1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Quadrangle (architecture)
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In architecture, a quadrangle is a space or courtyard, usually rectangular in plan, the sides of which are entirely or mainly occupied by parts of a large building. The word is probably most closely associated with college or university campus architecture, most quadrangles are open-air, while a few have been roofed over, to provide additional space for social meeting areas or coffee shops for students. The word quadrangle was originally synonymous with quadrilateral, but this usage is now relatively uncommon, some modern quadrangles resemble cloister gardens of medieval monasteries, called garths, which were usually square or rectangular, enclosed by covered arcades or cloisters. However, it is clear from the oldest examples which are plain and unadorned with arcades, grander quadrangles that look like cloisters came later, once the idea of a college was well established and benefactors or founders wished to create more monumental buildings. In North America, Thomas Jeffersons design for the University of Virginia centered the housing, later, some American college and university planners imitated the Jeffersonian plan, the Oxbridge idea, Beaux-Arts forms, and other models. The University of Chicagos Gothic campus is notable for its innovative use of quadrangles. All five barracks at The Citadel feature quadrangles with red-and-white squares, quadrangles are also found in traditional Kerala houses and is known as the Nadumittam
3.
British Museum
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The British Museum is dedicated to human history, art and culture, and is located in the Bloomsbury area of London. The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician, the museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building. Although today principally a museum of art objects and antiquities. Its foundations lie in the will of the Irish-born British physician, on 7 June 1753, King George II gave his formal assent to the Act of Parliament which established the British Museum. They were joined in 1757 by the Old Royal Library, now the Royal manuscripts, together these four foundation collections included many of the most treasured books now in the British Library including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the sole surviving copy of Beowulf. The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public, sloanes collection, while including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests. The addition of the Cotton and Harley manuscripts introduced a literary, the body of trustees decided on a converted 17th-century mansion, Montagu House, as a location for the museum, which it bought from the Montagu family for £20,000. The Trustees rejected Buckingham House, on the now occupied by Buckingham Palace, on the grounds of cost. With the acquisition of Montagu House the first exhibition galleries and reading room for scholars opened on 15 January 1759. During the few years after its foundation the British Museum received several gifts, including the Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts. A list of donations to the Museum, dated 31 January 1784, in the early 19th century the foundations for the extensive collection of sculpture began to be laid and Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts dominated the antiquities displays. Gifts and purchases from Henry Salt, British consul general in Egypt, beginning with the Colossal bust of Ramesses II in 1818, many Greek sculptures followed, notably the first purpose-built exhibition space, the Charles Towneley collection, much of it Roman Sculpture, in 1805. In 1816 these masterpieces of art, were acquired by The British Museum by Act of Parliament. The collections were supplemented by the Bassae frieze from Phigaleia, Greece in 1815, the Ancient Near Eastern collection also had its beginnings in 1825 with the purchase of Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities from the widow of Claudius James Rich. The neoclassical architect, Sir Robert Smirke, was asked to draw up plans for an extension to the Museum. For the reception of the Royal Library, and a Picture Gallery over it, and put forward plans for todays quadrangular building, much of which can be seen today. The dilapidated Old Montagu House was demolished and work on the Kings Library Gallery began in 1823, the extension, the East Wing, was completed by 1831. The Museum became a site as Sir Robert Smirkes grand neo-classical building gradually arose
4.
Foster and Partners
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Foster + Partners is a British international studio for architecture and integrated design, with headquarters in London. The practice is led by its founder and Chairman, Norman Foster, established by Norman Foster as Foster Associates in 1967 shortly after leaving Team 4, the firm was renamed in the 1990s to more accurately reflect the influence of the other lead architects. In 2007 the private equity company 3i took a stake in the practice and this was bought back by the practice in June 2014 to become wholly owned by the 140 partners. C. The paper cited environmentalists concerns over the impact of the planned 15,000 inhabitant resort facilities. The Bulgarian partner, Georgi Stanishev, is the brother of Sergei Stanishev, Leader of Bulgarian Socialist Party, antoinette Nassopoulos, Foster + Partners Virgin Red Hot Design talk
5.
Colin St John Wilson
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Sir Colin Alexander St John Wilson, FRIBA, RA, was a British architect, lecturer and author. He spent over 30 years progressing the project to build a new British Library in London, originally planned to be built in Bloomsbury, Wilson was born in Cheltenham, the younger son of Henry Wilson, a Church of England clergyman who became Bishop of Chelmsford from 1929. His father was known as the Red Bishop as a result of his sympathy for the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War. Wilson was educated at Felsted School, and he studied history and then architecture at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge from 1940 to 1942 and he served as a lieutenant in a Communication Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm in Europe during the Second World War and then India. He was demobilised in 1946, he completed his studies under Sir Albert Richardson at the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London, first he married Muriel Lavender in 1955, but they were later divorced in 1971. Then he married the architect Mary Jane Long, a partner of Long & Kentish architects, in 1972, with Long together he has one son. Long and Wilson often collaborated on design projects and he worked for a development company for a year before becoming a lecturer in architecture at Cambridge University in 1956, where Martin had been appointed Professor of Architecture. Wilson met Finnish architect Alvar Aalto through Martin and this had a impact on his following building. He was a Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge from 1962 to 1971 and he retired from teaching in 1969 to concentrate on his architectural practice. Wilson designed his own home in Cambridge on Grantchester Road and he was commissioned to design the proposed Liverpool Civic and Social Centre, but the building was never finished, being deemed fascist by the council. He also designed an extension for the British Museum which was never realised. He described it as his 30-year war, the original scheme would have created a piazza to the south of the British Museum, but would have required the demolition of a large part of Bloomsbury. After a public protest, a new site was further north. A design was approved in 1978, but then delayed by the change of government after the 1979 general election, the building was shortlised for the RIBA Stirling Prize in 1998. Wilson returned to Cambridge to become Professor of Architecture in 1975 and he was a Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge from 1977 to his death in 2007. He retired in 1989, becoming a professor emeritus and he became a trustee of the Tate Gallery in 1974, and a trustee of the National Gallery in 1977, retiring from both positions in 1980. He was a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and he was knighted in 1998 for services to architecture, and was an Honorary Fellow at Churchill College from 1998 to 2007. He received honorary doctorates from the universities of Cambridge, Essex and he was a visiting professor at Yale four times and at MIT from 1970 to 1972
6.
Elizabeth II
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Elizabeth II has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February 1952. Elizabeth was born in London as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake duties during the Second World War. Elizabeths many historic visits and meetings include a visit to the Republic of Ireland. She has seen major changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation. She has reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms and she is the worlds oldest reigning monarch as well as Britains longest-lived. In October 2016, she became the longest currently reigning monarch, in 2017 she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee. Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the family, however, support for the monarchy remains high. Elizabeth was born at 02,40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather and her father, Prince Albert, Duke of York, was the second son of the King. Her mother, Elizabeth, Duchess of York, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and she was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfathers London house,17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. Elizabeths only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930, the two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as Crawfie. Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music, Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margarets childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family. The book describes Elizabeths love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, others echoed such observations, Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant and her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved. During her grandfathers reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, the Duke of York. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, many people believed that he would marry and have children of his own. When her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, later that year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Consequently, Elizabeths father became king, and she became heir presumptive, if her parents had had a later son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession
7.
Tessellation
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A tessellation of a flat surface is the tiling of a plane using one or more geometric shapes, called tiles, with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellations can be generalized to higher dimensions and a variety of geometries, a periodic tiling has a repeating pattern. The patterns formed by periodic tilings can be categorized into 17 wallpaper groups, a tiling that lacks a repeating pattern is called non-periodic. An aperiodic tiling uses a set of tile shapes that cannot form a repeating pattern. In the geometry of higher dimensions, a space-filling or honeycomb is called a tessellation of space. A real physical tessellation is a made of materials such as cemented ceramic squares or hexagons. Such tilings may be decorative patterns, or may have such as providing durable and water-resistant pavement. Historically, tessellations were used in Ancient Rome and in Islamic art such as in the decorative geometric tiling of the Alhambra palace, in the twentieth century, the work of M. C. Escher often made use of tessellations, both in ordinary Euclidean geometry and in geometry, for artistic effect. Tessellations are sometimes employed for decorative effect in quilting, Tessellations form a class of patterns in nature, for example in the arrays of hexagonal cells found in honeycombs. Tessellations were used by the Sumerians in building wall decorations formed by patterns of clay tiles, decorative mosaic tilings made of small squared blocks called tesserae were widely employed in classical antiquity, sometimes displaying geometric patterns. In 1619 Johannes Kepler made a documented study of tessellations. He wrote about regular and semiregular tessellations in his Harmonices Mundi, he was possibly the first to explore and to explain the structures of honeycomb. Some two hundred years later in 1891, the Russian crystallographer Yevgraf Fyodorov proved that every periodic tiling of the features one of seventeen different groups of isometries. Fyodorovs work marked the beginning of the mathematical study of tessellations. Other prominent contributors include Shubnikov and Belov, and Heinrich Heesch, in Latin, tessella is a small cubical piece of clay, stone or glass used to make mosaics. The word tessella means small square and it corresponds to the everyday term tiling, which refers to applications of tessellations, often made of glazed clay. Tessellation or tiling in two dimensions is a topic in geometry that studies how shapes, known as tiles, can be arranged to fill a plane without any gaps, according to a given set of rules
8.
BuroHappold Engineering
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Originally working mainly on projects in the Middle East, the firm now operates worldwide and in almost all areas of engineering for the built environment, with 23 offices around the world. Edmund, or Ted, Happold worked at Arup before founding BuroHappold, where he worked on such as the Sydney Opera House. Ted Happold died in 1996, but the claims to maintain his views on engineering. BuroHappold was founded on 1 May 1976, with its first office on Gay Street in Bath, United Kingdom. The firm started with eight partners, The Kings Office, Council of Ministers and Majlis Al Shura, Central Government Complex in Riyadh, in 1982 BuroHappold started to work with Future Tents Ltd on a variety of temporary and recreational structures. The firms combined their operations in 1992, but split again in 1997, in 1983, BuroHappold opened an office in Riyadh, and has since opened offices around the UK and internationally, By 1993, BuroHappold had 130 employees and eight partners. In 1998 this had grown to 300 employees and 12 partners, in 2006 the partnership stood at 25 with over 1400 employees and 14 offices. SMART also develops Buro Happolds in-house software Tensyl, a finite element analysis and patterning program for fabric structures. Also notable is its group COSA, which undertakes computational modelling and analysis, in 2007 BuroHappold became a limited liability partnership, and in 2008 appointed 18 new partners. The firm is a limited liability partnership with 52 partners, the Mannheim Multihalle was a timber gridshell of 50 by 50 mm lathes of hemlock of irregular form, depending on the elasticity of spring washers at the joints for its flexible form. It was one of the first major uses of structural gridshells, following the development of fabric structures expertise on the projects with Frei Otto, BuroHappold was instrumental in further developing the knowledge and technology of fabric structures. They also designed the, at the time, largest fabric canopy in Europe at the Ashford Designer Outlet in the UK, the expertise in wooden gridshell structures has resulted in the design of structures such as the Weald and Downland Museum and the Savill Building in Windsor Great Park. The firm has worked with Shigeru Ban on a number of other projects, another design in cardboard was the Westborough School cardboard classroom in Westcliff. One Angel Square in Manchester Arsenal F. C. C, United States, a curved steel grid roof clad in square glass overlapping panels. Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, a four-tiered,50,000 seater national football, philippine Arena, in the Philippines is the largest indoor arena in the world in terms of seating capacity. It can hold up to 60,000 seats, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, a new museum in Dallas The Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center, a rail and bus transportation hub in Anaheim, California. The High Line Park in New York City, a park occupying a disused elevated railway line, Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof redevelopment, in Stuttgart, Germany, a project to realign the Deutsche Bahns rail lines so they can be joined to the intra-European network. The sub-terranean station will be roofed with a park, with organically shaped, reinforced concrete shells with petal-shaped sections terminating as skylights
9.
Waagner-Biro
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Waagner-Biro is a Vienna, Austria-based corporation which owns companies in steel and mechanical engineering. It has about 1000 employees in 14 locations in Europe, Asia, Waagner Biro Stahlbau Group has divisions in steel and glass engineering and bridge construction. Waagner-Biro Stage Systems Group is a manufacturer of stage equipment. Qualter, Hall & Co Ltd. builds bridges and also deals with mechanical engineering, on October 16,1854, the Vienna city magistrate granted Rudolph Philipp Waagner an Iron trade authorisation. That same year, Anton Biró and Albert Milde & Co. merged, the company first used the name Waagner-Biro in 1924. In 1906, the company provided the Vienna State Opera with stage equipment, forty years later, the company rebuilt the opera houses roof. Waagner-Biro won another award in 2003 for the British Museums Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, between 1910 and 1932, the company completed Schweden Bridge, Floridsdorf Bridge, Frieden Bridge, Augarten Bridge, and other bridges in Vienna. In 1960, Waagner-Biro worked on stage engineering for Sydney Opera, the Waagner-Biro process for cooling and quenching hot coke was introduced in the 1970s. In 1982, the Dubai branch office opened, in 2000, Waagner-Biro Gulf LLC was established. In 2003, the engineering companies went under the name Stage Systems
10.
British Museum Reading Room
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The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library. In 1997, this moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras, London. Designed by Sydney Smirke and opened in 1857, the Reading Room was in use until its temporary closure for renovation in 1997. It was reopened in 2000, and from 2007 to 2014 it was used to temporary exhibitions. It has since been closed while its use remains under discussion. The building was designed by Sydney Smirke and was constructed between 1854 and 1857, the building used cast iron, concrete, glass and the latest technology in ventilation and heating. Book stacks built around the room were made of iron to take the huge weight. There were forty kilometres of shelving in the prior to the librarys relocation to the new site. The Reading Room was officially opened on 2 May 1857 with a breakfast laid out on the catalogue desks, a public viewing was held between 8 and 16 May which attracted over 62,000 visitors. Tickets to it included a plan of the library, regular users had to apply in writing and be issued a readers ticket by the Principal Librarian. G. Wells and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in 1997 the British Library moved to its own specially constructed building next to St Pancras Station and all the books and shelving were removed. The Reading Room was reopened in 2000, allowing all visitors and it held a collection of 25,000 books focusing on the cultures represented in the museum along with an information centre and the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Centre. In 2007 the books and facilities installed in 2000 were removed, the general library for visitors moved to a room accessible through nearby Room 2, but closed permanently on 13 August 2011. This is a library that has also had distinguished users, including Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Thackeray, Robert Browning, Giuseppe Mazzini, Charles Darwin. In 2014, the British Museum opened its new World Conservation, the museum has been consulting on the future of the Reading Room, but as of June 2014, its future is still undecided. The British Museum Reading Room has become iconic and it is the subject of an eponymous poem, The British Museum Reading Room, by Louis MacNeice. Much of the action of David Lodges 1965 novel The British Museum Is Falling Down takes place in the old Reading Room, the Glass Ceiling of Anabel Donalds 1994 novel is the ceiling of the Reading Room, where the denouement is set. Alfred Hitchcock used the Reading Room and the dome of the British Museum as a location for the climax of his first sound film Blackmail
11.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
12.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
13.
Portland stone
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Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries consist of beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds and it has been used extensively as a building stone throughout the British Isles, notably in major public buildings in London such as St Pauls Cathedral and Buckingham Palace. It is also exported to many countries—Portland stone is used in the United Nations headquarters building in New York City, Portland stone formed in a marine environment, on the floor of a shallow, warm, sub-tropical sea probably near land. When seawater is warmed by the sun, its capacity to hold dissolved gas is reduced, calcium and bicarbonate ions within the water are then able to combine, to form calcium carbonate as a precipitate. The process of lime scale build up in a kettle in hard water areas is similar, calcium carbonate is the principal constituent of most limestones. Billions of minute crystals of precipitated calcium carbonate accumulated forming lime mud which covered the sea floor, small particles of sand or organic detritus, such as shell fragments, formed a nucleus, which became coated with layers of calcite as they were rolled around in the muddy micrite. The calcite gradually accumulated around the fragments of shell in concentric layers and this process is similar to the way in which a snowball grows in size as it is rolled around in the snow. Over time, countless billions of these balls, known as ooids or ooliths, became partially cemented together by more calcite and this is one of the reasons why Portland stone is so favoured as a monumental and architectural stone. Dr Geoff Townson conducted three years research on the Portlandian, being the first to describe the patch-reef facies. Stone has been quarried on Portland since Roman times and was being shipped to London in the 14th century, Extraction as an industry began in the early 17th century, with shipments to London for Inigo Jones Banqueting House. Wrens choice of Portland for the new St Pauls Cathedral was a great boost for the quarries, the island was connected by railway to the rest of the country from 1865. Albion Stone PLC has been quarrying and mining Portland stone since 1984, Portland Stone Firms Ltd have been quarrying Portland stone since 1994. Jordans is part of the Inmosthay Quarry in the centre of the Island, the quarry has been worked since the late 19th century. Albion Stone leases the section from The Crown Estate and purchased the northern part of the site in 2006. The majority of the southern reserves lie under the grounds of the cricket club. To avoid disturbing the site at surface level, the company has applied and received permission to extract the stone using mining rather than quarrying techniques, the reserves to the north will be quarried using the diamond bladed cutting machines, hydro bags and wire saws to shape the blocks. Albion Stone PLC now extract all their stone through mining which dramatically reduces the impact on the environment, jordans Mine is currently the biggest mine on Portland. Bowers Quarry has been operational since the late 18th century and it has been leased from The Crown Estate since 1979 and in 2002 it became the site of the first Portland stone mine by Albion Stone PLC
14.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
15.
I. M. Pei
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Ieoh Ming Pei, FAIA, RIBA, commonly known as I. M. Pei, is a Chinese-American architect. In 1948, Pei was recruited by New York City real estate magnate William Zeckendorf, Pei retired from full-time practice in 1990. Since then, he has taken on work as an architectural consultant primarily from his sons architectural firm Pei Partnership Architects and he went on to design Dallas City Hall and the East Building of the National Gallery of Art. He returned to China for the first time in 1975 to design a hotel at Fragrant Hills, and designed Bank of China Tower, Hong Kong, a skyscraper in Hong Kong for the Bank of China fifteen years later. In the early 1980s, Pei was the focus of controversy when he designed a glass-and-steel pyramid for the Musée du Louvre in Paris. He later returned to the world of the arts by designing the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, the Miho Museum in Japan, the Suzhou Museum in Suzhou, in 1983, he won the Pritzker Prize, sometimes called the Nobel Prize of architecture. Peis ancestry traces back to the Ming Dynasty, when his family moved from Anhui province to Suzhou, finding wealth in the sale of medicinal herbs, the family stressed the importance of helping the less fortunate. Ieoh Ming Pei was born on April 26,1917 to Tsuyee Pei and Lien Kwun, the family eventually included five children. As a boy, Pei was very close to his mother and she invited him, his brothers, and his sisters to join her on meditation retreats. His relationship with his father was less intimate and their interactions were respectful but distant. Peis ancestors success meant that the family lived in the echelons of society. The younger Pei, drawn more to music and other forms than to his fathers domain of banking. I have cultivated myself, he said later, at the age of ten, Pei moved with his family to Shanghai after his father was promoted. Pei attended Saint Johns Middle School, run by Protestant missionaries, academic discipline was rigorous, students were allowed only one half-day each month for leisure. Pei enjoyed playing billiards and watching Hollywood movies, especially those of Buster Keaton and he also learned rudimentary English skills by reading the Bible and novels by Charles Dickens. Shanghais many international elements gave it the name Paris of the East, the citys global architectural flavors had a profound influence on Pei, from the Bund waterfront area to the Park Hotel, built in 1934. He was also impressed by the gardens of Suzhou, where he spent the summers with extended family and regularly visited a nearby ancestral shrine. The Shizilin Garden, built in the 14th century by a Buddhist monk, was especially influential and its unusual rock formations, stone bridges, and waterfalls remained etched in Peis memory for decades
16.
Louvre Pyramid
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The Louvre Pyramid is a large glass and metal pyramid designed by Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei, surrounded by three smaller pyramids, in the main courtyard of the Louvre Palace in Paris. The large pyramid serves as the entrance to the Louvre Museum. Completed in 1989, it has become a landmark of the city of Paris, commissioned by the President of France, François Mitterrand, in 1984, it was designed by the architect I. M. Pei. The structure, which was constructed entirely with glass segments and metal poles, reaches a height of 21.6 metres and its square base has sides of 34 metres and a base surface area of 1,000 square metres. It consists of 603 rhombus-shaped and 70 triangular glass segments, the pyramid structure was engineered by Nicolet Chartrand Knoll Ltd. of Montreal and Rice Francis Ritchie of Paris. Visitors entering through the pyramid descend into the spacious lobby then re-ascend into the main Louvre buildings, for design historian Mark Pimlott, I. M. Pei’s plan distributes people effectively from the central concourse to myriad destinations within its vast subterranean network. Several other museums have duplicated this concept, most notably the Museum of Science, the Dolphin Centre, featuring a similar pyramid, was opened in April 1982, by Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The construction work on the base and underground lobby was carried out by the Vinci construction company. In 1839, according to one account, in ceremonies commemorating the glorious revolution of 1830, The tombs of the Louvre were covered with black hangings. In front and in the middle was erected a monument of a pyramidical shape. The construction of the pyramid triggered many years of strong and lively aesthetic, Pei being insufficiently French to be entrusted with the task of updating the treasured Parisian landmark. Meanwhile, Political critics referred to the structure as Pharaoh Francois Pyramid, while some continue to feel the harsh modernism of the edifice is out of place, others consider the juxtaposition of contrasting architectural styles a successful merger of the old and the new. During the design phase, there was a proposal that the design include a spire on the pyramid to simplify window washing, Pei objected, however, and this proposal was eliminated. It has been claimed by some that the glass panes in the Louvre Pyramid number exactly 666, the story of the 666 panes originated in the 1980s, when the official brochure published during construction did indeed cite this number. The number 666 was also mentioned in various newspapers, the Louvre museum, however, states that the finished pyramid contains 673 glass panes. A higher figure was obtained by David A. Shugarts, who reports that the pyramid contains 689 pieces of glass, Shugarts obtained the figure from the Peis offices. The side with the entrance, however, has 11 panes fewer, however, David A. Shugarts reports that according to a spokeswoman of the offices of Pei, the French President never specified the number of panes to be used in the pyramid. La Pyramide Inversée is a skylight in the Carrousel du Louvre shopping mall in front of the Louvre Museum and it looks like an upside-down and smaller version of the Louvre Pyramid
17.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
18.
British Library
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The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and the second largest library in the world by number of items catalogued. It holds well over 150 million items from many countries, as a legal deposit library, the British Library receives copies of all books produced in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including a significant proportion of overseas titles distributed in the UK. The Library is a public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media. The Librarys collections include around 14 million books, along with holdings of manuscripts. In addition to receiving a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland, the Library adds some three million items every year occupying 9.6 kilometres of new shelf space. Prior to 1973, the Library was part of the British Museum, the Euston Road building is classified as a Grade I listed building, of exceptional interest for its architecture and history. The British Library was created on 1 July 1973 as a result of the British Library Act 1972. Prior to this, the library was part of the British Museum. In 1983, the Library absorbed the National Sound Archive, which holds many sound and video recordings, with over a million discs, the core of the Librarys historical collections is based on a series of donations and acquisitions from the 18th century, known as the foundation collections. From 1997 to 2009 the main collection was housed in this new building. Construction work on the Newspaper Storage Building was completed in 2013, the collection has now been split between the St Pancras and Boston Spa sites. The British Library Document Supply Service and the Librarys Document Supply Collection is based on the site in Boston Spa. Collections housed in Yorkshire, comprising low-use material and the newspaper and Document Supply collections, the Library previously had a book storage depot in Woolwich, south-east London, which is no longer in use. The new library was designed specially for the purpose by the architect Colin St John Wilson, facing Euston Road is a large piazza that includes pieces of public art, such as large sculptures by Eduardo Paolozzi and Antony Gormley. It is the largest public building constructed in the United Kingdom in the 20th century, in December 2009 a new storage building at Boston Spa was opened by Rosie Winterton. The building was Grade I listed on 1 August 2015, in England, Legal Deposit can be traced back to at least 1610. The other five libraries are, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the University Library at Cambridge, the Trinity College Library at Dublin, in 2003 the Ipswich MP Chris Mole introduced a Private Members Bill which became the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003. The Act extends United Kingdom legal deposit requirements to electronic documents, such as CD-ROMs, the Library also holds the Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections which include the India Office Records and materials in the languages of Asia and of north and north-east Africa
19.
Nelson Mandela
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Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist, who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the countrys first black head of state and the first elected in a representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutionalised racism, ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress party from 1991 to 1997. A Xhosa, Mandela was born in Mvezo to the Thembu royal family and he studied law at the University of Fort Hare and the University of the Witwatersrand before working as a lawyer in Johannesburg. There he became involved in anti-colonial and African nationalist politics, joining the ANC in 1943, after the National Partys white-only government established apartheid—a system of racial segregation that privileged whites—he and the ANC committed themselves to its overthrow. Mandela was appointed President of the ANCs Transvaal branch, rising to prominence for his involvement in the 1952 Defiance Campaign and he was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and was unsuccessfully prosecuted in the 1956 Treason Trial. Influenced by Marxism, he joined the banned South African Communist Party. Although initially committed to non-violent protest, in association with the SACP he co-founded the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1961, in 1962, he was arrested for conspiring to overthrow the state and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial. Mandela served 27 years in prison, initially on Robben Island, amid growing domestic and international pressure, and with fears of a racial civil war, President F. W. de Klerk released him in 1990. Mandela and de Klerk negotiated an end to apartheid and organised the 1994 multiracial general election in which Mandela led the ANC to victory, internationally, he acted as mediator in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial and served as Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999. He declined a presidential term and in 1999 was succeeded by his deputy. Mandela became a statesman and focused on combating poverty and HIV/AIDS through the charitable Nelson Mandela Foundation. Mandela was a figure for much of his life. Widely regarded as an icon of democracy and social justice, he received more than 250 honours—including the Nobel Peace Prize—and became the subject of a cult of personality. He is held in deep respect within South Africa, where he is referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba. Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo in Umtata, given the forename Rolihlahla, a Xhosa term colloquially meaning troublemaker, in later years he became known by his clan name, Madiba. His patrilineal great-grandfather, Ngubengcuka, was king of the Thembu people in the Transkeian Territories of South Africas modern Eastern Cape province, one of Ngubengcukas sons, named Mandela, was Nelsons grandfather and the source of his surname. In 1926, Gadla was also sacked for corruption, but Nelson was told that his father had lost his job for standing up to the magistrates unreasonable demands
20.
BP
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BP P. L. C. also referred to by its former name, British Petroleum, is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. It also has renewable energy interests in biofuels and wind power, the company has around 17,200 service stations worldwide. Its largest division is BP America in the United States, in Russia BP owns a 19. 75% stake in Rosneft, the worlds largest publicly traded oil and gas company by hydrocarbon reserves and production. BP has a listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE100 Index. It has secondary listings on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, BPs origins date back to the founding of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1908, established as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company to exploit oil discoveries in Iran. In 1935, it became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and in 1954 British Petroleum, in 1959, the company expanded beyond the Middle East to Alaska and it was one of the the first companies to strike oil in the North Sea. British Petroleum acquired majority control of Standard Oil of Ohio in 1978, formerly majority state-owned, the British government privatised the company in stages between 1979 and 1987. British Petroleum merged with Amoco in 1998, becoming BP Amoco plc, from 2003 to 2013, BP was a partner in the TNK-BP joint venture in Russia. BP has been involved in several major environmental and safety incidents. 1.8 million gallons of Corexit oil dispersant were used in the cleanup response, legal proceedings continued into January 2015 which determined payouts and fines under the Clean Water Act and the Natural Resources Damage Assessment. BP appealed the ruling, which raised concerns about BPs future and they settled in July 2015 in the amount of $19 billion plus the original amount. In May 1908 a group of British geologists discovered a large amount of oil at Masjid-i-Suleiman in Mohammerah and it was the first commercially significant find of oil in the Middle East. William Knox DArcy, by contract with the Emir of Mohammerah, Sheikh Khazal Khan al-Kaabi and this event changed the history of the Middle East. The oil discovery led to petrochemical industry development and also the establishment of industries that depended on oil. On 14 April 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was incorporated as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company, some of the shares were sold to the public. The first chairman and minority shareholder of the company became Lord Strathcona, the refinery was built and began operating in 1912. In 1913, the British Government acquired a controlling interest in the company and at the suggestion of Winston Churchill, the Royal Navy, which projected British power all over the world, came to be run 100% on oil from Iran. In 1919, the became a shale-oil producer by establishing a subsidiary named Scottish Oils which merged remaining Scottish oil-shale industries
21.
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
22.
Ashurnasirpal II
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Ashur-nasir-pal II was king of Assyria from 883 to 859 BC. Ashurnasirpal II succeeded his father, Tukulti-Ninurta II, in 883 BC and his harshness prompted a revolt that he crushed decisively in a pitched, two-day battle. According to his monument inscription, while recalling this massacre he says their men young and old I took prisoners. Of some I cut off their feet and hands, of others I cut off the noses and lips, of the young mens ears I made a heap. I exposed their heads as a trophy in front of their city, the male children and the female children I burned in flames, the city I destroyed, and consumed with fire. Following this victory, he advanced without opposition as far as the Mediterranean, on his return home, he moved his capital to the city of Kalhu. Ashurnasirpal IIs father was Tukulti-Ninurta II and his son and successor was Shalmaneser III. The palaces, temples and other buildings raised by him bear witness to a development of wealth. He was renowned for his brutality, using enslaved captives to build a new Assyrian capital at Kalhu in Mesopotamia where he built many impressive monuments. He was also an administrator, who realized that he could gain greater control over his empire by installing Assyrian governors. Like previous Assyrian monarchs Ashurnasirpal campaigned along the Euphrates against Aramaeans, Ashurnasirpal IIs brutal treatment of rebels ensured that even when his army was not present, there would not be further revolts. Further revolts would see the local monarch replaced with a governor loyal only to the Assyrian monarchy, leading his army, which was typically composed of infantry, heavy & light cavalry and chariots, Ashurnasirpal conquered the Hittites and Aramaean states of northern Syria. Ashurnasirpal II did not destroy the Phoenician/Canaanite cities he conquered and he was unsuccessful in his siege of Tyre, which under Ittobaal settled Kition in Cyprus and opened up trade routes throughout the Aegean, at Rhodes and Miletus. Through tribute they became sources for the raw materials of his armies, iron was needed for weapons, Lebanese cedar for construction and gold and silver for the payment of troops. Ashurnasirpal IIs palace was built and completed in 879 BC in Kalhu, the palace walls were lined with reliefs carved in alabaster. These reliefs bore elaborate carvings, many portraying the king surrounded by winged protective spirits, each also had text inscribed in it. This text was the same or very similar on each relief and is called the Standard Inscription. Ashurnasirpal II also built a gateway at Nimrud
23.
Lion of Knidos
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The Lion of Knidos is the name for a colossal ancient Greek statue that was discovered in 1858 near the ancient port of Knidos, south-west Asia Minor. Soon after its discovery, the statue was shipped to London where it became part of the British Museums collection, although there is some debate about the age of the sculpture, in general, scholarly opinion dates it to the 2nd century BC. Since 2000, it has been displayed on a plinth under the roof of the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court. This sculpture of a recumbent lion was quarried from Mount Pentelikon near Athens, the lion is substantially complete, only the lower jaw and front legs are missing, its eyes were probably once inlaid with glass. The statue is greater than life-size, it weighs six tonnes and measures 2.89 metres long and 1.82 metres high, in designing the body to be hollowed out from below, the weight of the statue was reduced. The statue stood on top of a monument that is of a style fashionable in 350 BC in Halikarnassos. The monument is square with a pyramidal top. It was hollow on a circular plan, a third opinion is that the architecture of the monument is not typical of 250 BC, but is Doric and dates from 175 BC. This variation is summarised in the British Museums estimate of 200-250 BC as its age, the rest of the monument is still in Turkey where it has been excavated by the British Museum. It was originally 12 metres square, excavations at the site, and similar monuments nearby, have failed to find an artefact or inscription that would more definitely date the statue. The Lion of Knidos was found in 1858 by the British archaeologist Richard Popplewell Pullan as he walked the cliffs near what is now the Turkish town of Datça, three miles away Pullan was helping Charles Thomas Newton excavate the ancient Greek city of Knidos. The statue had crowned an 18-metre high funerary monument, which had commanding views over the sea, the monument may have been destroyed in an earthquake, as the statue was found lying some distance from the tomb. The Knidos Lion was transported with some difficulty further down the coast, smiths role was significant, as he was presented with a large statue that had fallen onto its front face. The limestone core of the monument was still there but the marble facing had either been stolen or lay around where it had fallen. In 2008 the Turkish town of Datça petitioned the British Ministry of Culture, ian Jenkins, The Lion of Knidos, British Museum,2008 C. Bruns-Ozgan, Knidos, A Guide to the Ancient Site, Konya 2004 G. Bean, Cnidus, Turkey beyond the Maeander, London 1980, chapter 12, pp 111–127
24.
Anatolia
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Anatolia, in geography known as Asia Minor, Asian Turkey, Anatolian peninsula, or Anatolian plateau, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea to the Armenian Highlands, thus, traditionally Anatolia is the territory that comprises approximately the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. The Turkification of Anatolia began under the Seljuk Empire in the late 11th century, however, various non-Turkic languages continue to be spoken by minorities in Anatolia today, including Kurdish, Assyrian, Armenian, Arabic, Laz, Georgian, and Greek. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line running from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Black Sea. This traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Websters Geographical Dictionary, under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the east by the Armenian Highlands, and the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia. To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Syria, the first name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula was Ἀσία, presumably after the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia. As the name of Asia came to be extended to areas east of the Mediterranean. The name Anatolia derives from the Greek ἀνατολή meaning “the East” or more literally “sunrise”, the precise reference of this term has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to the Aeolian, Ionian and Dorian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor. In the Byzantine Empire, the Anatolic Theme was a theme covering the western, the modern Turkish form of Anatolia is Anadolu, which again derives from the Greek name Aνατολή. The Russian male name Anatoly and the French Anatole share the same linguistic origin, in English the name of Turkey for ancient Anatolia first appeared c. It is derived from the Medieval Latin Turchia, which was used by the Europeans to define the Seljuk controlled parts of Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert. Human habitation in Anatolia dates back to the Paleolithic, neolithic Anatolia has been proposed as the homeland of the Indo-European language family, although linguists tend to favour a later origin in the steppes north of the Black Sea. However, it is clear that the Anatolian languages, the oldest branch of Indo-European, have spoken in Anatolia since at least the 19th century BC. The earliest historical records of Anatolia stem from the southeast of the region and are from the Mesopotamian-based Akkadian Empire during the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 24th century BC, scholars generally believe the earliest indigenous populations of Anatolia were the Hattians and Hurrians. The region was famous for exporting raw materials, and areas of Hattian-, one of the numerous cuneiform records dated circa 20th century BC, found in Anatolia at the Assyrian colony of Kanesh, uses an advanced system of trading computations and credit lines. They were speakers of an Indo-European language, the Hittite language, originating from Nesa, they conquered Hattusa in the 18th century BC, imposing themselves over Hattian- and Hurrian-speaking populations. According to the most widely accepted Kurgan theory on the Proto-Indo-European homeland, however, the Hittites adopted the cuneiform script, invented in Mesopotamia
25.
Amenhotep III
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Amenhotep III, also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC, or from June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC, Amenhotep III was Thutmoses son by a minor wife, Mutemwiya. His reign was a period of unprecedented prosperity and artistic splendour, when he died in the 38th or 39th year of his reign, his son initially ruled as Amenhotep IV, but then changed his own royal name to Akhenaten. The son of the future Thutmose IV and a minor wife Mutemwiya and he was a member of the Thutmosid family that had ruled Egypt for almost 150 years since the reign of Thutmose I. Amenhotep III was the father of two sons with his Great Royal Wife Tiye and their first son, Crown Prince Thutmose, predeceased his father and their second son, Amenhotep IV, later known as Akhenaten, ultimately succeeded Amenhotep III to the throne. Amenhotep III also may have been the father of a third child—called Smenkhkare, Amenhotep III and Tiye may also have had four daughters, Sitamun, Henuttaneb, Isis or Iset, and Nebetah. They appear frequently on statues and reliefs during the reign of their father, Nebetah is attested only once in the known historical records on a colossal limestone group of statues from Medinet Habu. Amenhotep III elevated two of his four daughters—Sitamun and Isis—to the office of royal wife during the last decade of his reign. Evidence that Sitamun already was promoted to office by Year 30 of his reign, is known from jar-label inscriptions uncovered from the royal palace at Malkata. The goddess Hathor herself was related to Ra as first the mother and later wife, hence, Amenhotep IIIs marriage to his two daughters should not be considered unlikely based on contemporary views of marriage. Amenhotep III is known to have married several women, Gilukhepa. Tadukhepa, the daughter of his ally Tushratta of Mitanni, Around Year 36 of his reign, a daughter of Kurigalzu, king of Babylon. A daughter of Kadashman-Enlil, king of Babylon, a daughter of Tarhundaradu, ruler of Arzawa. A daughter of the ruler of Ammia, Amenhotep III has the distinction of having the most surviving statues of any Egyptian pharaoh, with over 250 of his statues having been discovered and identified. Since these statues span his life, they provide a series of portraits covering the entire length of his reign. Their lengthy inscribed texts extol the accomplishments of the pharaoh, for instance,123 of these commemorative scarabs record the large number of lions that Amenhotep III killed with his own arrows from his first regnal year up to his tenth year. Similarly, five other state that the foreign princess who would become a wife to him, Gilukhepa. She was the first of many such princesses who would enter the pharaohs household, another eleven scarabs record the excavation of an artificial lake he had built for his Great Royal Wife, Queen Tiye, in his eleventh regnal year, Regnal Year 11 under the Majesty of
26.
Obelisks of Nectanebo II
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The Obelisks of Nectanebo II are a pair of monumental obelisks that were found in Cairo but were originally located in the ancient city of Hermopolis, central Egypt. They can now be seen in the Great Court of the British Museum, both obelisks were re-discovered by European travellers in the eighteenth century. One was seen in Cairo by the English explorer Richard Pococke in 1737, the other was recorded by the Danish scientist Carsten Niebuhr in 1762. They were later transported to Alexandria by French forces, with the purpose of shipping them to France, the obelisks, along with other objects, were then taken to England and presented to King George III, who in turn donated them to the British Museum in 1802. The pair of Obelisks were originally set up at a complex in Hermopolis, Middle Egypt. The Thirtieth Dynasty witnessed a renaissance in art and culture that had begun under the first King Nectanebo I, the two obelisks were probably erected either side of a ramp leading to the entrance of a temple. They are fragmentary, with half of them extant. A segment of one of the obelisks can be found in the Egyptian Museum, the hieroglyphic inscriptions that envelope each monument record their dedication to the Egyptian god Thoth, who was the chief deity at Hermopolis. N. Strudwick, Masterpieces of Ancient Egypt T. G. H, james, Ancient Egypt, the land and its legacy L. Habachi, The obelisks of Egypt, The skyscrapers of the past E. Iversen, Obelisks in exile
27.
Nectanebo II
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Nectanebo II, ruled in 360—342 BC) was the third and last pharaoh of the Thirtieth Dynasty of Egypt as well as the last native ruler of ancient Egypt. During his reign, the Egyptian artists delivered a specific style that left a mark on the reliefs of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Nectanebo II, however, undertook more constructions and restorations than Nectanebo I, for several years, Nectanebo II was successful in keeping Egypt safe from the Achaemenid Empire. However, betrayed by his servant, Mentor of Rhodes, Nectanebo II was ultimately defeated by the combined Persian. The Persians occupied Memphis and then seized the rest of Egypt, Nectanebo fled south and preserved his power for some time, his subsequent fate is unknown. Except for the greywacke statue in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the greywacke statue, Nectanebo II is shown in a nemes and his bent arm with the sword stands for the hieroglyph nakht, the falcon represents Horus, while the hieroglyph in Nectanebos right hand stands for heb. In 525 BC Egypt was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire, because of internal struggles for the Persian imperial succession, Egypt managed to regain independence in 404 BC. In 389 BC, Pharaoh Hakor negotiated a treaty with Athens, in the beginning of 360 BC, Nectanebos predecessor Teos started preparations for war against intruders. In the same year, the Egyptian army set off, traveling along the coast by land, Nectanebo II accompanied his uncle Teos in that campaign and was in charge of the machimoi. In an attempt to raise finances for the war quickly, Teos imposed taxes on Egyptians, Egyptians, particularly the priests, resented those measures but supported Nectanebo II. Teos asked Spartan military leader Agesilaus and Athenian general Chabrias to preserve support for him, Agesilaus, however, said he was sent to aid Egypt and not to wage war against it. Chabrias returned home with his mercenaries, Teos decided to flee to the Achaemenid court, where he ultimately died of natural causes. Nectanebo contended with an unnamed pretender to the throne from the town of Mendes, the revolt was probably led by one of the descendants of Nepherites I, whose family had ruled the town before. The claimant sent messengers to Agesilaus in an attempt to persuade Agesilaus to his side, Agesilaus remained loyal to Nectanebo, fearing to become a turncoat. At one of the towns in the Nile Delta the troops of Nectanebo and Agesilaus were besieged by the usurper, despite the enemys numerical superiority, Nectanebo and Agesilaus were victorious and the revolt was put down in the fall of 360 BC. Acknowledging Agesilaus, Nectanebo sent him 220 talents of gold, religion played an important part in Nectanebos domestic policy. He began his reign by officiating over the funeral of an Apis bull in Memphis, there Nectanebo added a relief decoration to the eastern and western temples of Apis
28.
Hoa Hakananai'a
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Hoa Hakananaia is a moai housed in the British Museum in London. It was taken from ‘Orongo, Rapa Nui in November 1868 by the crew of the British ship HMS Topaze, and arrived in England in August 1869. Though relatively small, it is considered to be typical of the island’s statue form and it has been described as a masterpiece, without a doubt, the finest example of Easter Island sculpture. The statue was identified as Hoa Hakananaia by islanders at the time it was removed, when recorded in 1868, Hoa Hakananaia was standing erect, part buried inside a freestone ceremonial house in the ‘Orongo village at the south-western tip of the island. It faced towards an extinct volcanic crater known as Rano Kau and it may have been made for this location, or first erected elsewhere before being moved to where it was found. Most statues on Rapa Nui are of a reddish tuff, though commonly described as basalt, quarried near to where the statue was found, there is no record of petrological analysis to confirm this. It stands 2.42 metres high, is 96 cm across, the base of the statue, now concealed in a modern plinth, may originally have been flat, and subsequently narrowed, or was rough and tapering from the start. A line around the base of the neck is interpreted as representing the clavicles, there is a semi-circular hollow for the suprasternal notch. In its original form, the back is thought to have plain, apart from a maro, a belt or girdle. Near the base are slight indications of buttocks, the top of the head is smooth and flat, and could originally have supported a pukao, a cylindrical stone hat. A flat round stone found near the site of the statue may have such a hat, or, if the base was flat. No Easter Island statues have been dated, but statue making in general is said to have begun by at least 1000 CE. Manufacture is said to have ended by 1600 CE, when began to topple them. Episode 70 of the 2010 BBC Radio 4 series A History of the World in 100 Objects describes the statue as being from 1000-1200 CE, the Y on the chin and the clavicles are rare on Easter Island statues, and said to be late innovations. The back of the statue, between the maro and the top of the head, is covered with relief carvings added at a time after the statue was made. They are similar in style to petroglyphs on the rock around the ‘Orongo village. Either side and above the ring on the maro are two facing birdmen, stylised human figures with beaked heads said to represent frigate birds, above these, in the centre of the statue’s head, is a smaller bird said to be a sooty tern. Either side of this is a ceremonial dance paddle, a symbol of male power and prestige
29.
Easter Island
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Easter Island is a Chilean island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle. Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, in 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park. However, human activity, the introduction of the Polynesian rat, by the time of European arrival in 1722, the islands population had dropped to 2, 000–3,000 from an estimated high of approximately 15,000 just a century earlier. European diseases and Peruvian slave raiding in the 1860s further reduced the Rapa Nui population, Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. Easter Island is a territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888. Administratively, it belongs to the Valparaíso Region, and, more specifically, according to the 2012 Chilean census, the island has about 5,800 residents, of whom some 60 percent are descendants of the aboriginal Rapa Nui. Easter Island is considered part of Insular Chile, the islands official Spanish name, Isla de Pascua, also means Easter Island. However, Norwegian ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl argued that Rapa was the name of Easter Island. William Churchill inquired about the phrase and was told there were three te pito o te henua, these being the three capes of the island. The phrase appears to have used in the same sense as the designation of Lands End at the tip of Cornwall. He was unable to elicit a Polynesian name for the island itself, according to Barthel, oral tradition has it that the island was first named Te pito o te kainga a Hau Maka The little piece of land of Hau Maka. However, there are two words pronounced pito in Rapa Nui, one meaning end and one navel, and the phrase can also mean the Navel of the World. This was apparently its actual meaning, French ethnologist Alphonse Pinart gave it the actual translation the Navel of the World, another name, Mata ki te rangi, means Eyes looking to the sky. Islanders are referred to in Spanish as pascuense, however it is common to refer to members of the community as Rapa Nui. Estimated dates of initial settlement of Easter Island have ranged from 300 to 1200, rectifications in radiocarbon dating have changed almost all of the previously posited early settlement dates in Polynesia. Rapa Nui is now considered to have settled in the narrower range of 700 to 1100 CE. Significant ecological impacts and major cultural investments in monumental architecture and statuary thus began soon after initial settlement, according to oral tradition, the first settlement was at Anakena. The island was most likely populated by Polynesians who navigated in canoes or catamarans from the Gambier Islands or the Marquesas Islands,3,200 km away
30.
Kayung totem pole
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The Kayung totem pole is a 12-metre totem pole made by the Haida people. Carved and originally located in the village of Kayung on Graham Island in British Columbia, Canada, in 1903 it was sold by Charles Frederick Newcombe to the British Museum, where since 2007 it has been a prominent exhibit in the Great Court. The totem pole was obtained by the Museum in 1903, when the pole was about fifty years old, the craft of making totem poles, built as heraldic signs but misinterpreted by missionaries, was at that point in decline. It was purchased from Charles Frederick Newcombe, who sold a number of totem poles to museums in Europe. The provenance of the pole was certain as the Museum already had a model of it, provided by J. H. Keen, before being sold to collectors, the pole was located in a village called Kayung on Graham Island in British Columbias Haida Gwaii archipelago. Kayung had been an important village for the Haida before European contact, after the population was decimated by successive smallpox epidemics in the late 1800s, Henry Wiah, the town chief, encouraged the remaining population to move to nearby Masset. The village was in the process of being abandoned in 1884, due to its size, the 12-metre pole spent most of its time at the British Museum confined to a stairwell, as this was the only space of sufficient height available. After the roof of the Great Court was constructed, it possible to install the pole there in 2007. Weathering on the means that there is no remaining paint on the surface. Chief Wiah told the stories to Charles F. Newcombe, the stories themselves are corroborated by another of the Museums totem poles, which was obtained with a model of a First Nations longhouse provided by Keen. The second pole was almost identical to the first one, the figure at the top represents Yetl, and the design also incorporates Haida crests. Haida guests were present at the museum for the installation of the pole in the Great Court in 2007, and told the story carved into the pole, there are two stories associated with the Kayung pole. The first story was that communicated to Newcombe by Chief Weah when Newcombe obtained the pole, there was a village where, every time they fished, they lost the hooks from their rods, and the fish with them. The hooks and fish were being taken by Yetl, who had originally created life, normally Yetl appeared as a raven, but on this occasion imitated a friend of his who could swim beneath the sea. Using this skill he was feeding his hunger with the villagers fish, the villagers decided to change the hooks they were using to include a type made of wood and bone, with two barbs. Onto one of these hooks they put a piece of devil fish, the bait was taken, and after a long battle struggling with the catch, the fisherman and several of his friends were able to pull it to the surface. Pulling hard, they felt the line go slack, and when they pulled it in only a small unidentifiable item on the end. Unbeknownst to them they had caught Yetl, and pulled off his ravens beak, to get back his beak and obtain food, Yetl took on human shape and was accepted by the villagers as a guest, disguising his wound by only showing the upper half of his face
31.
Ogham
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Ogham is an Early Medieval alphabet used to write the early Irish language, and later the Old Irish language. There are roughly 400 surviving orthodox inscriptions on monuments throughout Ireland and western Britain. The largest number outside Ireland are in Pembrokeshire, Wales, the vast majority of the inscriptions consist of personal names. According to the High Medieval Bríatharogam, names of trees can be ascribed to individual letters. The etymology of the word ogam or ogham remains unclear, one possible origin is from the Irish og-úaim point-seam, referring to the seam made by the point of a sharp weapon. It has been argued that the earliest inscriptions in ogham date to about the 4th century AD and it appears that the ogham alphabet arose from another script, and some even consider it a mere cipher of its template script. The largest number of scholars favours the Latin alphabet as this template, although the Elder Futhark and even the Greek alphabet have their supporters. Runic origin would explain the presence of H and Z letters unused in Irish, as well as the presence of vocalic and consonantal variants U vs. W, unknown to Latin writing. In Ireland and in Wales, the language of the stone inscriptions is termed Primitive Irish. The transition to Old Irish, the language of the earliest sources in the Latin alphabet, there are two main schools of thought among scholars as to the motivation for the creation of ogham. The Roman Empire, which ruled over neighbouring southern Britain, represented a very real threat of invasion to Ireland. With bilingual ogham and Latin inscriptions in Wales, however, one would suppose that the ogham could easily be decoded by anyone in the Post-Roman world. The argument is that the sounds of Primitive Irish were regarded as difficult to transcribe into the Latin alphabet, so the invention of a separate alphabet was deemed appropriate. In fact, several ogham stones in Wales are bilingual, containing both Irish and British Latin, testifying to the contacts that led to the existence of some of these stones. A third theory put forward by the noted ogham scholar R. A. S. Macalister was influential at one time, but finds little favour with scholars today. According to this theory, the alphabet was transmitted in oral form or on wood only, the supposed links with the form of the Greek alphabet that Macalister proposed can also be disproved. Macalisters theory of hand or finger signals as a source for ogham is a reflection of the fact that the signary consists of four groups of five letters, with a sequence of strokes from one to five. A theory popular among scholars is that the forms of the letters derive from the various numerical tally-mark systems in existence at the time
32.
Persepolis
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Persepolis or Parsa, also known as Takht-e-Jamshid, was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire. Persepolis is situated 60 km northeast of the city of Shiraz in Fars Province, the earliest remains of Persepolis date back to 515 BC. It exemplifies the Achaemenid style of architecture, UNESCO declared the ruins of Persepolis a World Heritage Site in 1979. The English word Persepolis is derived from Ancient Greek Persépolis, a compound of Pérsēs and pólis, to the ancient Persians, the city was known as Pārsa. Persepolis is near the small river Pulvar, which flows into the Kur River, the site includes a 125,000 square meter terrace, partly artificially constructed and partly cut out of a mountain, with its east side leaning on Rahmet Mountain. The other three sides are formed by retaining walls, which vary in height with the slope of the ground, rising from 5–13 metres on the west side was a double stair. From there, it slopes to the top. To create the level terrace, depressions were filled with soil and heavy rocks, archaeological evidence shows that the earliest remains of Persepolis date back to 515 BC. As the residence of the rulers of the empire, however, the countrys true capitals were Susa, Babylon and Ecbatana. This accounts for the fact that the Greeks were not acquainted with the city until Alexander the Great took, Darius I ordered the construction of the Apadana and the Council Hall, as well as the main imperial Treasury and its surroundings. These were completed during the reign of his son, Xerxes I, further construction of the buildings on the terrace continued until the downfall of the Achaemenid Empire. Around 519 BC, construction of a stairway was begun. The stairway was initially planned to be the entrance to the terrace 20 metres above the ground. The dual stairway, known as the Persepolitan Stairway, was built symmetrically on the side of the Great Wall. The 111 steps measured 6.9 metres wide, with treads of 31 centimetres and rises of 10 centimetres, originally, the steps were believed to have been constructed to allow for nobles and royalty to ascend by horseback. New theories, however, suggest that the shallow risers allowed visiting dignitaries to maintain an appearance while ascending. The top of the led to a small yard in the north-eastern side of the terrace. Grey limestone was the building material used at Persepolis
33.
Anish Kapoor
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Sir Anish Kapoor, CBE RA, is a British sculptor. Born in Bombay, Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art. He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice Biennale in 1990, when he was awarded the Premio Duemila Prize, in 1991, he received the Turner Prize and in 2002 received the Unilever Commission for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. Kapoor received a knighthood in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to visual arts and he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Oxford in 2014. In 2012, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Indian government which is Indias third-highest civilian award, an image of Kapoor features in the British cultural icons section of the newly designed British passport in 2015. In 2016, he was announced as a recipient of the LennonOno Grant for Peace and he owns exclusive rights to use Vantablack for artistic purposes. Anish Kapoor was born in Bombay, India, to a Hindu father, according to Kapoor, his mother had an Indian-Jewish upbringing, her father being the cantor of the synagogue in Pune. At this time, Baghdadi Jews constituted the majority of the Jewish community in Mumbai and his father, from a Hindu Punjabi family, was a hydrographer in the Indian Navy. Kapoor is the brother of Canada-based academic Ilan Kapoor, Kapoor attended The Doon School, an all-boys boarding school in Dehradun, then in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. He is said to have hated his time at Doon, in 1971–1973, he travelled to Israel with one of his two brothers, initially living on a kibbutz. He began to study engineering, but had trouble with mathematics. In Israel, he decided to become an artist, in 1973, he left for Britain to attend Hornsey College of Art and Chelsea School of Art and Design. There he found a model in Paul Neagu, an artist who provided a meaning to what he was doing. Kapoor went on to teach at Wolverhampton Polytechnic in 1979 and in 1982 was Artist in Residence at the Walker Art Gallery and he has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s. Anish Kapoor became known in the 1980s for his geometric or biomorphic sculptures made using materials such as granite, limestone, marble, pigment. These early sculptures are frequently simple, curved forms, usually monochromatic and brightly coloured, using powder pigment to define, while making the pigment pieces, it occurred to me that they all form themselves out of each other. So I decided to give them a title, A Thousand Names, implying infinity. The powder works sat on the floor or projected from the wall, the powder on the floor defines the surface of the floor and the objects appear to be partially submerged, like icebergs
34.
Robert Smirke (architect)
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Sir Robert Smirke RA was an English architect, one of the leaders of Greek Revival architecture, though he also used other architectural styles. As architect to the Board of Works he designed major public buildings including the main block. He was a pioneer of the use of concrete foundations, Smirke was born in London on 1 October 1780, the second son of the portrait painter Robert Smirke, he was one of twelve children. He attended Aspley School, Aspley Guise, Bedfordshire, where he studied Latin, Greek, French and drawing, and was made head boy at the age of 15. In May 1796 he began his study of architecture as a pupil of John Soane and he wrote to his father, He was on Monday morning in one of his amiable Tempers. Everything was slovenly that I was doing, after leaving Soane he depended on George Dance the Younger and a surveyor called Thomas Bush for his architectural training. In 1801, accompanied by his elder brother Richard he embarked on a Grand Tour which would last until 1805 and his itinerary can be followed by the series of letters he wrote, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Potsdam, Prague, Dresden, Vienna. He visited Italy, including, Florence, Venice, Padua, Genoa, Vicenza, Rome, Naples, and Sicily, then went on to Greece, seeing Corinth, Athens, Delphi, Thebes and Olympia. From Athens Smirke wrote to his father, How can I by description give you any idea of the great pleasure I enjoyed in the sight of these ancient buildings of Athens, how strongly were exemplified in them the grandeur and effect of simplicity in architecture. The Temple of Thesus. cannot but arrest the attention of everyone from its appropriate, strikes one in the same way with its grandeur and majesty. The impression made upon my mind, all that I could do in Athens was to make some views of them. hoping that they will serve as a memorandum to me of what I think should always be a model. He drew most of the ancient buildings in Morea, in 1805 Smirke became a member of the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Architects Club. His first official appointment came in 1807 when he was architect to the Royal Mint. He only ever exhibited five works at the Academy, the last in 1810, and these drawings of a more recent work point out the glaring impropriety of this defect in a manner if possible still more forcible and more subversive of true taste. In 1819 he was surveyor of the Inner Temple. In 1819 he married Laura Freston, daughter of The Reverend Anthony Freston, the only child of the marriage was a daughter Laura. In 1820 he was surveyor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was knighted in 1832, and received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1853, Smirke lived at 81 Charlotte Street, London
35.
Diagrid
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The diagrid is a framework of diagonally intersecting metal, concrete or wooden beams that is used in the construction of buildings and roofs. It requires less structural steel than a steel frame. Hearst Tower in New York City, designed by Sir Norman Foster, the diagrid obviates the need for columns and can be used to make large column-free expanses of roofing. Another iconic building designed by Sir Norman Foster,30 St Mary Axe, known as The Gherkin, moon, School of Architecture, Yale University The diagrid system of Hearst Tower by the Steel Institute of New York
36.
Thin-shell structure
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Thin-shell structures are also called plate and shell structures. They are lightweight constructions using shell elements and these elements, typically curved, are assembled to make large structures. Typical applications include aircraft fuselages, boat hulls, and the roofs of large buildings, a thin shell is defined as a shell with a thickness which is small compared to its other dimensions and in which deformations are not large compared to thickness. A primary difference between a structure and a plate structure is that, in the unstressed state, the shell structure has curvature as opposed to the plates structure which is flat. Membrane action in a shell is primarily caused by in-plane forces, where a flat plate acts similar to a beam with bending and shear stresses, shells are analogous to a cable which resists loads through tensile stresses. The ideal thin shell must be capable of developing both tension and compression, all-Russia Exhibition 1896 Diagrid Félix Candela Frei Otto List of thin shell structures Monocoque Stretched grid method Vladimir Shukhov Bechthold, M. Innovative Surface Structures. Rainer Graefe und andere,192 S, deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart,1990, ISBN 3-421-02984-9
37.
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
38.
King's Library
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The Kings Library was one of the most important collections of books and pamphlets of the Age of Enlightenment. Assembled by George III, this library of over 65,000 volumes was subsequently given to the British nation by George IV. It was housed in a specially built gallery in the British Museum from 1827 to 1997, as a learned man, George III had a genuine regard for learning, developed under the influence of his tutor the Earl of Bute. On becoming king he began assembling a new collection of mainly scholarly works. Smith had been collecting in Venice for several decades, acquiring books from a range of sources in north Italy, the collection was notable for its 260 incunabula, including many early Venetian and north Italian volumes with fine illumination and bindings. In total the king bought 6,000 volumes from Smith and these were not kept together in George IIIs library, but nevertheless can be identified by the word Smith marked in each volume by the kings librarian. There do not seem to have any further large purchases before 1766. However, from 1766 onwards the king began to develop the collection significantly, a particularly important period was 1768-71, when Frederick Augusta Barnard, one of the library staff, travelled extensively in Europe on the kings behalf, and made major purchases. Important acquisitions later came from the libraries of James West, Anthony Askew, Richard Farmer, the Library was kept at the Queens House, the residence later to be extended and renamed Buckingham Palace. There it occupied four specially built rooms, from at least the 1770s bookbinding was carried out on the premises, and by 1776 the bindery occupied five rooms in the basement. The Library style of binding can be described as fine, Richard Dalton, employed as a librarian by George III from 1755 onwards, was in charge of the collection until 1774. He was followed by Barnard, who was librarian until the collections transfer to the British Museum. Samuel Johnson also advised on the Librarys collection policy, the Library was open to anyone with a genuine scholarly purpose, and in Georges lifetime was visited by John Adams and Joseph Priestley as well as Johnson. It is noteworthy that the king allowed scholars such as Priestley, whose political and religious opinions he disagreed with, to use the Library. These issues were resolved in January 1823 when, after a period of negotiation with the government, in the intervening period rumours had appeared in the British press that he was considering selling the library to the Tsar, it is not known if there was any truth in these. He specified that the library was to be together. The Museum lacked the room to house the collection, but fortunately plans for a significant neoclassical extension of the Museums buildings had already drawn up by the architect Robert Smirke. While the government had for some time resisted the Museums requests for money for this project, thus the arrival of the Kings Library was a catalyst for the growth of the Museum into the grand building we see today
39.
Akan Drum
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The Akan Drum is a drum that was made in West Africa and was later found in the Colony of Virginia in North America. It is now the oldest African-American object in the British Museum, the drum is a reminder of all three continents involvement in the estimated twelve million people transported across the Atlantic as part of the slave trade. The drum is normally displayed in room 26, the drum is made from two species of wood that are native to sub-Saharan Africa, Baphia and Cordia africana. The latter fine-grained hardwood is known for its ability to be carved and its resonance, the drumskin came from a deer hide and was stretched over the wooden structure using vegetable fibre. The drum was made in the Ghana region of West Africa between 1700 and 1745, and is presumed to have travelled to America on board a slave ship. As all the left with nothing it is presumed that the drum was either brought by a member of the crew or possibly by a son of the African chief who had sold the slaves for transportation. To exercise their captives, the traders would dance the slaves. It is supposed that this was why the drum was transported, the word Akan refers to the culture in what is today Ghana and includes the Fante, Asante and Akuapem people. There is a striking but unexplained similarity between the phrase Akan Drum and the phrase Aiken Drum, used in British folksongs from the 18th century and this particular drum was obtained in Virginia by the Rev. Clerk on behalf of the British collector Sir Hans Sloane. Sloane had travelled through Jamaica and had observed at first hand slaves playing instruments including those that were to evolve into the banjo, Sloane gathered examples of the tools of slavery and other artifacts which included this drum. Sloane used his collection to found the British Museum in 1753, sloanes catalogue records this item as drum made of a hollowed tree carved the top being bracd wt. peggs & thongs wt. the bottom hollow from Virginia. In 1906, curators at the British Museum realised that the drum could not have created by Native Americans. In the 1970s, it possible to use expertise from Kew Gardens to determine that the wood was grown in Africa. The drum is thought to have originally been made for a musician in an African chiefs orchestra and this is the oldest African-American object in the British Museum and was part of its founding collection. This drum was chosen to be featured in A History of the World in 100 Objects, the drum has also been used as the lead object in a special display at the British Museum in 2010 called From Africa to America, drumming, slavery, music. The slave owners were unsure of how they should treat African music, on some plantations drums were banned
40.
Aubin Codex
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The Aubin Codex is a textual and pictorial history of the Aztecs from their departure from Aztlán through the Spanish conquest to the early Spanish colonial period, ending in 1607. Among other topics, the Aubin Codex has a description of the massacre at the temple in Tenochtitlan in 1520. Also called Manuscrito de 1576, this codex is held by the British Museum in London, a copy of the original is held at the Princeton University library in the Robert Garrett Collection there. British Museum. org, Aubin Codex — catalogue record, Reference number AN237162001, Codex Aubin, MSS279 Series 9 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University
41.
Benin Bronzes
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The Benin Bronzes are a group of more than a thousand commemorative metal plaques and sculptures that decorated the royal palace of the Benin Kingdom in modern-day Nigeria. In 1897, most of the plaques and other objects were removed by the British during an expedition to the area as imperial control was being consolidated in Southern Nigeria. Two hundred of the pieces were taken to the British Museum, London, today, a large number are held by the British Museum. Other notable collections are in Germany and the United States, the Benin Bronzes led to a greater appreciation in Europe of African culture and art. Initially and naively, it appeared incredible to the discoverers that people supposedly so primitive, some even concluded that Benin knowledge of metallurgy came from the Portuguese traders who were in contact with Benin in the early modern period. Today, it is clear that the bronzes were made in Benin from an indigenous culture, many of these dramatic sculptures date to the thirteenth century, centuries before contact with Portuguese traders, and a large part of the collection dates to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is believed that two golden ages in Benin metal workmanship occurred during the reigns of Esigie and of Eresoyen, while the collection is known as the Benin Bronzes, like most West African bronzes the pieces are mostly made of brass of variable composition. There are also made of mixtures of bronze and brass, of wood, of ceramic. The metal pieces were made using lost-wax casting and are considered among the best sculptures made using this technique, bronze and ivory objects had a variety of functions in the ritual and courtly life of the Kingdom of Benin. They were used principally to decorate the palace, which contained many bronze works. They were hung on the pillars of the palace by nails punched directly through them, as a courtly art, their principal objective was to glorify the Oba—the divine king—and the history of his imperial power or to honor the queen mother. Art in the Kingdom of Benin took many forms, of bronze and brass reliefs. In tropical Africa of the center, the technique of lost-wax casting was developed early. When a king died, his successor would order that a head be made of his predecessor. Approximately 170 of these sculptures exist, and the oldest date from the twelfth century, the Oba, or king, monopolized the materials that were most difficult to obtain, such as gold, elephant tusks, and bronze. These kings made possible the creation of the splendid Benin bronzes, thus, in 1939, heads very similar to those of the Benin Empire were discovered in Ife, the holy city of the Yoruba, which dated to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This discovery supported an earlier tradition holding that it was artists from Ife who had taught Benin the techniques of bronze metalworking, recognition of the antiquity of the technology in Benin advanced when these sculptures were dated definitively to that era. Few examples of African art had been collected by Europeans in the eighteenth century and this attitude changed after the Benin Expedition of 1897
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Double-headed serpent
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The Double-headed serpent is an Aztec sculpture kept at the British Museum. It came from Aztec Mexico and might have been worn or displayed in religious ceremonies and it is possible that this sculpture may be one of the gifts given by the Aztec emperor, Moctezuma II, to Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés when he invaded in 1519. The mosaic is made of pieces of turquoise, crab shell, the body of the sculpture has been carved from wood. The back of this model is very plain, and only the heads have decorations on both sides, the body has been hollowed out to make the sculpture lighter. The main body of the snake at the front is covered in turquoise, the stone has been broken into similar sized pieces and then stuck to the wooden body with pine resin. By using 2,000 small pieces, the pieces of stone give the impression of a smooth curved mosaic surface. It has to be remembered that this sculpture was created without the use of iron tools, the turquoise had to be cut and ground using harder stones. Some of the turqoise had been brought 1,600 km to become part of this serpent, the heads of the snake have holes for eyes, but there is evidence that beeswax may have been used to hold something that appeared to be an eye. It has been speculated that the material that made the serpents eyes was a piece of iron pyrite. The vivid contrast of the red and white details on the head have been made from crab shell, cleverly, the adhesive used to attach the Spondylus shell has been coloured with red iron oxide to complete the design. The white shell used for the teeth comes from shells of the sea snail. Cortés arrived on the coast of what is now Mexico in 1519, some sources report that Montezuma thought that Cortés was the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl and treated him accordingly. Cortés was given a number of gifts, which included turquoise sculptures. Despite the gifts and the reception, Montezuma was taken prisoner by Cortés and his troops took the Montezumas capital, Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs were brutally and systematically enslaved and murdered, in spite of their generosity and they then fell victim to smallpox and other European diseases brought to Mexico by Cortés and his troops. Neil Macgregor credits Henry Christy with gathering similar artifacts into the British Museum, the sculpture is now in the possession of the British Museum and was purchased by the Christy funds. This sculpture is one of nine Mexican turquoise mosaics in the British Museum, there are considered to be only 25 Mexican turquoise mosaics in Europe from this period. There were a number of reasons why the serpent may have chosen as the subject of this sculpture
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Throne of Weapons
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The Throne of Weapons is a sculpture created by Cristóvão Canhavato out of disused weapons. It has been owned by the British Museum since 2002 and it has been called the Museums most eloquent object and it may have been shown in a wider variety of ways than any other object. The sculpture was created by a sculptor who was born Cristóvão Estavão Canhavato in Zavala in southern Mozambique, Canhavato works under the name of Kester as part of a co-operative called Associação Núcleo de Arte. Kester was born in 1966 and his education took place at the artists collective—although he already had a knowledge of engineering construction. The throne has been signed by the artist, but as the curators have noted, Kester, the artist, points out the smiling faces that he has included in his work even though his relatives were injured by weapons like these. At the top of the right hand rifle butt is a human face, the holes and marks are the remains of where a strap had been attached when it was carried by its owner. The symbol Kester created was the shape at the back which is intended to symbolise a church. The Transforming Arms into Tools organisation supplied the weapons to Kester and his group for this. The guns, mostly AK-47 assault rifles, were manufactured in Portugal, Eastern Europe, the H&K G3 rifles used to form the backrest were designed in Germany and manufactured in Portugal. They were widely used throughout West Africa, the Russian contribution of the iconic AK-47 rifle is important to the design—an AK-47, a hoe, and a book still feature on Mozambiques flag. On the front of the chair is a North Korean manufactured AKM rifle and a single PPSh-43 submachinegun, the weapons in Mozambique arise from a civil war that was funded by South Africa and Rhodesia and involved emigrants from their apartheid regimes. One million people were killed and the war ended when the Soviet Union collapsed. Kofi Annan said when this chair was being discussed, We dont manufacture weapons, how do we get these weapons to kill each other. The throne was purchased by the British Museum in 2002, the sculpture had been brought to England by Christian Aid as part of an exhibition called Swords into Ploughshares. In 2005 the museum went on to another art work from the same group of artists in Maputo. The resulting piece was called Tree of Life and it was exhibited in the main area from February 2005. The symbolism of recycling decommissioned weapons from around the world is self-evident, however, there is an added meaning because chairs can be a symbol of authority in Africa. A nineteenth century example of a chair from Ghana is shown for comparison
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Tree of Life (Kester)
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The Tree of Life is a sculpture created by four artists in Mozambique. It was commissioned and then installed in the British Museum in 2005 and it was built from the surrender of 600,000 weapons that were converted into art following an initiative started by Bishop Dinis Sengulane. The sculpture was created by four artists, Kester, Hilario Nhatugueja, Fiel dos Santos and Adelino Serafim Maté in Maputo, the scheme was created by the Mozambican Christian Council and supported by Christian Aid. It was Bishop Dinis Sengulanes idea which led to the creation of an organisation called Transformacao de Armas em Enxadas or Transforming Arms into Tools, Sengulane who was one of the people creditted for creating the opportunity for peace following the Mozambique Civil War. The Transforming Arms into Tools organisation supplied the weapons to the artists and his group for this. Around the bottom of the trunk, which weighs half a ton. The animals are a turtle, a lizard and two birds and these too are made from welded guns. Weapons are important symbols in Mozambique, an AK47 still features on Mozambiques flag. This sculpture was made from weapons which include Kalashnikov AK47s, Walther 42s, German MP 40s, the millions of weapons in Mozambique were the remains of the civil war that was funded by South Africa and Rhodesia and involved emigrants from both of their regimes. One million people were killed and the war ended when the Soviet Union collapsed. Kofi Annan of the United Nations said, when work was being discussed, We dont manufacture weapons. How do we get these weapons to each other. This sculpture was commissioned by the British Museum in 2005 after they had purchased another sculpture called Throne of Weapons in 2002, the sculpture had been brought to England by Christian Aids Jane Spence as part of an exhibition called Swords into Ploughshares. Transforming Arms into Art, following her documentary film for Christian Aid and this piece was exhibited in the museum main area from February 2005. It played a part in the Africa 2005 Season which took place in Britain and involved the Arts Council, the British Museum, Christian Aid. The season finished in October 2005, in 2010 the tree is a feature of room 25 of the British Museum. Bishop Sengulane who started this project said, why should this world have hungry people. Why should this world have a shortage of medicines, and yet, the amount of money which can be made available, almost instantly, for armament purposes is just amazing, and I would say shocking
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Yaxchilan Lintel 24
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Lintel 24 is the designation given by modern archaeologists to an ancient Maya limestone carving from Yaxchilan, in modern Chiapas, Mexico. The lintel dates to about 725 CE, placing it within the Maya Late Classic period, the text of Maya hieroglyphics indicates that the scene depicted is a bloodletting ritual that took place on 5 Eb 15 Mac,709 CE. The ruler, Shield Jaguar, holds a torch while his consort, Lady Xoc, Lintel 24 was found in its original context alongside Lintels 25 and 26 in Structure 23 of Yaxchilan. Alfred Maudslay had the cut from the ceiling of a side entrance in 1882. Lintel 25 made the journey in 1883, Lintel 26 was discovered in 1897 by Teobert Maler. It was removed to the Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia in 1964, “The text consists of two sentences, one relating to Shield Jaguar, the other to his wife. The first three glyphs record the date and the event, “he is letting blood, ” with additional glyphs apparently specifying the particular ritual context. Shield Jaguar’s name begins at E2b, with a title telling us he was a “4-Katun ahpo”--- that he had lived into his fourth katun and his personal name consists of a shield sitting atop a jaguar head. The name phrase concludes by naming him “the captor of Ah-Ahaual”, all three were apparently commissioned by Lady Xoc for the doorways of Structure 23. The lintels show the costumes of the king and queen with remarkable detail. These lintels are considered by some to be the pinnacle of Mayan Art and we are able to study the detail of Mayan weaving as depicted in these carvings, and see the pearls woven into the fabric. Subtle differences in the three lintels suggest that the compositions were completed by two or three different artists, each of the works is signed, indicating that the production of such works was regarded as a highly specialized skill rather than a trade. Shield Jaguar was a figure in directing the course of Yaxchilan. Shield Jaguar ascended to power in AD681 and died in AD742, there are numerous documented references to him on artifacts at the end of Stage V at Yaxchilan. In Lintel 24, he is depicted holding a torch above his first wife, the king is wearing his hair back with quetzal feathers indicating that he will also let blood in this ceremony. Attached to his band is what appears to be a representation of the Jester Mask. The jester mask is considered analogous to the glyph for kingship, ajaw, since the rest of the costume is depicted without much abstraction, it is suggested that Maya kings may have literally attached a shrunken head to their head band as a representation of power. He is shown wearing a pectoral with a representation of the sun god depicted and it is strung from a jade bead necklace that is counterbalanced by a long strand of jade beads and what are probably carved shells going down his back
