thomas in 1658, sadly, her son Philip Prospero died in 1661. But that same year, Mariana gave birth to her last child, Charles was born physically and mentally disabled
35.
El Greco
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Doménikos Theotokópoulos, most widely known as El Greco, was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. El Greco was a nickname, a reference to his Greek origin, El Greco was born in Crete, which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and the center of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master within that tradition before traveling at age 26 to Venice, in 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style elements of Mannerism. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death, in Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings. El Grecos dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries, El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, El Grecos father, Geórgios Theotokópoulos, was a merchant and tax collector. Nothing is known about his mother or his first wife, also Greek, El Grecos older brother, Manoússos Theotokópoulos, was a wealthy merchant and spent the last years of his life in El Grecos Toledo home. El Greco received his training as an icon painter of the Cretan school. In 1563, at the age of twenty-two, El Greco was described in a document as a master, meaning he was already a master of the guild and presumably operating his own workshop. Three years later, in June 1566, as a witness to a contract, most scholars believe that the Theotokópoulos family was almost certainly Greek Orthodox, although some Catholic sources still claim him from birth. One of his uncles was an Orthodox priest, and his name is not mentioned in the Catholic archival baptismal records on Crete, prevelakis goes even further, expressing his doubt that El Greco was ever a practicing Roman Catholic. Important for his biography, El Greco, still in Crete, painted his Dormition of the Virgin near the end of his Cretan period. Three other signed works of Doménicos are attributed to El Greco, in 1563, at the age of twenty-two, El Greco was already an enrolled master of the local guild, presumably in charge of his own workshop. He left for Venice a few later, and never returned to Crete. His Dormition of the Virgin, of before 1567 in tempera, the painting combines post-Byzantine and Italian Mannerist stylistic and iconographic elements, and incorporates stylistic elements of the Cretan School. It was natural for the young El Greco to pursue his career in Venice, though the exact year is not clear, most scholars agree that El Greco went to Venice around 1567. Knowledge of El Grecos years in Italy is limited and this may mean he worked in Titians large studio, or not
36.
Museo del Prado
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The Prado Museum is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. Founded as a museum of paintings and sculpture in 1819, it contains important collections of other types of works. El Prado is one of the most visited sites in the world, and it is considered one of the greatest art museums in the world. The collection currently comprises around 8,200 drawings,7,600 paintings,4,800 prints, and 1,000 sculptures, in addition to a large number of other works of art and historic documents. As of 2012, the museum displayed about 1,300 works in the buildings, while around 3,100 works were on temporary loan to various museums. The museum received 2.8 million visitors in 2012 and it is one of the largest museums in Spain. The best-known work on display at the museum is Las Meninas by Velázquez, Velázquez and his keen eye and sensibility were also responsible for bringing much of the museums fine collection of Italian masters to Spain, now the largest outside of Italy. The museum is planning a 16% extension in the nearby Salón de Reinos and their efforts and determination led to the Royal Collection being enriched by some of the masterpieces now to be seen in the Prado. In addition to works from the Spanish royal collection, other holdings increased and enriched the Museum with further masterpieces, such as the two Majas by Goya. Among the now closed museums whose collections have been added to that of the Prado were the Museo del la Trinidad in 1872, in addition, numerous legacies, donations and purchases have been of crucial importance for the growth of the collection. Upon the deposition of Isabella II in 1868, the museum was nationalized and acquired the new name of Museo del Prado, the building housed the royal collection of arts, and it rapidly proved too small. The first enlargement to the museum took place in 1918, particularly important donations include Barón Emile dErlangers gift of Goyas Black Paintings in 1881. Between 1873 and 1900, the Prado helped decorate city halls, new universities, during the Second Spanish Republic from 1931 to 1936, the focus was on building up provincial museums. The art had to be returned across French territory in night trains to the museum upon the commencement of World War II, during the early years of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, many paintings were sent to embassies. The main building was enlarged with short pavilions in the rear between 1900 and 1960, in 1993, an extension proposed by the Prados director at the time, Felipe Garin, was quickly abandoned after a wave of criticism. In the late 1990s, a $14 million roof work forced the Velázquez masterpiece Las Meninas to change galleries twice, in 1998, the Prado annex in the nearby Casón del Buen Retiro closed for a $10 million two-year overhaul that included three new underground levels. In 2007, the finally executed Rafael Moneos project to expand its exposition room to 16,000 square meters. A glass-roofed and wedge-shaped foyer now contains the shops and cafeteria
37.
Spanish peseta
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The peseta was the currency of Spain between 1869 and 2002. Along with the French franc, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra, the name of the currency comes from pesseta, the diminutive form of the word peça, which is a Catalan word that means piece or fraction. The first non-official coins which contained the word peseta were made in 1808 in Barcelona, traditionally, there was never a single symbol or special character for the Spanish peseta. Common abbreviations were Pt, Pta, Pts and Ptas, sometimes using superior letters, common earlier Spanish models of mechanical typewriters had the expression Pts on a single type head, as a shorthand intended to fill a single type space in tables instead of three. Later, Spanish models of IBM electric typewriters also included the type in its repertoire. This original character set chart later became the MS-DOS code page 437, some spreadsheet software for PC under MS-DOS, as Lotus 1-2-3, employed this character as the peseta symbol in their Spanish editions. Subsequent international MS-DOS code pages, like code page 850 and others, in order to guarantee the interchange with previous encodings such as code page 437, the international standard Unicode includes this character as U+20A7 PESETA SIGN in its Currency Symbols block. Other than that, the use of the peseta symbol standalone is extremely rare, in the version 1.0 of Unicode the character ₧ U+20A7 PESETA SIGN had two reference glyphs, a Pts ligature glyph as in IBM code page 437 and an erroneous P with stroke. The peseta was subdivided into 100 céntimos or, informally,4 reales, the last coin of any value under one peseta was a 50-céntimo coin issued in 1980 to celebrate Spains hosting of the 1982 FIFA World Cup. The last 25-céntimo coin was dated 1959, the ten céntimos also dated 1959, the 1-céntimo coin was last minted in 1913 and featured King Alfonso XIII. The 1⁄2-céntimo coin was last minted in 1868 and featured Queen Isabel II, the peseta was introduced in 1869 after Spain joined the Latin Monetary Union in 1868. The Spanish Law of June 26,1864 decreed that in preparation for joining the Latin Monetary Union, the peseta replaced the escudo at a rate of 5 pesetas =1 peso duro =2 escudos. The peseta was equal to 4.5 grams of silver, or 0.290322 grams of gold, from 1873, only the gold standard applied. The political turbulence of the twentieth century caused the monetary union to break up. In 1959, Spain became part of the Bretton Woods System, in 1967, the peseta followed the devaluation of the British pound, maintaining the exchange rate of 168 pesetas =1 pound and establishing a new rate of 70 pesetas =1 U. S. dollar. The peseta was replaced by the euro in 2002, following the establishment of the euro in 1999, the exchange rate was 1 euro =166.386 pesetas. At least 1252–1284 there was a 1 obolo brass coin – plated with silver – stamped, colnect shows even a first 1 Maravedí-coin made of copper having been edited since 1454. The bigger silver coin 1 Real came out 1786, the latter two currency units were used until the Peseta came in 1869
38.
William Gaddis
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William Thomas Gaddis, Jr. was an American novelist. A collection of his essays was published posthumously as The Rush for Second Place, the Letters of William Gaddis was published by Dalkey Archive Press in February 2013. Gaddis is widely considered one of the first and most important American postmodern writers, Gaddis was born in New York City to William Thomas Gaddis, who worked on Wall Street and in politics, and Edith Gaddis, an executive for the New York Steam Corporation. When he was 3, his parents separated and Gaddis was subsequently raised by his mother in Massapequa, at age 5 he was sent to Merricourt Boarding School in Berlin, Connecticut. He continued in school until the eighth grade, after which he returned to Long Island to receive his diploma at Farmingdale High School in 1941. He entered Harvard in 1941 and wrote for the Harvard Lampoon and his first novel, The Recognitions, appeared in 1955. A lengthy, complex, and allusive work, it had to wait to find its audience, newspaper reviewers considered it overly intellectual, overwritten, and perhaps on the principle of omne ignotum per obscaenum, filthy. Shortly after the publication of The Recognitions, Gaddis married his first wife, Patricia Black, Gaddis then turned to public relations work and the making of documentary films to support himself and his family. In this role he worked for Pfizer, Eastman Kodak, IBM, and he also received a National Institute of Arts and Letters grant, a Rockefeller grant, and two National Endowment for the Arts grants, all of which helped him write his second novel. In 1975 he published J R, told almost entirely in unattributed dialogue and its eponymous protagonist, an 11-year-old, learns enough about the stock market from a class field trip to build a financial empire of his own. Critical opinion had caught up with him, and the won the National Book Award for Fiction. His marriage to his wife, Judith Thompson, dissolved shortly after J R was published. By the late 1970s, Gaddis had entered into a relationship with Muriel Oxenberg Murphy, Carpenters Gothic offered a shorter and more accessible picture of Gaddiss sardonic worldview. Instead of struggling against misanthropy or reluctantly giving ground to it, there are even two Japanese cars called the Isuyu and the Sosumi. The Rush for Second Place, published at the same time, among fans of post-modern fiction, Gaddis is often acknowledged as being one of the greatest of American post-war novelists. Franzen continued, In the four following the publication of The Recognitions. Its a signature paradox of literary postmodernism, the writer whose least angry work was written first, the characters Richard Whitehurst in Kurt Wenzels Lit Life, A Novel and Joshua Gel in Stephen Dixons I, A Novel likely are based on Gaddis. Authors clearly influenced by Gaddis include Jonathan Franzen, David Markson, Joseph McElroy, Gaddiss papers are collected at Washington University in St. Louis
39.
University Press of Florida
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The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing arm of the State University System of Florida, representing Floridas twelve state universities. It is located in Gainesville near the University of Florida, one of the major research institutions. It is overseen by the Florida Board of Governors and publishes works from and its predecessor was the University of Florida Press. UPF has published almost 2,500 volumes with a staff of 41, a member of the Association of American University Presses, UPF ranks in the top-third of member presses for sales and new title production. As UPFs predecessor, the University of Florida Press, began to build a publishing program, other public universities in Florida took notice. To avoid replication of efforts among the campuses, the Florida Board of Regents established a decentralized, featuring independent editorial and financial controls on each of the state systems nine campuses, this structure brought all of the states public universities into the publishing process. By the early 1990s a need became apparent for one central authority that could refocus and unify the consortium’s publishing program, throughout the changes in organization, the press has maintained its status as the premier publisher of scholarly and general interest books in the state of Florida. Others have been named to Amazon. com’s best-seller list and chosen for book clubs, in 2006, UPF was hailed as a publishing powerhouse by the Gainesville Sun. Current publications by UPF can be found on the UPF website, UPF also publishes Orange Grove Texts Plus which are Open Access textbooks, and are available in an Open Access repository powered by the SobekCM Open Source software. State University System of Florida Florida Board of Governors University Press of Florida
40.
Symbolism (arts)
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Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style originates with the 1857 publication of Charles Baudelaires Les Fleurs du mal, the works of Edgar Allan Poe, which Baudelaire admired greatly and translated into French, were a significant influence and the source of many stock tropes and images. The aesthetic was developed by Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine during the 1860s and 1870s, in the 1880s, the aesthetic was articulated by a series of manifestos and attracted a generation of writers. The name symbolist itself was first applied by the critic Jean Moréas, distinct from, but related to, the style of literature, symbolism in art is related to the gothic component of Romanticism and Impressionism. In ancient Greece, the symbolon was a shard of pottery which was inscribed, Symbolism was a reaction in favour of spirituality, the imagination, and dreams. Some writers, such as Joris-Karl Huysmans, began as naturalists before becoming symbolists, for Huysmans, the Symbolist poets have a more complex relationship with Parnassianism, a French literary style that immediately preceded it. The Symbolists continued to admire Théophile Gautiers motto of art for arts sake, many Symbolist poets, including Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine, published early works in Le Parnasse contemporain, the poetry anthologies that gave Parnassianism its name. One of Symbolisms most colourful promoters in Paris was art and literary critic Joséphin Péladan, a number of Symbolists were associated with the Salon. Symbolists believed that art should represent absolute truths that could only be described indirectly, thus, they wrote in a very metaphorical and suggestive manner, endowing particular images or objects with symbolic meaning. Jean Moréas published the Symbolist Manifesto in Le Figaro on 18 September 1886, the Symbolist Manifesto names Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Paul Verlaine as the three leading poets of the movement. In a nutshell, as Mallarmé writes in a letter to his friend Cazalis, to not the thing. Symbolist poems were attempts to evoke, rather than primarily to describe, – both poets seek to identify one sense experience with another. The earlier Romanticism of poetry used symbols, but these symbols were unique, the symbolists were more extreme, investing all things, even vowels and perfumes, with potential symbolic value. The physical universe, then, is a kind of language that invites a privileged spectator to decipher it, Symbolist symbols are not allegories, intended to represent, they are instead intended to evoke particular states of mind. The nominal subject of Mallarmés Le cygne is of a trapped in a frozen lake. Significantly, in French, cygne is a homophone of signe, un cygne d’autrefois se souvient que c’est lui Magnifique mais qui sans espoir se délivre. They were also portrayed as at odds with society, having tragic lives and these traits were not hindrances but consequences of their literary gifts. Schopenhauers aesthetics represented shared concerns with the symbolist programme, they tended to consider Art as a contemplative refuge from the world of strife and will
41.
Spanish National Research Council
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The Spanish National Research Council is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe. CSIC plays an important role in scientific and technological policy, since it encompasses an area that takes in everything from research to the transfer of knowledge to the productive sector. Its research is driven by its centres and institutes, which are spread all the autonomous regions. CSIC has 6% of all the dedicated to Research and Development in Spain. It also manages a range of important facilities, the most complete and extensive network of specialist libraries, the initial mandate of the CSIC was to restore the classical and christian unity of the sciences that was destroyed in the 18th century. From its 1939 foundation to his 1966 death, its head was José María Albareda, one of the first members of the Opus Dei and a close friend of its founder, Josemaría Escrivá. José María Albareda was ordained a priest in 1959, and at his death was succeeded as head of CSIC by Manuel Lora-Tamayo, to transfer the results of scientific and technological research to public and private institutions. To provide scientific-technical services to the General State Administration and public, to boost the creation of technologically based entities and companies. To help create entities with the ability to oversee the transfer, to train experts by means of highly specialised courses. To promote scientific culture in society, to manage scientific-technical facilities to be used by the scientific research and technological development system. To participate in international organs and bodies, as requested by the Ministry of Education, to participate in national organs and bodies, as requested by the Ministry of Education and Science. To participate in designing and implementing the scientific and technological policies of the Ministry of Education, to collaborate with universities in scientific research and technological development activities and in postgraduate education. To inform, attend and advise public and private entities on science, to train experts in science and technology management. To collaborate in updating the science and technology knowledge skills of non-university teachers, to support the execution of the sectorial policies defined by the General State Administration, by preparing technical studies or through applied research activities. Any other scientific promotion and technological research actions assigned to it by legislation or as commissioned by the Government. Its multidisciplinary and multisectorial nature means CSIC covers all fields of knowledge and its activity is organised around eight scientific-technical areas, Area 1. Humanities and social sciences Area 2, physical science and technology Area 6. Materials science and technology Area 7, food science and technology Area 8
42.
Electron microscope
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An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. Transmission electron microscopes use electrostatic and electromagnetic lenses to control the electron beam and these electron optical lenses are analogous to the glass lenses of an optical light microscope. Industrially, electron microscopes are used for quality control and failure analysis. Modern electron microscopes produce electron micrographs using specialized digital cameras and frame grabbers to capture the image, the first electromagnetic lens was developed in 1926 by Hans Busch. According to Dennis Gabor, the physicist Leó Szilárd tried in 1928 to convince Busch to build an electron microscope, two years later, in 1933, Ruska built an electron microscope that exceeded the resolution attainable with an optical microscope. Moreover, Reinhold Rudenberg, the director of Siemens-Schuckertwerke, obtained the patent for the electron microscope in May 1931. In 1932, Ernst Lubcke of Siemens & Halske built and obtained images from an electron microscope. Five years later, the firm financed the work of Ernst Ruska and Bodo von Borries, also in 1937, Manfred von Ardenne pioneered the scanning electron microscope. The first commercial electron microscope was produced in 1938 by Siemens, although contemporary transmission electron microscopes are capable of two million-power magnification, as scientific instruments, they remain based upon Ruska’s prototype. The original form of electron microscope, the electron microscope uses a high voltage electron beam to illuminate the specimen. The electron beam is produced by a gun, commonly fitted with a tungsten filament cathode as the electron source. When it emerges from the specimen, the electron beam carries information about the structure of the specimen that is magnified by the lens system of the microscope. The image detected by the camera may be displayed on a monitor or computer. The resolution of TEMs is limited primarily by spherical aberration, but a new generation of aberration correctors have been able to partially overcome spherical aberration to increase resolution. The ability to determine the positions of atoms within materials has made the HRTEM an important tool for nano-technologies research, transmission electron microscopes are often used in electron diffraction mode. The major disadvantage of the electron microscope is the need for extremely thin sections of the specimens. Biological specimens are required to be chemically fixed, dehydrated and embedded in a polymer resin to stabilize them sufficiently to allow ultrathin sectioning. Sections of biological specimens, organic polymers and similar materials may require treatment with heavy atom labels in order to achieve the required image contrast
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