Great Zab
The Great Zab or Upper Zab is an 400-kilometre long river flowing through Turkey and Iraq. It joins the Tigris in Iraq south of Mosul; the drainage basin of the Great Zab covers 40,300 square kilometres, during its course, the rivers collects the water from many tributaries. The river and its tributaries are fed by rainfall and snowmelt – as a result of which discharge fluctuates throughout the year. At least six dams have been planned on the Great Zab and its tributaries, but construction of only one, the Bekhme Dam, has commenced but was halted after the Gulf War; the Zagros Mountains have been occupied since at least the Lower Palaeolithic, Neanderthal occupation of the Great Zab basin has been testified at the archaeological site of Shanidar Cave. Historical records for the region are available from the end of the third millennium BCE onward. In the Neo-Assyrian period, the Great Zab provided water for irrigation for the lands around the capital city of Nimrud; the Battle of the Zab – which ended the Umayyad Caliphate – took place near a tributary of the Great Zab, the valleys of the river provided shelter for refugees from the Mongol conquest of Iraq.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Great Zab basin saw frequent uprisings of local Kurdish tribes striving for autonomy. The Great Zab rises in Turkey in the mountainous region east of Lake Van at an elevation of 3,000 metres amsl and joins the Tigris on its left bank in Iraq. In Turkey, the Great Zab traverses the provinces of Van and Hakkâri, whereas in Iraq it flows through Duhok Governorate and Erbil Governorate, both part of the Kurdistan Region. Together with the Tigris, the Great Zab forms the boundary between Erbil Governorate and Ninawa Governorate. In its upper reaches, the Great Zab flows through rocky gorges; the stretch between Amadiya and the Bekhme Gorge, where the Bekhme Dam remains unfinished, has been called the Sapna valley and will have a large portion of it inundated with water if the project is completed. Numerous mountain wadis join the Great Zab on its right and left banks; the Great Zab receives most of its waters from the left-bank tributaries. The length of the Great Zab has been variously estimated at 473 kilometres.
300 kilometres of the river's course are located within Iraq. The average discharge of the Great Zab is 419 cubic metres per second, but peak discharges of up to 1,320 cubic metres per second have been recorded; the average annual discharge is 13.2 cubic kilometres. Because of its torrential nature, Medieval Arab geographers have described the Great Zab – together with the Little Zab – as "demoniacally possessed". Estimates of the drainage basin of the Great Zab vary – from a low 25,810 square kilometres to a high figure of 40,300 square kilometres. 62 percent of the basin is located in Iraq. To the south, the Great Zab basin borders on that of the Little Zab while on the east it adjoins the Tigris basin; the Zagros consists of parallel limestone folds rising to elevations of over 3,000 metres amsl. The valleys – including that of the Great Zab – and the south-western foothill zone are filled with gravel and sandstone; the Amadiya valley within the Great Zab drainage basin is the third-largest valley in the Iraqi Zagros, after the Shahrazor and the Ranya Plain.
The Great Zab rises in the highlands of the Zagros Mountains, where a climate with cold winter and annual precipitation in excess of 1,000 millimetres prevails. From there, the river flows into the foothill zone of the Zagros, where rainfall drops to less than 300 millimetres per year at the confluence with the Tigris. Average summer temperature in the foothill zone are higher in the foothill zone than in the mountains; the high Zagros is characterized by three different ecozones: the area above the treeline at 1,800 metres where shrubs and herbs dominate, the area between 1,800 and 610 metres, in the past dominated by open oak forest, the wetter and sometimes marshy river valleys. Other trees besides oak that can be found in the forested zone including juniper at higher elevations. In the foothill zone, many areas are now cultivated, but there remain small patches of natural vegetation dominated by herbs of the genus Phlomis. To date, one large dam has been constructed on the Great Zab: Iraq's Bekhme Dam and Turkey's 24 MW weir-controlled run-of-the-river Bağışlı Hydroelectric Power Plant.
Five others have been planned in the Great Zab basin by both Iraq. Turkey's State Hydraulic Works plans to construct the Çukurca and Doğanlı Dams near Çukurca and the Hakkâri Dam near the city of Hakkâri; the Hakkâri Dam with a 245 MW power station is in final design and the Çukurca and Doğanlı Dams will support 245 MW and 462 MW power stations, respectively. Iraq has commenced construction of the Bekhme and Deralok Dams and planned two others – the Khazir-Gomel and Mandawa Dams. Plans to build a dam in the Great Zab at the Bekhme Gorge for flood control and irrigation were first proposed in 1937. A feasibility study determined that the site was not suited for dam construction and the plan was abandoned. In 1976, another study proposed three dif
Senecio
Senecio is a genus of the daisy family that includes ragworts and groundsels. The scientific Latin genus name, means "old man." Variously circumscribed taxonomically, the genus Senecio is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. The traditional circumscription of Senecio is artificial, being polyphyletic in its new circumscription, based on genetic data. Despite the separation of many species into other genera, the genus still contains c. 1,250 species and is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. As no morphological synapomorphies are known to determine which species belong to the genus or not, no exact species numbers are known; the genus has an worldwide distribution and evolved in the mid- to late Miocene. Some species produce natural biocides to deter or kill animals that would eat them. Senecio species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species — see list of Lepidoptera that feed on Senecio. Pyrrolizidine alkaloids have been found in Senecio nemorensis and in Senecio cannabifolius var. integrilifolius.
The flower heads are rayed with the heads borne in branched clusters, completely yellow, but green, purple and blue flowers are known as well. In its current circumscription, the genus contains species that are annual or perennial herbs, small trees, aquatics or climbers; the only species which are trees are the species belonging to Robinsonia occurring on the Juan Fernández Islands. The genus Senecio is distributed worldwide, it is one of the few genera occurring in all five regions with a Mediterranean climate. Furthermore, species are found including tropical alpine-like areas. Many genera and the whole tribe are in need of revision. Many species placed in the genus need to be transferred to other or new genera, others have been retransferred to Senecio. In its new delimitation the genus is still not monophyletic. Genera that have been included are the following: Aetheolaena Culcitum Hasteola Iocenes B. Nord. Lasiocephalus Willd. Ex Schltdl. Robinsonia The following genera contain species that have been included within Senecio.
Antillanthus B. Nord. Barkleyanthus H. Rob. & Brettell Brachyglottis J. R. Forst. & G. Forst. Canariothamnus B. Nord. Dauresia B. Nord. & Pelser Dendrophorbium C. Jeffrey Dendrosenecio B. Nord. - Giant groundsels occurring in the high altitude areas of East Africa Dorobaea Cass. Dresslerothamnus H. Rob. Elekmania B. Nord. Herreranthus B. Nord. Hubertia Bory Jacobaea Mill. Leonis B. Nord. Ligularia Lundinia B. Nord. Mesogramma DC. Monticalia C. Jeffrey Nelsonianthus H. Rob. & Brettell Nesampelos B. Nord. nom. inval. Oldfeltia B. Nord. & Lundin Packera Á. Löve & D. Löve Pentacalia Cass. Pippenalia McVaugh Pittocaulon H. Rob. & Brettell Pojarkovia Askerova Psacaliopsis H. Rob. & Brettell Pseudogynoxys Cabrera Pseudojacobaea R. Mathur Roldana La Llave Sinosenecio B. Nord. Synotis C. Jeffrey & Y. L. Chen Telanthophora H. Rob. & Brettell Tephroseris Rchb. Vendredia Baill. Zemisia B. Nord. Senecio ampullaceus — Texas ragwort, Texas squaw-weed, Texas groundsel, clasping-leaf groundsel Senecio angulatus L.f. — creeping groundsel Senecio antisanae Senecio arborescens Senecio aureus L. — golden ragwortPackera aurea A. & D. Löve Senecio barbertonicus Klatt — succulent bush senecio Senecio battiscombei Dendrosenecio battiscombei Senecio bigelovii — nodding groundsel Senecio bosniacus G. Beck — Bosnian ragwort Senecio brasiliensis Less.
— flor-das-almas Cineraria brasiliensis Senecio cambrensis — Welsh groundsel, Welsh ragwort Senecio congestus DC. — marsh ragwort, clustered marsh ragwort, marsh fleabane Cineraria palustris Othonna palustris Tephroseris palustris Senecio douglasii — threadleaf groundsel Senecio eboracensis Abbott & Lowe — York groundsel Senecio flaccidus Less. — Douglas senecio, threadleaf groundsel, threadleaf ragwort Senecio gallicus Chaix — French groundsel Senecio glabellus Poir. — butterweed Packera glabella C. Jeffrey Senecio glaucus L. — Jaffa groundsel Senecio haworthii — woolly senecio Senecio howeanus Senecio iscoensis — Hieron. Senecio jacobaea — is a synonym of Jacobaea vulgaris. Senecio keniensis Dendrosenecio keniensis Senecio keniodendron — giant groundsel Dendrosenecio keniodendron Senecio keniophytum Senecio kleinia Kleinia neriifolia Senecio lamarckianus Senecio leucanthemifolius Poir. — coastal ragwort Senecio littoralis Senecio macroglossus — Natal ivy, wax ivy Senecio mikanioides — Cape ivy, German ivy Delairea odorata Senecio nivalis Kunth Senecio obovatus Muhl. — roundleaf ragwort Packera obovata Senecio patagonicus Senecio pauciradiatus Senecio pulcher Senecio rowleyanus — string of pearls Senecio sanmarcosensis Senecio scandens — German ivy Senecio serpens — blue chalksticks Senecio squalidus — Oxford ragwort Senecio trapezuntinus Senecio triangularis — arrowleaf groundsel Senecio vaginatus Senecio vernalis — eastern groundsel Senecio viscosus — sticky ragwort Senecio vulgaris — common groundsel, old-man-in-the-springFormerly in Senecio Brachyglottis greyi Florist's Cineraria, Pericallis × hybrida Rugelia nudicaulis — Rugels ragwort Ragwort Control Act 2003 Noxious weed Taxonomy Media related to Senecio at Wikimedia Commons Natural Resources Conservation Service.
"PLANTS Profile, Senecio L." The PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 2008-03-06. Germplasm Resources Information Network. "Genus: Senecio L." Taxonomy for Plants. USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program, National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Maryland. Retrieved 2008-03-06. Germplasm Resources Information Network. "GRIN Species
Flowering plant
The flowering plants known as angiosperms, Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants, with 64 orders, 416 families 13,164 known genera and c. 369,000 known species. Like gymnosperms, angiosperms are seed-producing plants. However, they are distinguished from gymnosperms by characteristics including flowers, endosperm within the seeds, the production of fruits that contain the seeds. Etymologically, angiosperm means a plant; the term comes from the Greek words sperma. The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms in the Triassic Period, 245 to 202 million years ago, the first flowering plants are known from 160 mya, they diversified extensively during the Early Cretaceous, became widespread by 120 mya, replaced conifers as the dominant trees from 100 to 60 mya. Angiosperms differ from other seed plants in several ways, described in the table below; these distinguishing characteristics taken together have made the angiosperms the most diverse and numerous land plants and the most commercially important group to humans.
Angiosperm stems are made up of seven layers. The amount and complexity of tissue-formation in flowering plants exceeds that of gymnosperms; the vascular bundles of the stem are arranged such that the phloem form concentric rings. In the dicotyledons, the bundles in the young stem are arranged in an open ring, separating a central pith from an outer cortex. In each bundle, separating the xylem and phloem, is a layer of meristem or active formative tissue known as cambium. By the formation of a layer of cambium between the bundles, a complete ring is formed, a regular periodical increase in thickness results from the development of xylem on the inside and phloem on the outside; the soft phloem becomes crushed, but the hard wood persists and forms the bulk of the stem and branches of the woody perennial. Owing to differences in the character of the elements produced at the beginning and end of the season, the wood is marked out in transverse section into concentric rings, one for each season of growth, called annual rings.
Among the monocotyledons, the bundles are more numerous in the young stem and are scattered through the ground tissue. They once formed the stem increases in diameter only in exceptional cases; the characteristic feature of angiosperms is the flower. Flowers show remarkable variation in form and elaboration, provide the most trustworthy external characteristics for establishing relationships among angiosperm species; the function of the flower is to ensure fertilization of the ovule and development of fruit containing seeds. The floral apparatus may arise terminally from the axil of a leaf; as in violets, a flower arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf. More the flower-bearing portion of the plant is distinguished from the foliage-bearing or vegetative portion, forms a more or less elaborate branch-system called an inflorescence. There are two kinds of reproductive cells produced by flowers. Microspores, which will divide to become pollen grains, are the "male" cells and are borne in the stamens.
The "female" cells called megaspores, which will divide to become the egg cell, are contained in the ovule and enclosed in the carpel. The flower may consist only of these parts, as in willow, where each flower comprises only a few stamens or two carpels. Other structures are present and serve to protect the sporophylls and to form an envelope attractive to pollinators; the individual members of these surrounding structures are known as petals. The outer series is green and leaf-like, functions to protect the rest of the flower the bud; the inner series is, in general, white or brightly colored, is more delicate in structure. It functions to attract bird pollinators. Attraction is effected by color and nectar, which may be secreted in some part of the flower; the characteristics that attract pollinators account for the popularity of flowers and flowering plants among humans. While the majority of flowers are perfect or hermaphrodite, flowering plants have developed numerous morphological and physiological mechanisms to reduce or prevent self-fertilization.
Heteromorphic flowers have short carpels and long stamens, or vice versa, so animal pollinators cannot transfer pollen to the pistil. Homomorphic flowers may employ a biochemical mechanism called self-incompatibility to discriminate between self and non-self pollen grains. In other species, the male and female parts are morphologically separated, developing on different flowers; the botanical term "Angiosperm", from the Ancient Greek αγγείον, angeíon and σπέρμα, was coined in the form Angiospermae by Paul Hermann in 1690, as the name of one of his primary divisions of the plant kingdom. This included flowering plants possessing seeds enclosed in capsules, distinguished from his Gymnospermae, or flowering plants with achenial or schizo-carpic fruits, the whole fruit or each of its pieces being here regarded as a seed and naked; the term and its antonym were maintained by Carl Linnaeus with the same sense, but with restricted application, in the names of the orders of his class Didynamia. Its use with any
Medicine man
A medicine man or medicine woman is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of indigenous people of the Americas. Individual cultures have their own names, in their respective Indigenous languages, for the spiritual healers and ceremonial leaders in their particular cultures. In the ceremonial context of Indigenous North American communities, "medicine" refers to spiritual healing. Medicine men/women should not be confused with those who employ Native American ethnobotany, a practice, common in a large number of Native American and First Nations households; the terms "medicine people" or "ceremonial people" are sometimes used in Native American and First Nations communities, for example, when Arwen Nuttall of the National Museum of the American Indian writes, "The knowledge possessed by medicine people is privileged, it remains in particular families."Native Americans tend to be quite reluctant to discuss issues about medicine or medicine people with non-Indians. In some cultures, the people will not discuss these matters with Indians from other tribes.
In most tribes, medicine elders are prohibited from introducing themselves as such. As Nuttall writes, "An inquiry to a Native person about religious beliefs or ceremonies is viewed with suspicion." One example of this is the Apache medicine cord or Izze-kloth whose purpose and use by Apache medicine elders was a mystery to nineteenth century ethnologists because "the Apache look upon these cords as so sacred that strangers are not allowed to see them, much less handle them or talk about them."The 1954 version of Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language reflects the poorly-grounded perceptions of the people whose use of the term defined it for the people of that time: "a man supposed to have supernatural powers of curing disease and controlling spirits." In effect, such definitions were not explanations of what these "medicine people" are to their own communities but instead reported on the consensus of and psychologically remote observers when they tried to categorize the individuals.
The term "medicine man/woman," like the term "shaman," has been criticized by Native Americans, as well as other specialists in the fields of religion and anthropology. While non-Native anthropologists sometimes use the term "shaman" for Indigenous healers worldwide, including the Americas, "shaman" is the specific name for a spiritual mediator from the Tungusic peoples of Siberia and is not used in Native American or First Nations communities; the term "medicine man/woman" has frequently been used by Europeans to refer to African traditional healers, along with the offensive term "witch doctors". Cherokee spiritual and healing knowledge has been passed down for thousands of years; the Cherokee people were among the first Native Americans to formalize a written language. Some of the information in the Cherokee ledgers is written in code to prevent other people from trying to misuse or exploit their medicine ways; as in all Native American cultures, Cherokee medicine people had to practice in secret from the post-contact era until 1978, when the American Indian Religious Freedom Act was passed.
Training a Cherokee medicine person takes many years due to the vast amount of knowledge needed to practice. Modern-day Cherokee medicine people must be born and raised in the Cherokee community and culture, raised with the language; the skills of gifted and well-trained medicine people are still important to the Cherokee people, though genocide and oppression have resulted in there being fewer now than pre-contact. There are many fraudulent healers and scam artists who pose as Cherokee "shamans", the Cherokee Nation has had to speak out against these people forming a task force to handle the issue. In order to seek help from a Cherokee medicine person a person needs to know someone in the community who can vouch for them and provide a referral. One makes contact through a relative who knows the healer. New Age Frauds & Plastic Shamans, an organization devoted to discussing fraudulent medicine people
Archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved, which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record. Sites may range from those with few or no remains visible above ground, to buildings and other structures still in use. Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a "site" can vary depending on the period studied and the theoretical approach of the archaeologist, it is invariably difficult to delimit a site. It is sometimes taken to indicate a settlement of some sort although the archaeologist must define the limits of human activity around the settlement. Any episode of deposition such as a hoard or burial can form a site as well. Development-led archaeology undertaken as cultural resources management has the disadvantage of having its sites defined by the limits of the intended development. In this case however, in describing and interpreting the site, the archaeologist will have to look outside the boundaries of the building site.
According to Jess Beck in "How Do Archaeologists find sites?" the areas with a large number of artifacts are good targets for future excavation, while areas with small number of artifacts are thought to reflect a lack of past human activity.” Many areas have been discovered by accident. The most common person to have found artifacts are farmers who are plowing their fields or just cleaning them up find archaeological artifacts. Many people who are out hiking and pilots find artifacts they end up reporting them to archaeologist to do further investigation; when they find sites, they have to first record the area and if they have the money and time for the site they can start digging. There are many ways to find sites, one example can be through surveys. Surveys involve walking around analyzing the land looking for artifacts, it can involve digging, according to the Archaeological Institute of America, “archaeologists search areas that were to support human populations, or in places where old documents and records indicate people once lived.”
This helps archaeologists in the future. In case there was no time, or money during the finding of the site, archaeologists can come back and visit the site for further digging to find out the extent of the site. Archaeologist can sample randomly within a given area of land as another form of conducting surveys. Surveys are useful, according to Jess Beck, “it can tell you where people were living at different points in the past.” Geophysics is a branch of survey becoming more and more popular in archaeology, because it uses different types of instruments to investigate features below the ground surface. It is not as reliable, because although they can see what is under the surface of the ground it does not produce the best picture. Archaeologists have to still dig up the area in order to uncover the truth. There are two most common types of geophysical survey, which is, magnetometer and ground penetrating radar. Magnetometry is the technique of mapping patterns of magnetism in the soil, it uses an instrument called a magnetometer, required to measure and map traces of soil magnetism.
The ground penetrating radar is a method. It uses electro magnetic radiation in the microwave band of the radio spectrum, detects the reflected signals from subsurface structures. There are many other tools that can be used to find artifacts, but along with finding artifacts, archaeologist have to make maps, they do so by taking data from surveys, or archival research and plugging it into a Geographical Information Systems and that will contain both locational information and a combination of various information. This tool is helpful to archaeologists who want to explore in a different area and want to see if anyone else has done research, they can use this tool to see what has been discovered. With this information available, archaeologists can expand their research and add more to what has been found. Traditionally, sites are distinguished by the presence of both features. Common features include the remains of houses. Ecofacts, biological materials that are the result of human activity but are not deliberately modified, are common at many archaeological sites.
In the cases of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras, a mere scatter of flint flakes will constitute a site worthy of study. Different archaeologists may see an ancient town, its nearby cemetery as being two different sites, or as being part of the same wider site; the precepts of landscape archaeology attempt to see each discrete unit of human activity in the context of the wider environment, further distorting the concept of the site as a demarcated area. Furthermore, geoarchaeologists or environmental archaeologists would consider a sequence of natural geological or organic deposition, in the absence of human activity, to constitute a site worthy of study. Archaeological sites form through human-related processes but can be subject to natural, post-depositional factors. Cultural remnants which have been buried by sediments are in many environments more to be preserved than exposed cultural remnants. Natural actions resulting in sediment being deposited include aeolian natural processes. In jungles and other areas of lush plant growth, decomposed vegetative sediment can result in layers of soil deposited over remains.
Colluviation, the burial of a site by sediments moved by gravity can happen at sites on slopes. Human a
Shamanism
Shamanism is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with what they believe to be a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world. A shaman is someone, regarded as having access to, influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who enters into a trance state during a ritual, practices divination and healing; the word "shaman" originates from the Tungusic Evenki language of North Asia. According to ethnolinguist Juha Janhunen, "the word is attested in all of the Tungusic idioms" such as Negidal, Udehe/Orochi, Ilcha, Orok and Ulcha, "nothing seems to contradict the assumption that the meaning'shaman' derives from Proto-Tungusic" and may have roots that extend back in time at least two millennia; the term was introduced to the west after Russian forces conquered the shamanistic Khanate of Kazan in 1552. The term "shamanism" was first applied by Western anthropologists as outside observers of the ancient religion of the Turks and Mongols, as well as those of the neighbouring Tungusic- and Samoyedic-speaking peoples.
Upon observing more religious traditions across the world, some Western anthropologists began to use the term in a broad sense. The term was used to describe unrelated magico-religious practices found within the ethnic religions of other parts of Asia, Africa and completely unrelated parts of the Americas, as they believed these practices to be similar to one another. Mircea Eliade writes, "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, the least hazardous, will be: shamanism ='technique of religious ecstasy'." Shamanism encompasses the premise that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments/illness by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness; the shaman enters supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Shamans may visit other worlds/dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls and to ameliorate illnesses of the human soul caused by foreign elements.
The shaman operates within the spiritual world, which in turn affects the human world. The restoration of balance results in the elimination of the ailment. Beliefs and practices that have been categorized this way as "shamanic" have attracted the interest of scholars from a wide variety of disciplines, including anthropologists, historians, religious studies scholars and psychologists. Hundreds of books and academic papers on the subject have been produced, with a peer-reviewed academic journal being devoted to the study of shamanism. In the 20th century, many Westerners involved in the counter-cultural movement have created modern magico-religious practices influenced by their ideas of indigenous religions from across the world, creating what has been termed neoshamanism or the neoshamanic movement, it has affected the development of many neopagan practices, as well as faced a backlash and accusations of cultural appropriation and misrepresentation when outside observers have tried to represent cultures to which they do not belong.
The word shamanism derives from the Manchu-Tungus word šaman, meaning'one who knows'. The word "shaman" may have originated from the Evenki word šamán, most from the southwestern dialect spoken by the Sym Evenki peoples; the Tungusic term was subsequently adopted by Russians interacting with the indigenous peoples in Siberia. It is found in the memoirs of the exiled Russian churchman Avvakum; the word was brought to Western Europe in the late 17th century by the Dutch traveler Nicolaes Witsen, who reported his stay and journeys among the Tungusic- and Samoyedic-speaking indigenous peoples of Siberia in his book Noord en Oost Tataryen. Adam Brand, a merchant from Lübeck, published in 1698 his account of a Russian embassy to China; the etymology of the Evenki word is sometimes connected to a Tungus root ša- "to know". This has been questioned on linguistic grounds: "The possibility cannot be rejected, but neither should it be accepted without reservation since the assumed derivational relationship is phonologically irregular."
Other scholars assert that the word comes directly from the Manchu language, as such would be the only used English word, a loan from this language. However, Mircea Eliade noted that the Sanskrit word śramaṇa, designating a wandering monastic or holy figure, has spread to many Central Asian languages along with Buddhism and could be the ultimate origin of the Tungusic word; this proposal has been critiqued since 1917. Ethnolinguist Juha Janhunen regards it as an "anachronism" and an "impossibility", nothing more than a "far-fetched etymology."21st-century anthropologist and archeologist Silvia Tomaskova argues that by the mid-1600s, many Europeans applied the Arabic term shaitan to the non-Christian practices and beliefs of indigenous peoples beyond the Ural Mountains. She suggests that shaman may have entered the various Tungus dialects as a corruption of this term, been told to Christian missionaries, explorers and colonial administrators with whom the people had increasing contact for centuries.
Ethnolinguists did not develop as a discipline nor achieve contact with these communities until the late 19th century, may have mistakenly "read backward" in time for the origin of this word. A shamaness is somet
Archaeological looting in Iraq
Archaeological looting in Iraq took place on the aftermath of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The chaos following war has provided the opportunity to pillage everything, not nailed down; the period between April 8, 2003 when the staff vacated National Museum of Iraq and April 16, 2003 when US forces arrived in sufficient numbers to “restore some semblance of order.” Some 15,000 cultural artifacts disappeared in that time. Looting of ancient artifacts has a long tradition; as early as 1884, laws passed in Mesopotamia about destroying antiquities. By the end of WW1, British-occupied Mesopotamia had created protections for archeological sites where looting was beginning to become a problem, they established an absolute prohibition on exporting antiquities. The British Museum was responsible for the museums across Iraq during this time period. Gertrude Bell, well known for drawing the Iraq borders, excavated many sites around Iraq and created what is now the National Museum of Iraq. By the mid 1920s the black market for antiquities was growing and looting began in all sites where antiquities could be found.
After Iraq was independent of Britain the absolute ban on antiquity exports was lifted. Until the mid 1970s Iraq was one of few countries to not prohibit external trade in antiquities; this made Iraq attractive to black market collectors from around the globe. The result of the first Gulf War was. Uprisings that followed the war resulted in 9 of 13 regional museums being looted and burned; this was just a preview for. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, archaeological looting has become an greater problem. Though some sites, such as Ur and Nippur, were protected by US and Coalition forces, most were not. Saddam Hussein treasured his national heritage immensely and acted to defend these sites and the artifacts within them. Hussein came into power in 1979 as the fifth president of Iraq, he believed that the past of Iraq was important to his national campaign and his regime doubled the national budget for archeology and heritage creating museums and protecting sites all over Iraq. It wasn’t until his party the Ba'ath Party was under pressure in the 1990s that looting become a large problem once again for Iraq.
By 2000 looting had become so rampant that the workers of the sites were looting their own workplaces. With the fall of Saddam's government on 9 April 2003, archaeological sites were left open to looting. Before the 2003 invasion by US and Coalition forces, the US government created a post-war plan for Iraq; the US has been criticized in the media and academic writings for not adequately planning protections for culture and antiquities. According to Lawrence Rothfield, former director of the Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago and associate professor of English and comparative literature, this looting of the National Museum of Iraq and of hundreds of archaeological sites around the country was not prevented. At the time of war planning it was Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld who decided on a fast invasion with fewer troops, resulting in inadequate protection of buildings and cultural sites. American troops and commanders did not prioritize security for cultural sites around Iraq.
Peacekeeping was seen as a lesser job than physically fighting in combat and President Bush’s suspension of former president Clinton’s policies for peacekeeping not only backed up this thought but made the US’s duties to restore public order unclear. American troops in Iraq didn’t trust Iraqi power of any kind meaning that instead of using and training Iraqi police, the US military took matters of security and policing into their own hands; the US would act as peacekeepers to train a national army and police force. Special Forces teams would work with regional warlords to keep control of their territories. Allowing warlords to police their own areas has been credited with being a disastrous plan for the archaeological sites in particular. Arthur Houghton had an interest and some expertise in cultural heritage and was one of the first to wonder what the pre-war plan was for Iraqi culture, he had worked in the State Department as a Foreign Service officer, as an international policy analyst for the White house and served at an acting curator for the Getty Museum.
In late spring 2002, Houghton was approached by Ashton Hawkins, former Executive Vice President and Counsel to the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum, was asked to find out what was being done by officials to secure heritage sites in the upcoming war in Iraq. Houghton could find no one designated with the task of protection and preservation of culture in Iraq. There had been a secret Future of Iraq Project since October 2001, with clearance from the Pentagon; however under this Project no specific person had taken up responsibility of culture. Archaeological organizations in the US hadn’t noticed the issue until late 2002; when the US Agency for Cultural Development met with estimated 150 NGO’s not one brought up protection of cultural heritage. UNESCO had in fact, after the Gulf War in 1991, attempted to go into Iraq and assess the damage to cultural sites but they were not allowed to enter the country. UNESCO focused, for the next decade, on reconstruction after the fact rather than prevention measures.
Within the US military, Civil Affairs forces were important to the protection of culture and, as they were reservists, included experts in a variety of areas including archaeology. The plan was to spread the expertise among fighting forces in order to warn them of cultural sites in the area. However, CA was left out of pre-war planning until January 2003, wh
