1.
County Cork
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County Cork is the largest and southernmost county of Ireland. It lies in the province of Munster and is named after the city of Cork, Cork County Council is the local authority for the county. Its largest settlements are Cork City, Ballincollig and Carrigaline, in 2016, the countys population was 542,196, making it the third most populous county in Ireland. There are two local authorities whose remit collectively encompasses the area of the county and city of Cork. The county, excluding Cork city, is administered by Cork County Council, both city and county are part of the South-West Region. For standardized European statistical purposes both Cork County Council and Cork City Council rank equally as first-level local administrative units of the NUTS3 South-West Region, there are 34 such LAU1 entities in the Republic of Ireland. For elections to Dáil Éireann, the county is divided into five constituencies—Cork East, Cork North–Central, Cork North–West, Cork South–Central, together they return 19 deputies to the Dáil. The county is part of the South constituency for the purposes of European elections, for purposes other than local government, such as the formation of sporting teams, the term County Cork is often taken to include both city and county. County Cork is located in the province of Munster and it borders four other counties, Kerry to the west, Limerick to the north, Tipperary to the north-east and Waterford to the east. Cork is the largest county in the state by land area and it is the largest of Munsters 6 counties by both population and area. The population of Cork city stood at 125,622 in 2016, the population of the entire county is 542,196 making it the states second most populous county and the third most populous county on the island of Ireland. The remit of Cork County Council includes some suburbs of the city not within the area of Cork City Council, there are 24 historic baronies in the county—the most of any county in Ireland. While baronies continue to be officially defined units, they are no longer used for administrative purposes. Their official status is illustrated by Placenames Orders made since 2003, there are 253 civil parishes in the county. Townlands are the smallest officially defined geographical divisions in Ireland, there are approximately 5447 townlands in the county, the Shehy Mountains are on the border with Kerry and may be accessed from the area known as Priests Leap, near the village of Coomhola. The Galtee Mountains are located across parts of Tipperary, Limerick, the upland areas of the Ballyhoura, Boggeragh, Derrynasaggart and the Mullaghareirk Mountain ranges add to the range of habitats found in the county. Important habitats in the uplands include blanket bog, heath, glacial lakes, Cork has the 13th highest county peak in Ireland. The three great rivers, the Bandon, the Blackwater and the Lee, and their valleys dominate central Cork, habitats of the valleys and floodplains include woodlands, marshes, fens and species-rich limestone grasslands
2.
Brittonic languages
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The Brittonic, Brythonic or British Celtic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other is Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, the name Brittonic derives ultimately from the name Prettanike, recorded by Greek authors for the British Isles. Some authors reserve the term Brittonic for the modified later Brittonic languages after about AD600, the Brittonic languages derive from the Common Brittonic language, spoken throughout Great Britain south of the Firth of Forth during the Iron Age and Roman period. In addition, North of the Forth, the Pictish language is considered to be related, it is possible it was a Brittonic language, in the 5th and 6th centuries emigrating Britons also took Brittonic speech to the continent, most significantly in Brittany and Britonia. During the next few centuries the language began to split into several dialects, eventually evolving into Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Welsh and Breton continue to be spoken as native languages, while a revival in Cornish has led to an increase in speakers of that language. Cumbric is extinct, having been replaced by Goidelic and English speech, the Isle of Man and Orkney may also have originally spoken a Brittonic language, later replaced with a Goidelic one. Due to emigration, there are communities of Brittonic language speakers in England, France. Both were created in the 19th century to avoid the ambiguity of earlier terms such as British, Brythonic was coined in 1879 by the Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython. Brittonic, derived from Briton and also earlier spelled Britonic and Britonnic and it became more prominent through the 20th century, and was used in Kenneth H. Jacksons highly influential 1953 work on the topic, Language and History in Early Britain. Jackson noted that by that time Brythonic had become a term. Today, Brittonic often replaces Brythonic in the literature, rudolf Thurneysen used Britannic in his influential A Grammar of Old Irish, though this never became popular among subsequent scholars. Comparable historical terms include the Medieval Latin lingua Britannica and sermo Britannicus, some writers use British for the language and its descendants, though due to the risk of confusion, others avoid it or use it only in a restricted sense. Jackson, and later John T. Koch, use British only for the phase of the Common Brittonic language. However, subsequent writers have tended to follow Jacksons scheme, rendering this use obsolete, knowledge of the Brittonic languages comes from a variety of sources. For the early information is obtained from coins, inscriptions and comments by classical writers as well as place names. For later languages there is information from medieval writers and modern native speakers, the names recorded in the Roman period are given in Rivet and Smith. The Brittonic branch is referred to as P-Celtic because linguistic reconstruction of the Brittonic reflex of the Proto-Indo-European phoneme *kʷ is p as opposed to Goidelic c. Other major characteristics include, The retention of the Proto-Celtic sequences am and an, Proto-Celtic *wassos servant, young man became Welsh, Cornish and Breton gwas
3.
Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
4.
Brittany
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Brittany is a cultural region in the north-west of France. Brittany has also 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, and its land area is 34,023 km². Since reorganisation in 1956, the administrative region of Brittany comprises only four of the five Breton departments. The remaining area of old Brittany, the Loire-Atlantique department around Nantes, 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, while 29% lived in the Loire-Atlantique department, in 2012, the largest metropolitan areas were Nantes, Rennes, and Brest. Brittany is the homeland of the Breton people and is recognised by the Celtic League as one of the six Celtic nations. A nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the French Republic, the word Brittany, along with its French, Breton and Gallo equivalents Bretagne, Breizh 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 and 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. This term probably comes from a Gallic word, aremorica, which close to the sea. Another name, Letauia, was used until the 12th century and it possibly means wide and flat or to expand and it gave the Welsh name for Brittany, Llydaw. Later, authors like Geoffrey of Monmouth used the terms Britannia minor, breton-speaking people may pronounce the word Breizh in two different ways, according to their region of origin. Breton can be divided into two dialects, the KLT and the dialect of Vannes. KLT speakers pronounce it and would write it Breiz, while the Vannetais speakers pronounce it, the official spelling is a compromise between both variants, with a z and an h together. In 1941, efforts to unify the dialects led to the creation of the so-called Breton zh, on its side, Gallo language has never had a widely 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, Brittany has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic. This population was scarce and very similar to the other Neanderthals found in the whole of Western Europe and their only original feature was a distinct culture, called Colombanian. One of the oldest hearths in the world has found in Plouhinec
5.
Atlantic
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
6.
Beaker people
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The term was coined by John Abercromby, based on the cultures distinctive pottery drinking beakers. The Bell Beaker period marks a period of contact in Atlantic and Western Europe on a scale not seen previously. It has been suggested that the beakers were designed for the consumption of alcohol, beer and mead content have been identified from certain examples. However, not all Beakers were drinking cups, some were used as reduction pots to smelt copper ores, others have some organic residues associated with food, and still others were employed as funerary urns. They were used as status display amongst disparate elites, there have been numerous proposals by archaeologists as to the origins of the Bell Beaker culture, and debates continued on for decades. Several regions of origin have been postulated, notably the Iberian peninsula, similarly, scholars have postulated various mechanisms of spread, including migrations of populations, smaller warrior groups, individuals, or a diffusion of ideas and object exchange. Recent analyses have made significant inroads to understanding the Beaker phenomenon and they have concluded that the Bell Beaker phenomenon was a synthesis of elements, representing “an idea and style uniting different regions with different cultural traditions and background. An overview of all sources from southern Germany concluded that Bell Beaker was a new and independent culture in that area. The inspiration for the Maritime Bell Beaker is argued to have been the small and earlier Copoz beakers that have impressed decoration and which are found widely around the Tagus estuary in Portugal. Turek sees late Neolithic precursors in northern Africa, arguing the Maritime style emerged as a result of contacts between Iberia and Morocco in the first half of the third millennium BC. AOO and AOC Beakers appear to have evolved continually from a period in the lower Rhine and North Sea regions, at least for Northern. Furthermore, the ritual which typified Bell Beaker sites was intrusive into Western Europe. Such an arrangement is rather derivative of Corded Ware traditions although, instead of battle-axes, the initial moves from the Tagus estuary were maritime. A northern move incorporated the southern coast of Armorica, the enclave established in southern Brittany was linked closely to the riverine and landward route, via the Loire, and across the Gâtinais valley to the Seine valley, and thence to the lower Rhine. This was a long-established route reflected in early stone axe distributions, another pulse had brought Bell Beaker to Csepel Island in Hungary by about 2500 BC. But in contrast to the early Bell Beaker preference for the dagger and bow, here Bell Beaker people assimilated local pottery forms such as the polypod cup. These common ware types of pottery then spread in association with the bell beaker. From the Carpathian Basin Bell Beaker spread down the Rhine and eastwards into what is now Germany, by this time the Rhine was on the western edge of the vast Corded Ware zone
7.
Megalith
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A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. The word megalithic describes structures made of large stones without the use of mortar or concrete. For later periods, the monolith, with an overlapping meaning, is more likely to be used. The word megalith comes from the Ancient Greek μέγας and λίθος, megalith also denotes an item consisting of rock hewn in definite shapes for special purposes. It has been used to describe buildings built by people from parts of the world living in many different periods. A variety of stones are seen as megaliths, with the most widely known megaliths not being sepulchral. The construction of these took place mainly in the Neolithic and continued into the Chalcolithic. At a number of sites in eastern Turkey, large ceremonial complexes from the 9th millennium BC have been discovered and they belong to the incipient phases of agriculture and animal husbandry. Large circular structures involving carved megalithic orthostats are a feature, e. g. at Nevalı Çori. Although these structures are the most ancient megalithic structures known so far, 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, foxes, lions, birds, snakes and scorpions. Dolmens and standing stones have been found in areas of the Middle East starting at the Turkish border in the north of Syria close to Aleppo. They can be encountered in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Israel, Jordan, 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 also been found on Kharg Island and pirazmian in Iran, at Barda Balka in Iraq, and at Jaintapur in Bangladesh. A semicircular arrangement of megaliths was found in Israel at Atlit Yam and it is a very early example, dating from the 7th millennium BC. The most concentrated occurrence of dolmens in particular is in an 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, and in Jordan, in Saudi Arabia, only very few dolmen have been identified so far in the Hejaz. They seem, however, to re-emerge in Yemen in small numbers, the standing stone has a very ancient tradition in the Middle East, dating back from Mesopotamian times
8.
Monastery
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A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone. A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church or temple, a monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary. These may include a hospice, a school and a range of agricultural and manufacturing such as a barn. In English usage, the monastery is generally used to denote the buildings of a community of monks. In modern usage, convent tends to be applied only to institutions of female monastics, historically, a convent denoted a house of friars, now more commonly called a friary. Various religions may apply these terms in specific ways. The earliest extant use of the term monastērion is by the 1st century AD Jewish philosopher Philo in On The Contemplative Life, in England the word monastery was also applied to the habitation of a bishop and the cathedral clergy who lived apart from the lay community. Most cathedrals were not monasteries, and were served by canons secular, however, some were run by monasteries orders, such as York Minster. Westminster Abbey was for a time a cathedral, and was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation. They are also to be distinguished from collegiate churches, such as St Georges Chapel, in most of this article, the term monastery is used generically to refer to any of a number of types of religious community. In the Roman Catholic religion and to some extent in certain branches of Buddhism, there is a more specific definition of the term. Buddhist monasteries are generally called vihara, viharas may be occupied by males or females, and in keeping with common English usage, a vihara populated by females may often be called a nunnery or a convent. However, vihara can also refer to a temple, in Tibetan Buddhism, monasteries are often called gompa. In Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, a monastery is called a wat, in Burma, a monastery is called a kyaung. A Christian monastery may be an abbey, or a priory and it may be a community of men or of women. A charterhouse is any monastery belonging to the Carthusian order, in Eastern Christianity, a very small monastic community can be called a skete, and a very large or important monastery can be given the dignity of a lavra. The great communal life of a Christian monastery is called cenobitic, as opposed to the life of an anchorite. In Hinduism monasteries are called matha, mandir, koil, or most commonly an ashram, jains use the Buddhist term vihara
9.
Pub
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A pub, or public house, is an establishment licensed to sell alcoholic drinks, which traditionally include beer, ale and cider. It is a relaxed, social drinking establishment and a prominent part of British, Irish, New Zealand, Canadian, in many places, especially 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 easily visible for passing ale tasters who would assess the quality of ale sold, most pubs focus on offering beers, ales and similar drinks. As well, pubs often sell wines, spirits, and soft drinks, meals, the owner, tenant or manager is known as the pub landlord or publican. The pub quiz was established in the UK in the 1970s and these alehouses quickly evolved into meeting houses for the folk to socially congregate, gossip and arrange mutual help within their communities. Herein lies the origin of the public house, or Pub as it is colloquially called in England. They rapidly 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, 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, Inns are buildings where travellers can seek lodging and, usually, food and drink. They are typically located in the country or along a highway, in Europe, they possibly 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, the latter tend to provide alcohol, but less commonly accommodation. Famous London inns include The George, Southwark and The Tabard, there is however no longer a formal distinction between an inn and other kinds of establishment. In North America, the aspect of the word inn lives on in hotel brand names like Holiday Inn. The Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery in London started as ordinary inns where barristers met to do business, traditional English ale was made solely from fermented malt. The practice of adding hops to produce beer was introduced from the Netherlands in the early 15th century, alehouses would each brew their own distinctive ale, but independent breweries began to appear in the late 17th century. By the end of the century almost all beer was brewed by commercial breweries, the 18th century saw a huge growth in the number of drinking establishments, primarily due to the introduction of gin
10.
Henge
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There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three types is that they feature a bank and ditch, but with the ditch inside the bank rather than outside. Due to the poor defensive utility of an enclosure with an external bank, the three types are as follows, with the figure in brackets being the approximate diameter of the central flat area, Henge. There is typically little if any evidence of occupation in a henge, although they may contain ritual structures such as stone circles, Henge monument is sometimes used as a synonym for henge. Henges sometimes, but by no means always, featured stone or timber circles, the three largest stone circles in Britain are each in a henge. Examples of henges without significant internal monuments are the three henges of Thornborough Henges, although having given its name to the word henge, Stonehenge is an atypical henge in that the ditch is outside the main earthwork bank. Like an ordinary henge except the central area is between 5 and 20 m in diameter, they comprise a modest earthwork with a fairly wide outer bank. Mini henge or Dorchester henge are sometimes used as synonyms for hengiform monument, an example is the Neolithic site at Wormy Hillock Henge. A Neolithic ring earthwork with the ditch inside the bank, with the flat area having abundant evidence of occupation. Some true henges are as large as this, but lack evidence of domestic occupation, super henge is sometimes used as a synonym for a henge enclosure. The word henge is a backformation from Stonehenge, the monument in Wiltshire. Stonehenge is not a true henge as its ditch runs outside its bank, the term was first coined in 1932 by Thomas Kendrick, who later became the Keeper of British Antiquities at the British Museum. Sub groups exist for these two or three internal ditches are present rather than one. Henges are usually associated with the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, and especially with the pottery of this period, Grooved Ware, Impressed Wares, sites such as Stonehenge also provide evidence of activity from the later Bronze Age Wessex culture. Henges often contain evidence of a variety of features, including timber or stone circles, pits, or burials. A henge should not be confused with a circle within it, as henges. At Arbor Low in Derbyshire, all the stones except one are laid flat and do not seem to have been erected, elsewhere, often only the stone holes remain to indicate a former circle. Later monuments added after the henge was built might include Bronze Age cairns as at Arbor Low and their chronological overlap with older structures makes it difficult to classify them as a coherent tradition
11.
Prehistoric Europe
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Prehistoric Europe is the designation for the period of human presence in Europe before the start of recorded history, beginning in the Lower Paleolithic. As history progresses, considerable regional irregularities of cultural development emerge, the Histories of Herodotus is the oldest known European text that seeks to systematically record traditions, public affairs and notable events. In contrast, the European regions furthest away from the ancient centers of civilisation tended to be the slowest, in Northern and Eastern Europe in particular, writing and systematic recording was only introduced in the context of Christianization, after 1000 CE. The karstic region of the Atapuerca Mountains in Spain represents the currently earliest known and reliably dated location of residence for more than a single generation and a group of individuals. Latin and ancient Greek language continued to be the primary and best way to communicate and express ideas in Liberal arts education, the climatic record of the Paleolithic is characterized by the Pleistocene pattern of cyclic warmer and colder periods, including eight major cycles and numerous shorter episodes. The northern maximum of human occupation fluctuated in response to changing conditions and successful settlement required constant adaption capabilities. Most of Scandinavia, the North European Plain and Russia remained off limits for occupation during the Paleolithic and Mesolithic, associated evidence, such as stone tools, artifacts and settlement localities is more numerous than fossilized remains of the hominin occupants themselves. The simplest pebble tools with a few flakes struck off to create an edge were found in Dmanisi, Georgia and in Spain at sites in the Guadix-Baza basin and near Atapuerca. Both types of sets are attributed to Homo erectus, the earliest and for a very long time the only human in Europe. However, the Acheulean fossil record also links to the emergence of Homo heidelbergensis, Homo heidelbergensis presence is documented since 600,000 BP in numerous sites in Germany, Great Britain and northern France. Palaeoanthropologists generally agree that Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis have immigrated into Europe, debated remain migration routes, again, consensus prevails on this matter, widely debated are origin and evolution patterns. Neanderthal fossil record ranges from Western Europe to the Altai Mountains in Central Asia, Neanderthals are associated with the Mousterian culture, stone tools that first appeared approximately 160.000 years ago. Homo sapiens arrived in Europe around 45,000 and 43,000 years ago via the Levant, generally small and widely dispersed fossil sites suggest, that Neanderthals lived in less numerous and socially more isolated groups than Homo sapiens. Tools and Levallois points are remarkably sophisticated from the outset, yet they have a rate of variability. Artifacts are of nature, symbolic behavioral traits are undocumented before the arrival of modern humans. The Aurignacian culture, introduced by humans is characterized by cut bone or antler points, fine flint blades. The oldest examples and subsequent widespread tradition of prehistoric art originate from the Aurignacian, after more than 100,000 years of uniformity, around 45,000 years BP the Neanderthal fossil record changed abruptly. The Mousterian had quickly become more versatile and was named the Chatelperronian culture, although debated, this fact proved that Neanderthals had to some extent adopted the culture of modern Homo sapiens
12.
Druid
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A druid was a member of the high-ranking professional class in ancient Celtic cultures. While perhaps best remembered as religious leaders, they were also legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and they are however attested in some detail by their contemporaries from other cultures, such as the Romans. The earliest known references to the date to the fourth century BCE. Later Greco-Roman writers also described the Druids, including Cicero, Tacitus, in about 750 CE the word druid appears in a poem by Blathmac, who wrote about Jesus, saying that he was. Better than a prophet, more knowledgeable than every druid, a king who was a bishop, the druids then also appear in some of the medieval tales from Christianized Ireland like the Táin Bó Cúailnge, where they are largely portrayed as sorcerers who opposed the coming of Christianity. In the wake of the Celtic revival during the 18th and 19th centuries, fraternal and neopagan groups were founded based on ideas about the ancient druids, many popular notions about druids are based on the misconceptions of 18th century scholars. These have been superseded by more recent study. The modern English word druid derives from the Latin druides, which was considered by ancient Roman writers to come from the native Celtic Gaulish word for these figures, other Roman texts also employ the form druidae, while the same term was used by Greek ethnographers as δρυΐδης. Based on all forms, the hypothetical proto-Celtic word may then be reconstructed as *dru-wid-s meaning oak-knower. The two elements go back to the Proto-Indo-European roots *deru- and *weid- to see, the sense of oak-knower is supported by Pliny the Elder, who in his Natural History considered the word to contain the Greek noun drýs, oak-tree and the Greek suffix -idēs. The modern Irish word for Oak is Dair, which occurs in anglicized placenames like Derry – Doire, there are many stories about saints, heroes, and oak trees, and also many local stories and superstitions about trees in general, which still survive in rural Ireland. Both Old Irish druí and Middle Welsh dryw could also refer to the wren, sources by ancient and medieval writers provide an idea of the religious duties and social roles involved in being a druid. One of the few things that both the Greco-Roman and the vernacular Irish sources agree on about the druids is that played an important part in pagan Celtic society. He also claimed that they were exempt from service and from the payment of taxes. Pomponius Mela is the first author who says that the instruction was secret and was carried on in caves. Druidic lore consisted of a number of verses learned by heart. What was taught to Druid novices anywhere is conjecture, of the oral literature, not one certifiably ancient verse is known to have survived. All instruction was communicated orally, but for ordinary purposes, Caesar reports, in this he probably draws on earlier writers, by the time of Caesar, Gaulish inscriptions had moved from the Greek script to the Latin script
13.
Radiocarbon dating
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Radiocarbon dating is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was developed by Willard Libby in the late 1940s, Libby received the Nobel Prize for his work in 1960. The radiocarbon dating method is based on the fact that radiocarbon is constantly being created in the atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric nitrogen. The resulting radiocarbon combines with oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide. When the animal or plant dies, it stops exchanging carbon with its environment, and from that point onwards the amount of 14C it contains begins to decrease as the 14C undergoes radioactive decay. Measuring the amount of 14C in a sample from a plant or animal such as a piece of wood or a fragment of bone provides information that can be used to calculate when the animal or plant died. The idea behind radiocarbon dating is straightforward, but years of work were required to develop the technique to the point where accurate dates could be obtained. Research has been ongoing since the 1960s to determine what the proportion of 14C in the atmosphere has been over the past fifty thousand years. The resulting data, in the form of a curve, is now used to convert a given measurement of radiocarbon in a sample into an estimate of the samples calendar age. Other corrections must be made to account for the proportion of 14C in different types of organisms, additional complications come from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, and from the above-ground nuclear tests done in the 1950s and 1960s. Conversely, nuclear testing increased the amount of 14C in the atmosphere, measurement of radiocarbon was originally done by beta-counting devices, which counted the amount of beta radiation emitted by decaying 14C atoms in a sample. The development of dating has had a profound impact on archaeology. In addition to permitting more accurate dating within archaeological sites than previous methods, histories of archaeology often refer to its impact as the radiocarbon revolution. Radiocarbon dating has allowed key transitions in prehistory to be dated, such as the end of the last ice age, and they synthesized 14C using the laboratorys cyclotron accelerator and soon discovered that the atoms half-life was far longer than had been previously thought. This was followed by a prediction by Serge A. Korff, then employed at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and it had previously been thought that 14C would be more likely to be created by deuterons interacting with 13C. At some time during World War II, Willard Libby, who was then at Berkeley, learned of Korffs research, in 1945, Libby moved to the University of Chicago where he began his work on radiocarbon dating. He published a paper in 1946 in which he proposed that the carbon in living matter might include 14C as well as non-radioactive carbon, by contrast, methane created from petroleum showed no radiocarbon activity because of its age. The results were summarized in a paper in Science in 1947, Libby and James Arnold proceeded to test the radiocarbon dating theory by analyzing samples with known ages
14.
Dendrochronology
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Dendrochronology is the scientific method of dating tree rings to the exact year they were formed in order to analyze atmospheric conditions during different periods in history. Dendrochronology is useful for determining the timing of events and rates of change in the environment and also in works of art and architecture, such as old panel paintings on wood, buildings and it is also used in radiocarbon dating to calibrate radiocarbon ages. New growth in trees occurs in a layer of cells near the bark, a trees growth rate changes in a predictable pattern throughout the year in response to seasonal climate changes, resulting in visible growth rings. Each ring marks a complete cycle of seasons, or one year, as of 2013, the oldest tree-ring measurements in the Northern Hemisphere extend back 13,900 years. Dendrochronology derives from Ancient Greek, δένδρον, meaning tree limb, χρόνος, meaning time, and -λογία, the Greek botanist Theophrastus first mentioned that the wood of trees has rings. In his Trattato della Pittura, Leonardo da Vinci was the first person to mention that trees form rings annually, in 1737, French investigators Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon examined the effect of growing conditions on the shape of tree rings. They found that in 1709, a severe winter produced a distinctly dark tree ring, the English polymath Charles Babbage proposed using dendrochronology to date the remains of trees in peat bogs or even in geological strata. During the latter half of the century, the scientific study of tree rings. In 1859, the German-American Jacob Kuechler used crossdating to examine oaks in order to study the record of climate in western Texas, in 1866, the German botanist, entomologist, and forester Julius Ratzeburg observed the effects on tree rings of defoliation caused by insect infestations. By 1882, this observation was already appearing in forestry textbooks, in the 1870s, the Dutch astronomer Jacobus C. Kapteyn was using crossdating to reconstruct the climates of the Netherlands, in 1881, the Swiss-Austrian forester Arthur von Seckendorff-Gudent was using crossdating. From 1869 to 1901, Robert Hartig, a German professor of forest pathology, wrote a series of papers on the anatomy, in 1892, the Russian physicist Fedor Nikiforovich Shvedov wrote that he had used patterns found in tree rings to predict droughts in 1882 and 1891. During the first half of the 20th century, the astronomer A. E. Douglass founded the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. Growth rings, also referred to as tree rings or annual rings, growth rings are the result of new growth in the vascular cambium, a layer of cells near the bark that is classified as a lateral meristem, this growth in diameter is known as secondary growth. Visible rings result from the change in speed through the seasons of the year, thus, critical for the title method. If the bark of the tree has been removed in a particular area, the rings are more visible in temperate zones, where the seasons differ more markedly. The inner portion of a ring is formed early in the growing season, when growth is comparatively rapid and is known as early wood. Many trees in temperate zones make one growth ring each year, hence, for the entire period of a trees life, a year-by-year record or ring pattern is formed that reflects the age of the tree and the climatic conditions in which the tree grew
15.
Welsh language
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Welsh is a member of the Brittonic branch of the Celtic languages. It is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, historically it has also been known in English as the British tongue, Cambrian, Cambric and Cymric. The United Kingdom Census 2011 counted 3.1 million residents of Wales, 27% of whom had been born outside Wales, and 73% of whom reported having no Welsh language skills. Of residents of Wales aged three and over, 19% reported being able to speak Welsh, and 77% of these were able to speak, read and this can be compared with the 2001 Census, in which 20. 8% of the population reported being able to speak Welsh. 787,854 of residents in Wales aged three and over had one or more skills in Welsh, in surveys carried out between 2004 and 2006, 57% of Welsh speakers described themselves as fluent in the written language. An estimated 110,000 to 150,000 people speak Welsh in England, Welsh emerged in the 6th century from Common Brittonic, the common ancestor of Welsh, Breton, Cornish and the extinct language known as Cumbric. The Middle Welsh period is considered to have lasted from then until the 14th century, when the Modern Welsh period began, the name Welsh originated as an exonym given to its speakers by the Anglo-Saxons, meaning foreign speech. The native term for the language is Cymraeg, and for the name of the country of Wales it is Cymru, Welsh evolved from Common Brittonic, the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons. Classified as Insular Celtic, the British language probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth. During the Early Middle Ages the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, evolving into Welsh and it is not clear when Welsh became distinct. Kenneth H. Jackson suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern was complete by around 550, Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the Cynfeirdd or Early Poets – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was composed in the Hen Ogledd, raising further questions about the dating of the material. An 8th century inscription in Tywyn shows the language already dropping inflections in the declension of nouns, the next main period, somewhat better attested, is Old Welsh, poetry from both Wales and Scotland has been preserved in this form of the language. Both the works of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin were in this era, Middle Welsh is the label attached to the Welsh of the 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion. It is also the language of the existing Welsh law manuscripts, Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible, albeit with some work, to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The famous cleric Gerald of Wales tells, in his Descriptio Cambriae, during one of the Kings many raids in the 12th century, Henry asked an old man of Pencader, Carmarthenshire whether the Welsh people could resist his army
16.
Carnac stones
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The Carnac stones are an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites around the village of Carnac in Brittany, consisting of alignments, dolmens, tumuli and single menhirs. More than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones were hewn from rock and erected by the pre/proto-Celtic people of Brittany. Most of the stones are within the Breton village of Carnac, the stones were erected at some stage during the Neolithic period, probably around 3300 BCE, but some may date to as early as 4500 BCE. Brittany has its own versions of the Arthurian cycle. Local tradition claims that the reason they stand in such perfectly straight lines is that they are a Roman legion turned to stone by Merlin. In recent centuries, many of the sites have been neglected, with reports of dolmens being used as sheep shelters, even more commonly, stones have been removed to make way for roads, or as building materials. The continuing management of the remains a controversial topic. There are three groups of stone rows — Ménec, Kermario and Kerlescan — which may have once formed a single group. Eleven converging rows of menhirs stretching for 1,165 by 100 metres, there are what Alexander Thom considered to be the remains of stone circles at either end. According to the tourist office there is a cromlech containing 71 stone blocks at the western end and this fan-like layout recurs a little further along to the east in the Kermario alignment. It consists of 1029 stones in ten columns, about 1,300 m in length, a stone circle to the east end, where the stones are shorter, was revealed by aerial photography. A smaller group of 555 stones, further to the east of the two sites. It is composed of 13 lines with a length of about 800 metres. At the extreme west, where the stones are tallest, there is a circle which has 39 stones. There may also be another stone circle to the north, a much smaller group, further east again of Kerlescan, falling within the commune of La Trinité-sur-Mer. These are now set in woods, and most are covered with moss, there are several tumuli, mounds of earth built up over a grave. In this area, they feature a passage leading to a central chamber which once held neolithic artefacts. Saint-Michel The tumulus of Saint-Michel was constructed between 5000 BC and 3400 BC, at its base it is 125 by 60 m, and is 12 m high
17.
Neolithic
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It ended when metal tools became widespread. The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops, the beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant about 10, 200–8800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called proto-Neolithic is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic between 10,200 and 8800 BC. By 10, 200–8800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep. By about 6900–6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture, unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species reached the Neolithic. The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νέος néos, new and λίθος líthos, stone, the term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing in the 10th millennium BC, early development occurred in the Levant and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are attested in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia by around 8000 BC. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards, the Neolithic 1 period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity. At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have been found in Jericho, Israel, Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, the start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree. The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming, in the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour, emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated
18.
Megalithic art
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Megalithic art refers to the use of large stones as an artistic medium. Although some modern artists and sculptors make use of stones in their work. Megalithic art is found in places in Western Europe although the main concentrations are in Malta, Ireland, Brittany. Megalithic art started in the Neolithic and continued into the Bronze Age, although many monument types received this form of art the majority is carved on Neolithic passage graves. Megalithic art tends to be abstract and contains relatively few representations of recognisable real objects. Megalithic art is similar to prehistoric rock art and contains many similar motifs such as the cup and ring mark. The meaning of art is the subject of much debate. Weathering and vandalism have affected many examples of the art and little of it remains to day, Ireland has the largest concentration of megalithic art in Europe, particularly in the Boyne Valley. This art form appears to be abstract and is perhaps the most famous with its well-known multiple-spirals. It is believed much of this artwork is entoptically derived from induced states of altered consciousness. Stylistically the art of Ireland is similar to finds in nearby Wales. The French region of Brittany has the second highest concentration of megalithic art, the earliest examples in this area are with anthropomorphic representations on menhirs which later continued in passage graves. Brittany shares some motifs with both Ireland and Iberia and the level of contact between them has always been debated, among the most famous examples are the passage grave at Gavrinis and the Barnenez mound. Iberian megalithic art contains the most number of representations of objects. Iberia is the place to have painted decoration as well as carved. Other areas may also have originally been painted, but Iberias arid climate lends itself to preservation of the paint, the paint is normally restricted to black and red, although occasionally features white as well. Megalithic art is rare in Central Europe. The gallery grave at Züschen in Germany is an intriguing exception, as well as abstract or geometric art, some carvings are considered to represent tools, weapons, animals, human figures, deities or idols
19.
Anthropomorphism
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Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities and is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions and natural forces like seasons. Both have ancient roots as storytelling and artistic devices, and most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphized animals as characters, people have also routinely attributed human emotions and behavioural traits to wild as well as domestic animals. Anthropomorphism derives from its verb form anthropomorphize, itself derived from the Greek ánthrōpos and it is first attested in 1753, originally in reference to the heresy of applying a human form to the Christian God. One of the oldest known is a sculpture, the Löwenmensch figurine, Germany. It is not possible to say what these prehistoric artworks represent, in either case there is an element of anthropomorphism. This anthropomorphic art has been linked by archaeologist Steven Mithen with the emergence of more systematic hunting practices in the Upper Palaeolithic. In religion and mythology, anthropomorphism refers to the perception of a divine being or beings in human form, ancient mythologies frequently represented the divine as deities with human forms and qualities. They resemble human beings not only in appearance and personality, they exhibited many human behaviors that were used to explain phenomena, creation. The deities fell in love, married, had children, fought battles, wielded weapons and they feasted on special foods, and sometimes required sacrifices of food, beverage, and sacred objects to be made by human beings. Some anthropomorphic deities represented specific concepts, such as love, war, fertility, beauty. Anthropomorphic deities exhibited human qualities such as beauty, wisdom, and power, and sometimes human weaknesses such as greed, hatred, jealousy, Greek deities such as Zeus and Apollo often were depicted in human form exhibiting both commendable and despicable human traits. Anthropomorphism in this case is referred to as anthropotheism, from the perspective of adherents to religions in which humans were created in the form of the divine, the phenomenon may be considered theomorphism, or the giving of divine qualities to humans. Anthropomorphism has cropped up as a Christian heresy, particularly prominently with the Audians in third century Syria, but also in fourth century Egypt and tenth century Italy. This often was based on an interpretation of Genesis 1,27, So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him. Some religions, scholars, and philosophers objected to anthropomorphic deities. Ethiopians say that their gods are snub–nosed and blackThracians that they are pale and he said that the greatest god resembles man neither in form nor in mind. Both Judaism and Islam reject an anthropomorphic deity, believing that God is beyond human comprehension, judaisms rejection of an anthropomorphic deity grew during the Hasmonean period, when Jewish belief incorporated some Greek philosophy. Judaisms rejection grew further after the Islamic Golden Age in the tenth century, hindus do not reject the concept of a deity in the abstract unmanifested, but note practical problems
20.
Stele
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A stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in ancient Western culture as a monument. Grave steles were often used for funerary or commemorative purposes, Stelae as slabs of stone would also be used as ancient Greek and Roman government notices or as boundary markers to mark borders or property lines. The surface of the stele usually has text, ornamentation, or both, the ornamentation may be inscribed, carved in relief, or painted. Traditional Western gravestones may technically be considered the equivalent of ancient stelae. The most famous example of an inscribed stela leading to increased understanding is the Rosetta Stone, an informative stele of Tiglath-Pileser III is preserved in the British Museum. Two steles built into the walls of a church are major documents relating to the Etruscan language, unfinished standing stones, set up without inscriptions from Libya in North Africa to Scotland were monuments of pre-literate Megalithic cultures in the Late Stone Age. The Pictish stones of Scotland, often carved, date from between the 6th and 9th centuries. An obelisk is a kind of stele. The Insular high crosses of Ireland and Britain are specialized steles, totem poles of North and South America that are made out of stone may also be considered a specialized type of stele. Gravestones, typically with inscribed name and often with inscribed epitaph, are among the most common types of stele seen in Western culture. Most recently, in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, the memorial is meant to be read not only as the field, but also as an erasure of data that refer to memory of the Holocaust. Steles have been the medium of stone inscription in China since the Tang dynasty. Chinese steles are generally rectangular stone tablets upon which Chinese characters are carved intaglio with a funerary, commemorative and they can commemorate talented writers and officials, inscribe poems, portraits, or maps, and frequently contain the calligraphy of famous historical figures. During the Han dynasty, tomb inscriptions containing biographical information on deceased people began to be written on stone tablets rather than wooden ones, erecting steles at tombs or temples eventually became a widespread social and religious phenomenon. Emperors found it necessary to promulgate laws, regulating the use of funerary steles by the population, Steles are found at nearly every significant mountain and historical site in China. The First Emperor made five tours of his domain in the 3rd century BC and had Li Si make seven stone inscriptions commemorating and praising his work, of which fragments of two survive. One of the most famous mountain steles is the 13 m high stele at Mount Tai with the calligraphy of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang commemorating his imperial sacrifices there in 725. A number of stone monuments have preserved the origin and history of Chinas minority religious communities
21.
Stone tool
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A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric, archaeologists often study such prehistoric societies, and refer to the study of stone tools as lithic analysis. Ethnoarchaeology has been a research field in order to further the understanding and cultural implications of stone tool use. Stone has been used to make a variety of different tools throughout history, including arrow heads, spearpoints. Stone tools may be made of ground stone or chipped stone. Chipped stone tools are made from materials such as chert or flint, radiolarite, chalcedony, obsidian, basalt. One simple form of reduction is to strike stone flakes from a nucleus of material using a hammerstone or similar hard hammer fabricator, if the goal of the reduction strategy is to produce flakes, the remnant lithic core may be discarded once it has become too small to use. In some strategies, however, a flintknapper reduces the core to a rough unifacial or bifacial preform, more complex forms of reduction include the production of highly standardized blades, which can then be fashioned into a variety of tools such as scrapers, knives, sickles and microliths. Archaeologists classify stone tools into industries that share distinctive technological or morphological characteristics and he assigned to them relative dates, Modes 1 and 2 to the Lower Palaeolithic,3 to the Middle Palaeolithic,4 to the Advanced and 5 to the Mesolithic. They were not to be conceived, however, as either universal—that is, they did not account for all lithic technology, Mode 1, for example, was in use in Europe long after it had been replaced by Mode 2 in Africa. Clarkes scheme was adopted enthusiastically by the archaeological community, one of its advantages was the simplicity of terminology, for example, the Mode 1 / Mode 2 Transition. The transitions are currently of greatest interest, Kenya Stone tools found from 2011 to 2014 at Lake Turkana in Kenya, are dated to be 3.3 million years old, and predate the genus Homo by half million years. The oldest known Homo fossil is 2.8 million years old compared to the 3.3 million year old stone tools. Dating of the tools was by dating volcanic ash layers in which the tools were found, Oldowan tools were characterised by their simple construction, predominantly using core forms. The blunt end is the surface, the sharp, the distal. Grasping the proximal surface, the hominid brought the surface down hard on an object he wished to detach or shatter. The earliest known Oldowan tools yet found date from 2.6 million years ago, during the Lower Palaeolithic period, and have been uncovered at Gona in Ethiopia. Homo habilis was the hominin who used the tools for most of the Oldowan in Africa, eventually, more complex, Mode 2 tools began to be developed through the Acheulean Industry, named after the site of Saint-Acheul in France
22.
Passage grave
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A passage grave or passage tomb consists of a narrow passage made of large stones and one or multiple burial chambers covered in earth or stone. The building of tombs was normally carried out with megaliths and smaller stones. Those with more than one chamber may have multiple sub-chambers leading off from the burial chamber. One common layout, the passage grave, is cross-shaped. Sometimes passage tombs are covered with a cairn, especially those dating from later times, not all passage graves have been found to contain evidence of human remains. Passage tombs of the type often have elaborate corbelled roofs rather than simple slabs. Megalithic art has been identified carved into the stones at some sites and this appears to be one of the first uses of the term passage tomb. It is likely that the writers borrowed from the Spanish term tumbas de corredor, which is used for tombs in Cantabria, Galicia, of their list, only passage tombs appear to have widespread distribution throughout Europe. Passage graves are distributed extensively in lands along the Atlantic seaboard of Europe and they are found in Ireland, Britain, Scandinavia, northern Germany and the Drenthe area of the Netherlands. They are also found in Iberia, some parts of the Mediterranean, the earliest passage tombs seem to take the form of small dolmens. In Ireland and Britain, passage tombs are found in large clusters. Many later passage tombs were constructed at the tops of hills or mountains, Newgrange. com World Heritage IE - Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth
23.
Giant
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Giants are the monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength common in the mythology and legends of many different cultures. The word giant, coined in 1297, was derived from the Gigantes of Greek mythology, Giants also often play similar roles in the mythologies and folklore of other, non Indo-European peoples, such as in the Nartian traditions. There are also accounts of giants in the Old Testament, most famously Goliath, Og King of Bashan, the Nephilim, the Anakim, attributed to them are extraordinary strength and physical proportions. Fairy tales such as Jack the Giant Killer have formed the modern perception of giants as stupid and violent monsters, sometimes said to eat humans, the ogre in Jack and the Beanstalk is often described as a giant. In some more recent portrayals, like those of Jonathan Swift and Roald Dahl, genesis 6, 4-5 tells of the Nephilim before and after the Flood. The 1st-century historian Flavius Josephus, and the 1st-2nd-century BC Dead Sea Scrolls give Goliaths height as four cubits and a span, approximately 2.00 m or about six feet seven inches. There were till then left the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from men, that they were surprising to the sight. The bones of men are still shown to this very day. In Islam, giants known as jababirat or jabbirun such as Jalut are mentioned, the Book of Enoch describes giants as the offspring of fallen angels and mortal women in 7,2. According to Jains, there was a time when giants walked upon this earth, Jain cosmology divides worldly cycle of time into two parts or half-cycles, avasarpani and ascending. According to Jain texts, the height of Rishabha, first tirthankara of present half cycle of time was 500 dhanusa, in avasarpani, as the cycle moves ahead, height of all humans and animals decreases. The following table depicts the six aras of avasarpini- In Hinduism, the Daityas were the children of Diti and the sage Kashyapa who fought against the gods or Devas because they were jealous of their Deva half-brothers. Since Daityas were a race, they sometimes allied with other races having similar ideology namely Danavas and Asuras. Daityas along with Danavas and Asuras are sometimes called Rakshasas, the term for a demon in Hindu mythology. Some known Daityas include Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha, the main antagonist of the Hindu epic Ramayana, Ravana, was a Brahmin from his fathers side and a Daitya from his mothers side. His younger brother Kumbhakarna was said to be as tall as a mountain and was good natured. Furthermore, the Paiute creation story tells of beautiful giants who lived between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. After giving birth to a child, the giants treated the child so poorly that the Great Spirit responded by making the land hot and desolate
24.
Genesis flood narrative
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The Genesis flood narrative makes up chapters 6–9 in the Book of Genesis, in the Torah. Thus, the flood was a reversal of creation, although many religious groups consider the story to be largely allegorical, there are still many groups and individuals who believe the story to be literally true. Genesis 6, 1–4 presents the reason for the flood, the Sons of God marry the daughters of men and sire a race of giants, mighty men which of old, men of renown. Genesis continues, And GOD saw that the wickedness of man great in the earth, God decides to destroy the world in a reversal of creation. The flood occurs because God judges humanity, in Genesis 6, 5-8, the LORD judged man for being wicked and evil. In verses Genesis 6, 11-22, God judged all flesh for being corrupt, the judgment in verses 6, 5–8 is thought to have been written earlier and later combined with the second. This element of judgment makes the flood story different from the flood in the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Gilgamesh story, the flood is mentioned only in passing as part of the Epic tale itself, beginning with Genesis 6,14, God instructed Noah to build an ark to save his immediate family, along with samples of animal life. The ark was to be made of wood covered with pitch inside and outside. The ark was 300 cubits long,50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high, and it had an opening for daylight near the top, an entrance on its side, and three decks. God told Noah that he, his sons, his wife, his sons wives, and two of each kind of beast – male and female – would survive in the ark. The Priestly source, Genesis 7,11,8, 1-2, describes the nature of the waters as a cosmic cataclysm, by the opening of the springs of the deep. This is the reverse of the separation of the waters recounted in the Genesis creation narrative of chapter 1. After Noah and the remnant of animals were secured, the fountains of the great deep, the waters elevated, with the summits of the highest mountains under 15 cubits of water, flooding the world for 150 days, and then receding in 220 days. The Jahwist version of how the waters came to be is indicated in Genesis 7,12. During this time, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, then he sends out a dove to see if the waters had decreased from the ground, but the dove could not find a resting place, and returned to the ark. He waited another seven days, and again sent out the dove, and he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return. When Noah removed the covering of the ark, he saw that the ground was drying, God makes a pledge of commitment to Noah in Genesis 9, 1–17
25.
Asterix
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Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a series of French comics. The series first appeared in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote on 29 October 1959 and it was written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo until the death of Goscinny in 1977. Uderzo then took over the writing until 2009, when he sold the rights to publishing company Hachette, as of 2015,36 volumes have been released. The series follows the exploits of a village of indomitable Gauls as they resist Roman occupation and they do so by means of a magic potion brewed by their druid, named Getafix in the English translations, which temporarily gives the recipient superhuman strength. The protagonists, the titular character Asterix, along with his friend Obelix have various adventures, the ix ending of both names alludes to the rix suffix present in the names of many real Gaulish chieftains such as Vercingetorix, Orgetorix, and Dumnorix. Many of the stories have them travel to countries, though others are set in. For much of the history of the series, settings in Gaul and abroad alternated, with even-numbered volumes set abroad and odd-numbered volumes set in Gaul, mostly in the village. The Asterix series is one of the most popular Franco-Belgian comics in the world, with the series being translated into over 100 languages, the success of the series has led to the adaptation of several books into 13 films, nine animated, and four live action. There have also been a number of based on the characters. As of October 2009,325 million copies of 34 Asterix books had sold worldwide, making co-creators René Goscinny. Prior to creating the Asterix series, Goscinny and Uderzo had previously had success with their series Oumpah-pah, Astérix was originally serialised in Pilote magazine, in the very first issue published on 29 October 1959. In 1961 the first book was put together, titled Asterix the Gaul, from then on, books were released generally on a yearly basis. Their success was exponential, the first book sold 6,000 copies in its year of publication, a year later, in 1963, the third sold 40,000, the fourth, released in 1964, sold 150,000. A year later, the fifth sold 300,000, 1966s Asterix, the ninth Asterix volume, when first released in 1967, sold 1.2 million copies in two days. Uderzos first sketches portrayed Asterix as a huge and strong traditional Gaulish warrior, but Goscinny had a different picture in his mind. He visualized Asterix as a small sized warrior who would prefer intelligence over strength. However, Uderzo felt that the small sized hero needed a strong, despite the growing popularity of Asterix with the readers, the financial backing for Pilote ceased. Pilote was taken over by Georges Dargaud, when Goscinny died in 1977, Uderzo continued the series alone on the demand of the readers who implored him to continue
26.
Obelix
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Obelix is a cartoon character and protagonist in the French comic book series Asterix. He works as a sculptor and deliveryman, and is Asterixs best friend. Obelix is noted for his fatness, the menhirs he carries around on his back and he fell into a cauldron of the Gauls magic potion when he was a baby, causing him to be the only Gaul in Asterixs village who is in a permanent state of superhuman strength. Because of this already enormous strength, Obelix is not allowed to drink the magic potion ever again and his catchphrase is, Ils sont fous ces romains, which translates into These Romans are crazy. Although he considers nearly every other nationality to be just as strange, the character was portrayed by actor Gérard Depardieu in every Asterix live-action movie. He is a man who does not see himself as fat. When he does understand the allusions are made on his behalf he flies into a rage, sometimes, when he is in a bad mood, just hearing the word fat—even if it is not in reference to him—can quickly enrage him. Although they usually simply insult each other verbally they inevitably make up swiftly, sometimes, Obelix can be so paranoic over the allusion of the word Fat that he can even break the fourth wall with the mere mention of this. Visibly in Asterix and the Black Gold, when the points out that their vessel was pulled like a Big and fat fish. He generally works as a delivery man. His passions in life are hanging around with Asterix, hunting and eating wild boar, making and carrying his menhirs, Obelix has a little dog named Dogmatix, whom he adores. His parents live now in Condate and his distant cousin Metallurgix, in fact, he eats nuts and oysters in the shell, and is completely oblivious to drugs, spicy food and poison, possibly due to the permanent effects of the magic potion. Although he has his own house, Obelix is occasionally shown staying overnight at Asterixs, Obelix owns the quarry where he chisels the menhirs himself. Obelix usually trades the stones away for whatever he needs, resulting in the village having a field of menhirs. Obelix is kind-hearted, but socially inept — possibly because his strength means that others have had to adapt to him instead of vice versa and he is still not completely aware of his own strength and almost invariably breaks any door he gently knocks on. He is frequently used as a battering ram for opening locked doors or breaking through walls. He also has little interest in subjects of education or intellectual pursuits, since sheer strength usually solves his problems. However, Obelix is not completely stupid and he also surprises Asterix in Asterix and the Black Gold by reeling off a dictionary definition of wild boar in conversation
27.
Carlin stone
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Carlin Stone or Carlin Stane is the name given to a number of prehistoric standing stones and natural stone or landscape features in Scotland. The significance of the name is unclear, other than its association with old hags, witches, a Carle in Scots is a commoner, a husband or in a derogatory sense, a churl or male of low birth. The name Carline, Cairlin, Carlin, Cyarlin, Kerlin or Kerl was also used in lowland Scots as a term for an old woman meaning an old hag. It is from Old Norse Kerling or a corruption or equivalent in Scots of the Gaelic word “Cailleach”, meaning a witch or the old Hag, the Goddess of Winter. Carlin is used as a surname and has several variations e. g. Carlen, Carlon, Carolan, OCarlin, OCarlen, OCarlon, OCarolan, Carling, Carlton and it is stated as being of Irish Gaelic origin and is found somewhat less frequently in Scotland. This is an islet in the South of Orkney. Near Sandlaw Farm in the parish of Alvah is the Carlin Cist and this stone was part of a recumbent stone circle, around 95 ft in diameter. It has several names, such as the Caerlin stone, Cairn Riv, Cairn Rib. Its map reference in the parish of Inverkeithny is NJ67444659, Three stones remain in line, the Carlin Stone between two others quite small in comparison. In addition, there are two set stones projecting inward from the Carlin Stone and this boulder is rugged, unshapely, and most unusual in height. Other stones were broken up and removed within relatively recent times, in or near the circle were found a small perforated axe-hammer, portions of 3 bronze armlets, flint chips and a jet button. This natural stone outcrop is known as Carlin Maggie and has the look of something imported from Easter Island and it is said to be a witch turned to stone by the Devil after she got on his nerves. The Devil threw a lightning bolt which had the effect of petrifying her and it is a rock pillar estimated to be 30 feet high, on the Western slope of Bishop Hill, overlooking Loch Leven. The OS grid reference is NO1840304413, a Carlin Stone is marked on the OS6 inch series of maps from 1843-82 at this location approximately 5 km NNW of Fintry. On top of the Common Crags overlooking the village of Dunlop and it is also known locally as the Hags Stone. It is not listed by the RCAHMS and is not as known locally as the nearby megalith known as the Thurgartstone. 55°42′47. 9″N 4°31′20. 6″W Three farms named Carlingcrags on the Ordnance Survey maps are to be found above Darvel in East Ayrshire, a Carlin Stone is situated on Whitelee Moor near Craigends Farm, below Camerons Moss near Waterside in East Ayrshire. A nearby watercourse is known as the Carlin Burn, joining the Hareshawmuir water just below the site of the Carlin stone, the OS Maps locate a Carlin Stone or Carlin Crags/Craigs near Bonnyton Golf Club on the outskirts of Eaglesham
28.
Stone circle
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A stone circle is a monument of standing stones arranged in a circle. Such monuments have been constructed in parts of the world throughout history for many different reasons. Outside of Europe, stone circles have also erected, such as the 6300~6900 BCE Atlit Yam in Israel and 3000~4000 BCE Gilgal Refaim nearby. Another prehistoric stone circle tradition occurred in southern Scandinavia during the Iron Age, the size and number of the stones varies from example to example, and the circle shape can be an ellipse. All experts agree that stone circles are of date. Radiocarbon dating has produced a range of dates at different sites. This is at least partly due to an inadequacy of materials suitable for radiocarbon dating that can be obtained from the sites. The diversity of radiocarbon evidence may also suggest that stone circles were constructed over a long period. It is often not clear when building started, a further obstacle to dating is that there are generally no other archaeological artifacts associated with the stone circles. Traditional archaeological artifacts, such as pottery sherds, bones, etc. are not often found at the sites, the sites display no evidence of human dwelling, and rarely encompass graves. This suggests that stone circles were constructed for ceremonies and were in use on ceremonial occasions only, the type of ceremonies is entirely unknown. The crudeness and variety of the stones excludes the possibility that they had astronomical observation purposes of any precision, sometimes a stone circle is found in association with a burial pit or burial chamber, but the great majority of these monuments have no such association. A stone circle is a different entity from a henge. That suggests religious context, the details of which are still obscure, during the Middle Neolithic stone circles began to appear in coastal and lowland areas towards the north of the United Kingdom. The Langdale axe industry in the Lake District appears to have been an important early centre for circle building, many had closely set stones, perhaps similar to the earth banks of henges, others were made from unfounded boulders rather than standing stones. By the later Neolithic, stone circle construction had attained a greater precision, rather than being limited to coastal areas, they began to move inland and their builders grew more ambitious, producing examples of up to 400 m diameter in the case of the Outer Circle at Avebury. Most circles, however, measured around 25 m in diameter, designs became more complex, with double and triple ring designs appearing along with significant regional variation. These monuments are often classed separately as concentric stone circles, by 1500 BC stone circle construction had all but ceased
29.
Deer stone
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Deer stones are ancient megaliths carved with symbols found largely in Siberia and Mongolia. The name comes from their depictions of flying deer. There are many theories to the reasons behind their existence and the people who made them, Deer stones are usually constructed from granite or greenstone, depending on which is the most abundant in the surrounding area. They have varying heights, most are over 3 feet tall, the tops of the stones can be flat, round or smashed, suggesting that perhaps the original top had been deliberately destroyed. The stones are usually oriented with the face to the east. The carvings and designs were most usually completed before the stone was erected, the designs were pecked or ground into the stone surface. Deep-grooved cuts and right-angle surfaces indicate the presence of metal tools, Stone tools were used to smooth the harsh cuts of some designs. Nearly all the stones were carved, but some unusual stones show signs that they could have been cut with a primitive type of mechanical drill. V. V. Volkov, in his thirty years of research and these stones are fairly detailed and more elegant in their depiction methods. They usually feature a belted warrior with a flying reindeer on his torso. This type of stone is most prominent in southern Siberia and northern Mongolia and this concentration suggests that these stones were the origin of the deer stone tradition, and further types both simplified and elaborated on these. These stones feature a central region of the stone, sectioned off by two belts, horizontal lines, there are also earring hoops, large circles, diagonal slashes in groups of two and three known as faces, and necklaces, collection of stone pits resembling their namesake. The Sayan-Altai stones feature some of the West Asian-European markings, including free-floating, straight-legged animals, daggers, the appearance of deer motifs is markedly diminished, and those that do appear often do not emphasise the relationship between reindeer and flying. The Sayan-Altai stones can be sub-divided into two types, The Gorno-Altai stones have simple warrior motifs, displaying tools in the region of the stone. Reindeer motifs appear but are few, the Sayan-Tuva stones are similar to the Gorno-Altai but contain fewer images of animals. The artistic style is simpler, often consisting of only belts, necklaces, earrings. There are many images that appear in deer stones, as well as a multitude of ways they are presented. Reindeer feature prominently in all of the deer stones
30.
Dolmen
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A dolmen is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more vertical megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone, although there are also more complex variants. Most date from the early Neolithic, Dolmens were typically covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus. In many instances, that covering has weathered away, leaving only the skeleton of the burial mound intact. It remains unclear when, why, and by whom the earliest dolmens were made, the oldest known dolmens are in Western Europe, where they were set in place around 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists still do not know who erected these dolmens, which makes it difficult to know why they did it and they are generally all regarded as tombs or burial chambers, despite the absence of clear evidence for this. Human remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have found in or close to the dolmens which could be scientifically dated using radiocarbon dating. However, it has been impossible to prove that these date from the time when the stones were originally set in place. The word dolmen has a confused history, the word entered archaeology when Théophile Corret de la Tour dAuvergne used it to describe megalithic tombs in his Origines gauloises using the spelling dolmin. The name was derived from a Breton language term meaning stone table but doubt has been cast on this. Nonetheless it has now replaced cromlech as the usual English term in archaeology, granja is used in Portugal, Galicia, and Spain. The rarer forms anta and ganda also appear, in the Basque Country, they are attributed to the jentilak, a race of giants. The etymology of the German, Hünenbett, Hünengrab and Dutch, of other Celtic languages, Welsh, cromlech was borrowed into English and quoit is commonly used in English in Cornwall. Great dolmen Passage grave Polygonal dolmen Rectangular, enlarged or extended dolmen Simple dolmen Korean dolmens exhibit a distinct from the Atlantic European dolmen. The largest concentration of dolmens in the world is found on the Korean Peninsula, with an estimated 35,000 dolmens, Korea alone accounts for nearly 40% of the world’s total. Three specific UNESCO World Heritage sites at Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa by themselves account for over 1,000 dolmens, the Korean word for dolmen is goindol supported stone. Serious studies of the Korean megalithic monuments were not undertaken until relatively recently, after 1945, new research is being conducted by Korean scholars. In 1981 a curator of National Museum of Korea, Gongil Ji, the boundary between them falls at the Bukhan River although examples of both types are found on either side. Korean dolmens can also be divided into three types, the table type, the go-table type and the unsupported capstone type
31.
Fulacht fiadh
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A fulacht fiadh is a type of archaeological site found in Ireland. In Great Britain and the Isle of Man they are known as burnt mounds and they commonly survive as a low horseshoe-shaped mound of charcoal-enriched soil and heat shattered stone with a slight depression at its centre showing the position of the pit. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the majority of fulachtaí fiadh were constructed during the mid to late Bronze Age, however, some were still in use up to medieval times. They are the most common archaeological sites in Ireland, with over 4,500 recorded examples, permanent structures are rarely found near to fulachtaí fiadh, but small hut sites are common and it is unknown whether early sites were built by permanent settlements or nomadic hunters. Many commentators suggest that the Irish word fulacht denotes a pit used for cooking, fiadh in Old Irish meant something like wild, often relating to animals such as deer. However, all commentators acknowledge significant difficulties in deriving a genuine etymology for the word fulacht, fulachtaí fiadh are usually found close to water sources, such as springs, rivers and streams, or waterlogged ground. They were also sited close to sources of suitable stone where it could be obtained close to the surface and they required a source of fuel, so would have been close to woodland. They would also have to be in proximity to whatever was being processed by boiling in the trough, once these conditions were met a fulacht fiadh could be constructed. Once the use of a fulacht fiadh had ended it was common for people to continue to use of the local landscape. Troughs may be cut into subsoil or, more rarely, into bedrock, the site may contain the remains of structures such as stone enclosures or even small buildings, and sometimes multiple hearths and additional, smaller pits. They are almost always found near running water, or in areas where a hole dug into the ground would quickly fill with water. A number of the fulachtaí fiadh pits are approximately a metre wide by 2 metres long, however, size can vary a great deal from site to site, from rather small pits lined with stones to pools conceivably large enough for people to bathe in. It is postulated that these pits were filled with water and heated stones thrown in to create a pool of boiling water in which meat was cooked and this is because when excavated, fulachtaí fiadh are found with associated charred, scorched and broken rocks. The Ballyvourney reconstruction also included attempts at heating the water. Other theories suggest that the sites may have used for bathing, the washing and dyeing of cloth. Supporters of these point to the fact that no remains of foodstuffs have been found at the fulacht fiadh sites. Once the water had reached approximately 65 degrees Celsius they added barley and after 45 minutes transferred it to separate vessels to ferment, first adding wild plant flavourings, some days later they discovered that it had transformed into a drinkable light ale. Higgins, Jim,1991, A new group of fulachta fiad in Co, mayo, in Cathair na Mart 11, pp. 31–34,1991 O’Kelley, Michael J.1989
32.
Gowk stane
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The name gowk stane has been applied to certain standing stones and glacial erratics in Scotland, often found in prominent geographical situations. Other spelling variants, such as gowke, gouk, gouke, goilk, goik, gok, goke, Gowk in Scots means a common cuckoo, but also a stupid person or fool. The word derives from the Old Norse gaukr, a cuckoo, other explanations and origins for the term are also found. The word derives from Anglo-Saxon gouk and was replaced in the south, the cuckoo family gets its English and scientific names from the call of the bird. The Scottish Gaelic names are Coi, Cuach, Cuachag, Cuthag, the Welsh for cuckoo is cog. Celtic mythology in particular is rich in references to cuckoos and the surviving folklore gives clues as to why some stones were given the gowk name, Gowk meant both cuckoo and fool, the latter were thought to be fairy-touched. The call of the cuckoo was believed to beckon the souls of the dead, and it was once commonly thought that the first appearance of a cuckoo also brought about a gowk storm, a furious spring storm. Cuckoos were said to have the power of prophesy and could foretell a persons lifespan, the number of their children, in the Outer Hebrides a cuckoos call heard when a person was hungry was bad luck, however the opposite was true if the person had recently eaten. In the churchyard at Nevern in Wales is an old stone cross, the cuckoo traditionally sends forth its first call in spring from the gowk stone at Lisdivin in Northern Ireland. A few cuckoo stones are present at sites in England and Cornwall, the various gowk stones often had other functions, such as acting as boundary markers or meeting places in what may have sometimes featureless landscapes. The gowk stone at Whitelee may have used as a pulpit of sorts by ministers preaching at conventicles held on this remote spot in Covenanting times. Gowk Stone, near Strathblane on the lane from Milndavie above the Eden Kiln suburb, gowkstone, near Hazleden one mile south-west of Mearns near Glasgow. It was known as the Speaking Stone, Gowk Stane, Laigh Overmuir, Darvel, East Ayrshire. A glacial erratic boulder in a prominent position, high Gowk Craig, Muirshiel Hills, Largs, North Ayrshire. Low Gowk Craig, Muirshiel Hills, Largs, North Ayrshire, Gowk Stone, Lisdivin, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The gowk traditionally sent forth its first call in spring from this stone, Gowk Stone, Parish of Glenmuick, Tullich and Glengairn, Aberdeenshire. This standing stone is located at NGR NJ454004 and this stone sits in a commanding site above the River North Esk and is also referred to as the Auchencorth Stone, meaning place of the fold or stone circle. Gowk Stone, Easter Dunglassie, Falkland, Lothians, a standing stone in Standing Stone Plantation near the town of Millport
33.
Inuksuk
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An inuksuk is a human-made stone landmark or cairn used by the Inuit, Iñupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America. These structures are found from Alaska to Greenland and this region, above the Arctic Circle, is dominated by the tundra biome and has areas with few natural landmarks. The Inupiat 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. Historically, the most common type of inuksuk 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 often a communal effort, at Enukso Point on Baffin Island, there are over 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 inuk and -suk and it is pronounced inutsuk in Nunavik and the southern part of Baffin Island. In many of the central Nunavut dialects, it has the related name inuksugaq. A structure similar to an inuksuk but meant to represent a human figure, 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, and the flag of Nunatsiavut. The Inuksuk High School in Iqaluit is named after the landmark, inuksuit—particularly, but not exclusively, of the inunnguaq variety—are also increasingly serving as a mainstream Canadian national symbol. The markers have been erected throughout the country, including a nine-metre-high inuksuk that stands in Toronto on the shores of Lake Ontario, located in Battery Park, it commemorates the World Youth Day 2002 festival that was 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 and its use in this context has been controversial among the Inuit, and the First Nations within British Columbia. Although the design has been questioned, people believe it pays tribute to Alvin Kanaks 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—wholly or in part—by the government of Canada, in Brisbane, Australia, Monterrey, Mexico, Oslo, Norway, the most recent Canadian-donated inuksuk was built in Monterrey in October 2007 by the Inuvialuit artist Bill Nasogaluak. The sculpture stands over the Santa Lucía Riverwalk, Nasogaluak, of Tuktoyaktuk, personally chose the rocks for the structure from a local quarry near Monterrey
34.
Ley line
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Ley lines /leɪ laɪnz/ are apparent alignments of places of significance in the geography or culture of an area, often including man-made structures. They are in the sense, ancient, straight trackways in the British landscape, or in the newer sense. In his books Early British Trackways and The Old Straight Track and he believed that a mystical network of ley lines existed across Britain. Since the publication of Michells book, the version of the concept has been adopted by other authors. On 30 June 1921, Alfred Watkins visited Blackwardine in Herefordshire, attracted by the nearby archaeological investigation of a Roman camp, he stopped his car to compare the landscape on either side of the road with the marked features on his much used map. He believed this was the ancient name for the trackways, preserved in the modern names, the ancient surveyors who supposedly made the lines were given the name dodmen. This observation was made public at a meeting of the Woolhope Naturalists Field Club of Hereford in September 1921 and his work referred to G. H. He published his book Early British Trackways the following year, commenting, I knew nothing on June 30th last of what I now communicate, and had no theories. The theory was investigated by the British Society of Dowsers and used as material by Phil Rickman in his novel The Remains of an Altar. Perhaps relevant to the ley line argument is the existence of cursuses, ranging in length from 50 metres to several kilometers, their exact function remains unknown though they are commonly believed to have been used for ceremonial processions. Many of them do encompass Neolithic graves and monuments, however, while some cursuses are relatively straight, others have curves and sharp turns. This may argue that ancient Britons had little interest in moving in lines over landscapes. Watkins work met with scepticism from archaeologists, one of whom, O. G. S. Crawford. Since 1989, refutations of Watkins ideas have been based on mathematical methods such as statistics. A statistical analysis of lines concluded, the density of sites in the British landscape is so great that a line drawn through virtually anywhere will clip a number of sites. A study by David George Kendall used the techniques of analysis to examine the triangles formed by standing stones to deduce if these were often arranged in straight lines. The shape of a triangle can be represented as a point on the sphere, the sample distribution from the standing stones was compared with the theoretical distribution to show that the occurrence of straight lines was no more than average. Archaeologist Richard Atkinson once demonstrated this by taking the positions of telephone boxes, the book, published by Sago Press, proved popular and was reprinted in Great Britain by Garnstone Press in 1972 and Abacus in 1973, and in the United States by Ballantine Books in 1972
35.
Moai
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Moai /ˈmoʊ. aɪ/, or mo‘ai, are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island in eastern Polynesia between 1250 and 1500 A. D. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, almost all moai have overly large heads three-eighths the size of the whole statue. The moai are chiefly the living faces of deified ancestors, the statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island in 1722, but all of them had fallen by the latter part of the 19th century. The production and transportation of the more than 900 statues are considered remarkable creative, the moai toppled after European contact when islander traditions radically changed. The moai are monolithic statues, their minimalist style related to forms found throughout Polynesia, Moai are carved in relatively flat planes, the faces bearing proud but enigmatic expressions. The human figures would be outlined in the wall first. The over-large heads have heavy brows and elongated noses with a distinctive fish-hook-shaped curl of the nostrils, the lips protrude in a thin pout. Like the nose, the ears are elongated and oblong in form, the jaw lines stand out against the truncated neck. The torsos are heavy, and, sometimes, the clavicles are subtly outlined in stone, generally, the anatomical features of the backs are not detailed, but sometimes bear a ring and girdle motif on the buttocks and lower back. Except for one kneeling moai, the statues do not have clearly visible legs, though moai are whole-body statues, they are erroneously referred to as Easter Island heads in some popular literature. Some of the heads at Rano Raraku have been excavated and their bodies seen, the average height of the moai is about 4 m, with the average width at the base around 1.6 m. These massive creations usually weigh in at around 12.5 tonnes each, all but 53 of the more than 900 moai known to date were carved from tuff from Rano Raraku, where 394 moai and incomplete moai are still visible today. There are also 13 moai carved from basalt,22 from trachyte and 17 from fragile red scoria, at the end of carving, the builders would rub the statue with pumice. Easter Island statues are known for their large, broad noses and strong chins, along with rectangle-shaped ears and their bodies are normally squatting, with their arms resting in different positions and are without legs. The major of the ahu are found along the coast and face inland towards the community, there are some inland ahu such as Ahu Akivi. These moai face the community but given the size of the island. The discovery was made by collecting and reassembling broken fragments of coral that were found at the various sites. Subsequently, previously uncategorized finds in the Easter Island museum were re-examined and recategorized as eye fragments, many archaeologists suggest that statues were thus symbols of authority and power, both religious and political
36.
Obelisk
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An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. These were originally called tekhenu by their builders, the Ancient Egyptians, the Greeks who saw them used the Greek obeliskos to describe them, and this word passed into Latin and ultimately English. Ancient obelisks are monolithic, that is, they consist of a single stone, though this technological capacity exists today, most modern obelisks are made of several stones, some, like the Washington Monument, are buildings. The term stele is used for other monumental, upright. Obelisks were prominent in the architecture of the ancient Egyptians, who placed them in pairs at the entrance of temples. The word obelisk as used in English today is of Greek rather than Egyptian origin because Herodotus, a number of ancient Egyptian obelisks are known to have survived, plus the Unfinished Obelisk found partly hewn from its quarry at Aswan. These obelisks are now dispersed around the world, and fewer than half of them remain in Egypt, the earliest temple obelisk still in its original position is the 68-foot 120-metric-ton red granite Obelisk of Senusret I of the XIIth Dynasty at Al-Matariyyah in modern Heliopolis. The obelisk symbolized the sun god Ra, and during the religious reformation of Akhenaten was said to be a petrified ray of the Aten. It was also thought that the god existed within the structure, Benben was the mound that arose from the primordial waters Nu upon which the creator god Atum settled in the creation story of the Heliopolitan creation myth form of Ancient Egyptian religion. The Benben stone is the top stone of the Egyptian pyramid and it is also related to the Obelisk. The pyramid and obelisk might have inspired by previously overlooked astronomical phenomena connected with sunrise and sunset. The Ancient Romans were strongly influenced by the form, to the extent that there are now more than twice as many obelisks standing in Rome as remain in Egypt. All fell after the Roman period except for the Vatican obelisk and were re-erected in different locations. The largest standing and tallest Egyptian obelisk is the Lateran Obelisk in the square at the west side of the Lateran Basilica in Rome at 105.6 feet tall, not all the Egyptian obelisks in the Roman Empire were set up at Rome. Herod the Great imitated his Roman patrons and set up a red granite Egyptian obelisk in the hippodrome of his new city Caesarea in northern Judea and this one is about 40 feet tall and weighs about 100 metric tons. It was discovered by archaeologists and has been re-erected at its former site and this one stood 95 feet tall and weighing 380 metric tons. Its lower half reputedly also once stood in Istanbul but is now lost, the Istanbul obelisk is 65 feet tall. Rome is the capital of the world
37.
Megalithic architectural elements
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This article describes several characteristic architectural elements typical of European megalithic structures. In archaeology, a forecourt is the given to the area in front of certain types of chamber tomb. Forecourts were probably the venue for ritual practices connected with the burial, in European megalithic architecture, forecourts are curved in plan with the entrance to the tomb at the apex of the open semicircle enclosure that the forecourt creates. The sides were built up by either large upright stones or walls of stones laid atop one another. Some also had paved floors and some had blocking stones erected in front of them to seal the tomb such as at West Kennet Long Barrow. Their shape, which suggests an attempt to focus attention on the tomb itself may mean that they were used ceremonially as a kind of open air auditorium during ceremonies. Excavation within some forecourts has recovered animal bone, pottery and evidence of burning suggesting that they served as locations for votive offerings or feasting dedicated to the dead, see curb for the roadside edge. In archaeology, kerb or peristalith is the name for a ring built to enclose. European dolmens especially hunebed and dyss burials often provide examples of the use of kerbs in megalithic architecture, kerbs may be built in a dry stone wall method employing small blocks or more commonly using larger stones set in the ground. When larger stones are employed, peristalith is the term more properly used, often, when the earth barrow has been weathered away, the surviving kerb can give the impression of being a stone circle although these monuments date from considerably later. Excavation of barrows without stone rings such as Fussells Lodge in Wiltshire suggests that, in these examples, famous sites with kerbs include Newgrange where many of the stones are etched with megalithic art. An example of the dry stone wall type of kerb can be seen at Parc le Breos in Wales, an orthostat is a large stone with a more or less slab-like shape that has been artificially set upright. Menhirs and other standing stones are technically orthostats although the term is used by archaeologists only to describe individual prehistoric stones that constitute part of larger structures, common examples include the walls of chamber tombs and other megalithic monuments and the vertical elements of the trilithons at Stonehenge. Especially later, orthostats may be carved with decoration in relief, in the latter case, orthostats are large thin slabs of gypsum neatly and carefully formed, for use as a wall-facing secured by metal fixings and carrying reliefs, which were then painted. Many orthostats were a focus for art, as at Knowth in Ireland. In megalithic archaeology a port-hole slab is the name of an orthostat with a hole in it sometimes found forming the entrance to a chamber tomb, the hole is usually circular but square examples or those made from two adjoining slabs each with a notch cut in it are known. They are common in the graves of the Seine-Oise-Marne culture. Portal stones are a pair of Megalithic orthostats, usually flanking the entrance to a chamber tomb and they are commonly found in dolmens
38.
Statue menhir
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A statue menhir is a type of carved standing stone created during the later European Neolithic. The statues consist of a slab or pillar with a stylised design of a human figure cut into it. They are most commonly found in southern and western France, Catalonia, Corsica, Sardinia, Italy, a group from the Iron Age also is known in Liguria and Lunigiana. There are two in Guernsey, La Gran Mère du Chimquière, a detailed example in the churchyard of Parish of Saint Martin. The latter is an earlier, less detailed example found buried underneath the porch of the parish church, Martínez, P.2011, La estatua-menhir del Pla de les Pruneres Complutum,2011, Vol.22, 71-87. Moya, A. Martínez, P. López, J. B.2010, estàtues-menhirs i esteles antropomorfes a lart megalític de Catalunya Cypsela núm 18, pp 11–41
39.
Stone row
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A stone row, is a linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones set at intervals along a common axis or series of axes, usually dating from the later Neolithic or Bronze Age. Rows may be individual or grouped, and three or more stones aligned can constitute a stone row, Stone rows can be few metres or several kilometres in length and made from stones that can be as tall as 2m, although 1m high stones are more common. The terminals of many rows have the largest stones and other features are sometimes sited at the ends. The stones are placed at intervals and may vary in height along the sequence, to provide a graduated appearance, Stone rows were erected by the later Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples in the British Isles, parts of Scandinavia and northern France. The most famous example is the Carnac stones, a complex of stone rows around Carnac in Brittany, there are a number of examples on Dartmoor including the row at Stall Down and three rows at Drizzlecombe and the Hill O Many Stanes in Caithness. In Britain they are found in isolated moorland areas. The term alignment is sometimes taken to imply that the rows were placed purposely in relation to other such as other monuments or topographical or astronomical features. Archaeologists treat stone rows as discrete features however and alignment refers to the stones being lined up one another rather than anything else. Their purpose is thought to be religious or ceremonial perhaps marking a processual route, another theory is that each generation would erect a new stone to contribute to a sequence that demonstrated a peoples continual presence. Archaeological inventory of County Cork, Volume 3, Mid Cork,9467 ColorBooks, ISBN 0-7076-4933-1 Lancaster Brown, P. Megaliths, myths, and men, an introduction to astro-archaeology. English Heritage Monument Description Thesaurus listing Megalith Map of Stone Circles and Rows
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Stone ship
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The stone ship or ship setting was an early burial custom in Scandinavia, Northern Germany and the Baltic states. The grave or cremation burial was surrounded by slabs or stones in the shape of a ship. The ships vary in size and were erected from c.1000 BC to 1000 AD. Stone ship were a burial custom, characteristically Scandinavian but also found in Northern Germany. The grave or cremation burial was surrounded by tightly or loosely fit slabs or stones in the outline of a ship and they are often found in grave fields, but are sometimes far from any other archaeological remains. Ship settings are of varying sizes, some of monumental proportions, the largest known is the mostly destroyed Jelling stone ship in Denmark, which was at least 170 m long. In Sweden, the size varies from 67 m to only a few metres, inside, they can be cobbled or filled with stones, or have raised stones in the positions of masts. The illusion of being ships has often been reinforced by larger stones at the ends, scattered examples are found in Northern Germany and along the coast of the Baltic States. Excavations have shown that they are usually from the part of the Nordic Bronze Age, c.1000 BC –500 BC or from the Germanic Iron Age, the Vendel Period. One puzzling feature is that sometimes occur at the base of a barrow. 800 m north of Bække there is a 45 m ship which dates to the Viking Age. Under the southern mound in Jelling, Denmark, which is associated with Queen Thyra, remains of a giant Viking Age stone ship have been found, by far the largest known, kerteminde fjord, Denmark, a 20 m ship which dates to the Viking Age. An approximately 80 m ship of 28 stones, the ship was cleared in 1921 by a landowner, but some local people interested in history succeeded in saving the stones. The highest concentration of well-preserved stone ships, altes Lager near Anklam, Western Pomerania, Germany. The stone ships date back to the 9th century, ales Stones is a stone ship in southernmost Sweden. It is 67 m long and 19 m wide, Anundshög double stone ship at Anundshög has a total length of 100 m and one of the ships is 25 m wide. In the same there are several smaller stone ships. Askeberga stone ships is Swedens second largest stone ship, measuring 55 m in length and it is, however, the most remarkable one as it is made of 24 enormous boulders, weighing about 25 tonnes each. The stone ship at Blomsholm near Strömstad in Bohuslän measures more than 40 m in length, the bow and stern are about 4 m high
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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Neolithic Europe
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Neolithic Europe is the period when Neolithic technology was present in Europe, roughly between 7000 BCE and c.1700 BCE. The Neolithic overlaps the Mesolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe as cultural changes moved from the southeast to northwest at about 1 km/year - this is called Neolithic Expansion. Polished stone axes lie at the heart of the culture, enabling forest clearance for agriculture and production of wood for dwellings. Since the 1970s, population genetics has provided independent data on the history of Neolithic Europe, including migration events. Remains of food-producing societies in the Aegean have been carbon-dated to around 6500 BCE at Knossos, Franchthi Cave, Neolithic groups appear soon afterwards in the Balkans and south-central Europe. The Neolithic cultures of southeastern Europe show some continuity with groups in southwest Asia and Anatolia. All Neolithic sites in Europe contain ceramics, and contain the plants and animals domesticated in Southwest Asia, einkorn, emmer, barley, lentils, pigs, goats, sheep, and cattle. Genetic data suggest that no independent domestication of animals took place in Neolithic Europe, the only domesticate not from Southwest Asia was broomcorn millet, domesticated in East Asia. The earliest evidence of cheese-making dates to 5500 BCE in Kujawy, archaeologists seem to agree that the culture of the early Neolithic is relatively homogeneous, compared both to the late Mesolithic and the later Neolithic. The diffusion across Europe, from the Aegean to Britain, took about 2,500 years, the Baltic region was penetrated a bit later, around 3500 BCE, and there was also a delay in settling the Pannonian plain. In general, colonization shows a pattern, as the Neolithic advanced from one patch of fertile alluvial soil to another. With some exceptions, population rose rapidly at the beginning of the Neolithic until they reached the carrying capacity. This was followed by a crash of enormous magnitude after 5000 BCE. Populations began to rise after 3500 BCE, with further dips, a study of twelve European regions found most experienced boom and bust patterns and suggested an endogenous, not climatic cause. Archaeologists agree that the associated with agriculture originated in the Levant/Near East. However, debate exists whether this resulted from an active process from the Near East, or merely due to cultural contact. Currently, three models summarize the pattern of spread, Replacement model, posits that there was a significant migration of farmers from the Fertile Crescent into Europe. Given their technological advantages, they would have displaced or absorbed the less numerous hunter-gathering populace, thus, modern Europeans are primarily descended from these Neolithic farmers
