1.
Stockholm
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The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Museum
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Most large museums are located in major cities throughout the world and more local ones exist in smaller cities, towns and even the countryside. Museums have varying aims, ranging from serving researchers and specialists to serving the general public, the goal of serving researchers is increasingly shifting to serving the general public. There are many types of museums, including art museums, natural history museums, science museums, war museums, the city with the largest number of museums is Mexico City with over 128 museums. According to The World Museum Community, there are more than 55,000 museums in 202 countries, the English museum comes from the Latin word, and is pluralized as museums. The first museum/library is considered to be the one of Plato in Athens, however, Pausanias gives another place called Museum, namely a small hill in Classical Athens opposite to the Akropolis. The hill was called Mouseion after Mousaious, a man who used to sing on the hill, the purpose of modern museums is to collect, preserve, interpret, and display items of artistic, cultural, or scientific significance for the education of the public. The purpose can also depend on ones point of view, to a family looking for entertainment on a Sunday afternoon, a trip to a local history museum or large city art museum could be a fun, and enlightening way to spend the day. To city leaders, a healthy museum community can be seen as a gauge of the health of a city. To a museum professional, a museum might be seen as a way to educate the public about the museums mission, Museums are, above all, storehouses of knowledge. In 1829, James Smithsons bequest, that would fund the Smithsonian Institution, stated he wanted to establish an institution for the increase, Museums of natural history in the late 19th century exemplified the Victorian desire for consumption and for order. Gathering all examples of classification of a field of knowledge for research. As American colleges grew in the 19th century, they developed their own natural history collections for the use of their students, while many large museums, such as the Smithsonian Institution, are still respected as research centers, research is no longer a main purpose of most museums. While there is a debate about the purposes of interpretation of a museums collection, there has been a consistent mission to protect. Much care, expertise, and expense is invested in efforts to retard decomposition in aging documents, artifacts, artworks. All museums display objects that are important to a culture, as historian Steven Conn writes, To see the thing itself, with ones own eyes and in a public place, surrounded by other people having some version of the same experience can be enchanting. Museum purposes vary from institution to institution, some favor education over conservation, or vice versa. For example, in the 1970s, the Canada Science and Technology Museum favored education over preservation of their objects and they displayed objects as well as their functions. One exhibit featured a printing press that a staff member used for visitors to create museum memorabilia
4.
Mesolithic
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In archaeology, the Mesolithic is the culture between Paleolithic and Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used for areas outside northern Europe, Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It was originally post-Pleistocene, pre-agricultural material in northwest Europe about 10,000 to 5000 BC, in the archaeology of Northern Europe, for example for archaeological sites in Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Ukraine, and Russia, the term Mesolithic is almost always used. In the archaeology of other areas, the term Epipaleolithic may be preferred by most authors, in the New World, neither term is used. Other authors use the term Mesolithic for a variety of Late Paleolithic cultures subsequent to the end of the last glacial period whether they are transitional towards agriculture or not, conversely, those that are in course of transition toward artificial food production are assigned to the Mesolithic. Therefore, care must be taken in translating Mesolithic as Middle Stone Age, subdivisions of earlier and later were added to the Stone Age by Thomsen and especially his junior colleague and employee Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae. John Lubbock kept these divisions in his work Pre-historic Times in 1865 and he saw no need for an intermediate category. When Hodder Westropp introduced the Mesolithic in 1866, as an intermediate between Paleolithic and Neolithic, a storm of controversy immediately arose around it. A British school led by John Evans denied any need for an intermediate, the ages blended together like the colors of a rainbow, he said. A European school led by Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet asserted that there was a gap between the earlier and later, edouard Piette claimed to have filled the gap with his discovery of the Azilian Culture. Knut Stjerna offered an alternative in the Epipaleolithic, a continuation of the use of Paleolithic technology, the start and end dates of the Mesolithic vary by geographical region. Childes view prevails that the term covers the period between the end of the Pleistocene and the start of the Neolithic. If the Mesolithic is more similar to the Paleolithic it is called the Epipaleolithic, the Paleolithic was an age of purely hunting and gathering while in the Neolithic domestication of plants and animals had occurred. Some Mesolithic peoples continued with intensive hunting, others were practising the initial stages of domestication. The type of remains the diagnostic factor, The Mesolithic featured composite devices manufactured with Mode V chipped stone tools. The Paleolithic had utilized Modes I–IV and the Neolithic mainly abandoned the chipped microliths in favor of polished, not chipped, the first period, known as Mesolithic 1, followed the Aurignacian or Levantine Upper Paleolithic periods throughout the Levant. By the end of the Aurignacian, gradual changes took place in stone industries, small stone tools called microliths and retouched bladelets can be found for the first time. The microliths of this period differ greatly from the Aurignacian artifacts
5.
Bror Emil Hildebrand
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Bror Emil Hildebrand was a Swedish archaeologist, numismatist and museum director. From 1837 to 1879 he was Custodian of Ancient Monuments and Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, from 1847 he was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and from 1866 a member of the Swedish Academy. In 1866, he founded the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm, in 1830 Hildebrand became reader in numismatics at the University of Lund. About this time he was also taught archaeology by C. J. Thomsen in nearby Copenhagen and his main scholarly legacy lies within the field of Medieval Anglo-Saxon numismatics, where he produced pioneering catalogues and studies. Hildebrand was the father of archaeologist Hans Hildebrand and teacher both to him and to archaeologist Oscar Montelius
6.
Swedish language
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Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken natively by more than 9 million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is currently the largest of the North Germanic languages by number of speakers, Standard Swedish, spoken by most Swedes, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties descended from the rural dialects still exist. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages, V2, Swedish morphology is similar to English, that is, words have comparatively few inflections. There are two genders, no cases, and a distinction between plural and singular. Older analyses posit the cases nominative and genitive and there are remains of distinct accusative and dative forms as well. Adjectives are compared as in English, and are inflected according to gender, number. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes, complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles, the prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless velar fricative, a highly variable consonant phoneme. Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, by many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, the dialects of Old East Norse that were spoken in Sweden are called Runic Swedish while the dialects of Denmark are referred to as Runic Danish. The dialects are described as runic because the body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, from 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. An early change that separated Runic Danish from the dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong é. This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain, there was also a change of au as in dauðr into a long open ø as in døðr dead
7.
Nationalmuseum
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Nationalmuseum is the national gallery of Sweden, located on the peninsula Blasieholmen in central Stockholm. The museums benefactors include King Gustav III and Carl Gustaf Tessin, the museum also has an art library, open to the public and academics alike. The current building, built between 1844 and 1866, was inspired by North Italian Renaissance architecture and it is the design of the German architect Friedrich August Stüler, who also designed the Neues Museum in Berlin. The relatively closed exterior, save for the entrance, gives no hint of the spacious interior dominated by the huge flight of stairs leading up to the topmost galleries. The museum was enlarged in 1961 to accommodate the museum workshops, the present restaurant was instated in 1996. The museum building closed for renovation in 2013 and is scheduled to reopen in 2018, the Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis by Rembrandt Midvinterblot by Carl Larsson Vid bäcken by Peter Adolf Persson Hallwyl Palace Swedish Museum of National Antiquities Johan Mårtelius. Stockholm, Arkitektur Förlag AB. p.67
8.
Gustav I of Sweden
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Initially of low standing, Gustav rose to lead the rebel movement following the Stockholm Bloodbath, in which his father perished. As King, Gustav proved an administrator with a ruthless streak not inferior to his predecessors. He worked to raise taxes, end Feudalism and bring about a Swedish Reformation, replacing the prerogatives of local landowners, noblemen and clergy with centrally appointed governors and bishops. Due to a vibrant dynastic succession, his three sons, Erik, Johan and Karl IX, all held the kingship at different points, Gustav I has subsequently been labelled the founder of modern Sweden, and the father of the nation. Gustav liked to compare himself to Moses, whom he believed to have liberated his people. As a person, Gustav was known for ruthless methods and a bad temper and he founded one of the now oldest orchestras of the world, the Kungliga Hovkapellet. Royal housekeeping accounts from 1526 mention twelve musicians including wind players, today the Kungliga Hovkapellet is the orchestra of the Royal Swedish Opera. Gustav Eriksson, a son of Cecilia Månsdotter Eka and Erik Johansson Vasa, was born in 1496. The birth most likely place in Rydboholm Castle, northeast of Stockholm. The newborn got his name, Gustav, from Eriks grandfather Gustav Anundsson, Erik Johanssons parents were Johan Kristersson and Birgitta Gustafsdotter of the dynasties Vasa and Sture respectively, both dynasties of high nobility. Birgitta Gustafsdotter was the sister of Sten Sture the Elder, regent of Sweden, being a relative and ally of uncle Sten Sture, Erik inherited the regents estates in Uppland and Södermanland when the latter died in 1503. Although a member of a family with considerable properties since childhood, according to genealogical research, Birgitta Gustafsdotter and Sten Sture were descended from King Sverker II of Sweden, through King Sverkers granddaughter Benedikte Sunesdotter. One of King Gustavs great-grandmothers was a half-sister of King Charles VIII of Sweden, since the end of the 14th century, Sweden had been a part of the Kalmar Union with Denmark and Norway. The Danish dominance in this union led to uprisings in Sweden. During Gustavs childhood, parts of the Swedish nobility tried to make Sweden independent, Gustav and his father Erik supported the party of Sten Sture the Younger, regent of Sweden from 1512, and its struggle against the Danish King Christian II. Following the battle of Brännkyrka in 1518, where Sten Stures troops beat the Danish forces, it was decided that Sten Sture and King Christian would meet in Österhaninge for negotiations. To guarantee the safety of the king, the Swedish side sent six men as hostages to be kept by the Danes for as long as the negotiations lasted. However, Christian did not show up for the negotiations, violated the deal with the Swedish side, the six members of the kidnapped hostage were Hemming Gadh, Lars Siggesson, Jöran Siggesson, Olof Ryning, Bengt Nilsson – and Gustav Eriksson
9.
Gripsholm Castle
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Gripsholm Castle is a castle in Mariefred, Södermanland, Sweden. It is located by lake Mälaren in south central Sweden, in the municipality of Strängnäs, since Gustav Vasa, Gripsholm has belonged to the Swedish Royal Family and was used as one of their residences until the 18th-century. It is now a museum, but it is considered to be a palace at the disposal of the King. A fortress was built at the location in the 1370s by Bo Jonsson Grip and it was sold to queen Margaret in 1404, and remained the property of the crown until it was acquired by Sten Sture the Elder in 1472. It was donated to a convent for males of the order of the Carthusians in 1498, in 1526, the Carthusian Abbey was confiscated by King Gustav I during the Swedish Reformation. The King tore it down, and built a castle with circular corner towers. Of the original fortress, only the façade of a wall remains. King Gustav had it constructed to serve as one of the residences of the royal house. The castle was constructed between 1537 and 1545, and often served as the residence of the court, during the Dacke War, for example. Between 1563 and 1567, King Eric XIV imprisoned his brother John, johns son Sigismund, later the King of Poland and Sweden, was born in the castle on June 20,1566. When Eric XIV was deposed by John, Gripsholm Castle came to serve as one of the castles were John had Eric imprisoned, the deposed king Eric was kept prisoner here from 1571 until 1573. The royal family continued to use Gripsholm Castle during the 17th-century and it was the dower residence of the widow of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, who lived here from 1636 until 1640. After her death, however, the Castle was abandoned by the court for some time, for a period during the 18th-century, it was used as a prison. In 1773, Gripsholm Castle was renovated by King Gustav III on behalf of his consort Sophia Magdalena, the castle was frequently used the royal court during the reign of Gustav III, who favored it and spent several months there every year. The perhaps most famous addition to the castle during his reign was a theater and it was the stage for both the amateur theatre of the royal court as well as The French Theater of Gustav III in 1781-1792. After the Coup of 1809, Gustav IV Adolf and his family were imprisoned in the castle after his deposition from the throne. He had to sign his abdication document there, in 1822, the building came to host the National Portrait Gallery, which was placed under the supervision of the Nationalmuseum in the 1860s. Between 1889 and 1894, the castle underwent a heavy and controversial restoration by the architect Fredrik Lilljekvist during which many of the 17th, the largest change was the addition of a third floor, the planned demolition of a wing did not take place
10.
Battle of Prague (1648)
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The Battle of Prague, which occurred between 25 July and 1 November 1648 was the last action of the Thirty Years War. When a third Swedish army commanded by Prince Carl Gustaf came close to Prague and these attacks were resisted, largely thanks to the skill of the Feldmarshal and the energy of his troops. When in November Gustaf received a report about the signed Peace, unable to enter the city, the Swedes settled for looting the Castle. Many of the treasures collected by Emperor Rudolf II were taken to Sweden, a monument erected during the 19th century on Colloredos tomb in the Maltese Order Church in Prague remind his victory over the Swedish. Its German inscription reads thus, HIER RUHT RUDOLF GRAF COLLOREDO K. K, FELDMARSCHALL UND MALTHESERORDER GROSSPRIOR Vertheididiger der Alt und Neusstad Prags gegen die Schweden Geb
11.
Swedish Empire
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The Swedish Empire refers to the Kingdom of Swedens territorial control of much of the Baltic region during the 17th and early 18th centuries, a time when Sweden was one of the great European powers. The beginning of the Empire is usually taken as the reign of Gustavus Adolphus, who ascended the throne in 1611, in Swedish history, the period is referred to as stormaktstiden, literally meaning the Great Power era. The interests of the high nobility contrasted with the uniformity policy, in territories acquired during the periods of de facto noble rule, serfdom was not abolished, and there was also a trend to set up respective estates in Sweden proper. The Great Reduction of 1680 put an end to efforts of the nobility. However, in the course of this war as well as in the subsequent Scanian War, Sweden was able to maintain her empire only with support of her closest ally. Charles XI of Sweden consolidated the empire and ensured a period of peace, before Russia, Saxony and Denmark started an attack on his successor. Sweden emerged as a great European power under Axel Oxenstierna and King Gustavus Adolphus, during the Thirty Years War, Sweden managed to conquer approximately half of the member states of the Holy Roman Empire. After France had intervened on the side as Sweden, the fortunes would shift again. As the war continued, it turned more and more grim, although exact population estimates do not exist, historians estimate that as many as one-third of the people in the Holy Roman Empire may have died as a result of the war. At the same time, Sweden joined the other important northern European nations in founding overseas colonies, New Sweden was founded in the valley of the Delaware River in 1638, and Sweden later laid claim to a number of Caribbean islands. A string of Swedish forts and trading posts was constructed along the coast of West Africa as well, at the conclusion of the Thirty Years War, the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 granted Sweden territories as war reparations. Sweden demanded Silesia, Pomerania pay a sum of 200,000 Riksdaler out of the lands they would receive, or 2) surrender a fourth of the property itself. Against this, the over-taxed lower estates protested, and the Diet had to be suspended, the king intervened, not to quell the commons, as the senate insisted, but to compel the nobility to give way. He proposed a committee to investigate the matter before the meeting of the next Riksdag. Charles X Gustav had done his best to recover from the extravagance of Christina. However, his own desire for military glory may have caused problems for his country, in three days, he persuaded the Swedish estates of the potential of his attack on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, when he left Stockholm for Warsaw on July 10,1654, the Polish-Swedish War expanded into a general European war. He achieved passage over the Belts and emerged triumphant, only to die of sheer exhaustion, immediately after his death, a regency was appointed to govern Sweden during the minority of his only son and successor, Charles XI of Sweden, who was four years old
12.
Tre Kronor (castle)
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Tre Kronor was a castle located in Stockholm, Sweden, on the site where Stockholm Palace is today. It is believed to have been a citadel that Birger Jarl built into a castle in the middle of the 13th century. The name Tre Kronor is believed to have given to the castle during the reign of King Magnus IV in the middle of the 14th century. Most of Swedens national library and royal archives were destroyed when the castle burned down in 1697, when King Gustav Vasa broke Sweden free from the Kalmar Union and made Sweden independent again, Tre Kronor Castle became his most important royal seat. The keep may have existed previous to the 16th century, but in a smaller form than on the pictures from the beginning. The tower was then about the half of the height in the end of the 16th century, the castle consisted of two parts, the main castle and the walled in gardens surrounding it with the high tower in the middle. On May 7,1697 a large fire broke out in Tre Kronor that completely demolished the majority of this now more-than-400-year-old castle, the fire was discovered by the castles keeper, Georg Stiernhoff. The fire marshal, Sven Lindberg, informed the staff that he could not get to the fire extinguishing equipment because the fire blocked his access to it. The royal family and court were forced to evacuate the castle, the servants attempted to save as much as possible of the royal possessions. The fire spread quickly to all parts of the castle, since the castle was made out of wood and copper, the hot copper plates set the roof on fire. As mentioned, due to the fire most of Swedens national library, shortly after the fire died out, the investigation into why it was not discovered before it was too late got underway. A royal court found three possible culprits, Sven Lindberg – the fire marshal for the castle – and Anders Andersson and Mattias Hansson, soldiers on fire watch for the night, reporting to Sven Lindberg. It is revealed that Anders Andersson was running an errand for the fire marshals wife, Mattias Hansson had left his post, going into the kitchen to get some food. Mattias claimed that the fire marshals wife had given permission to do so – a statement she denied, the royal court concluded that the fire marshal had used the soldier for his and his wifes private errands. It was also found that he had accepted bribes in exchange for hiring people into certain positions at the castle, in February,1698 the sentences were handed out. Sven Lindberg and Mattias Hanson were sentenced to death since they had neglected their duty. Anders Andersson was sentenced to run the gauntlet, the death sentences were both later commuted to running the gauntlet and six years of forced labour at Carlsten fortress. Sven Lindberg died while running the gauntlet, plans were made to rebuild a new castle on the old foundation
13.
Stockholm Palace
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Stockholm Palace or The Royal Palace is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch. Stockholm Palace is located on Stadsholmen, in Gamla stan in the capital, the offices of the King, the other members of the Swedish Royal Family, and the offices of the Royal Court of Sweden are located here. The palace is used for representative purposes by the King whilst performing his duties as the head of state. This royal residence has been in the location by Norrström in the northern part of the Gamla stan in Stockholm since the middle of the 13th century when the Tre Kronor Castle was built. In modern times the name relates to the building called Kungliga Slottet, the palace was designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger and erected on the same place as the medieval Tre Kronor Castle which was destroyed in a fire on 7 May 1697. Due to the costly Great Northern War which started in 1700, construction of the palace was halted in 1709, when Tessin the Younger died in 1728, the palace was completed by Carl Hårleman who also designed a large part of its Rococo interior. The palace was not ready to use until 1754, when King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika moved in, as of 2009 the interior of the palace consists of 1,430 rooms of which 660 have windows. The palace contains apartments for the Royal families, representation and festivities such as the State Apartments, the Guest Apartments, the National Library of Sweden was housed in the northeast wing, the Biblioteksflygeln, until 1878. As of 2014 it houses the Bernadotte Library, the Slottsarkivet is housed in the Chancery Wing. In the palace are the offices of the Royal Court of Sweden, the Royal Guards has guarded the palace and the Royal Family since 1523. A comprehensive renovation of the began in 2011, to repair weather damaged parts made from sandstone. The repairs are estimated to cost approx,500 million crowns during a period of 22 years. The first building on site was a fortress with a core tower built in the 13th century by Birger Jarl to defend Lake Mälaren. The fortress grew to a castle, eventually named Tre Kronor for the towers spire top decorated with three crowns. At the beginning of the 17th century, King Gustavus Adolphus made plans for a new royal palace, contemporaneous copperplates from 1654 shows de la Vallée’s idea of a more visible castle on a raised plateau with a connecting bridge over the Norrström. Queen Christina remodelled and embellished the castle extensively, but no new castle was built during her reign. In 1661, he presented the first draft for a conversion of the row which his son, Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, would later rework. A map of the Stadsholmen from the 1650s, illustrates de la Vallées suggestion for the conversion of the old castle, the project also brought about an adjustment of the Slottsbacken, making it partially enclosed by buildings
14.
Gustav III of Sweden
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Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. Gustav was an opponent of what he saw as the abuse of political privileges seized by the nobility since the death of King Charles XII. Nonetheless, his leadership in the Battle of Svensksund averted a complete military defeat. The much-praised Freedom of the Press Act of 1766 was severely curtailed, however, by amendments in 1774 and 1792, effectively extinguishing independent media. Gustavs immense powers were placed in the hands of a regency under his brother Prince Carl and Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm until his son, the Gustavian autocracy thus survived until 1809, when his son was ousted in another coup detat, which definitively established parliament as the dominant political power. A patron of the arts and benefactor of arts and literature, Gustav founded the Swedish Academy, in 1772 he founded the Royal Order of Vasa to acknowledge and reward those Swedes who had contributed to advances in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce. In 1782, Gustav III was the first formally neutral head of state in the world to recognize the United States during its war for independence from Great Britain. Nonetheless, he perhaps owed most of what shaped him during his education to the poet. State interference with his education as a child caused significant political disruptions within the royal family. Even his most hostile teachers were amazed by his combination of natural gifts, on the whole, Gustav cannot be said to have been well educated, but he read widely, there was scarcely a French author of his day with whose works he was not intimately acquainted. His enthusiasm for the ideas of the French enlightenment was as sincere as that of his mother, if more critical. Gustav married Princess Sophia Magdalena, daughter of King Frederick V of Denmark, by proxy in Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen, on 1 October 1766 and in person in Stockholm on 4 November 1766. The match was not a one, owing partly to an incompatibility of temperament. The marriage produced two children, Crown Prince Gustav Adolf, and Prince Carl Gustav, Duke of Småland, for the consummation of the marriage, the king and queen requested actual physical instruction by Count Adolf Munck, reportedly because of anatomical problems of both spouses. There were also rumors that the queen was pregnant by Munck. Gustavs mother supported rumors that he was not the father of his first son and it was rumored at the time that Gustav was homosexual, a possibility asserted by some writers. The close personal relationships which he formed two of his courtiers, Count Axel von Fersen and Baron Gustav Armfelt, were alluded to in that regard. His sister-in-law Charlotte implied as much in her famous diary, professor Erik Lönnroth of the Swedish Academy, who described the assistance provided by Munck, has concluded that there is no factual basis for the assumption that Gustav III was homosexual
15.
Skeppsbron
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Skeppsbron is both a street and a quay in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm, capital of Sweden, stretching from the bridge Strömbron in front of the Royal Palace southward to Slussen. The quay Skeppsbrokajen runs along the street, poles associated with an old quay preceding the existing one have been found some hundred metres from the present quay. It was called Koggabron or stadens allmänningsbro, the stone quay was not completed until 1854 by Nils Ericson. Today Skeppsbron refers to the passing over the quay, while the harbour area outside of it is called Skeppsbrokajen. The fish market was scrapped and replaced by a block during the 1520s, Skeppsbron remained the vital centre for the local shipping business until the early 20th century. Proposals have been brought forward to revitalize the area by adding new shopping areas, residential areas, without a number, Stockholm Palace, and opposite to Slottsbacken the statue of Gustav III by Tobias Sergel inaugurated in 1808. It is made in bronze and describes the kings landing on the quay after the Russian war 1788-90 and he wears a navy uniform with a large cape fastened at the left shoulder. N.20, Brandstodsbolagets hus, designed by Isak Gustaf Clason, N. 42B, Södra Bankohuset, formerly the Bank of Sweden, designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and built 1663-1680, rebuilt in 1738 after plans by Carl Hårleman. N.48, Räntmästartrappan, named after a building found on the southern corner of Skeppsbron. The building was located south of an historical alley called Räntmästergränden which passed through the present building on the location, the former name is also used for the area on the quay where the ferries to Djurgården departs. The red granite sculpture Sea god by Carl Milles found on the quay, is from 1913, the sculpture is the only of the artists many proposals for similar sculptures carried through. List of streets and squares in Gamla stan Fru Gunillas Gränd Fisketorget Media related to Skeppsbron at Wikimedia Commons hitta. se - Location map and virtual walk
16.
Nordic Museum
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This article is about the Nordic Museum in Stockholm. For the Nordic Museum in the Ballard district of Seattle, Washington see Nordic Heritage Museum, the museum was founded in the late 19th century by Artur Hazelius, who also founded the open-air museum Skansen. For long part of the museum, the institutions were independent of each other in 1963. The museum was called the Scandinavian Ethnographic Collection, from 1880 the Nordic Museum. When Hazelius established the open-air museum Skansen in 1891, it was the second museum in the world. For Skansen, he collected entire buildings and farms, the Riksdag allocated some money for the museums in 1891 and doubled the amount in 1900, the year before Hazelius died. The present building, the design of Isak Gustaf Clason, was completed in 1907 after a 19-year construction process, originally, it was intended to be a national monument housing the material inheritance of the nation. It was, however, only half-completed for the Stockholm Exposition 1897 and it takes its style from Dutch-influenced Danish Renaissance architecture rather than any specifically Swedish historical models. For the construction, brick and granite was used for the walls, the museum archive also houses an extensive collection of documents and approximately 6 million photographs dating from the 1840s until today. The museum research library contains 3,800 shelf meters of literature from the 16th century, culture in Stockholm Nordiska museet - official website
17.
Swedish National Heritage Board
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The Swedish National Heritage Board is a Swedish government agency responsible for World Heritage Sites and other national heritage monuments and historical environments. It is governed by the Ministry of Culture, the goals of the agency are to encourage the preservation and protection of historic environments and to promote the respect for and knowledge of historic environments. The National Heritage Board was founded in 1630, on the 20 May that year, Johannes Bureus who was a prominent rune researcher and King Gustavus Adolphus private teacher, was appointed the first riksantikvarien. Bureus teachings had made the king interested in ancient monuments and national sites and artifacts. Together with a priest and a student, Bureus went on a journey though Sweden to draw and document runestones, collect old coins, chronicles, law books, letter. In 1666, Johan Hadorph the seventh National Antiquarian, established the Placat och Påbudh, Om Gamble Monumenter och Antiquiteter, aside from laws of the Vatican City, it was the first antiquities regulation in Europe. The decree made it possible to protect ancient monuments and sites from treasure hunters and vandalism, public interest in ancient monuments and their protection subsided after the time of the Swedish Empire in the 1720s. In 1780, most of the collections owned by the government were handed over to the National Library. In 1768, the remainder of the objects were placed in the care of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, with the National Antiquarian as the academys secretary. During the 18th century, there was a new interest in science as well as Neoclassicism. Some renewal of the studies was brought about when Johan Gustaf Liljegren became National Antiquarian in 1826, among the projects he started was an organized inventory of objects and sites and archaeological excavations were done at Birka and Visby. A new antiquities regulation was created in 1867. It stated that any violation of an ancient monument was a criminal offence, while the Heritage Boards collection of historical objects was still in Stockholm, several additional positions within the area of heritage preservation were instituted during the 20th century. Sigurd Curman created a central head agency with a number of County Antiquarians to head all the county museums in Sweden, the County Antiquarians also coordinated their work with the National Heritage Board, which function as an independent government agency since 1938. Part of the collections are today under the Statens historiska museer. The Antikvarisk-topografiska arkivet and the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and these departments are housed in the Eastern Stable at the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm. These were separated into two agencies, the National Heritage Board and the National Historical Museums, in 1998, on 2 June 2005, the government decided to relocate a major part of the National Heritage Boards activeties from Stockholm to Gotland. The move was made to compensate for the loss of jobs on the island when the Swedish military closed down all permanent garrisons there, the National Heritage Board moved to the newly built facilities at the old A7 military compound in Visby, in 2008
18.
Corf
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A corf also spelt corve is a container of wood, net, chicken wire, metal or plastic used to contain live fish, eels or crustaceans underwater, at docks or in fishing boats. A corf could be towed behind the boat while fishermen made the journey from the grounds to the fish market. These journeys could last up to half a day, when used for storing eels in Blekinge, Sweden, the corves could be as large as 3.75 by 1.33 by 0.8 m and contain about 2 metric tons of eels. They would be anchored approximately 100 m from land in an area where the circulation was good to keep the eels alive. Smaller corves were often used in fishing boats to keep live bait for longline fishing, the corf could also be built into the boat, and sometimes be a significant part of it. Fishing boats with a well amidships where water is circulated through holes in the hull are known as well smacks. In present days corves used for this purpose have commonly been replaced by refrigeration, a corf-house is a small building or shed constructed for commercial curing of fish, mostly salmon, in. It is also used to store nets and fishing equipment in, one such house is the listed By Lovat Bridge Corf House in Beauly, Scotland. Corves are mainly used by fishermen and mass-produced in plastic netting or metal. Their use is regulated through laws and regulations in countries such as Sweden. Modern fishing boats often have integral corves and these are built into the boat and the water in them kept fresh and oxygenated through a circulatory system with water and air pumps. This kind of corf is called a livewell, fish farming Live fish trade Livewell Well smack The dictionary definition of corf at Wiktionary
19.
Great Depression
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The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, in most countries it started in 1929 and it was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the economy can decline. The depression originated in the United States, after a fall in stock prices that began around September 4,1929. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, by comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s, however, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. The Great Depression had devastating effects in both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%, unemployment in the U. S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries, farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most. Even after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 optimism persisted for some time, john D. Rockefeller said These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come, prosperity has always returned and will again. The stock market turned upward in early 1930, returning to early 1929 levels by April and this was still almost 30% below the peak of September 1929. Together, government and business spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom had suffered losses in the stock market the previous year. In addition, beginning in the mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U. S, by mid-1930, interest rates had dropped to low levels, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment were depressed. By May 1930, automobile sales had declined to below the levels of 1928, prices in general began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930
20.
Fredrik Blom
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Fredrik Blom was a Swedish officer, architect and professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. Fredrik Blom was born in Karlskrona and his father was a compass maker journeyman. He began his career as a carpenter, working for the navy at the Karlskrona naval base and he was educated by Johan Törnström and his aesthetic talent seems to have been identified early on, probably by his superior Jonas Lidströmer. In 1798 he was relieved from his job as a carpenter and he was taught and influenced by Louis Jean Desprez and Fredrik Magnus Piper. His first independent work was the unassuming town hall of Sölvesborg. Already by this time, however, he had produced proposals for purely decorative work, after his studies he returned to Karlskrona in 1802 and re-entered military service, as adjutant to his former benefactor Jonas Lidströmer. Lidströmer was in charge of construction works and it was in this capacity that Fredrik Blom assisted him. In 1804, he accompanied Baltzar von Platen on an tour of the Göta Canal. He also accompanied Curt von Stedingk and the Swedish delegation to Saint Petersburg charged with negotiating the Treaty of Fredrikshamn, in Saint Petersburg he came in contact with the vibrant Neoclassical architectural scene there, and made several watercolours of the city. Back in Sweden, Blom was promoted and continued doing both practical construction works for the military and other architectural commissions and he received prestigious commissions and rose quickly in rank. In 1817, he was professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. The following years he produced his most prestigious and well-known designs, e. g. Skeppsholmskyrkan church and Rosendal Palace and his military career culminated with his receiving the rank of Colonel in 1840. Media related to Fredrik Blom at Wikimedia Commons
21.
Neoclassicism
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The main Neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century, laterally competing with Romanticism. In architecture, the style continued throughout the 19th, 20th, European Neoclassicism in the visual arts began c.1760 in opposition to the then-dominant Baroque and Rococo styles. Each neo-classicism selects some models among the range of classics that are available to it. They ignored both Archaic Greek art and the works of Late Antiquity, the Rococo art of ancient Palmyra came as a revelation, through engravings in Woods The Ruins of Palmyra. While the movement is described as the opposed counterpart of Romanticism. The case of the main champion of late Neoclassicism, Ingres, demonstrates this especially well. The revival can be traced to the establishment of formal archaeology, the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann were important in shaping this movement in both architecture and the visual arts. With the advent of the Grand Tour, a fad of collecting antiquities began that laid the foundations of many great collections spreading a Neoclassical revival throughout Europe, Neoclassicism in each art implies a particular canon of a classical model. In English, the term Neoclassicism is used primarily of the arts, the similar movement in English literature. This, which had been dominant for decades, was beginning to decline by the time Neoclassicism in the visual arts became fashionable. Though terms differ, the situation in French literature was similar, in music, the period saw the rise of classical music, and Neoclassicism is used of 20th-century developments. Ingress coronation portrait of Napoleon even borrowed from Late Antique consular diptychs and their Carolingian revival, much Neoclassical painting is more classicizing in subject matter than in anything else. A fierce, but often very badly informed, dispute raged for decades over the merits of Greek and Roman art, with Winckelmann. The work of artists, who could not easily be described as insipid, combined aspects of Romanticism with a generally Neoclassical style. Unlike Carstens unrealized schemes, the etchings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi were numerous and profitable and his main subject matter was the buildings and ruins of Rome, and he was more stimulated by the ancient than the modern. Neoclassicism in painting gained a new sense of direction with the success of Jacques-Louis Davids Oath of the Horatii at the Paris Salon of 1785. Despite its evocation of republican virtues, this was a commission by the royal government, David managed to combine an idealist style with drama and forcefulness. David rapidly became the leader of French art, and after the French Revolution became a politician with control of government patronage in art
22.
Relief
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Relief is a sculptural technique where the sculpted elements remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term relief is from the Latin verb relevo, to raise, to create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane. What is actually performed when a relief is cut in from a surface of stone or wood is a lowering of the field. The technique involves considerable chiselling away of the background, which is a time-consuming exercise. In other materials such as metal, clay, plaster stucco, ceramics or papier-mâché the form can be just added to or raised up from the background, and monumental bronze reliefs are made by casting. There are different degrees of relief depending on the degree of projection of the form from the field. There is also sunk relief, which was restricted to Ancient Egypt. However the distinction between high relief and low relief is the clearest and most important, and these two are generally the only used to discuss most work. Hyphens may or may not be used in all these terms, works in the technique are described as in relief, and, especially in monumental sculpture, the work itself is a relief. Reliefs are common throughout the world on the walls of buildings and a variety of settings. Relief is more suitable for depicting complicated subjects with figures and very active poses, such as battles. Most ancient architectural reliefs were painted, which helped to define forms in low relief. Rock reliefs are carved into solid rock in the open air. This type is found in cultures, in particular those of the Ancient Near East and Buddhist countries. A stele is a standing stone, many of these carry reliefs. The distinction between high and low relief is somewhat subjective, and the two are often combined in a single work. In particular, most later high reliefs contain sections in low relief, a low relief or bas-relief is a projecting image with a shallow overall depth, for example used on coins, on which all images are in low relief. Other versions distort depth much less and it is a technique which requires less work, and is therefore cheaper to produce, as less of the background needs to be removed in a carving, or less modelling is required
23.
Neck (water spirit)
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The neck, nicor, nixie or nokken are shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and folklore who usually appeared in forms of other creatures. Under a variety of names, they were common to the stories of all Germanic peoples, the related English knucker was generally depicted as a wyrm or dragon, although more recent versions depict the spirits in other forms. Their sex, bynames, and various transformations vary geographically, the German Nix and his Scandinavian counterparts were males. The German Nixe was a female river mermaid, the names are held to derive from Common Germanic *nikwus or *nikwis, derived from PIE *neigw. They are related to Sanskrit nḗnēkti, Greek νίζω nízō and νίπτω níptō, the form neck appears in English and Swedish. The Swedish form is derived from Old Swedish neker, which corresponds to Old Icelandic nykr, in Finnish, the word is näkki. In Old Danish, the form was nikke and in modern Danish, the Icelandic nykur is a horselike creature. In Middle Low German, it was called necker and in Middle Dutch nicker, the Old High German form nihhus also meant crocodile, while the Old English nicor could mean both a water monster like those encountered by Beowulf, and a hippopotamus. The Norwegian Fossegrim and Swedish Strömkarlen are related figures sometimes seen as by-names for the same creature, the Scandinavian version can transform himself into a horse-like kelpie, and is called a Bäckahästen, whilst the Welsh version is called the Ceffyl Dŵr. In the English county of Sussex, there are said to dwell water-wyrms called knuckers, the Word knucker is derived from the Old English nicor. English folklore contains many creatures with similarities to the Nix or Näck and these Necks include Jenny Greenteeth, the Shellycoat, Peg Powler, the Bäckahästen-like Brag, and the Grindylow. The Scandinavian näcken, näkki, nøkk were male water spirits who played enchanted songs on the violin, nøkker are said to grow despondent if they do not have free, regular contact with a water source. The Norwegian Fossegrim or Grim, Swedish strömkarl, is a figure who, if properly approached, will teach a musician to play so adeptly that the trees dance. It is difficult to describe the appearance of the nix. Perhaps he did not have any true shape and he could show himself as a man playing the violin in brooks and waterfalls but also could appear to be treasure or various floating objects or as an animal—most commonly in the form of a brook horse. The modern Scandinavian names are derived from an Old Norse nykr, thus, likely the brook horse preceded the personification of the nix as the man in the rapids. Fossegrim and derivatives were almost always portrayed as beautiful young men. The enthralling music of the nøkk was most dangerous to women and children, especially pregnant women and he was thought to be most active during Midsummers Night, on Christmas Eve and on Thursdays
24.
Eva Bonnier
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Eva Fredrika Bonnier was a Swedish painter and philanthropist. Together with her friend and co-student Hanna Hirsch, she traveled to Paris in 1883 and her painting Music was awarded a mention honorable at the Paris Salon. She is represented with paintings in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. After about 1900 Bonnier fell silent as an artist and devoted herself to her philanthropic work, Eva Bonnier suffered from frequent depressions and took her own life in 1909. Gynning, Margareta, Det ambivalenta perspektivet, Eva Bonnier och Hanna Hirsch-Pauli i 1880-talets konstliv, Stockholm, hedberg, Tor, Bonnier, Eva Fredrika, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon,5, pp. 436–438. Media related to Eva Bonnier at Wikimedia Commons
25.
Bronze
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These additions produce a range of alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties, such as stiffness, ductility, or machinability. The archeological period where bronze was the hardest metal in use is known as the Bronze Age. In the ancient Near East this began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, with India and China starting to use bronze around the same time, everywhere it gradually spread across regions. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age starting from about 1300 BC and reaching most of Eurasia by about 500 BC, the discovery of bronze enabled people to create metal objects which were harder and more durable than previously possible. Bronze tools, weapons, armor, and building such as decorative tiles were harder and more durable than their stone. It was only later that tin was used, becoming the major ingredient of bronze in the late 3rd millennium BC. Tin bronze was superior to arsenic bronze in that the process could be more easily controlled. Also, unlike arsenic, metallic tin and fumes from tin refining are not toxic, the earliest tin-alloy bronze dates to 4500 BCE in a Vinča culture site in Pločnik. Other early examples date to the late 4th millennium BC in Africa, Susa and some ancient sites in China, Luristan, ores of copper and the far rarer tin are not often found together, so serious bronze work has always involved trade. Tin sources and trade in ancient times had a influence on the development of cultures. In Europe, a source of tin was the British deposits of ore in Cornwall. In many parts of the world, large hoards of bronze artefacts are found, suggesting that bronze also represented a store of value, in Europe, large hoards of bronze tools, typically socketed axes, are found, which mostly show no signs of wear. With Chinese ritual bronzes, which are documented in the inscriptions they carry and from other sources and these were made in enormous quantities for elite burials, and also used by the living for ritual offerings. Pure iron is soft, and the process of beating and folding sponge iron to wrought iron removes from the metal carbon. Careful control of the alloying and tempering eventually allowed for wrought iron with properties comparable to modern steel, Bronze was still used during the Iron Age, and has continued in use for many purposes to the modern day. Among other advantages, it does not rust, the weaker wrought iron was found to be sufficiently strong for many uses. Archaeologists suspect that a disruption of the tin trade precipitated the transition. The population migrations around 1200–1100 BC reduced the shipping of tin around the Mediterranean, limiting supplies, there are many different bronze alloys, but typically modern bronze is 88% copper and 12% tin
26.
Foundry
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A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, the most common metals processed are aluminium and cast iron. However, other metals, such as bronze, brass, steel, magnesium, in this process, parts of desired shapes and sizes can be formed. In metalworking, casting involves pouring liquid metal into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, the solidified part is also known as a casting, which is ejected or broken out of the mold to complete the process. Casting is most often used for making complex shapes that would be difficult or uneconomical to make by other methods, melting is performed in a furnace. Virgin material, external scrap, internal scrap, and alloying elements are used to charge the furnace, virgin material refers to commercially pure forms of the primary metal used to form a particular alloy. Alloying elements are either forms of an alloying element, like electrolytic nickel, or alloys of limited composition. External scrap is material from other forming processes such as punching, forging, internal scrap consists of gates, risers, defective castings, and other extraneous metal oddments produced within the facility. The process includes melting the charge, refining the melt, adjusting the melt chemistry, refining is done to remove deleterious gases and elements from the molten metal to avoid casting defects. Material is added during the process to bring the final chemistry within a specific range specified by industry and/or internal standards. Certain fluxes may be used to separate the metal from slag and/or dross, during the tap, final chemistry adjustments are made. Several specialised furnaces are used to heat the metal, furnaces are refractory-lined vessels that contain the material to be melted and provide the energy to melt it. Modern furnace types include electric arc furnaces, induction furnaces, cupolas, reverberatory, furnace choice is dependent on the alloy system quantities produced. For ferrous materials EAFs, cupolas, and induction furnaces are commonly used, reverberatory and crucible furnaces are common for producing aluminium, bronze, and brass castings. Furnace design is a process, and the design can be optimized based on multiple factors. Furnaces in foundries can be any size, ranging from ones used to melt precious metals to furnaces weighing several tons. They are designed according to the type of metals that are to be melted, furnaces must also be designed based on the fuel being used to produce the desired temperature. For low temperature melting point alloys, such as zinc or tin, electricity, propane, or natural gas are usually used to achieve these temperatures
27.
Stone Age
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The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make implements with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 8700 BCE and 2000 BCE with the advent of metalworking, bone tools were used during this period as well but are rarely preserved in the archaeological record. The Stone Age is further subdivided by the types of tools in use. According to the age and location of the current evidence, the cradle of the genus is the East African Rift System, especially toward the north in Ethiopia, where it is bordered by grasslands. The closest relative among the living primates, the genus Pan, represents a branch that continued on in the deep forest. The rift served as a conduit for movement into southern Africa and also north down the Nile into North Africa and through the continuation of the rift in the Levant to the vast grasslands of Asia. The oldest indirect evidence found of stone tool use is fossilised animal bones with tool marks, the oldest stone tools were excavated from the site of Lomekwi 3 in West Turkana, northwestern Kenya, and date to 3.3 million years old. Prior to the discovery of these Lomekwian tools, the oldest known stone tools had been found at sites at Gona, Ethiopia, on the sediments of the paleo-Awash River. All the tools come from the Busidama Formation, which lies above a disconformity, or missing layer, the oldest sites containing tools are dated to 2. 6–2.55 mya. One of the most striking circumstances about these sites is that they are from the Late Pliocene, excavators at the locality point out that. the earliest stone tool makers were skilled flintknappers. The possible reasons behind this seeming abrupt transition from the absence of tools to the presence thereof include. The species who made the Pliocene tools remains unknown, fragments of Australopithecus garhi, Australopithecus aethiopicus and Homo, possibly Homo habilis, have been found in sites near the age of the Gona tools. Innovation of the technique of smelting ore ended the Stone Age, the first most significant metal manufactured was bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, each of which was smelted separately. The Chalcolithic by convention is the period of the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age, the transition out of the Stone Age occurred between 6000 BCE and 2500 BCE for much of humanity living in North Africa and Eurasia. Note the Rudna Glava mine in Serbia, Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy from about 3300 BCE carried with him a copper axe and a flint knife. In regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the Stone Age was followed directly by the Iron Age, the Middle East and southeastern Asian regions progressed past Stone Age technology around 6000 BCE. Europe, and the rest of Asia became post–Stone Age societies by about 4000 BCE, the proto-Inca cultures of South America continued at a Stone Age level until around 2000 BCE, when gold, copper and silver made their entrance
28.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
29.
Paganism
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Paganism is a term that derives from Latin word pagan, which means nonparticipant, one excluded from a more distinguished, professional group. The term was used in the 4th century, by early Christian community, the term competed with polytheism already in use in Judaism, by Philo in the 1st century. Pagans and paganism was a pejorative for the same polytheistic group, Paganism has broadly connoted religion of the peasantry, and for much of its history a derogatory term. Alternate terms in Christian texts for the group was hellene. In and after the Middle Ages, paganism was a pejorative that was applied to any non-Abrahamic or unfamiliar religion, there has been much scholarly debate as to the origin of the term paganism, especially since no one before the 20th century self-identified as a pagan. In the 19th century, paganism was re-adopted as a self-descriptor by members of various artistic groups inspired by the ancient world. Forms of these religions, influenced by various historical pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe, exist today and are known as contemporary or modern paganism, while most pagan religions express a worldview that is pantheistic, polytheistic, or animistic, there are some monotheistic pagans. It is crucial to stress right from the start that until the 20th century people did not call themselves pagans to describe the religion they practised, the notion of paganism, as it is generally understood today, was created by the early Christian Church. It was a label that Christians applied to others, one of the antitheses that were central to the process of Christian self-definition, as such, throughout history it was generally used in a derogatory sense. The term pagan is from Late Latin paganus, revived during the Renaissance and it is related to pangere and ultimately comes from Proto-Indo-European *pag-. The evolution occurred only in the Latin west, and in connection with the Latin church, elsewhere, Hellene or gentile remained the word for pagan, and paganos continued as a purely secular term, with overtones of the inferior and the commonplace. However, this idea has multiple problems, first, the words usage as a reference to non-Christians pre-dates that period in history. Second, paganism within the Roman Empire centered on cities, the concept of an urban Christianity as opposed to a rural paganism would not have occurred to Romans during Early Christianity. Third, unlike words such as rusticitas, paganus had not yet acquired the meanings used to explain why it would have been applied to pagans. Paganus more likely acquired its meaning in Christian nomenclature via Roman military jargon, Early Christians adopted military motifs and saw themselves as Milites Christi. As early as the 5th century, paganos was metaphorically used to persons outside the bounds of the Christian community. In response, Augustine of Hippo wrote De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos, in it, he contrasted the fallen city of Man to the city of God of which all Christians were ultimately citizens. Hence, the invaders were not of the city or rural
30.
Odin
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In Germanic mythology, Odin is a widely revered god. In the modern period, Odin continued to be acknowledged in the folklore of Germanic Europe. Forms of his name appear frequently throughout the Germanic record, though narratives regarding Odin are mainly found in Old Norse works recorded in Iceland and these texts make up the bulk of modern understanding of Norse mythology. In Old Norse texts, Odin is depicted as one-eyed and long-bearded, frequently wielding a spear named Gungnir, and wearing a cloak, Odin is attested as having many sons, most famously the god Baldr with Frigg, and is known by hundreds of names. Odin has an association with Yule, and mankinds knowledge of both the runes and poetry is also attributed to him. In Old Norse texts, Odin is given primacy over female beings associated with the battlefield—the valkyries—and oversees Valhalla, where he receives half of those who die in battle, the other half are chosen by the goddess Freyja for her afterlife location, Fólkvangr. In later folklore, Odin appears as a leader of the Wild Hunt and he has also been associated with charms and other forms of magic, particularly in Old English and Old Norse texts. Odin has been a frequent subject of study in Germanic studies, in the modern period, Odin has inspired numerous works of poetry, music, and other forms of media. He is venerated in most forms of the new religious movement Heathenry, together with other gods venerated by the ancient Germanic peoples, some branches focus particularly on him. The Old Norse theonym Óðinn and its cognates, including Old English Wōden, Old Saxon Wōden, the masculine noun *wōđanaz developed from the Proto-Germanic adjective *wōđaz, related to Latin vātēs and Old Irish fáith, both meaning seer, prophet. Adjectives stemming from *wōđaz include Gothic woþs possessed, Old Norse óðr, mad, frantic, furious, additionally the Old Norse noun æði rage, fury and Old High German wuotī madness derive from the feminine noun *wōđīn, from *wōđaz. Over 170 names are recorded for the god Odin and these names are variously descriptive of attributes of the god, refer to myths involving him, or refer to religious practices associated with the god. This multitude of names makes Odin the god with the most names known among the Germanic peoples, the weekday name Wednesday derives from Old English wōdnesdæg. Cognate terms are found in other Germanic languages, such as Middle Low German wōdensdach, all of these terms derive from Proto-Germanic *Wodensdag, itself a Germanic interpretation of Latin Dies Mercurii. However, in Old High German, the derived from Odins was replaced by a translation of Church Latin media hebdomas. The earliest records of the Germanic peoples were recorded by the Romans and they regard it as a religious duty to offer to him, on fixed days, human as well as other sacrificial victims. Hercules and Mars they appease by animal offerings of the permitted kind, in this instance, Tacitus refers to the god Odin as Mercury, Thor as Hercules, and Týr as Mars, and the identity of the Isis of the Suebi has been debated. But their rankings in their respective religious spheres may have very different
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Ansgar
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Saint Ansgar, also known as Anskar or Saint Anschar, was a Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen - a northern part of the Kingdom of the East Franks. The See of Hamburg was designated a mission to bring Christianity to Northern Europe, Ansgar was the son of a noble Frankish family, born near Amiens. After his mothers death, Ansgar was brought up in Corbie Abbey. According to the Vita Ansgarii, when the boy learned in a vision that his mother was in the company of Saint Mary. His pupil, successor, and eventual biographer Rimbert considered the visions of which this was the first to be the motivation of the saints life. Ansgar was a product of the phase of Christianization of Saxony begun by Charlemagne and continued by his son and successor, a group of monks including Ansgar were sent back to Jutland with the baptized exiled king Harald Klak. Ansgar returned two years later after educating young boys who had been purchased because Harald had possibly been driven out of his kingdom, in 822 Ansgar was one of a number of missionaries sent to found the abbey of Corvey in Westphalia, and there became a teacher and preacher. Then in 829 in response to a request from the Swedish king Björn at Hauge for a mission to the Swedes, with an assistant, the friar Witmar, he preached and made converts for six months at Birka, on Lake Mälaren. They organized a congregation there with the kings steward, Hergeir. In 831 he returned to Louis court at Worms and was appointed to the Archbishopric of Hamburg and this was a new archbishopric with a see formed from those of Bremen and Verden, plus the right to send missions into all the northern lands and to consecrate bishops for them. He was given the mission of evangelizing Denmark, Norway, the King of Sweden decided to cast lots as to whether the Christian missionaries should be admitted into his kingdom. Ansgar recommended the issue to the care of God, and the lot was favorable and this commission had previously been bestowed upon Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims, but the jurisdiction was divided by agreement, with Ebbo retaining Sweden for himself. For a time Ansgar devoted himself to the needs of his own diocese and he founded a monastery and a school in Hamburg, the school was intended to serve the Danish mission, but accomplished little. After Louis died in 840, his empire was divided and Ansgar lost the abbey of Turholt, then in 845, the Danes unexpectedly raided Hamburg, destroying all the churchs treasures and books and leaving the entire diocese unrestorable. Ansgar now had neither see nor revenue, however, since Hamburg had been an archbishopric, the sees of Bremen and Hamburg were combined for him. Through all this turmoil, Ansgar continued his mission to the northern lands. The Danish civil war compelled him to good relations with two kings, Horik the Elder and his son, Horik II. Both assisted him until his death and he was able to secure recognition of Christianity as a tolerated religion and permission to build a church in Sleswick
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Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
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Pilsner
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Pilsner is a type of pale lager which accounts for more than two-thirds of the beer produced in the world. It takes its name from Plzeň, a city in Bohemia, then in the Austrian Empire, now in the Czech Republic, the world’s first blond lager, the original Pilsner Urquell, is still produced there today. The City of Pilsen began brewing in 1295, but until the mid-1840s, the taste and standards of quality often varied widely, and in 1838, consumers dumped whole barrels to show their dissatisfaction. The officials of Pilsen founded a brewery in 1839, called Měšťanský pivovar Plzeň. Brewers had begun aging beer made with bottom-fermenting yeasts in caves, part of this research benefited from the knowledge already expounded on in a book, written by Czech brewer František Ondřej Poupě from Brno. The Pilsen brewery recruited the Bavarian brewer Josef Groll who, using new techniques and paler malts, Groll returned to Vilshofen, three years later in 1845, and there later inherited his fathers brewery. Emergence of efficient glass manufacturing in Europe, around the same time and this allowed the general population to purchase glass drinking vessels for the first time. These former luxury items showcased the visually pleasing golden clarity of the recently invented Bohemian style, in 1853 the beer was available in 35 pubs in Prague, in 1856 came to Vienna and in 1862 to Paris. Improving transport and communications also meant that this new beer was available throughout Europe. In 1859, “Pilsner Bier” was registered as a name at the Chamber of Commerce. In 1898, the Pilsner Urquell trade mark was created to put emphasis on being the original brewery, until recently the Pilsner Urquell brewery fermented its beer using open barrels in the cellars beneath their brewery. This changed in 1993 with the use of large cylindrical tanks, small samples are still brewed in a traditional way for taste comparisons. A modern pilsner has a light, clear colour from pale to golden yellow. The alcohol strength is typically around 4. 5%-5%, if pilsner is brewed stronger, pilsners compete in categories like European-Style Pilsner at the World Beer Cup or other similar competitions. Pilsen style lagers are marketed internationally by numerous small brewers and larger conglomerates. V
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Gold
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Gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79. In its purest form, it is a bright, slightly yellow, dense, soft, malleable. Chemically, gold is a metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions, Gold often occurs in free elemental form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, in veins, and in alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the element silver and also naturally alloyed with copper. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium, golds atomic number of 79 makes it one of the higher numbered, naturally occurring elements. It is thought to have produced in supernova nucleosynthesis, from the collision of neutron stars. Because the Earth was molten when it was formed, almost all of the present in the early Earth probably sank into the planetary core. Gold is resistant to most acids, though it does dissolve in aqua regia, a mixture of acid and hydrochloric acid. Gold also dissolves in solutions of cyanide, which are used in mining and electroplating. Gold dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, but this is not a chemical reaction, as a precious metal, gold has been used for coinage, jewelry, and other arts throughout recorded history. A total of 186,700 tonnes of gold is in existence above ground, the world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry. Gold is also used in infrared shielding, colored-glass production, gold leafing, certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatories in medicine. As of 2014, the worlds largest gold producer by far was China with 450 tonnes, Gold is cognate with similar words in many Germanic languages, deriving via Proto-Germanic *gulþą from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃-. The symbol Au is from the Latin, aurum, the Latin word for gold, the Proto-Indo-European ancestor of aurum was *h₂é-h₂us-o-, meaning glow. This word is derived from the root as *h₂éu̯sōs, the ancestor of the Latin word Aurora. This etymological relationship is presumably behind the frequent claim in scientific publications that aurum meant shining dawn, Gold is the most malleable of all metals, a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, and an avoirdupois ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be thin enough to become semi-transparent
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Silver
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Silver is a metallic element with symbol Ag and atomic number 47. The symbol Ag stems from Latin argentum, derived from the Greek ὰργὀς, a soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. The metal is found in the Earths crust in the pure, free form, as an alloy with gold and other metals. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead, Silver is more abundant than gold, but it is much less abundant as a native metal. Its purity is measured on a per mille basis, a 94%-pure alloy is described as 0.940 fine. As one of the seven metals of antiquity, silver has had a role in most human cultures. Silver has long valued as a precious metal. Silver metal is used in many premodern monetary systems in bullion coins, Silver is used in numerous applications other than currency, such as solar panels, water filtration, jewelry, ornaments, high-value tableware and utensils, and as an investment medium. Silver is used industrially in electrical contacts and conductors, in specialized mirrors, window coatings, Silver compounds are used in photographic film and X-rays. Dilute silver nitrate solutions and other compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides, added to bandages and wound-dressings, catheters. Silver is similar in its physical and chemical properties to its two neighbours in group 11 of the periodic table, copper and gold. This distinctive electron configuration, with an electron in the highest occupied s subshell over a filled d subshell. Silver is a soft, ductile and malleable transition metal. Silver crystallizes in a cubic lattice with bulk coordination number 12. Unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in silver are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak and this observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of silver. Silver has a brilliant white metallic luster that can take a polish. Protected silver has greater optical reflectivity than aluminium at all wavelengths longer than ~450 nm, at wavelengths shorter than 450 nm, silvers reflectivity is inferior to that of aluminium and drops to zero near 310 nm. The electrical conductivity of silver is the greatest of all metals, greater even than copper, during World War II in the US,13540 tons of silver were used in electromagnets for enriching uranium, mainly because of the wartime shortage of copper
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Limestone
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Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
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Diabase
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Diabase or dolerite or microgabbro is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine grained to aphanitic chilled margins which may contain tachylite. Diabase normally has a fine, but visible texture of euhedral lath-shaped plagioclase crystals set in a matrix of clinopyroxene, typically augite, with minor olivine, magnetite. Accessory and alteration minerals include hornblende, biotite, apatite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, serpentine, chlorite, the texture is termed diabasic and is typical of diabases. This diabasic texture is also termed interstitial, the feldspar is high in anorthite, the calcium endmember of the plagioclase anorthite-albite solid solution series, most commonly labradorite. Diabase is usually found in relatively shallow intrusive bodies such as dikes. Diabase dikes occur in regions of crustal extension and often occur in swarms of hundreds of individual dikes or sills radiating from a single volcanic center. The Palisades Sill which makes up the New Jersey Palisades on the Hudson River, parts of the Deccan Traps of India, formed at the end of the Cretaceous also includes dolerite. It is also abundant in parts of Curaçao, an island off the coast of Venezuela. West of the Norseman–Wiluna Belt is the Yalgoo–Singleton Belt, where complex dolerite dike swarms obscure the volcaniclastic sediments, large dolerite sills such as the Golden Mile Dolerite can exhibit course grained texture, and show a large diversity in petrography and geochemistry across the width of the sill. The vast areas of mafic volcanism/plutonism associated with the Jurassic breakup of Gondwanaland in the Southern Hemisphere include many large diabase/dolerite sills and dike swarms. These include the Karoo dolerites of South Africa, the Ferrar Dolerites of Antarctica, in Tasmania dolerite dominates much of the landscape, particularly alpine areas. Ring dikes are large, near vertical dikes showing above ground as circular outcrops up to 30 km in diameter, thicker dikes are made up of plutonic rocks, rather than hypabyssal and are centred on deep intrusions. Diabase is crushed and used as an aggregate for road beds, buildings, railroad beds. Diabase can also be cut for use as as ornamental stone for countertops, facing stone on buildings, a form of dolerite, known as bluestone, is one of the materials used as in the construction of Stonehenge. In Tasmania, being one of the most common rocks found, it has used as a building stone, for landscaping. List of rock types Collection of dikes in the Fish River Canyon, Namibia
38.
Wrought iron
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Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content in contrast to cast iron. It is a mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions which gives it a grain resembling wood. Wrought iron is tough, malleable, ductile, corrosion-resistant and easily welded, before the development of effective methods of steelmaking and the availability of large quantities of steel, wrought iron was the most common form of malleable iron. A wrought product is one that has been worked by forging, extruding, rolling, hammering, etcetera, to change its form. Wrought iron is a worked iron product that is seldom produced today as other cheaper. Historically, a modest amount of iron was refined into steel. The demand for wrought iron reached its peak in the 1860s with the adaptation of ironclad warships, however, as properties such as brittleness of mild steel improved, it became less costly and more widely available than wrought iron, whose usage then declined. Wrought iron is no longer produced on a commercial scale, many products described as wrought iron, such as guard rails, garden furniture and gates, are actually made of mild steel. They retain that description because they are made to resemble objects which in the past were wrought by hand by a blacksmith, the word wrought is an archaic past participle of the verb to work, and so wrought iron literally means worked iron. Wrought iron is a term for the commodity, but is also used more specifically for finished iron goods. It was used in that sense in British Customs records. Cast iron, unlike wrought iron, is brittle and cannot be worked either hot or cold, Cast iron can break if struck with a hammer. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, wrought iron went by a variety of terms according to its form, origin. While the bloomery process produced wrought iron directly from ore, cast iron or pig iron were the materials used in the finery forge. Pig iron and cast iron have higher content than wrought iron. Cast and especially pig iron have excess slag which must be at least partially removed to produce quality wrought iron, at foundries it was common to blend scrap wrought iron with cast iron to improve the physical properties of castings. Fusion eventually became accepted as relatively more important than composition below a given low carbon concentration. Another difference is that steel can be hardened by heat treating, historically, wrought iron was known as commercially pure iron, however, it no longer qualifies because current standards for commercially pure iron require a carbon content of less than 0.008 wt%
39.
Vikings
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The term is also commonly extended in modern English and other vernaculars to the inhabitants of Viking home communities during what has become known as the Viking Age. Facilitated by advanced seafaring skills, and characterised by the longship, Viking activities at times also extended into the Mediterranean littoral, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. A romanticized picture of Vikings as noble savages began to emerge in the 18th century, current popular representations of the Vikings are typically based on cultural clichés and stereotypes, complicating modern appreciation of the Viking legacy. One etymology derives víking from the feminine vík, meaning creek, inlet, various theories have been offered that the word viking may be derived from the name of the historical Norwegian district of Viken, meaning a person from Viken. According to this theory, the word simply described persons from this area, however, there are a few major problems with this theory. People from the Viken area were not called Viking in Old Norse manuscripts, in addition, that explanation could only explain the masculine and ignore the feminine, which is a serious problem because the masculine is easily derived from the feminine but hardly vice versa. The form also occurs as a name on some Swedish rune stones. There is little indication of any negative connotation in the term before the end of the Viking Age and this is found in the Proto-Nordic verb *wikan, ‘to turn’, similar to Old Icelandic víkja ‘to move, to turn’, with well-attested nautical usages. In that case, the idea behind it seems to be that the rower moves aside for the rested rower on the thwart when he relieves him. A víkingr would then originally have been a participant on a sea journey characterized by the shifting of rowers, in that case, the word Viking was not originally connected to Scandinavian seafarers but assumed this meaning when the Scandinavians begun to dominate the seas. In Old English, the word wicing appears first in the Anglo-Saxon poem, Widsith, in Old English, and in the history of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen written by Adam of Bremen in about 1070, the term generally referred to Scandinavian pirates or raiders. As in the Old Norse usages, the term is not employed as a name for any people or culture in general, the word does not occur in any preserved Middle English texts. The Vikings were known as Ascomanni ashmen by the Germans for the ash wood of their boats, Lochlannach by the Gaels, the modern day name for Sweden in several neighbouring countries is possibly derived from rōþs-, Ruotsi in Finnish and Rootsi in Estonian. The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them Varangians, Scandinavian bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors were known as the Varangian Guard. The Franks normally called them Northmen or Danes, while for the English they were known as Danes or heathen. It is used in distinction from Anglo-Saxon, similar terms exist for other areas, such as Hiberno-Norse for Ireland and Scotland. The period from the earliest recorded raids in the 790s until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 is commonly known as the Viking Age of Scandinavian history, Vikings used the Norwegian Sea and Baltic Sea for sea routes to the south. The Normans were descended from Vikings who were given feudal overlordship of areas in northern France—the Duchy of Normandy—in the 10th century, in that respect, descendants of the Vikings continued to have an influence in northern Europe
