Dolmen
A dolmen or cromlech is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb consisting of two or more vertical megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the early Neolithic and were sometimes covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus. Small pad-stones may be wedged between supporting stones to achieve a level appearance. In many instances, the covering has weathered away, leaving only the stone "skeleton" of the mound intact, it remains unclear. The oldest known are found in Western Europe. Archaeologists still do not know who erected these dolmens, which makes it difficult to know why they did it, they are all regarded as tombs or burial chambers, despite the absence of clear evidence for this. Human remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have been found in or close to the dolmens which could be scientifically dated using radiocarbon dating. However, it has been impossible to prove that these remains date from the time when the stones were set in place.
The word dolmen has an unclear history. The word entered archaeology when Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne used it to describe megalithic tombs in his Origines gauloises using the spelling dolmin; the Oxford English Dictionary does not mention "dolmin" in English and gives its first citation for "dolmen" from a book on Brittany in 1859, describing the word as "The French term, used by some English authors, for a cromlech...". The name was derived from a Breton language term meaning "stone table" but doubt has been cast on this, the OED describes its origin as "Modern French". A book on Cornish antiquities from 1754 said that the current term in the Cornish language for a cromlech was tolmen and the OED says that "There is reason to think that this was the term inexactly reproduced by Latour d'Auvergne as dolmen, misapplied by him and succeeding French archaeologists to the cromlech". Nonetheless it has now replaced cromlech as the usual English term in archaeology, when the more technical and descriptive alternatives are not used.
Dolmens are known by a variety of names in other languages, including Irish: dolmain and Portuguese: anta, Bulgarian: Долмени Dolmeni, German: Hünengrab/Hünenbett and Dutch: hunebed, Basque: trikuharri, Abkhazian: Adamra, Adyghe Ispun, dysse, dös, Korean: 고인돌 goindol, "dol", "dolmaengi", Hebrew: גַלעֵד. Granja is used in Portugal and Spain; the rarer forms anta and ganda appear. In the Basque Country, they are attributed to a race of giants; the etymology of the German: Hünenbett, Hünengrab and Dutch: hunebed - with Hüne/hune meaning "giant" - all evoke the image of giants buried there. Of other Celtic languages, Welsh: cromlech was borrowed into English and quoit is used in English in Cornwall. Great dolmen Passage grave Polygonal dolmen Rectangular, enlarged or extended dolmen Simple dolmen Holcombe, Charles. A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-51595-5. Piccolo, Salvatore. Ancient Stones: The Prehistoric Dolmens of Sicily.
Thornham/Norfolk: Brazen Head Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9565106-2-4. Murphy, Cornelius; the Prehistoric Archaeology of the Beara Peninsula, Co. Cork. Department of Archaeology, University College Cork, 1997 Trifonov, V. 2006. Russia's megaliths: unearthing the lost prehistoric tombs of Caucasian warlords in the Zhane valley. St. Petersburg: The Institute for Study of Material Culture History, Russian Academy of Sciences. Available from Kudin, M. 2001. Dolmeni i ritual. Dolmen Path – Russian Megaliths. Available from Knight, Peter. Ancient Stones of Dorset, 1996. World heritage site of dolmen in Korea Piccolo, Salvatore. "Dolmen." Ancient History Encyclopedia. The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map Dolmen Museum in Italian and English Goindol: Dolmen of Korea Research Centre of Dolmens in Northeast Asia Poulnabrone Dolmen in the Burren, County Clare, Ireland "Dolmen sites in Korea". on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Jersey Heritage Trust Dolmen Pictures by Robert Triest
Stone slab
A stone slab is a big stone, flat and of little thickness, that are used for paving floors, for covering walls or as headstones. Other definitions refine the meaning a bit more: Flat big stone and of little thickness. Flat stone thin, of rectangular form or rectangular. Most dolmen constructions were built using stone slabs of big dimensions, their architecture includes a corridor of access that can be constructed using stone slabs or dry stones. The burial chamber, with variable shapes can be preceded by an anteroom. In some dolmens, the entrance has a door cut into one or more vertical stone slabs; the main applications of the slabs as material of construction are for pavings and in the construction of roofs. They can be employed for other uses, among them: Balconies formed from a slab Dry stone constructions of: walls, rooms; the base of some fireplaces are build with stone slabs. In religious altars, the altar stone can be a stone slab, more or less elaborated or in its natural state. In rustic tables.
Slate slabs used for roofs. One system of cooking is cooking "to the slab". Similar to the systems of "to the iron" or "grilled", in the procedure to bake to the slab the foods are put on a slab heated on a fire with oil, butter or lard and other garnishings; this system was rather popular in zones of the Pyrenees and practised by farmers and shepherds. At present it can consider incorporated to the gastronomy of all the levels. From prehistoric times there have been examples of graves covered with a stone slab, in its natural state or carved; this use of slabs as tombstone has extended the concept of natural slab to the tombstone variant: flat and polished. One is example; the tombstones have some inscriptions. The information on the stone slab traditionally includes the name of the deceased and his date of birth and death; the inscriptions are in the frontal side of the stone slab but in some cases in the verso and around the edges of the slab, some families request to write an inscription in the unseen part of the stone slab.
Apart from the name, some slabs have epitaphs in praise of the deceased or citations of religious texts, such as "Requiescat in pace". Washing clothes is a basic need in civilised societies and, in general, in all the parts of the world. In primitive periods—before running water, washing machines and detergents—it was necessary to go to wash the clothes to the river bank or in a laundry room. Clothes were washed manually, by rubbing and sometimes striking them against a hard surface with soap; the aim was to do penetrate the mix of water and soap between the fibres of the fabric to pull-out the dirt. The slabs to wash the clothes were slabs of natural stone chosen to present a fine and flat surface; the small rounded irregularities could help of friction in the washing process. In some cases "artificial slabs" were made in which the friction surface was wood, although the apparatus was still called "washing slab". There were "artificial slabs" made with an undulated steel sheet..) The wash to the stone of cowboys trousers and similar clothes is a stone washing process that uses the friction of some parts of the clothes against a coarse stone.
The aim is to achieve a change of appearance of the clothes. Hunting with slabs is a system of hunting by means of a slab-trap; the fundamental part of the device is a slab. Preparing this trap was a delicate task. Preparation of the trap: A slab of suitable dimensions is held in a raised position forming an appropriate angle with the horizontal; the slab, in unstable position, held in place by means of a few twigs or branches in a particular state, a state that can be called "ready to be triggered". Once the slab is ready, one needs to put a suitable bait to attract the animal that wants to capture; when the animal tries to eat the bait, the slab gets trapped. From the term slab and its derivatives, there are many toponyms among them. Gravestone Sandstone Slate Media related to slabs at Wikimedia Commons
Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne
Théophile Malo Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne was a French officer named by Napoleon "first grenadier of France". He was a celtomaniac antiquarian who introduced the words "dolmen" and "menhir" into general archaeological usage, he was the son of a lawyer named Corret, was baptised and born at Carhaix-Plouguer in Brittany, though nearby Saint-Hernin where his father had a position is one of a number of other places in the area put forward as his place of birth. His desire for a military career being marked, he was enabled by the not uncommon device of producing a certificate of nobility signed by his friends, first to be nominally enlisted in the Maison du Roi, soon afterwards to receive a commission in the line, under the name of Corret de Kerbaufret. Four years after joining, in 1771, he assumed with the help of a letter from the Duke of Bouillon the surname of La Tour d'Auvergne, claiming descent from an illegitimate half-brother of the great Marshall Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, one of Louis XIV's leading commanders.
Many years of routine service with his regiment were broken only by his participation as a volunteer in the Duke de Crillon's Franco-Spanish expedition to Menorca in 1781. This led to an offer of promotion into the Spanish army. In 1784 he was promoted captain, in 1791 he received the Cross of St. Louis. In the early part of the French Revolution his patriotism was still more conspicuously displayed in his resolute opposition to the proposals of many of his brother officers in the Angoumois regiment to emigrate rather than to swear to the constitution, he fought in the revolutionary army in the French Revolutionary Wars, refusing promotion beyond the grade of captain. In 1792 his lifelong interest in numismatics and questions of language was shown by a work which he published on the Bretons. At this time he was serving under Montesquiou in the Alps, although there was only outpost fighting he distinguished himself by his courage and audacity, qualities which were displayed in more serious fighting in the Pyrenees the next year.
He declined well-earned promotion to colonel, being broken in health and compelled, owing to the loss of his teeth, to live on milk, he left the army in 1795. On his return by sea to Brittany he was captured by the held prisoner for two years; when released, he settled at Passy and published Origines gauloises. In 1797, on the appeal of an old friend whose son had been taken as a conscript, he volunteered as the youth's substitute, served on the Rhine and in Switzerland as a captain. In recognition of his singular bravery and modesty Corret obtained a decree from Napoleon naming him the "first grenadier of France"; this led him to volunteer again, he was killed in action at the Battle of Neuburg on 27 June 1800. La Tour d'Auvergne's legendary courage had captivated the imagination of the French soldier, his memory was not allowed to die, it was customary for the French troops and their allies of the Rhine Confederation under Napoleon to march at attention when passing his burial place on the battlefield.
His heart was long carried by the grenadier company of the 46th. After being in the possession of Giuseppe Garibaldi for many years, it was deposited in the keeping of the city of Paris in 1883. In 1800 Napoleon ordered, "His name is to be kept on the pay roll of his company, it will be called at all parades and a non-commissioned officer will reply,'Mort au champ d'honneur.' " This custom, with little variation, is still observed in the 46th regiment on all occasions when the color is taken on parade. Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "La Tour d'Auvergne, Théophile Malo". Encyclopædia Britannica. 16. Cambridge University Press. Alain Schnapp, The discovery of the past, London: 1996
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural region in the northwest of France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period of Roman occupation. It became an independent kingdom and a duchy before being united with the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province governed as if it were a separate nation under the crown. Brittany has been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain, it is bordered by the English Channel to the north, the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Bay of Biscay to the south. Its land area is 34,023 km². Brittany is the site of some of the world's oldest standing architecture, home to the Barnenez, the Tumulus Saint-Michel and others, which date to the early 5th millennium BC. Today, the historical province of Brittany is split among five French departments: Finistère in the west, Côtes-d'Armor in the north, Ille-et-Vilaine in the north east, Loire-Atlantique in the south east and Morbihan in the south on the Bay of Biscay. Since reorganisation in 1956, the modern administrative region of Brittany comprises only four of the five Breton departments, or 80% of historical Brittany.
The remaining area of old Brittany, the Loire-Atlantique department around Nantes, now forms part of the Pays de la Loire region. At the 2010 census, the population of historic Brittany was estimated to be 4,475,295. Of these, 71 % lived in the region of Brittany. In 2012, the largest metropolitan areas were Nantes and Brest. Brittany is the traditional homeland of the Breton people and is recognised by the Celtic League as one of the six Celtic nations, retaining a distinct cultural identity that reflects its history. A nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the French Republic; the word Brittany, along with its French and Gallo equivalents Bretagne and Bertaèyn, derive from the Latin Britannia, which means "Britons' land". This word had been used by the Romans since the 1st century to refer to Great Britain, more the Roman province of Britain; this word derives from a Greek word, Πρεττανικη or Βρεττανίαι, used by Pytheas, an explorer from Massalia who visited the British Islands around 320 BC.
The Greek word itself comes from the common Brythonic ethnonym reconstructed as *Pritanī, itself from Proto-Celtic *kʷritanoi. The Romans called Brittany Armorica, together with a quite indefinite region that extended along the English Channel coast from the Seine estuary to the Loire estuary, according to several sources, maybe along the Atlantic coast to the Garonne estuary; this term comes from a Gallic word, which means "close to the sea". Another name, was used until the 12th century, it means "wide and flat" or "to expand" and it gave the Welsh name for Brittany: Llydaw. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, many Britons settled in western Armorica, the region started to be called Britannia, although this name only replaced Armorica in the sixth century or by the end of the fifth. Authors like Geoffrey of Monmouth used the terms Britannia minor and Britannia major to distinguish Brittany from Britain. Breton-speaking people may pronounce the word Breizh in two different ways, according to their region of origin.
Breton can be divided into the dialect of Vannes. KLT speakers pronounce it and would write it Breiz, while the Vannetais speakers pronounce it and would write it Breih; the official spelling is a compromise with a z and an h together. In 1941, efforts to unify the dialects led to the creation of the so-called Breton zh, a standard which has never been accepted. On its side, Gallo language has never had a accepted writing system and several ones coexist. For instance, the name of the region in that language can be written Bertaèyn in ELG script, or Bertègn in MOGA, a couple of other scripts exist. Brittany has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic; the first settlers were Neanderthals. This population was scarce and similar to the other Neanderthals found in the whole of Western Europe, their only original feature was a distinct culture, called "Colombanian". One of the oldest hearths in the world has been found in Finistère, it is 450,000 years old. Homo sapiens settled in Brittany around 35,000 years ago.
They replaced or absorbed the Neanderthals and developed local industries, similar to the Châtelperronian or to the Magdalenian. After the last glacial period, the warmer climate allowed the area to become wooded. At that time, Brittany was populated by large communities who started to change their lifestyles from a life of hunting and gathering, to become settled farmers. Agriculture was introduced during the 5th millennium BC by migrants from the east. However, the Neolithic Revolution in Brittany did not happen due to a radical change of population, but by slow immigration and exchange of skills. Neolithic Brittany is characterised by important megalithic production, it is sometimes designated as the "core area" of megalithic culture; the oldest monuments, were followed by princely tombs and stone rows. The Morbihan département, on the southern coast, comprises a large share of these structures, including the Carnac stones and the Broken Menhir of Er Grah in the Locmariaquer megaliths, the largest single stone erected by Neoli
Megalith
A megalith is a large stone, used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. The word megalithic describes structures made of such large stones without the use of mortar or concrete, representing periods of prehistory characterised by such constructions. For periods, the word monolith, with an overlapping meaning, is more to be used; the word megalith comes from the Ancient Greek μέγας and λίθος. Megalith denotes one or more rocks hewn in definite shapes for special purposes, it has been used to describe buildings built by people from many parts of the world living in many different periods. The term was first used in reference to Stonehenge by Algernon Herbert in 1849. A variety of large stones are seen as megaliths, with the most known megaliths not being tombs; the construction of these structures took place in the Neolithic period and continued into the Chalcolithic period and the Bronze Age. At a number of sites in eastern Turkey, large ceremonial complexes from the 9th millennium BC have been discovered.
They belong to the incipient phases of animal husbandry. Large circular structures involving carved. Although these structures are the most ancient megalithic structures known so far, it is not clear that any of the European megalithic traditions are derived from them. At Göbekli Tepe, four stone circles have been excavated from an estimated 20; some measure up to 30 metres across. As well as human figures, the stones carry a variety of carved reliefs depicting boars, lions, birds and scorpions. Dolmens and standing stones have been found in large areas of the Middle East starting at the Turkish border in the north of Syria close to Aleppo, southwards down to Yemen, they can be encountered in Lebanon, Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia. The largest concentration can be found in southern Syria and along the Jordan Rift Valley, however they are being threatened with destruction, they date from the late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age. Megaliths have been found on Kharg Island and pirazmian in Iran, at Barda Balka in Iraq.
A semicircular arrangement of megaliths was found in Israel at Atlit Yam, a site, now under the sea. It is a early example, dating from the 7th millennium BC; the most concentrated occurrence of dolmens in particular is in a large area on both sides of the Jordan Rift Valley, with greater predominance on the eastern side. They occur first and foremost on the Golan Heights, the Hauran, in Jordan, which has the largest concentration of dolmen in the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia, only few dolmen have been identified so far in the Hejaz, they seem, however, to re-emerge in Yemen in small numbers, thus could indicate a continuous tradition related to those of Somalia and Ethiopia. The standing stone has a ancient tradition in the Middle East, dating back from Mesopotamian times. Although not always'megalithic' in the true sense, they occur throughout the Orient, can reach 5 metres or more in some cases; this phenomenon can be traced through many passages from the Old Testament, such as those related to Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, who poured oil over a stone that he erected after his famous dream in which angels climbed to heaven.
Jacob is described as putting up stones at other occasions, whereas Moses erected twelve pillars symbolizing the tribes of Israel. The tradition of venerating stones continued in Nabatean times and is reflected in, e.g. the Islamic rituals surrounding the Kaaba and nearby pillars. Related phenomena, such as cupholes, rock-cut tombs and circles occur in the Middle East; the most common type of megalithic construction in Europe is the portal tomb – a chamber consisting of upright stones with one or more large flat capstones forming a roof. Many of these, though by no means all, contain human remains, but it is debatable whether use as burial sites was their primary function; the megalithic structures in the northwest of France are believed to be the oldest in Europe based on radiocarbon dating. Though known as dolmens, the term most accepted by archaeologists is portal tomb; however many local names exist, such as anta in Galicia and Portugal, stazzone in Sardinia, hunebed in the Netherlands, Hünengrab in Germany, dysse in Denmark, cromlech in Wales.
It is assumed that most portal tombs were covered by earthen mounds. The second-most-common tomb type is the passage grave, it consists of a square, circular, or cruciform chamber with a slabbed or corbelled roof, accessed by a long, straight passageway, with the whole structure covered by a circular mound of earth. Sometimes it is surrounded by an external stone kerb. Prominent examples include the sites of Brú na Bóinne and Carrowmore in Ireland, Maes Howe in Orkney, Gavrinis in France; the third tomb type is a diverse group known as gallery graves. These are axially arranged chambers placed under elongated mounds; the Irish court tombs, British long barrows, German Steinkisten belong to this group. Another type of megalithic monument, the single standing stone, or menhir as it is known in France, is common throughout Europe, where some 50,000 examples have been noted; some of these are thought to have an astronomical function as a foresight. In some areas and complex alignments of such stones exist, the largest known example being located at Carnac in Brittany, France.
In parts of Britain and Ireland a common type of megalithic construct
Pub
A pub, or public house, is an establishment licensed to sell alcoholic drinks, which traditionally include beer and cider. It is a relaxed, social drinking establishment and a prominent part of British, Breton, New Zealand, South African and Australian cultures. In many places in villages, a pub is the focal point of the community. In his 17th-century diary Samuel Pepys described the pub as "the heart of England". Pubs can be traced back to Roman taverns, through the Anglo-Saxon alehouse to the development of the tied house system in the 19th century. In 1393, King Richard II of England introduced legislation that pubs had to display a sign outdoors to make them visible for passing ale tasters, who would assess the quality of ale sold. Most pubs focus on offering beers and similar drinks; as well, pubs sell wines and soft drinks and snacks. The owner, tenant or manager is known as the pub landlord or landlady, or publican. Referred to as their "local" by regulars, pubs are chosen for their proximity to home or work, the availability of a particular beer or ale or a good selection, good food, a social atmosphere, the presence of friends and acquaintances, the availability of recreational activities such as a darts team, a skittles team, a pool or snooker table.
The pub quiz was established in the UK in the 1970s. The inhabitants of the British Isles have been drinking ale since the Bronze Age, but it was with the arrival of the Roman Empire on its shores in the 1st century, the construction of the Roman road networks that the first inns, called tabernae, in which travellers could obtain refreshment, began to appear. After the departure of Roman authority in the 5th century and the fall of the Romano-British kingdoms, the Anglo-Saxons established alehouses that grew out of domestic dwellings; the Anglo-Saxon alewife would put a green bush up on a pole to let. These alehouses evolved into meeting houses for the folk to congregate and arrange mutual help within their communities. Herein lies "pub" as it is colloquially called in England, they spread across the kingdom, becoming so commonplace that in 965 King Edgar decreed that there should be no more than one alehouse per village. A traveller in the early Middle Ages could obtain overnight accommodation in monasteries, but a demand for hostelries grew with the popularity of pilgrimages and travel.
The Hostellers of London were granted guild status in 1446 and in 1514 the guild became the Worshipful Company of Innholders. A survey in 1577 of drinking establishment in England and Wales for taxation purposes recorded 14,202 alehouses, 1,631 inns, 329 taverns, representing one pub for every 187 people. Inns are buildings where travellers can seek lodging and food and drink, they are located in the country or along a highway. In Europe, they first sprang up when the Romans built a system of roads two millennia ago; some inns in Europe are several centuries old. In addition to providing for the needs of travellers, inns traditionally acted as community gathering places. In Europe, it is the provision of accommodation, if anything, that now distinguishes inns from taverns and pubs; the latter tend to provide alcohol, but less accommodation. Inns tend to be older and grander establishments: they provided not only food and lodging, but stabling and fodder for the traveller's horse and on some roads fresh horses for the mail coach.
Famous London inns include The George and The Tabard. There is, other kinds of establishment. Many pubs use "Inn" in their name, either because they are long established former coaching inns, or to summon up a particular kind of image, or in many cases as a pun on the word "in", as in "The Welcome Inn", the name of many pubs in Scotland; the original services of an inn are now available at other establishments, such as hotels and motels, which focus more on lodging customers than on other services, although they provide meals. In North America, the lodging aspect of the word "inn" lives on in hotel brand names like Holiday Inn, in some state laws that refer to lodging operators as innkeepers; the Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery in London started as ordinary inns where barristers met to do business, but became institutions of the legal profession in England and Wales. The 18th century saw a huge growth in the number of drinking establishments due to the introduction of gin. Brought to England by the Dutch after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, gin became popular after the government created a market for "cuckoo grain" or "cuckoo malt" by allowing unlicensed gin and beer production while imposing a heavy duty on all imported spirits.
As thousands of gin-shops sprang up all over England, brewers fought back by increasing the number of alehouses. By 1740 the production of gin had increased to six times that of beer and, because of its cheapness, it became popular with the poor, leading to the so-called Gin Craze. Over half of the 15,000 drinking establishments in London were gin shops; the drunkenness and lawlessness created by gin was seen to lead to the ruination and degradation of the working classes. The different effects of beer and gin were illustrated by William Hogarth in his engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane; the Gin Act 1736 imposed high taxes on retailers and led to riots in the streets
Inuksuk
An inuksuk is a manmade stone landmark or cairn built for use by the Inuit, Iñupiat, Kalaallit and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America. These structures are found in northern Canada and Alaska; this combined region, above the Arctic Circle, is dominated by the tundra biome and has areas with few natural landmarks. The inuksuk may have been used for navigation, as a point of reference, a marker for travel routes, fishing places, hunting grounds, places of veneration, drift fences used in hunting, or to mark a food cache; the Iñupiat in northern Alaska used inuksuit to assist in the herding of caribou into contained areas for slaughter. Varying in shape and size, the inuksuit have ancient roots in Inuit culture; the most common types of inuksuk are built with stone placed upon stone. The simplest type is a single stone positioned in an upright manner. There is some debate as to whether the appearance of human- or cross-shaped cairns developed in the Inuit culture before the arrival of European missionaries and explorers.
The size of some inuksuit suggest that the construction was a communal effort. At Inuksuk Point on Baffin Island, there are more than 100 inuksuit; the site was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1969. The word inuksuk means "that which acts in the capacity of a human." The word comes from the morphemes - suk. It is the southern part of Baffin Island. In many of the central Nunavut dialects, it has the etymologically related name inuksugaq. While the predominant English spelling is inukshuk, both the Government of Nunavut and the Government of Canada through Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada promote the Inuit-preferred spelling inuksuk. A structure similar to an inuksuk is called an inunnguaq. Inunnguaq has become familiar to non-Inuit, is found in Greenland. However, it is not the most common type of inuksuk, it is distinguished from inuksuit in general. The Hammer of Thor, located on the Ungava Peninsula, Quebec may be an inuksuk. Inuksuit continue to serve as an Inuit cultural symbol.
An inuksuk is the centrepiece of the flag and coat of arms of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, the flag of Nunatsiavut. The Inuksuk High School in Iqaluit is named after the landmark. Inuksuit—particularly, but not of the inunnguaq variety—are increasingly serving as a mainstream Canadian national symbol. In 1999, Inukshuk was the name for the International Arctic Art & Music Project of ARBOS in the Canadian provinces of Quebec, Ontario and Nunavut. On July 13, 2005, Canadian military personnel erected an inuksuk on Hans Island, along with a plaque and a Canadian flag, as part of Canada's longstanding dispute with Denmark over the small Arctic island; the markers have been erected throughout the country, including a 9 m inuksuk that stands in Toronto on the shores of Lake Ontario. Located in Battery Park, it commemorates the World Youth Day 2002 festival, held in the city in July 2002. An inunnguaq is the basis of the logo of the 2010 Winter Olympics designed by Vancouver artist Elena Rivera MacGregor.
Its use in this context has been controversial among the Inuit, the First Nations within British Columbia. Although the design has been questioned, people believe it pays tribute to Alvin Kanak's 1986 inuksuk at English Bay. Friendship and the welcoming of the world are the meanings of both the English Bay structure and the 2010 Winter Olympics emblem; the Vancouver 2010 logo and the construction of inuksuit around the world have led to increasing recognition of them. There are five authentic inuksuit which were donated to other jurisdictions —wholly or in part—by the government of Canada: they are located in Brisbane, Australia. C. United States; the most recent Canadian-donated inuksuk was built in Monterrey, Mexico, in October 2007 by the Inuvialuit artist Bill Nasogaluak. The sculpture was presented to the people of the northern state of Nuevo León as a gift from the Monterrey chapter of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Mexico and the Government of Canada, to mark the chamber's 10th anniversary in the city.
The sculpture stands over the Santa Lucía Riverwalk. Nasogaluak, of Tuktoyaktuk chose the rocks for the structure from a local quarry near Monterrey; the inuksuk contains two rocks which the artist took to Mexico from Canada, one from the high Arctic and another from his home town of Toronto. Together they form the inuksuk's heart; the inuksuk was used as the symbol of the Summit of the Americas, because of its connotations of "guidance and unity...towards common goals."Officials in various wilderness parks throughout Canada dismantle inuksuit constructed by hikers and campers, for fear that they could misdirect park visitors from the cairns and other markers that indicate hiking trails. The practice of erecting inuksuit in parks has become so widespread that Killarney Provincial Park, on the north shore of Ontario's Georgian Bay, issued a notice in 2007 urging visitors to "stop the invasion" of inuksuit. A large number of inuksuit have been built in some areas along the Trans-Canada Highway, including Northern Ontario.
In 2010, a journalist from Sudbury's Northern Life counted 93 inuksuit along Highway 69 between Sudbury and P
