1.
Blue eyes
–
Neither blue nor green pigments are ever present in the human iris or ocular fluid. Eye color is thus an instance of structural color and varies depending on the lighting conditions, the brightly colored eyes of many bird species result from the presence of other pigments, such as pteridines, purines, and carotenoids. Humans and other animals have many variations in eye color. The genetics of eye color are complicated, and color is determined by multiple genes, so far, as many as 15 genes have been associated with eye color inheritance. Some of the eye-color genes include OCA2 and HERC2, the earlier belief that blue eye color is a simple recessive trait has been shown to be incorrect. The genetics of eye color are so complex that almost any combination of eye colors can occur. However, OCA2 gene polymorphism, close to proximal 5′ regulatory region, Eye color is an inherited trait influenced by more than one gene. These genes are sought using associations to small changes in the genes themselves and these changes are known as single-nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs. The actual number of genes that contribute to eye color is currently unknown, a study in Rotterdam found that it was possible to predict eye color with more than 90% accuracy for brown and blue using just six SNPs. The gene OCA2, when in a variant form, causes the eye color. Different SNPs within OCA2 are strongly associated with blue and green eyes as well as variations in freckling, mole counts, hair, the polymorphisms may be in an OCA2 regulatory sequence, where they may influence the expression of the gene product, which in turn affects pigmentation. A specific mutation within the HERC2 gene, a gene that regulates OCA2 expression, is responsible for blue eyes. Other genes implicated in eye color variation are SLC24A4 and TYR, blue eyes with a brown spot, green eyes, and gray eyes are caused by an entirely different part of the genome. Classification systems have ranged from a light or dark description to detailed gradings employing photographic standards for comparison. Others have attempted to set standards of color comparison. Eye colors range from the darkest shades of brown to the lightest tints of blue, there are three pigment colors that determine, depending on their proportion, the outward appearance of the iris, along with structural color. Green irises, for example, have blue and some yellow, some eyes have a dark ring around the iris, called a limbal ring. Eye color in non-human animals is regulated differently, for example, instead of blue as in humans, autosomal recessive eye color in the skink species Corucia zebrata is black, and the autosomal dominant color is yellow-green
Blue eyes
–
Close up of a
blue human
iris.
Blue eyes
–
Amber eyes in sunlight – displaying an orange color rather than brown
Blue eyes
–
A light blue iris
Blue eyes
–
A
Birman kitten with distinctive
sapphire blue eyes.
2.
Diadem
–
A diadem is a type of crown, specifically an ornamental headband worn by monarchs and others as a badge of royalty. The word derives from the Greek διάδημα diádēma, band or fillet, from διαδέω diadéō, I bind round, such ribbons were also used to crown victorious athletes in important sports games in antiquity. It was later applied to a crown, generally in a circular or fillet shape. For example, the worn by Juliana was a diadem. The ancient Celts were believed to have used a thin, semioval gold plate called a mind as a diadem. Some of the earliest examples of types of crowns can be found in ancient Egypt, from the simple fabric type to the more elaborate metallic type. A diadem is also a jewelled ornament in the shape of a crown, worn by women. In some societies, it may be a wreath worn around the head, the ancient Persians wore a high and erect royal tiara encircled with a diadem. Hera, queen of the Greek gods, wore a crown called the diadem. By extension, diadem can be used generally for an emblem of power or dignity. The head regalia worn by Roman Emperors, from the time of Diocletian onwards, is described as a diadem in the original sources and it was this object that the Foederatus general Odoacer returned to Emperor Zeno after his expulsion of the usurper Romulus Augustus from Rome in 476 CE. Civic crown Tainia Fillet Tiara Diadem
Diadem
–
The diadem or crown of Princess
Sit-Hathor Yunet from her tomb.
12th Dynasty Egypt 19th century BC.
Diadem
–
17th Dynasty diadem crown
ancient Egypt (
Rijksmuseum van Oudheden)
Diadem
–
19th Dynasty wig with diadem (
British Museum)
Diadem
–
Elliptical diadem from
Mycenae,
Greece (16th century BC)
3.
Centaur
–
A centaur, or occasionally hippocentaur, is a mythological creature with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse. The centaurs were usually said to have born of Ixion. Another version, however, makes them children of a certain Centaurus and this Centaurus was either himself the son of Ixion and Nephele or of Apollo and Stilbe, daughter of the river god Peneus. In the later version of the story his twin brother was Lapithes, ancestor of the Lapiths, Centaurs were said to have inhabited the region of Magnesia and Mount Pelion in Thessaly, the Foloi oak forest in Elis, and the Malean peninsula in southern Laconia. Another tribe of centaurs was said to have lived on Cyprus, according to Nonnus, they were fathered by Zeus, who, in frustration after Aphrodite had eluded him, spilled his seed on the ground of that land. Unlike those of mainland Greece, the Cyprian centaurs were horned, there were also the Lamian Pheres, twelve rustic daimones of the Lamos river. They were set by Zeus to guard the infant Dionysos, protecting him from the machinations of Hera, the Lamian Pheres later accompanied Dionysos in his campaign against the Indians. Centaurs subsequently featured in Roman mythology, and were familiar figures in the medieval bestiary and they remain a staple of modern fantastic literature. The strife among these cousins is a metaphor for the conflict between the lower appetites and civilized behavior in humankind, theseus, a hero and founder of cities, who happened to be present, threw the balance in favour of the right order of things, and assisted Pirithous. The Centaurs were driven off or destroyed, another Lapith hero, Caeneus, who was invulnerable to weapons, was beaten into the earth by Centaurs wielding rocks and the branches of trees. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as wild as untamed horses, like the Titanomachy, the defeat of the Titans by the Olympian gods, the contests with the Centaurs typify the struggle between civilization and barbarism. The Centauromachy is most famously portrayed in the Parthenon metopes by Phidias, a painted terracotta centaur was found in the Heros tomb at Lefkandi, and by the Geometric period, centaurs figure among the first representational figures painted on Greek pottery. An often-published Geometric period bronze of a warrior face-to-face with a centaur is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in Greek art of the Archaic period, centaurs are depicted in three different forms. Some centaurs are depicted with a human torso attached to the body of a horse at the withers, where the neck would be. Class B centaurs are depicted with a body and legs, joined at the waist with the hindquarters of a horse. A third type, designated Class C, depicts centaurs with human forelegs terminating in hooves, Baur describes this as an apparent development of Aeolic art, which never became particularly widespread. At a later period, paintings on some amphoras depict winged centaurs, Centaurs were also frequently depicted in Roman art. The most common theory holds that the idea of centaurs came from the first reaction of a culture, as in the Minoan Aegean world
Centaur
–
Greek, possibly Athenian, Statuette of a centaur, ca. 530 B.C., in the
Princeton University Art Museum
Centaur
–
Brooklyn Museum - Centauress - John La Farge - overall
Centaur
–
Centauromachy, tondo of an
Attic red-figure kylix, ca. 480 BC
Centaur
–
Boeotian kantharos,
Late Geometric period
4.
Tarim Basin
–
The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in northwest China occupying an area of about 1,020,000 km2. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its boundary is the Kunlun Mountains on the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Taklamakan Desert dominates much of the basin, the historical Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin is Altishahr, which means six cities in Uyghur. They were governed separately until 1884, north side, The Chinese called this the Tien Shan Nan Lu or Tien Shan South Road, as opposed to the Bei Lu north of the mountains. Along it runs the modern highway and railroad while the middle Tarim River is about 100 km south, Kashgar was where the caravans met before crossing the mountains. Center, Most of the basin is occupied by the Taklamakan Desert which is too dry for permanent habitation, the Yarkand, Kashgar and Aksu Rivers join to form the Tarim River which runs along the north side of the basin. Formerly it continued to Loulan, but some time after 330AD it turned southeast near Korla toward Charkilik, the Tarim ended at the now-dry Lop Nur which occupied a changing position east of Loulan. Eastward is the fabled Jade Gate which the Chinese considered the gateway to the Western Regions, beyond that is Dunhuang with its ancient manuscripts and then Anxi at the west end of the Gansu Corridor. The modern road continues east to Tibet, there is no current road east across the Kumtag Desert to Dunhuang, but caravans somehow made the crossing thru the Yangguan pass south of the Jade Gate. Roads and passes, rivers and caravan routes, The Southern Xinjiang Railway branches from the Lanxin Railway near Turpan, follows the side of the basin to Kashgar. Roads, The main road from eastern China reaches Urumchi and continues as highway 314 along the side to Kashgar. Highway 315 follows the side from Kashgar to Charkilik and continues east to Tibet. There are currently four north-south roads across the desert,218 runs from Charkilik to Korla along the former course of the Tarim forming an oval whose other end is Kashgar. The Tarim Desert Highway, an engineering achievement, crosses the center from Niya to Luntai. The new Highway 217 follows the Khotan River from Khotan to near Aksu, a road follows the Yarkand River from Yarkand to Baqu. East of the Korla-Charkilik road travel continues to be very difficult, Rivers coming south from the Tien Shan join the Tarim, the largest being the Aksu. Rivers flowing north from the Kunlun are usually named for the town or oasis they pass through, Most dry up in the desert, only the Hotan River reaching the Tarim in good years. An exception is the Qiemo River which flowed northeast into Lop Nor, ruins in the desert imply that these rivers were once larger
Tarim Basin
–
NASA landsat photo of the Tarim Basin
Tarim Basin
–
Dzungaria
Tarim Basin
–
Fresco from a
stupa shrine,
Miran
5.
Chinese language
–
Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language, the varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Yue. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. Standard Chinese is a form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is the language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations. The written form of the language, based on the logograms known as Chinese characters, is shared by literate speakers of otherwise unintelligible dialects. Of the other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is the spoken language and official in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also influential in Guangdong province and much of Guangxi, dialects of Southern Min, part of the Min group, are widely spoken in southern Fujian, with notable variants also spoken in neighboring Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. Hakka also has a diaspora in Taiwan and southeast Asia. Shanghainese and other Wu varieties are prominent in the lower Yangtze region of eastern China, Chinese can be traced back to a hypothetical Sino-Tibetan proto-language. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty, as the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have sought to promulgate a unified standard. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, in addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach, and are often also sensitive border zones. Without a secure reconstruction of proto-Sino-Tibetan, the structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, the earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BCE in the late Shang dynasty
Chinese language
–
The
Tripitaka Koreana, a Korean collection of the
Chinese Buddhist canon
Chinese language
–
Hànyǔ (Chinese) written in
traditional (left) and
simplified (right) characters
Chinese language
–
"
Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion " by
Wang Xizhi, written in
semi-cursive style
6.
Khotan
–
Hotan, also transliterated from Chinese as Hetian, is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an autonomous region in western China. The city proper of Hotan broke off from the larger Hotan County to become an area in its own right in August 1984. It is the seat of Hotan Prefecture, with a population of 322,300, Hotan is situated in the Tarim Basin some 1,500 kilometres southwest of the regional capital, Ürümqi. It lies just north of the Kunlun Mountains, which are crossed by the Sanju, Hindutash, the town, located southeast of Yarkant County and populated almost exclusively by Uyghurs, is a minor agricultural center. The White Jade River still provides water and irrigation for the town and it provided a convenient meeting place where not only goods, but technologies, philosophies, and religions were transmitted from one culture to another. Tocharians lived in this region over 2000 years ago, several of the Tarim mummies were found in the region. At Sampul, east of the city of Hotan, there is a series of cemeteries scattered over an area about 1 kilometre wide and 23 km long. The excavated sites range from about 300 BCE to 100 CE, the tapestry had been cut up and fashioned into trousers worn by one of the deceased. An Anthropological study of 56 individuals showed a primarily Caucasoid population, DNA testing on the mummies found in the Tarim basin showed that they were an admixture of Western Europeans and East Asian. There is an abundance of information on Hotan readily available for study. The ancient Kingdom of Khotan was one of the earliest Buddhist states in the world and its capital was located to the west of the modern city of Hotan. The inhabitants of the Kingdom of Khotan, like those of early Kashgar and Yarkant, spoke Saka, khotans indigenous dynasty governed a fervently Buddhist city-state boasting some 400 temples in the late 9th/early 10th century—four times the number recorded by Xuanzang around 630. The kingdom was independent but was intermittently under Chinese control during the Han, after the Tang dynasty, Khotan formed an alliance with the rulers of Dunhuang. Through the 10th century, Khotanese royal portraits were painted in association with an number of deities in the caves. In the 10th century, Khotan began a struggle with the Kara-Khanid Khanate, some Khotanese Buddhist works were unearthed. The rulers of Khotan were aware of the menace they faced since they arranged for the Mogao grottoes to paint a number of divine figures along with themselves. Yūsuf Qadr Khān was a brother or cousin of the Muslim ruler of Kashgar and Balasagun, Khotan lost its independence, later it fell to the Kara-Khitan Khanate, after which it was ruled by the Mongols. When Marco Polo visited Khotan in the 13th century, he noted that the people were all Muslim and he wrote that, Khotan was a province eight days’ journey in extent, which is subject to the Great Khan
Khotan
–
Hotän 和田市 · خوتەن شەھىرى
Khotan
–
Bronze coin of
Vima Kadphises found in Khotan.
Khotan
–
Khotan
Melikawat ruins
Khotan
–
Map of
Central Asia (1878) showing Khotan (near top right corner) and the
Sanju Pass,
Hindutash, and Ilchi passes through the
Kunlun Mountains to
Leh,
Ladakh. The previous border of the
British Indian Empire is shown in the two-toned purple and pink band.
7.
Hellenistic
–
It is often considered a period of transition, sometimes even of decadence or degeneration, compared to the enlightenment of the Greek Classical era. The Hellenistic period saw the rise of New Comedy, Alexandrian poetry, the Septuagint, Greek science was advanced by the works of the mathematician Euclid and the polymath Archimedes. The religious sphere expanded to include new gods such as the Greco-Egyptian Serapis, eastern deities such as Attis and Cybele, the Hellenistic period was characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa. This resulted in the export of Greek culture and language to new realms. Equally, however, these new kingdoms were influenced by the cultures, adopting local practices where beneficial, necessary. Hellenistic culture thus represents a fusion of the Ancient Greek world with that of the Near East, Middle East and this mixture gave rise to a common Attic-based Greek dialect, known as Koine Greek, which became the lingua franca through the Hellenistic world. Scholars and historians are divided as to what event signals the end of the Hellenistic era, Hellenistic is distinguished from Hellenic in that the first encompasses the entire sphere of direct ancient Greek influence, while the latter refers to Greece itself. The word originated from the German term hellenistisch, from Ancient Greek Ἑλληνιστής, from Ἑλλάς, Hellenistic is a modern word and a 19th-century concept, the idea of a Hellenistic period did not exist in Ancient Greece. Although words related in form or meaning, e. g, the major issue with the term Hellenistic lies in its convenience, as the spread of Greek culture was not the generalized phenomenon that the term implies. Some areas of the world were more affected by Greek influences than others. The Greek population and the population did not always mix, the Greeks moved and brought their own culture. While a few fragments exist, there is no surviving historical work which dates to the hundred years following Alexanders death. The works of the major Hellenistic historians Hieronymus of Cardia, Duris of Samos, the earliest and most credible surviving source for the Hellenistic period is Polybius of Megalopolis, a statesman of the Achaean League until 168 BC when he was forced to go to Rome as a hostage. His Histories eventually grew to a length of forty books, covering the years 220 to 167 BC, another important source, Plutarchs Parallel Lives though more preoccupied with issues of personal character and morality, outlines the history of important Hellenistic figures. Appian of Alexandria wrote a history of the Roman empire that includes information of some Hellenistic kingdoms, other sources include Justins epitome of Pompeius Trogus Historiae Philipicae and a summary of Arrians Events after Alexander, by Photios I of Constantinople. Lesser supplementary sources include Curtius Rufus, Pausanias, Pliny, in the field of philosophy, Diogenes Laertius Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is the main source. Ancient Greece had traditionally been a collection of fiercely independent city-states. After the Peloponnesian War, Greece had fallen under a Spartan hegemony, in which Sparta was pre-eminent but not all-powerful
Hellenistic
–
The
Nike of Samothrace is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of
Hellenistic art.
Hellenistic
–
Alexander fighting the Persian king
Darius III. From the
Alexander Mosaic,
Naples National Archaeological Museum.
Hellenistic
–
Alexander's empire at the time of its maximum expansion.
8.
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
–
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was – along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom – the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world, covering Bactria and Sogdiana in Central Asia from 250 to 125 BC. It was centered on the north of present-day Afghanistan, the expansion of the Greco-Bactrians into present-day eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan from 180 BC established the Indo-Greek Kingdom, which was to last until around 10 AD. Diodotus, the satrap of Bactria founded the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom when he seceded from the Seleucid Empire around 250 BC, the preserved ancient sources are somewhat contradictory, and the exact date of Bactrian independence has not been settled. Somewhat simplified, there is a chronology and a low chronology for Diodotos’ secession. The high chronology has the advantage of explaining why the Seleucid king Antiochus II issued very few coins in Bactria, as Diodotos would have become independent there early in Antiochus reign. On the other hand, the low chronology, from the mid-240s BC, has the advantage of connecting the secession of Diodotus I with the Third Syrian War, a catastrophic conflict for the Seleucid Empire. Diodotus, the governor of the cities of Bactria, defected and proclaimed himself king, all the other people of the Orient followed his example. Their cities were Bactra, and Darapsa, and several others, among these was Eucratidia, which was named after its ruler. In 247 BC, the Ptolemaic empire captured the Seleucid capital, in the resulting power vacuum, the satrap of Parthia proclaimed independence from the Seleucids, declaring himself king. A decade later, he was defeated and killed by Arsaces of Parthia and this cut Bactria off from contact with the Greek world. Overland trade continued at a rate, while sea trade between Greek Egypt and Bactria developed. Euthydemus, a Magnesian Greek according to Polybius and possibly satrap of Sogdiana, overthrew the dynasty of Diodotus I around 230-220 BC, and the Iaxartes forms also the boundary between the Sogdians and the nomads. Euthydemus was attacked by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III around 210 BC, although he commanded 10,000 horsemen, Euthydemus initially lost a battle on the Arius and had to retreat. Following the departure of the Seleucid army, the Bactrian kingdom seems to have expanded, in the west, areas in north-eastern Iran may have been absorbed, possibly as far as into Parthia, whose ruler had been defeated by Antiochus the Great. These territories possibly are identical with the Bactrian satrapies of Tapuria, the Greek historian Strabo too writes that, they extended their empire even as far as the Seres and the Phryni. Several statuettes and representations of Greek soldiers have been north of the Tien Shan, on the doorstep to China. Greek influences on Chinese art have also been suggested, designs with rosette flowers, geometric lines, and glass inlays, suggestive of Hellenistic influences, can be found on some early Han dynasty bronze mirrors. The practice of exporting Chinese metals, in iron, for trade is attested around that period
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
–
Approximate maximum extent of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom circa 180 BC, including the regions of
Tapuria and
Traxiane to the West,
Sogdiana and
Ferghana to the north,
Bactria and
Arachosia to the south.
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
–
History of Afghanistan
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
–
Gold coin of
Diodotus c. 245 BC. The
Greek inscription reads: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΙΟΔΟΤΟΥ – "(of) King Diodotus".
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
–
Remains of a Hellenistic
capital found in
Balkh, ancient Bactra.
9.
1st century CE
–
The 1st century was the century that lasted from AD1 to AD100 according to the Julian calendar. It is often written as the 1st century AD or 1st century CE to distinguish it from the 1st century BC which preceded it, the 1st century is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period. During this period Europe, North Africa and the Near East fell under increasing domination by the Roman Empire, the reforms introduced by Augustus during his long reign stabilized the empire after the turmoil of the previous centurys civil wars. Later in the century the Julio-Claudian dynasty, which had been founded by Augustus, the Roman Empire generally experienced a period of prosperity and dominance in this period and the First Century is remembered as part of the Empires golden age. The 1st Century saw the appearance of Christianity, China continued to be dominated by the Han Dynasty, despite a fourteen-year interruption by the Xin dynasty under Wang Mang. Han rule was restored in AD23, Wang Mangs rule represents the watershed between the Western/Former Han and the Eastern/Later Han, the capital was also moved from Changan to Luoyang. Western Asia, Roman and Parthian Empires, Sabaean and Arabian Kingdoms, southeast Asia, Mandala of city-states, Kingdom of Funan East Asia, Han Dynasty, Yamatai, Xiongnu and Xianbei tribal chiefdoms, Three Kingdoms of Korea. North America, Central America, Mayan, Teotihuacan and Zapotec civilizations, caribbean, South America, Nazca, Moche civilizations, Tairona tribal chiefdoms. Early 1st century – Augustus of Primaporta, is made and it is now kept in Musei Vaticani, Braccio Nuovo, Rome. Early 1st century – Gemma Augustea is made and it is now kept at Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Early 1st century – House of the Silver Wedding, Pompeii, is built, excavated in 1893, the year of the silver wedding anniversary of Italys King Humbert and his wife, Margherita of Savoy, who have supported archaeological fieldwork at Pompeii. Early 1st century - Inner shrine, Ise, Mie, Mie Prefecture, is built, AD1, Lions became extinct in Western Europe. AD2, First Census of China, the census is one of the most accurate in Chinese history, AD7, Prince Cunobeline of Catuvellauni defeats the Trinovantes in England and establishes his capital at Camulodunum. AD9, Three Roman legions were ambushed and destroyed at Teutoberg Forest by Germans under the leadership of Arminius, AD9, Prince Cunobeline is crowned King of Catuvellauni, his Kingdom dominates Southern England. AD 9–23, Wang Mang temporarily overthrew the Han dynasty of China, AD14, Augustus Caesar, first emperor of Rome, dies. His adopted son, stepson and son-in-law Tiberius is his successor, AD25, The Han dynasty is restored by Liu Xiu who proclaims himself Emperor Guangwu of Han. AD 28–75, Emperor Ming of Han, Buddhism reaches China, humans arrive on Pentecost Island and establish the Bunlap tribe, among others. AD29, Jesus begins his ministry, AD33, The Crucifixion of Jesus
1st century CE
–
Eastern Hemisphere in AD 50, in the middle of the 1st century
1st century CE
–
AD 1, map of
Eurasia with the
Roman Empire (red),
Parthian Empire (brown), Chinese
Han dynasty (yellow) and other
states /areas with smaller states (white)
1st century CE
–
The skeleton called the "Ring Lady" unearthed in Herculaneum, one of the victims of the eruption of
Mount Vesuvius in
79
1st century CE
–
Augustus
10.
Tapestry
–
Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven on a vertical loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work. In tapestry weaving, weft yarns are typically discontinuous, the artisan interlaces each coloured weft back and it is a plain weft-faced weave having weft threads of different colours worked over portions of the warp to form the design. Most weavers use a warp thread, such as linen or cotton. The weft threads are usually wool or cotton, but may include silk, gold, silver, the earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek
Tapestry
–
One of the tapestries in the series
The Hunt of the Unicorn: The Unicorn is Found, circa 1495-1505,
the Cloisters,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Tapestry
–
Henry VIII is seated beneath a tapestry cloth of state
Tapestry
–
Detail of Naissance de Marie
Aubusson tapestry in the cloister of
Church of St. Trophime, Arles
Tapestry
–
The Attainment, one of the
Holy Grail tapestries,
Morris & Co., 1890s
11.
Caucasoid
–
Ancient and modern Caucasoid populations were thus held to have ranged in complexion from white to dark brown. In the United States, the root term Caucasian has also often used in a different. First introduced in early racial typologies and anthropometry, the term denoted one of three purported races of humankind. The appellation Caucasian for the grouping was popularized by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, who named it after the categorys archetypal skull, the traditional anthropological term Caucasoid is a portmanteau of the demonym Caucasian and the Greek suffix eidos, implying a resemblance to the native inhabitants of the Caucasus. It etymologically contrasts with the terms Negroid, Mongoloid and Australoid, the term Caucasian race was coined by the German philosopher Christoph Meiners in his The Outline of History of Mankind. Meiners acknowledged two races, the Caucasian or beautiful, and the Mongolian or ugly, in his earlier racial typology, Meiners put forth that Caucasians had the whitest, most blooming and most delicate skin. In a series of articles, Meiners boasts about the superiority of Germans among Europeans, such views were typical of early scientific attempts at racial classification, where skin pigmentation was regarded as the main difference between races. This view was shared by the French naturalist Julien-Joseph Virey, who believed that the Caucasians were only the palest-skinned Europeans and it was Johann Friedrich Blumenbach who gave the term a wider audience, by grounding it in the new methods of craniometry and Linnean taxonomy. He established Caucasian as the race, Mongoloid as the yellow race, Malayan as the brown race, Ethiopian as the black race. He also noticed that darker skin of an olive-tinge was a feature of some European populations closer to the Mediterranean Sea. However, pragmatically, Blumenbach acknowledged that skin color of the Caucasian variety naturally ranged from white to brown tones. Thus, Carleton S. Coon and Franco Bragagna included the native to all of Central. For example, Thomas Henry Huxley classified all populations of Asian nations as Mongoloid, lothrop Stoddard in turn classified as brown most of the populations of the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Central Asia and South Asia. Coon used the term Caucasoid and White race synonymously, in 1962, Coon published The Origin of Races, wherein he proposed a polygenist view, that human races had evolved separately from local varieties of Homo erectus. Dividing humans into five races, and argued that each evolved in parallel but at different rates. He argued that the Caucasoid race had evolved 200,000 years prior to the Congoid race, drawing from Petrus Campers theory of facial angle, Blumenbach and Cuvier classified races, through their skull collections based on their cranial features and anthropometric measurements. Caucasoid traits were recognised as, thin nasal aperture, a mouth, facial angle of 100°–90°. They assert that they can identify a Caucasoid skull with an accuracy of up to 95%, however, Alan H. Goodman cautions that this precision estimate is often based on methodologies using subsets of samples
Caucasoid
–
For the peoples of the Caucasus Mountains, see
Peoples of the Caucasus. For other uses of the term "Caucasian", see
Caucasian (disambiguation).
Caucasoid
Caucasoid
Caucasoid
12.
Looting
–
The term is also used in a broader sense to describe egregious instances of theft and embezzlement, such as the plundering of private or public assets by governments. The proceeds of all these activities can be described as booty, loot, plunder, spoils, looting by a victorious army during war has been common practice throughout recorded history. For foot soldiers, it was viewed as a way to supplement their meagre income and was part of the celebration of victory. To rob them of their wealth, in other pre-modern societies, objects made of precious metals were the preferred target of war looting, largely because of their easy portability. In many cases looting was an opportunity to obtain treasures that otherwise would not have been obtainable, since the 18th century, works of art have increasingly become a popular target. In the 1930s and even more so during World War II, Nazi Germany engaged in large scale and organized looting of art, looting, combined with poor military discipline, has occasionally been an armys downfall. In other cases, for example the Wahhabi sack of Karbala, not all looters in wartime are conquerors, the looting of Vistula Land by its retreating defenders in 1915 was among the factors sapping the loyalty of Poland in World War I. Local civilians can also take advantage of a breakdown of order to loot public and private property, the novel War and Peace describes widespread looting by Moscows citizens before Napoleons troops enter the town, and looting by French troops elsewhere. Looting can also refer to antiquities formerly removed from countries by outsiders, other examples include the obelisks of Pharaoh Amenhotep II, in the, Pharaoh Ptolemy IX. In the aftermath of the Second World War Soviet forces systematically plundered the Soviet occupation zone of Germany and they sent valuable industrial equipment, infrastructure and whole factories to the Soviet Union. Especially during natural disasters, some find themselves forced to take what is not theirs in order to survive. How to respond to this, and where the line between unnecessary looting and necessary scavenging lies, is often a dilemma for governments, in other cases, looting may be tolerated or even encouraged by governments for political or other reasons. The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 explicitly prohibits the looting of property during wartime. The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 obliges military forces not only to avoid destruction of enemy property, theoretically, to prevent such looting, unclaimed property is moved to the custody of the Custodian of Enemy Property, to be handled until the return to its owner. Around the same time of the Hyksos invasion and occupation of Egypt, in Genesis 15,14, the despoliation is an act of justifiable vengeance upon the oppressors of Israel. Yet in Exodus, God uses the plagues as an act of mercy to bring a knowledge of himself to Israel, Pharaoh, the Egyptians, and to the ends of the earth. See Hyksos Iconoclasm and Genesis 13,2 and Genesis 15,14 and Exodus 12,36 Following the death of Valentinian III in 455, in 870 AD, the Byzantine city of Melite was captured by the Aghlabids under Sawāda Ibn Muḥammad. The city was destroyed, its churches looted and its population massacred, marble from the citys churches was used to build the castle of Sousse
Looting
–
The plundering of the
Frankfurter Judengasse, 22 August 1614
Looting
–
Looters attempting to enter a cycle shop in North London during the
2011 England riots
Looting
–
The sacking and looting of
Mechelen by the Spanish troops led by the
Duke of Alba, 2 October 1572
Looting
–
FAFN soldier has been caught by French Foreign Legion troops.
13.
Hotan
–
Hotan, also transliterated from Chinese as Hetian, is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an autonomous region in western China. The city proper of Hotan broke off from the larger Hotan County to become an area in its own right in August 1984. It is the seat of Hotan Prefecture, with a population of 322,300, Hotan is situated in the Tarim Basin some 1,500 kilometres southwest of the regional capital, Ürümqi. It lies just north of the Kunlun Mountains, which are crossed by the Sanju, Hindutash, the town, located southeast of Yarkant County and populated almost exclusively by Uyghurs, is a minor agricultural center. The White Jade River still provides water and irrigation for the town and it provided a convenient meeting place where not only goods, but technologies, philosophies, and religions were transmitted from one culture to another. Tocharians lived in this region over 2000 years ago, several of the Tarim mummies were found in the region. At Sampul, east of the city of Hotan, there is a series of cemeteries scattered over an area about 1 kilometre wide and 23 km long. The excavated sites range from about 300 BCE to 100 CE, the tapestry had been cut up and fashioned into trousers worn by one of the deceased. An Anthropological study of 56 individuals showed a primarily Caucasoid population, DNA testing on the mummies found in the Tarim basin showed that they were an admixture of Western Europeans and East Asian. There is an abundance of information on Hotan readily available for study. The ancient Kingdom of Khotan was one of the earliest Buddhist states in the world and its capital was located to the west of the modern city of Hotan. The inhabitants of the Kingdom of Khotan, like those of early Kashgar and Yarkant, spoke Saka, khotans indigenous dynasty governed a fervently Buddhist city-state boasting some 400 temples in the late 9th/early 10th century—four times the number recorded by Xuanzang around 630. The kingdom was independent but was intermittently under Chinese control during the Han, after the Tang dynasty, Khotan formed an alliance with the rulers of Dunhuang. Through the 10th century, Khotanese royal portraits were painted in association with an number of deities in the caves. In the 10th century, Khotan began a struggle with the Kara-Khanid Khanate, some Khotanese Buddhist works were unearthed. The rulers of Khotan were aware of the menace they faced since they arranged for the Mogao grottoes to paint a number of divine figures along with themselves. Yūsuf Qadr Khān was a brother or cousin of the Muslim ruler of Kashgar and Balasagun, Khotan lost its independence, later it fell to the Kara-Khitan Khanate, after which it was ruled by the Mongols. When Marco Polo visited Khotan in the 13th century, he noted that the people were all Muslim and he wrote that, Khotan was a province eight days’ journey in extent, which is subject to the Great Khan
Hotan
–
Hotän 和田市 · خوتەن شەھىرى
Hotan
–
Bronze coin of
Vima Kadphises found in Khotan.
Hotan
–
Khotan
Melikawat ruins
Hotan
–
Map of
Central Asia (1878) showing Khotan (near top right corner) and the
Sanju Pass,
Hindutash, and Ilchi passes through the
Kunlun Mountains to
Leh,
Ladakh. The previous border of the
British Indian Empire is shown in the two-toned purple and pink band.
14.
Lapel
–
Lapels are the folded flaps of cloth on the front of a jacket or coat, and are most commonly found on formal clothing and suit jackets. Usually they are formed by folding over the front edges of the jacket or coat and sewing them to the collar, there are three basic forms of lapels, notched, peaked and shawl. Notched lapels, the most common, are seen on business suits. Peaked lapels are more formal, and nearly always used on double breasted jackets, shawl lapels are usually carried by dinner jackets, mess jackets and tuxedos. The notched lapel, step lapel or step collar is sewn to the collar at an angle and this is the standard on single-breasted suits, and is used on nearly all suit jackets, blazers, and sports jackets. The notched lapel double-breasted jacket is a rare setting, the size of the notch can vary, and a small notch is called fishmouth. This was the first type of lapel to appear, in the late 1920s and 1930s, the single breasted peaked lapel jacket was considered a very stylish design. The feature was carried into day clothing by the popularity of the peaked dinner jacket. The ability to cut peak lapels properly on a suit is one of the most challenging tailoring tasks. The shawl lapel, roll collar, or shawl collar is a continuous curve, originally seen on the Victorian smoking jacket, it is now most common on the dinner jacket or tuxedo. This similarly began as informal eveningwear, and was made in both more and less formal versions, depending on the situation in which it was to be used. It is also used on the mess jackets. Lapels have a buttonhole on the left, which is intended to hold a boutonnière and these are now only commonly seen at more formal events. To hold the flower properly, a loop is fixed to the back of the lapel, for symmetry, double breasted suits often have a button hole on each lapel. A lapel pin is sometimes worn. The width of the lapel is a varying aspect of suits. Some designers maintain however that most stylish lapel width does not change, the upper points are derived from the end corners of the collar. This can be duplicated by similarly turning back the closure in a modern button-to-the-neck garment such as a coat or a boilersuit
Lapel
–
A peaked lapel
Lapel
–
Lord Nelson in a Captain's tailcoat (1781), exhibiting a long, loosely-folded lapel with many buttons
15.
Parthia
–
Parthia is a historical region located in north-eastern Iran. It was the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, the name Parthia is a continuation from Latin Parthia, from Old Persian Parthava, which was the Parthian language self-designator signifying of the Parthians who were an Iranian people. In context to its Hellenistic period, Parthia also appears as Parthyaea, Parthia roughly corresponds to a region in northeastern Iran. It was bordered by the Karakum desert in the north, included Kopet Dag mountain range and it bordered Media on the west, Hyrcania on the north west, Margiana on the north east, and Aria on the south east. During Arsacid times, Parthia was united with Hyrcania as one unit. As the region inhabited by Parthians, Parthia first appears as an entity in Achaemenid lists of governorates under their dominion. Prior to this, the people of the region seem to have been subjects of the Medes, according to Greek sources, following the seizure of the Achaemenid throne by Darius I, the Parthians united with the Median king Phraortes to revolt against him. Hystaspes, the Achaemenid governor of the province, managed to suppress the revolt, the first indigenous Iranian mention of Parthia is in the Behistun inscription of Darius I, where Parthia is listed among the governorates in the vicinity of Drangiana. The inscription dates to c.520 BC, the center of the administration may have been at Hecatompylus. This has rightly caused disquiet to modern scholars, following the defeat of Darius III, Phrataphernes surrendered his governorate to Alexander when the Macedonian arrived there in the summer of 330 BC. Phrataphernes was reappointed governor by Alexander, following the death of Alexander, in the Partition of Babylon in 323 BC, Parthia became a Seleucid governorate under Nicanor. Phrataphernes, the governor, became governor of Hyrcania. In 320 BC, at the Partition of Triparadisus, Parthia was reassigned to Philip, a few years later, the province was invaded by Peithon, governor of Media Magna, who then attempted to make his brother Eudamus governor. Peithon and Eudamus were driven back, and Parthia remained a governorate in its own right, in 316 BC, Stasander, a vassal of Seleucus I Nicator and governor of Bactria was appointed governor of Parthia. For the next 60 years, various Seleucids would be appointed governors of the province. In 247 BC, following the death of Antiochus II, Ptolemy III seized control of the Seleucid capital at Antioch, taking advantage of the uncertain political situation, Andragoras, the Seleucid governor of Parthia, proclaimed his independence and began minting his own coins. Meanwhile, a man called Arsaces, of Scythian or Bactrian origin, elected leader of the Parni, a short while later the Parni seized the rest of Parthia from Andragoras, killing him in the process. Arsaces II sued for peace and accepted vassal status, and it was not until Arsaces IIs grandson Phraates I, from their base in Parthia, the Arsacid dynasts eventually extended their dominion to include most of Greater Iran
Parthia
–
Young man with Parthian costume.
Palmyra,
Syria, 1st half of the 3rd century AD. Decoration of a funerary stela.
The Louvre.
Parthia
–
Achaemenid Provinces during the rule of
Darius I
Parthia
–
Coin of
Andragoras, the last Seleucid satrap of Parthia. He proclaimed independence around 250 BC.
Parthia
–
Parthian horseman now on display at the
Palazzo Madama, Turin.
16.
Ancient Rome
–
In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid
Ancient Rome
–
Senātus Populus que Rōmānus
Ancient Rome
–
Roman Republic
Ancient Rome
–
According to legend,
Rome was founded in 753 BC by
Romulus and Remus, who were raised by a she-wolf.
Ancient Rome
–
This bust from the
Capitoline Museums is traditionally identified as a portrait of
Lucius Junius Brutus.
17.
Emperor Wu of Han
–
Emperor Wu of Han, born Liu Che, courtesy name Tong, was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of China, ruling from 141–87 BC. His reign lasted 54 years — a record not broken until the reign of the Kangxi Emperor more than 1,800 years later. His reign resulted in vast territorial expansion, development of a strong and centralized state resulting from his governmental re-organization and it was also during his reign that cultural contact with western Eurasia was greatly increased, directly or indirectly. Many new crops and other items were introduced to China during his reign, Emperor Wu successfully repelled the nomadic Xiongnu from systematically raiding northern China, and dispatched his envoy Zhang Qian in 139 BC to seek an alliance with the Yuezhi of Kangju. This resulted in further missions to Central Asia, michael Loewe called the reign of Emperor Wu the high point of Modernist policies, looking back to adapt ideas from the pre-Han period. His policies and most trusted advisers were Legalist, favoring adherents of Shang Yang and these reforms had an enduring effect throughout the existence of imperial China and an enormous influence on neighboring civilizations. Emperor Wu was also known for his employment of shaman advisers, the personal name of Emperor Wu was Liu Che. The use of Han in referring to emperor Wu is a reference to the Han dynasty of which he was a part. His family name is Liu, the family or clan of the Han dynasty shared the family name of Liu, the family name of Liu Bang. The character Di is a title, this is the Chinese word which in imperial history of China means emperor, the character Wu literally means martial or warlike, but is also related to the concept of a particular divinity in the historical Chinese religious pantheon existing at that time. Combined, Wu plus di makes the name Wudi, the posthumous name used for historical and for religious purposes. One of Han Wudis innovations was the practice of changing names every so many years. Thus, the practice for dating years during the reign of Wudi came to be the nth year of the, when they got close to Han borders, She assassinated the general and claimed to Emperor Wu that he had defeated Joseon in battle. Emperor Wu, unaware of his deception, made him the commander of the Commandery of Liaodong. King Ugeo, offended, made a raid on Liaodong and killed She, in response, Emperor Wu commissioned a two-pronged attack against Joseon. Initially, Joseon offered to become a vassal, but peace negotiations broke down by the Chinese forces refusal to let a Joseon force escort its crown prince to Changan to pay tribute to Emperor Wu, Han took over the Joseon lands in 108 BC and established four commanderies. Also in 109 BC, Emperor Wu sent a force against the Kingdom of Dian. When the King of Dian surrendered, it was incorporated into Han territory with the King of Dian being permitted to keep his traditional authority, Emperor Wu established five commanderies over Dian and the other nearby kingdoms
Emperor Wu of Han
–
Emperor Wu of Han
Emperor Wu of Han
–
Emperor Wu dispatching
Zhang Qian to
Central Asia from 138 to 126 BCE,
Mogao Caves mural, 618–712 CE.
Emperor Wu of Han
–
Emperor Wu sent ambassadors to the
Dian Kingdom in
Yunnan. Bronze sculpture depicting Dian people, 3rd century BCE.
Emperor Wu of Han
–
Emperor Wu worshipping two statues of Golden Man (or
Buddha?) in 121 BC,
Mogao Caves,
Dunhuang, ca. 8th century CE.()
18.
Han Chinese
–
The Han Chinese, Han people or simply Han are an ethnic group native to East Asia. They constitute approximately 92% of the population of China, 95% of Taiwan, 76% of Singapore, 23% of Malaysia, Han Chinese are the worlds largest ethnic group with over 1.3 billion people. Similarly, the Chinese language also came to be named the Han language ever since, in the Oxford Dictionary, the Han are defined as The dominant ethnic group in China. In the Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania, the Han are called the dominant population in China, as well as in Taiwan, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the Han are the Chinese peoples especially as distinguished from non-Chinese elements in the population. The name Hanzhong, in turn, was derived from the Han River, which flows through the regions plains. The river, in turn, derives its name from such as Tianhan, Yinhan, Xinghan or Yunhan, all ancient Chinese poetic nicknames for the Milky Way. This gave rise to a commonly used nowadays by overseas Chinese for ethnic identity – Huaren. The term is used in conversation and is also an element in the Cantonese word for Chinatown. The vast majority of Han Chinese – over 1.2 billion of them – live in areas under the jurisdiction of the Peoples Republic of China, where they constitute about 92% of its population. Han Chinese also constitute the majority in both of the administrative regions of the PRC—about 95% and 96% of the population of Hong Kong and Macau. There are over 22 million Han Chinese in Taiwan, they began migrating from the coastal provinces of mainland China to Taiwan during the 13th to 17th century. At first, these migrants chose to settle in locations that bore a resemblance to the areas they had left behind in mainland China, hoklo immigrants from Quanzhou settled in coastal regions, and those from Zhangzhou tended to gather on inland plains, while the Hakka inhabited hilly areas. Clashes between these groups over land, water, and cultural differences led to the relocation of some communities, of about 40 million overseas Chinese worldwide, nearly 30 million live in Southeast Asia. They are collectively called Nanyang Chinese, according to a population genetic study, Singapore is the country with the biggest proportion of Hans in Southeast Asia. Up until the past few decades, overseas Han communities originated predominantly from areas in southern China, christmas Island has a Chinese majority at 70%, large Chinese populations also live in Malaysia and Thailand. Prior to the 1965 split, Malaysia and Singapore used to have the largest overseas Chinese population in the world and this position has since been taken by Thailand. The prehistory of the Han ethnic group is closely intertwined with both records and mythology. Han Chinese trace their ancestry from a confederation of late neolithic/early bronze-age agricultural tribes that lived along the Guanzhong, the Yellow Emperor is traditionally credited to have united with the neighbouring Shennong tribes after defeating their leader, Flame Emperor, at the Battle of Banquan
Han Chinese
–
1983 Map of ethnolinguistic groups in
mainland China and
Taiwan (Han is in olive green)
Han Chinese
–
A female servant and male advisor dressed in
silk robes, ceramic figurines from the Western Han era
Han Chinese
–
Han Chinese man wears a
queue in compliance with Manchu custom during the Qing dynasty
Han Chinese
–
Zhang Zeduan 's painting
Along the River During the Qingming Festival captures the daily life of people from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing, today's
Kaifeng.
19.
Protectorate of the Western Regions
–
Western Regions referred mostly to areas west of Yumen Pass, especially the Tarim Basin. These areas were regarded as Altishahr. Previously, western regions was used generally in regard to Central Asia. The protectorate was the first direct rule by a Chinese government of the area and it comprised various vassal protectorates, under the nominal authority of a Chief Protector of the Western Regions, appointed by the Han court. In the Han–Xiongnu War of the 2nd Century BCE the Chinese state established a seat at Wulei. Their aim was to control the peoples and cultures of the Western Regions at the time. These peoples included the Tocharian-speaking city states, such as Ārśi, Kuča, Gumo, by controlling the Western Regions, the Chinese would also keep the Xiongnu away from Inner China. The peoples of oasis city-states of Khotan and Kashgar spoke the Saka language, the seat was later shifted to Taqian, during the Eastern Han dynasty. Officially established in 59 or 60 BCE, Protector-General was the highest military position in the west during its existence, during its peak in 51 BCE, the Wusun nation was brought under submission. From 83 CE and the appointmnet of Ban Chao, the Protector-General was known as the Chief Official of the Western Regions. On 29 July 107, a series of Qiang uprisings in the areas of Hexi Corridor and Guanzhong forced the abandonment the post, in the 7th century, a successor administration, the Protectorate General to Pacify the West was established at Xizhou and moved later to Kucha. Coins from the period, with inscriptions in both Chinese and the Kharoshthi script used by local Indo-European languages, have found in the southern Tarim Basin. He befriends a Roman legionary fleeing along the Silk Road, and his desire for peace and non-violence conflicts with his sense of honor, Chief Official of the Western Regions Protectorate General to Pacify the West Sogdia Ma, Yong, Xiyu Duhu. Encyclopedia of China, 1st ed. Yu, Taishan, a Study of the History of the Relationship Between the Western and Eastern Han, Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Western Regions. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, June 1995, a Comprehensive History of Western Regions. The Grand Game in Afghanistan Maps of Xinjiang
Protectorate of the Western Regions
Protectorate of the Western Regions
Protectorate of the Western Regions
Protectorate of the Western Regions
20.
Loulan Kingdom
–
The term Loulan is the Chinese transcription of the native name Krorän and is used to refer to the city near Lop Nur as well as the kingdom. The kingdom included at various times such as Niya, Charklik, Miran. It was intermittently under Chinese control from the early Han dynasty onward until its abandonment centuries later, the ruins of Loulan are near the now-desiccated Lop Nur in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, and they are now completely surrounded by desert. A number of mummies, now known as the Tarim mummies, have found in Loulan. One female mummy has been dated to c.1800 BCE, in 126 BCE, the Chinese envoy Zhang Qian described Loulan as a fortified city near Lop Nur. In the Book of Han, the interactions of Loulan with the Han court were described in some detail. In the 2nd century BCE, Emperor Wu of Han was interested in extending contact with Dayuan after receiving reports of the country from Zhang Qian, however, according to Chinese sources, Han envoys to Fergana were harassed by Loulan and Gushi. In 108 BCE, Loulan was attacked by a Han force led by Zhao Ponu and its king captured, the Xiongnu, on hearing of these events, also attacked Loulan. The king of Loulan therefore elected to one of his sons as a hostage to the Xiongnu. The king of Loulan was then taken to the Han court, the Book of Han records, The Emperor commanded Wen to lead the troops by a suitable route, to arrest the king of Lou-lan and to bring him to the palace at the capital city. The Han emperor was satisfied with the statement and released the king, in 92 BCE, the king of Loulan died, and his countrymen requested that the kings son be returned to Loulan. However, the Han court had castrated his son for infringement of Han laws and so it refused the request, another king was installed in Loulan, and again a son was sent as hostage when demanded by the Han court. After the death of king, the Xiongnu returned the hostage son sent to them, named Chang Gui or An Gui. The Han, on hearing this, demanded that the new king present himself to the Han court and this, on his wifes advice, the king refused, on account of the fact that neither of the hostage sons sent to the Han court had been returned. In 77 BCE, the Chinese envoy Fu Jiezi was sent to kill the Loulan king after several Han envoys were intercepted and killed, the kings younger brother Weituqi was then installed as the king of Loulan by the Han court, and the kingdom was renamed Shanshan. After the Han dynasty had gained control of Loulan, the kingdom of Shanshan became a Chinese puppet state. The newly installed king, fearing retribution from the sons of the assassinated king, Chinese army officers were sent to colonise the area and an office of commandant was established at Yixun. A number of settlements in the Tarim Basin such as Qiemo and Niya were described in the Book of Han as independent states, while the name of the kingdom was changed to Shanshan by the Chinese, the Loulan region continued to be known as Kroran by the locals
Loulan Kingdom
–
A carved wooden beam from Loulan, 3rd-4th century. The patterns show influences from ancient western civilizations.
Loulan Kingdom
–
Loulan silk fragment
Loulan Kingdom
–
Oxhide boots from Loulan.
Former Han dynasty 220 BCE-8 CE.
Loulan Kingdom
–
Fragment of carpet discovered by Aurel Stein in a refuse pit at Loulan. 3rd–4th century.
21.
China
–
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
China
–
Yinxu, ruins of an ancient
palace dating from the
Shang Dynasty (14th century BCE)
China
–
Flag
China
–
Some of the thousands of life-size
Terracotta Warriors of the
Qin Dynasty, c. 210 BCE
China
–
The
Great Wall of China was built by several dynasties over two thousand years to protect the sedentary agricultural regions of the
Chinese interior from incursions by
nomadic pastoralists of the northern
steppes.
22.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
–
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially the Met, is located in New York City and is the largest art museum in the United States, and is among the most visited art museums in the world. Its permanent collection contains two million works, divided among seventeen curatorial departments. The main building, on the edge of Central Park along Manhattans Museum Mile, is by area one of the worlds largest art galleries. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains a collection of art, architecture. On March 18,2016, the museum opened the Met Breuer museum at Madison Avenue in the Upper East Side, it extends the museums modern, the Met maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, Indian, and Islamic art. The museum is home to collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, as well as antique weapons. Several notable interiors, ranging from first-century Rome through modern American design, are installed in its galleries, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870. The founders included businessmen and financiers, as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day and it opened on February 20,1872, and was originally located at 681 Fifth Avenue. The Met maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, the museum is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, and antique weapons and armor from around the world. A number of interiors, ranging from 1st century Rome through modern American design, are permanently installed in the Mets galleries. In addition to its permanent exhibitions, the Met organizes and hosts traveling shows throughout the year. The director of the museum is Thomas P. Campbell, a long-time curator and it was announced on February 28th,2017 that Campbell will be stepping down as the Mets director and CEO, effective June. On March 1st,2017 the BBC reported that Daniel Weiss shall be the acting CEO until a replacement is found, Beginning in the late 19th century, the Met started to acquire ancient art and artifacts from the Near East. From a few tablets and seals, the Mets collection of Near Eastern art has grown to more than 7,000 pieces. The highlights of the include a set of monumental stone lamassu, or guardian figures. The Mets Department of Arms and Armor is one of the museums most popular collections. Among the collections 14,000 objects are many pieces made for and used by kings and princes, including armor belonging to Henry VIII of England, Henry II of France, Rockefeller donated his more than 3, 000-piece collection to the museum. The Mets Asian department holds a collection of Asian art, of more than 35,000 pieces, the collection dates back almost to the founding of the museum, many of the philanthropists who made the earliest gifts to the museum included Asian art in their collections
Metropolitan Museum of Art
–
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
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The facade of the Met dominates the city's "
Museum Mile ".
Metropolitan Museum of Art
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The Great Hall
23.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
New York City
–
Clockwise, from top:
Midtown Manhattan,
Times Square, the
Unisphere in
Queens, the
Brooklyn Bridge,
Lower Manhattan with
One World Trade Center,
Central Park, the
headquarters of the United Nations, and the
Statue of Liberty
New York City
–
New Amsterdam, centered in the eventual
Lower Manhattan, in 1664, the year
England took control and renamed it "New York".
New York City
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The
Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the
American Revolution, took place in
Brooklyn in 1776.
New York City
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Broadway follows the Native American Wickquasgeck Trail through Manhattan.
24.
Penn Museum
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The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology — commonly called Penn Museum — is an archaeology and anthropology museum that is part of the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penns campus in the University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, since 1958, the Penn Museum has published Expedition magazine. The excavations and collections of the Museum provide resources for student research, the scientific research center MASCA ] was also closed, although the MASCA scientists were moved to other Sections within the museum. Museum administrators announced that this was a measure taken due to the current financial crisis, on June 1, then-Director Dr. Richard Hodges announced that newly defined positions as Associate Curator or Research Project Manager have been offered to 11 of the 18 individuals affected. The Museum is housed in an Arts and Crafts and Eclectic style building that is one of the landmarks of the University of Pennsylvania campus. The existing original building is only approximately one-third of an ambitious design that would have created one of the largest museum buildings in the United States. Features of the extant building include a rotunda, multiple courtyards and gardens, a fountain, reflecting pool, glass mosaics, iron gates. The Penn Museum was designed by a team of Philadelphia architects, all of whom taught on the faculty of the University, Wilson Eyre, Cope & Stewardson and Frank Miles Day. The first phase was completed in 1899 and housed the discoveries from an expedition sponsored by the University to the ancient site of Nippur, in 1915, the rotunda, which houses the Harrison Auditorium in the basement was completed. Charles Klauder designed the Coxe Memorial Wing, which opened in 1926 to house the Museums Egyptian collection, the Sharpe Wing was completed in 1929. The Coxe Memorial Egyptian Wing was added to the museum in 1924 through a bequest by former board president Eckley Coxe. The administrative wing was added in 1929, the Academic Wing, which provided laboratories for the Anthropology department and classrooms was opened in 1971. The most recent major addition was made in 2002, with the addition of the Mainwaring Wing, the Museum Library was established in 1900 when the personal library of University of Pennsylvania professor of American archaeology and linguistics Daniel Garrison Brinton was acquired. This library contained an estimated 4,098 volumes of which the ethnology, the original location of the library holdings was the Furness Building until they were transferred to the Museum building in 1898. They were relocated to the Elkins Library up until 1971 upon when they were moved to their home in the University extension of the museum. The library collection was maintained by a staff of a single part-time librarian until 1942 when Cynthia Griffin became the first full-time librarian and it was under Cynthia that the collection and library witnessed many developments. Prior to her use of the library had been limited to employees of the museum and university professor, however. She also augmented communication networks between the library and libraries worldwide, the range of disciplines featured in the collection is specific to the museum itself and incorporates all divisions of anthropology and archaeology
Penn Museum
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The Warden Garden and Main Entrance to the Penn Museum
Penn Museum
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The Stoner Courtyard at the Penn Museum
Penn Museum
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Merneptah presents an offering to
Ptah on a stone column (University of Pennsylvania Museum)
Penn Museum
–
Schools
25.
Philadelphia
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In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
Philadelphia
–
From top left, the Philadelphia skyline, a
statue of Benjamin Franklin, the
Liberty Bell, the
Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Philadelphia City Hall, and
Independence Hall
Philadelphia
–
An 18th century map of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia
–
Penn's Treaty with the Indians by
Benjamin West
Philadelphia
–
Benjamin Franklin, 1777
26.
Silk Road
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While the term is of modern coinage, the Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative trade in silk carried out along its length, beginning during the Han dynasty. The Han dynasty expanded Central Asian sections of the routes around 114 BCE, largely through missions and explorations of the Chinese imperial envoy. The Chinese took great interest in the safety of their trade products, though silk was certainly the major trade item exported from China, many other goods were traded, as well as religions, syncretic philosophies, and various technologies. Diseases, most notably plague, also spread along the Silk Routes, in addition to economic trade, the Silk Road was a route for cultural trade among the civilizations along its network. The main traders during antiquity included the Chinese, Arabs, Turkmens, Indians, Persians, Somalis, Greeks, Syrians, Romans, Georgians, Armenians, Bactrians, in June 2014, UNESCO designated the Changan-Tianshan corridor of the Silk Road as a World Heritage Site. The Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative Eurasian silk and horse trade, the German terms Seidenstraße and Seidenstraßen were coined by Ferdinand von Richthofen, who made seven expeditions to China from 1868 to 1872. The term Silk Route is also used, although the term was coined in the 19th century, it did not gain widespread acceptance in academia or popularity among the public until the 20th century. The first book entitled The Silk Road was by Swedish geographer Sven Hedin in 1938, the fall of the Soviet Union and Iron Curtain in 1989 led to a surge of public and academic interest in Silk Road sites and studies in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Use of the term Silk Road is not without its detractors and he notes that traditional authors discussing East-West trade such as Marco Polo and Edward Gibbon never labelled any route as a silk one in particular. From the 2nd millennium BCE, nephrite jade was being traded from mines in the region of Yarkand, some remnants of what was probably Chinese silk dating from 1070 BCE have been found in Ancient Egypt. The Great Oasis cities of Central Asia played a role in the effective functioning of the Silk Road trade. This style is reflected in the rectangular belt plaques made of gold and bronze, with other versions in jade. The tomb of a Scythian prince near Stuttgart, Germany, dated to the 6th century BCE, was excavated and found to have not only Greek bronzes but also Chinese silks. Scythians accompanied the Assyrian Esarhaddon on his invasion of Egypt, soghdian Scythian merchants played a vital role in later periods in the development of the Silk Road. By the time of Herodotus, the Royal Road of the Persian Empire ran some 2,857 km from the city of Susa on the Karun to the port of Smyrna on the Aegean Sea. It was maintained and protected by the Achaemenid Empire and had postal stations, by having fresh horses and riders ready at each relay, royal couriers could carry messages the entire distance in nine days, while normal travellers took about three months. The next major step in the development of the Silk Road was the expansion of the Greek empire of Alexander the Great into Central Asia and this later became a major staging point on the northern Silk Route. They continued to expand eastward, especially during the reign of Euthydemus, there are indications that he may have led expeditions as far as Kashgar in Chinese Turkestan, leading to the first known contacts between [China and the West around 200 BCE
Silk Road
–
Main routes of the Silk Road
Silk Road
–
Woven
silk textile from Tomb No. 1 at
Mawangdui,
Changsha,
Hunan province, China,
dated to the Western Han Era, 2nd century BCE.
Silk Road
–
A
Scythian horseman from the
Ili river,
Pazyryk, c. 300 BCE.
Silk Road
–
Chinese
jade and
steatite plaques, in the
Scythian -style animal art of the steppes. 4th–3rd century BCE.
British Museum.
27.
Tocharians
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The Tocharians or Tokharians were Indo-European peoples who inhabited the medieval oasis city-states on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin in ancient times. Their Tocharian languages, a branch of the Indo-European family, are known from manuscripts from the 6th to 8th centuries AD and these people were called Tocharian by late-19th century scholars who identified them with the Tókharoi described by ancient Greek sources as inhabiting Bactria. Although this identification is now considered mistaken, the name has become customary. Agricultural communities first appeared in the oases of the northern Tarim around 2000 BC, some scholars have linked them with the Afanasevo culture of eastern Siberia. By the 1st century BC, these settlements had developed into city-states, overshadowed by nomadic peoples to the north and these cities, the largest of which was Kucha, served as waystations along the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the northern edge of the Taklamakan desert. From the 9th century, the people of the oases intermixed with the Uyghurs of the Kingdom of Qocho, around the beginning of the 20th century, archaeologists recovered from oases in the Tarim Basin a number of manuscripts written in two closely related but previously unknown Indo-European languages. This term was derived from Indo-Iranian, the source of the term Tokharistan usually referring to 1st millennium Bactria. The Tókharoi are often identified by scholars with the Yuezhi of Chinese historical accounts. Nevertheless, Tocharian remains the term for the languages of the Tarim Basin manuscripts. Adams, the Tocharians may have called themselves ākñi, meaning borderers, marchers, the Tocharian languages are known from around 7600 documents dating from about 400 to 1200 AD, found at 30 sites in the northeast Tarim area. The manuscripts are written in two distinct, but closely related, Indo-European languages, conventionally known as Tocharian A and B, Tocharian A was found in the northeastern oases of Karasahr and Turpan. Some 500 manuscripts have been studied in detail, mostly coming from Buddhist monasteries, many authors take this to imply that Tocharian A had become a purely literary and liturgical language by the time of the manuscripts, but it may be that the surviving documents are unrepresentative. Tocharian B was found at all the Tocharian A sites and also in several sites further west and it appears to have still been in use in daily life at that time. Over 3200 manuscripts have been studied in detail, the languages had significant differences in phonology, morphology and vocabulary, making them mutually unintelligible. Tocharian A shows innovations in the vowels and nominal inflection, whereas Tocharian B has changes in the consonants, many of the differences in vocabulary between the languages concern Buddhist concepts, which may suggest that they were associated with different Buddhist traditions. The differences indicate that they diverged from a common ancestor between 500 and 1000 years before the earliest documents, that is, some time in the 1st millennium BC. Common Indo-European vocabulary retained in Tocharian includes words for herding, cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, horses, textiles, farming, wheat, gold, silver and wheeled vehicles. Thomas Burrow suggested that they come from a variety of Tocharian, dubbed Tocharian C or Kroränian, burrows theory is widely accepted, but the evidence is meagre and inconclusive, and some scholars favour alternative explanations
Tocharians
–
"Tocharian donors", 6th-century AD fresco from the
Kizil Caves
Tocharians
–
Wooden plate with inscriptions in the
Tocharian language.
Kucha,
China, 5th–8th century.
Tokyo National Museum.
28.
International Standard Serial Number
–
An International Standard Serial Number is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title, ISSN are used in ordering, cataloging, interlibrary loans, and other practices in connection with serial literature. The ISSN system was first drafted as an International Organization for Standardization international standard in 1971, ISO subcommittee TC 46/SC9 is responsible for maintaining the standard. When a serial with the content is published in more than one media type. For example, many serials are published both in print and electronic media, the ISSN system refers to these types as print ISSN and electronic ISSN, respectively. The format of the ISSN is an eight digit code, divided by a hyphen into two four-digit numbers, as an integer number, it can be represented by the first seven digits. The last code digit, which may be 0-9 or an X, is a check digit. Formally, the form of the ISSN code can be expressed as follows, NNNN-NNNC where N is in the set, a digit character. The ISSN of the journal Hearing Research, for example, is 0378-5955, where the final 5 is the check digit, for calculations, an upper case X in the check digit position indicates a check digit of 10. To confirm the check digit, calculate the sum of all eight digits of the ISSN multiplied by its position in the number, the modulus 11 of the sum must be 0. There is an online ISSN checker that can validate an ISSN, ISSN codes are assigned by a network of ISSN National Centres, usually located at national libraries and coordinated by the ISSN International Centre based in Paris. The International Centre is an organization created in 1974 through an agreement between UNESCO and the French government. The International Centre maintains a database of all ISSNs assigned worldwide, at the end of 2016, the ISSN Register contained records for 1,943,572 items. ISSN and ISBN codes are similar in concept, where ISBNs are assigned to individual books, an ISBN might be assigned for particular issues of a serial, in addition to the ISSN code for the serial as a whole. An ISSN, unlike the ISBN code, is an identifier associated with a serial title. For this reason a new ISSN is assigned to a serial each time it undergoes a major title change, separate ISSNs are needed for serials in different media. Thus, the print and electronic versions of a serial need separate ISSNs. Also, a CD-ROM version and a web version of a serial require different ISSNs since two different media are involved, however, the same ISSN can be used for different file formats of the same online serial
International Standard Serial Number
–
ISSN encoded in an EAN-13 barcode with sequence variant 0 and issue number 5
29.
Time Life
–
The current focus of the company is music, video and entertainment experiences as the book division closed in 2003. Its products have sold throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia through television, print, retail, the Internet, telemarketing. Current operations are focused in the US and Canada with limited retail distribution overseas, Time Life was founded in 1961 as the book division of Time Inc. It took its name from Time Inc. s cornerstone magazines, Time and Life, starting in 1967, Time Life combined its book offerings with music collections and packaged them as a sturdy box set. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the selection of books, music, when record labels stopped producing vinyl albums in 1990, Time Life switched to CD only. In the mid-1990s, Time Life acquired Heartland Music, with the Heartland Music label now appearing as a brand and this company was subsequently sold off and is no longer attached to Time Life. At the end of 2003 Time Life was acquired by Ripplewood Holdings L. L. C. Direct Holdings Americas Inc. operates as a leader in the sale of music and video products under the Time Life brand. Since 2003, Direct Holdings US Corp is the name of Time Life. In March 2007, Ripplewood led a group that took The Readers Digest Association private and treated Time Life as a division of RDA. By 2003 onward, a disclaimer on the stated that it is not affiliated with Time Warner Inc. or Time Inc. who owns the Time. In 2013, Readers Digest Association sold Time Life to Mosaic Media Investment Partners, the Time Life company was founded by Jean, Incorporated in 1961, as a book marketing division. Its name is derived from Time and Life magazines, two of the most popular magazines of the era and it was based in the Time Life building in Rockefeller Center. Time Life gained fame as a seller of book series that would be mailed to households in monthly installments, several of these book series garnered substantial critical acclaim unusual for a mass-market mail order house. F. K. Other series of high regard covered nature and the sciences, as well as the history of world civilizations, the science books are interesting as ephemera of their time. The content of these series was more or less encyclopedic, providing the basics of the subjects in the way it might be done in an aimed at the general public. There was also a series on life in various countries of the world. The books, whatever their quality, are easy to find at low prices on the used-book market, non-specific USA topic series were habitually translated in other languages, and disseminated through local branches of Time-Life Books in the intended target markets. However, not rarely were these translated versions truncated for various reasons, Time Inc. /Time Warner, however, continues to publish similar material through Time Home Entertainment Inc
Time Life
–
Time-Life building in
Rockefeller Center in
New York City
Time Life
–
Direct Holdings Global LLC
Time Life
–
Time-Life statue in
New York City, in front of the Time-Life building
