Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, biofacts or ecofacts, Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. In North America, archaeology is considered a sub-field of anthropology, archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology as a field is distinct from the discipline of palaeontology, Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies across the world, Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time.
The discipline involves surveying and eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past, in broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past. Nonetheless, archaeologists face many problems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of public interest, the science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts. Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment era in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, in Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Age. Antiquarians, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, one of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England.
John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other monuments in southern England. He was ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings and he attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture and shield-shapes. Excavations were carried out in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and these excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii, while in Herculaneum they began in 1738. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and even human shapes, prior to the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard, the importance of concepts such as stratification and context were overlooked. The father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington and he undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798, funded by Sir Richard Colt Hoare. Cunnington made meticulous recordings of neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, one of the major achievements of 19th century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy.
The idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith, James Hutton, the application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites
Obsidian
Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock. It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth, Obsidian is commonly found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows, where the chemical composition induces a high viscosity and polymerization degree of the lava. The inhibition of atomic diffusion through this highly viscous and polymerized lava explains the lack of crystal growth. Obsidian is hard and brittle, it therefore fractures with very sharp edges, which were used in the past in cutting and piercing tools, among the various forms of glass we may reckon Obsidian glass, a substance very similar to the stone found by Obsidius in Ethiopia. Obsidian is the rock formed as a result of quickly cooled lava, tektites were once thought by many to be obsidian produced by lunar volcanic eruptions, though few scientists now adhere to this hypothesis. Obsidian is mineral-like, but not a true mineral because as a glass it is not crystalline, in addition and it is sometimes classified as a mineraloid.
Though obsidian is usually dark in color similar to mafic rocks such as basalt, Obsidian consists mainly of SiO2, usually 70% or more. Crystalline rocks with obsidians composition include granite and rhyolite, because obsidian is metastable at the Earths surface, no obsidian has been found that is older than Cretaceous age. This breakdown of obsidian is accelerated by the presence of water, having a low water content when newly formed, typically less than 1% water by weight, obsidian becomes progressively hydrated when exposed to groundwater, forming perlite. Pure obsidian is usually dark in appearance, though the color varies depending on the presence of impurities and other transition elements may give the obsidian a dark brown to black color. Very few samples are nearly colorless, in some stones, the inclusion of small, radially clustered crystals of cristobalite in the black glass produce a blotchy or snowflake pattern. Obsidian may contain patterns of gas bubbles remaining from the lava flow and these bubbles can produce interesting effects such as a golden sheen.
An iridescent, rainbow-like sheen is caused by inclusions of magnetite nanoparticles, Obsidian can be found in locations which have experienced rhyolitic eruptions. Obsidian can be found in the eastern U. S. states of Virginia, as well as Pennsylvania, there are only four major deposit areas in the central Mediterranean, Pantelleria and Monte Arci. Ancient sources in the Aegean were Milos and Gyali, acıgöl town and the Göllü Dağ volcano were the most important sources in central Anatolia, one of the more important source areas in the prehistoric Near East. Use of obsidian in pottery of the Neolithic in the area around Lipari was found to be less at a distance representing two weeks journeying. Anatolian sources of obsidian are known to have been the used in the Levant. The first attested civilized use is from excavations at Tell Brak dated the late fifth millennia, Obsidian was valued in Stone Age cultures because, like flint, it could be fractured to produce sharp blades or arrowheads
Anno Domini
The terms anno Domini and before Christ are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term anno Domini is Medieval Latin and means in the year of the Lord, There is no year zero in this scheme, so the year AD1 immediately follows the year 1 BC. This dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus of Scythia Minor, the Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world today. Traditionally, English followed Latin usage by placing the AD abbreviation before the year number, however, BC is placed after the year number, which preserves syntactic order. The abbreviation is widely used after the number of a century or millennium. Because BC is the English abbreviation for Before Christ, it is sometimes concluded that AD means After Death. However, this would mean that the approximate 33 years commonly associated with the life of Jesus would not be included in either of the BC, astronomical year numbering and ISO8601 avoid words or abbreviations related to Christianity, but use the same numbers for AD years.
The Anno Domini dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus to enumerate the years in his Easter table. His system was to replace the Diocletian era that had used in an old Easter table because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians. The last year of the old table, Diocletian 247, was followed by the first year of his table. Thus Dionysius implied that Jesus Incarnation occurred 525 years earlier, without stating the year during which his birth or conception occurred. Blackburn & Holford-Strevens briefly present arguments for 2 BC,1 BC, There were inaccuracies in the list of consuls There were confused summations of emperors regnal years It is not known how Dionysius established the year of Jesuss birth. It is convenient to initiate a calendar not from the day of an event. For example, the Islamic calendar begins not from the date of the Hegira, at the time, it was believed by some that the Resurrection and end of the world would occur 500 years after the birth of Jesus.
The old Anno Mundi calendar theoretically commenced with the creation of the based on information in the Old Testament. It was believed that, based on the Anno Mundi calendar, Anno Mundi 6000 was thus equated with the resurrection and the end of the world but this date had already passed in the time of Dionysius. The Anglo-Saxon historian the Venerable Bede, who was familiar with the work of Dionysius Exiguus, used Anno Domini dating in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731. e. On the continent of Europe, Anno Domini was introduced as the era of choice of the Carolingian Renaissance by the English cleric and scholar Alcuin in the late eighth century
Great Goddess of Teotihuacan
The Great Goddess of Teotihuacan is a proposed goddess of the pre-Columbian Teotihuacan civilization, in what is now Mexico. In years leading up to 1942, a series of murals were found in the Tepantitla compound in Teotihuacan, the Tepantitla compound provided housing for what appears to have been high status citizens and its walls are adorned with brightly painted frescoes. The largest figures within the murals depicted complex and ornate deities or supernaturals, in 1942, archaeologist Alfonso Caso identified these central figures as a Teotihuacan equivalent of Tlaloc, the Mesoamerican god of rain and warfare. This was the view for some 30 years. In 1974, Peter Furst suggested that the murals instead showed a feminine deity and their analysis of the murals was based on a number of factors including the gender of accompanying figures, the green bird in the headdress, and the spiders seen above the figure. Pasztory concluded that the figures represented a vegetation and fertility goddess that was a predecessor of the much Aztec goddess Xochiquetzal, in 1983, Karl Taube termed this goddess the Teotihuacan Spider Woman.
The more neutral description of this deity as the Great Goddess has since gained currency, the 3-metre-high blocky statue which formerly sat near the base of the Pyramid of Moon is thought to represent the Great Goddess, despite the absence of the bird-headdress or the fanged nosepiece. Esther Pasztory speculates that the Great Goddess, as a distant and ambivalent mother figure, was able to provide a structure for Teotihuacan that transcended divisions within the city. The Great Goddess is apparently peculiar to Teotihuacan, and does not appear outside the city except where Teotihuacanos settled. There is very little trace of the Great Goddess in the Valley of Mexicos Toltec culture, although an earth goddess image has been identified on Stela 1, from Xochicalco, a Toltec contemporary. The wresting of this aspect from the Great Goddess was memorialized in the myth Huitzilopochtli, berlo sees echoes of the Great Goddess in the veneration of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Two major defining characteristics of the Great Goddess are a bird headress, the outer fangs curl away from the center, while the middle fang points down.
Other defining characteristics include the red and yellow, note that the Goddess appears with a yellowish cast in both murals. In the depiction from the Tepantitla compound, the Great Goddess appears with vegetation growing out of her head and butterflies appear on the vegetation and water drips from its branches and flows from the hands of the Great Goddess. Water flows from her lower body and these many representations of water led Caso to declare this to be a representation of the rain god, Tlaloc. Several of these figures are swimming in the rivers flowing from a mountain at the bottom of the scene. The Great Goddess is thought to have been a goddess of the underworld, the earth, water and possibly even creation itself. To the ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica, the jaguar, the owl, the fact that the Great Goddess is frequently depicted with all of these creatures further supports the idea of her underworld connections
Japan
Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD.
Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭.
It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only extant Panthera species native to the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, the jaguars present range extends from Southwestern United States and Mexico across much of Central America and south to Paraguay and northern Argentina. Apart from a known and possibly breeding population in Arizona and the bootheel of New Mexico and this spotted cat most closely resembles the leopard physically, although it is usually larger and of sturdier build and its behavioral and habitat characteristics are closer to those of the tiger. While dense rainforest is its habitat, the jaguar will range across a variety of forested. Its preferred habitats are swamps and wooded regions, but jaguars live in scrublands. The jaguar is notable, along with the tiger, as a feline that enjoys swimming, the jaguar is largely a solitary, stalk-and-ambush predator at the top of the food chain. It is a species, playing an important role in stabilizing ecosystems.
The jaguar has a powerful bite, even relative to the other big cats. This allows it to pierce the shells of armored reptiles and to employ an unusual killing method, the jaguar is a near threatened species and its numbers are declining. Threats include loss and fragmentation of habitat, while international trade in jaguars or their parts is prohibited, the cat is still frequently killed by humans, particularly in conflicts with ranchers and farmers in South America. Although reduced, its range remains large, given its historical distribution, the jaguar has featured prominently in the mythology of numerous indigenous American cultures, including those of the Maya and Aztec. The word jaguar comes to English from one of the Tupi–Guarani languages, presumably the Amazonian trade language Tupinambá, the Tupian word, yaguara beast, is sometimes translated as dog. The specific word for jaguar is yaguareté, with the suffix -eté meaning real or true, the first component of its taxonomic designation, Panthera, is Latin, from the Greek word for leopard, πάνθηρ, the type species for the genus.
Onca is the Portuguese onça, with the cedilla dropped for reasons, found in English as ounce for the snow leopard. It derives from the Latin lyncea lynx, with the letter L confused with the definite article, the jaguar, Panthera onca, is the only extant New World member of the genus Panthera.8 million years ago. Phylogenetic studies generally have shown the clouded leopard is basal to this group, the position of the remaining species varies between studies and is effectively unresolved. Based on morphological evidence, British zoologist Reginald Pocock concluded the jaguar is most closely related to the leopard, however, DNA evidence is inconclusive and the position of the jaguar relative to the other species varies between studies. Fossils of extinct Panthera species, such as the European jaguar, analysis of jaguar mitochondrial DNA has dated the species lineage to between 280,000 and 510,000 years ago, than suggested by fossil records
Pyramid of the Sun
The Pyramid of the Sun is the largest building in Teotihuacan, believed to have been constructed about 200 CE, and one of the largest in Mesoamerica. The name Pyramid of the Sun comes from the Aztecs, who visited the city of Teotihuacan centuries after it was abandoned and it was constructed in two phases. The first construction stage, around 100 CE, brought the pyramid to nearly the size it is today, the second phase saw the construction of an altar atop of the pyramid, which has not survived into modern times. Over the structure the ancient Teotihuacanos finished their pyramid with lime plaster imported from surrounding areas, while the pyramid has endured for centuries, the paint and plaster have not and are no longer visible. Jaguar heads and paws and snake rattles are among the few images associated with the pyramids and it is thought that the pyramid venerated a deity within Teotihuacan society, little evidence exists to support this hypothesis. The orientation of the structure may hold some anthropological significance, the day of August 12 is significant because it would have marked the date of the beginning of the present era and the initial day of the Maya long-count calendar.
In addition, many important astronomical events can be viewed from the location of the pyramid that are important in terms of agriculture and belief systems of the ancient society. The pyramid was built over a tunnel leading to a cave located six metres down beneath the centre of the structure. Originally this was believed to be a naturally formed lava tube cave and interpreted as possibly the place of Chicomoztoc, more recent excavations have suggested that the space is man-made and could have served as a royal tomb. Only a few caches of artifacts have been found in and around the pyramid and these objects may have represented sacrificial victims. A unique historical artifact discovered near the foot of the pyramid at the end of the century was the Teotihuacan Ocelot. In addition, burial sites of children have found in excavations at the corners of the pyramid. It is believed that these burials were part of a sacrificial ritual dedicating the building of the pyramid, List of Mesoamerican pyramids List of tallest ancient structures
Teotihuacan
Additionally, Teotihuacan exported fine obsidian tools that garnered high prestige and widespread usage throughout Mesoamerica. The city is thought to have been established around 100 BC, the city may have lasted until sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries AD, but its major monuments were sacked and systematically burned around 550 AD. Teotihuacan began as a new center in the Mexican Highlands around the first century AD. This city came to be the largest and most populated center in the pre-Columbian Americas, Teotihuacan was even home to multi-floor apartment compounds built to accommodate this large population. The term Teotihuacan is used for the civilization and cultural complex associated with the site. The Aztecs saw these magnificent ruins and claimed a common ancestry with the Teotihuacanos, the ethnicity of the inhabitants of Teotihuacan is a subject of debate. Possible candidates are the Nahua, Otomi, or Totonac ethnic groups, scholars have suggested that Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic state.
The city and the site are located in what is now the San Juan Teotihuacán municipality in the State of México. The site covers a surface area of 83 square kilometres and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. It is the most visited site in Mexico. The name Teōtīhuacān was given by the Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs centuries after the fall of the city around 550 A. D, the term has been glossed as birthplace of the gods, or place where gods were born, reflecting Nahua creation myths that were said to occur in Teotihuacan. Nahuatl scholar Thelma D. Sullivan interprets the name as place of those who have the road of the gods and this is because the Aztecs believed that the gods created the universe at that site. The name is pronounced in Nahuatl, with the accent on the syllable wa, by normal Nahuatl orthographic conventions, a written accent would not appear in that position. Both this pronunciation and Spanish pronunciation, are used, and both appear in this article. The original name of the city is unknown, but it appears in texts from the Maya region as puh.
This naming convention led to confusion in the early 20th century. It now seems clear that Tollan may be understood as a generic Nahua term applied to any large settlement, the early history of Teotihuacan is quite mysterious, and the origin of its founders is uncertain. Around 300 BC, people of the central and southeastern area of Mesoamerica began to gather into larger settlements, Teotihuacan was the largest urban center of Mesoamerica before the Aztecs, almost 1000 years prior to their epoch
Moon
The Moon is an astronomical body that orbits planet Earth, being Earths only permanent natural satellite. It is the fifth-largest natural satellite in the Solar System, following Jupiters satellite Io, the Moon is second-densest satellite among those whose densities are known. The average distance of the Moon from the Earth is 384,400 km, the Moon is thought to have formed about 4.51 billion years ago, not long after Earth. It is the second-brightest regularly visible celestial object in Earths sky, after the Sun and its surface is actually dark, although compared to the night sky it appears very bright, with a reflectance just slightly higher than that of worn asphalt. Its prominence in the sky and its cycle of phases have made the Moon an important cultural influence since ancient times on language, art. The Moons gravitational influence produces the ocean tides, body tides, and this matching of apparent visual size will not continue in the far future. The Moons linear distance from Earth is currently increasing at a rate of 3.82 ±0.07 centimetres per year, since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the Moon has been visited only by uncrewed spacecraft.
The usual English proper name for Earths natural satellite is the Moon, the noun moon is derived from moone, which developed from mone, which is derived from Old English mōna, which ultimately stems from Proto-Germanic *mǣnōn, like all Germanic language cognates. Occasionally, the name Luna is used, in literature, especially science fiction, Luna is used to distinguish it from other moons, while in poetry, the name has been used to denote personification of our moon. The principal modern English adjective pertaining to the Moon is lunar, a less common adjective is selenic, derived from the Ancient Greek Selene, from which is derived the prefix seleno-. Both the Greek Selene and the Roman goddess Diana were alternatively called Cynthia, the names Luna and Selene are reflected in terminology for lunar orbits in words such as apolune and selenocentric. The name Diana is connected to dies meaning day, several mechanisms have been proposed for the Moons formation 4.51 billion years ago, and some 60 million years after the origin of the Solar System.
These hypotheses cannot account for the angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system. This hypothesis, although not perfect, perhaps best explains the evidence, eighteen months prior to an October 1984 conference on lunar origins, Bill Hartmann, Roger Phillips, and Jeff Taylor challenged fellow lunar scientists, You have eighteen months. Go back to your Apollo data, go back to computer, do whatever you have to. Dont come to our conference unless you have something to say about the Moons birth, at the 1984 conference at Kona, the giant impact hypothesis emerged as the most popular. Afterward there were only two groups, the giant impact camp and the agnostics. Giant impacts are thought to have been common in the early Solar System, computer simulations of a giant impact have produced results that are consistent with the mass of the lunar core and the present angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public metropolitan research university on five campuses across the Phoenix, metropolitan area, and four regional learning centers throughout Arizona. The 2016 university ratings by U. S. News & World Report rank ASU No.1 among the Most Innovative Schools in America for the year in a row. ASU is the largest public university by enrollment in the U. S and it had approximately 82,060 students enrolled in 2014, including 66,309 undergraduate and 15,751 graduate students. ASUs charter, approved by the board of regents in 2014, is based on the New American University model created by ASU President Crow, ASU is classified as a research university with very high research activity by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The Center for Measuring University Performance ranks ASU 31st among top U. S. public research universities, ASU was classified as a Research I institute in 1994, making it one of the nations newest major research universities.
Students compete in 25 varsity sports, the Arizona State Sun Devils are members of the Pac-12 Conference and have won 23 NCAA championships. Along with multiple clubs and recreational facilities, ASU is home to more than 1,100 registered student organizations. To keep pace with the student populations growth, the university continuously renovates, the demand for new academic halls, athletic facilities, student recreation centers, and residential halls is being addressed with donor contributions and public-private investments. The campus consisted of a single, four-room schoolhouse on a 20-acre plot largely donated by Tempe residents George, classes began with 33 students on February 8,1886. The school accepted high school students and graduates, and awarded high school diplomas, in 1923 the school stopped offering high school courses and added a high school diploma to the admissions requirements. In 1925 the school became the Tempe State Teachers College and offered four-year Bachelor of Education degrees as well as two-year teaching certificates, in 1929, the legislature authorized Bachelor of Arts in Education degrees as well, and the school was renamed the Arizona State Teachers College.
Under the 30-year tenure of president Arthur John Matthews the school was given all-college student status, the first dormitories built in the state were constructed under his supervision. Of the 18 buildings constructed while Matthews was president, six are still in use, Matthews envisioned an evergreen campus, with many shrubs brought to the campus, and implemented the planting of Palm Walk, now a landmark of the Tempe campus. His legacy is being continued to this day with the campus having been declared a nationally recognized arboretum. During the Great Depression, Ralph W. Swetman was hired as president for a three-year term, although enrollment increased by almost 100 percent during his tenure due to the depression, many faculty were terminated and faculty salaries were cut. In 1933, Grady Gammage, president of Arizona State Teachers College at Flagstaff, became president of ASU, like his predecessor, Gammage oversaw construction of a number of buildings on the Tempe campus. He oversaw the development of the graduate programs.
The schools name was changed to Arizona State College in 1945, at the time, two other names considered were Tempe University and State University at Tempe
