1.
Al-Hasakah Governorate
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Al-Hasakah Governorate is a governorate in the far north-east corner of Syria. It is distinguished by its fertile lands, plentiful water, picturesque nature and it was formerly known as Al-Jazira province. Prior to the Syrian Civil War nearly half of Syrias oil was extracted from the region, three soldiers were killed by armed militants in Al-Hasakah in an ambush during the Syrian Civil War on 24 March 2012. About a year later, Kurdish forces launched the 2013 Al-Hasakah offensive, after the battle of al-Hasakah in August 2016 between Kurds and the Bashar al-Assad regime, the area was mostly in Kurdish control. The population of the governorate, according to the official census, was 1,275,118, and was estimated to be 1,377,000 in 2007. Among the Sunni Muslims, mostly Kurds and Arabs, there were about 1,500 Circassians in 1938, in 1949, there were officially 155,643 inhabitants. The French geographers Fevret and Gibert estimated that there were about 50,000 Arabs,60,000 Kurds, a few thousands Jews and Yezidis and this list includes all cities, towns and villages with more than 5,000 inhabitants. The population figures are according to the 2004 official census. Tell Brak, Situated halfway between al-Hasakah city and the town of Qamishli. Excavations in the tell have revealed the Uyun Temple and King Naram-Sins palace-stronghold, Tell el Fakhariya Tell Hittin,15 layers of occupation have been identified
2.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
3.
Neolithic
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It ended when metal tools became widespread. The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops, the beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant about 10, 200–8800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called proto-Neolithic is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic between 10,200 and 8800 BC. By 10, 200–8800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep. By about 6900–6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture, unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species reached the Neolithic. The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νέος néos, new and λίθος líthos, stone, the term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing in the 10th millennium BC, early development occurred in the Levant and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are attested in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia by around 8000 BC. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards, the Neolithic 1 period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity. At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have been found in Jericho, Israel, Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, the start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree. The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming, in the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour, emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated
4.
Max von Oppenheim
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Max von Oppenheim was a German lawyer, diplomat, ancient historian, and archaeologist. He was a member of the Oppenheim banking dynasty, abandoning his career in diplomacy, he discovered the site of Tell Halaf in 1899 and conducted excavations there in 1911-13 and again in 1929. Bringing many of his finds to Berlin, he exhibited them in a private museum and this was destroyed by Allied bombing in World War II. However, most of the findings were recently restored and have been exhibited again at Berlin, Oppenheim was a controversial figure before and during World War I because he was considered a spy by the French and British. He did in fact engage in anti-Allied propaganda, aimed at stirring up the Muslim populations of the Allied-controlled territories against their colonial masters, Max Oppenheim was born on 15 July 1860 in Cologne as the son of Albert Oppenheim and Pauline Engels. Albert Oppenheim, a member of the Jewish Oppenheim family of bankers had converted to Catholicism in 1858 to marry Catholic Pauline Engels, in 1867, Max grandfather, Simon, was awarded the title of Freiherr in Austria-Hungary. As the title was valid in Prussia, the family now styled itself von Oppenheim. Max grew up as one of five siblings and from an age he was exposed to art, as his father was an avid collector. Although his father wanted him to work in the house of Sal. According to his memoirs, it was a Christmas gift of The Thousand. Max attended school at Cologne from 1866–79, finishing with the Abitur at the Apostel-Gymnasium and he then followed the wish of his father and began to study law at the University of Strasbourg. However, rather than study, he spent most of time at the Studentenverbindung Palatia and he then transferred to Berlin University but his lack of academic progress caused his father to recall him to Cologne where he finished his 1. Staatsexamen and the exam in 1883. During his time as Referendar he learned Arabic and began to collect Oriental art, at that time, Max also did his military service in the 15th Uhlan Guards regiment. He finished his Referendariat in 1891 by passing the exam as Assessor, in 1892, Oppenheim travelled to Spain, the Maghreb and on to Cairo where he stayed for seven months, studying Arabic and Islam. Unusually, he moved out of a European-style hotel to live in a quarter inhabited by locals, in 1893-94, Oppenheim then travelled from Cairo through the Syrian desert, Mesopotamia to Basra. He passed through areas not visited by any European explorer before him, T. E Lawrence, whom Oppenheim later met at Carchemish in 1912, called Oppenheims work the best book on the area I know. In 1895, Oppenheim visited Constantinople and was received for an audience by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, interested in politics and diplomacy, Oppenheim tried to join the diplomatic corps but the Auswärtiges Amt rejected him due to the Jewish background of his father
5.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
6.
Al-Hasakah
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Al-Hasakah, also known as Al-Hasakeh, Al-Kasaka or simply Hasakah, is the capital city of the Al-Hasakah Governorate and it is located in the far northeastern corner of Syria. With a population of 188,160 residents in 2004, Al-Hasakah is among the ten largest cities in Syria and it is the administrative center of a nahiyah consisting of 108 localities with a combined population of 251,570 in 2004. Al-Hasakah has a diverse population of Kurds, Arabs and Assyrians. The Khabur River runs through Al-Hasakah and the rest of the governorate, as a preliminary result of the ongoing Syrian Civil War, Al-Hasakah today is situated in Jazira Canton within the autonomous Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava framework. Al-Hasakah is 80 kilometres south of the Turkish border-city of Qamishli, the Khabur River, a tributary of the Euphrates River flows through the city, downriver from Ras al-Ayn, another border town. The Jaghjagh River flows into the Khabur River at Al-Hasakah, in the city centre, an ancient tell is identified by Dominique Charpin as the location of the city of Qirdahat. Another possibility is that it was the site of the ancient Aramean city of Magarisu, the etymology of Magarisu is Aramaic and means pasture land. The city was the capital of the Aramean state of Bit-Yahiri invaded by Assyrian kings Tukulti-Ninurta II, excavations in the tell discovered materials dating to the Middle-Assyrian, Byzantine and Islamic eras. The last level of occupation ended in the fifteenth century, a period of 1500 years separated between the Middle-Assyrian level and the Byzantine level. In Ottoman times the town was insignificant, todays settlement was established in April 1922 by a French military post. After the expulsion and genocide of the Armenians in the then Ottoman Empire many refugees fled to the city, during the French mandate period, Assyrians, fleeing ethnic cleansings in Iraq during the Simele massacre, established numerous villages along the Khabur River during the 1930s. French troops were stationed on the Citadel Hill during that time, in 1942 there were 7,835 inhabitants in al-Hasakah, several schools, two churches and a gas station. The new city grew from the 1950s to the center of the region. The economic boom of the cities of Qamishli and al-Hasakah was a result of the projects started in the 1960s which transformed Northeast Syria into the main cotton-growing area. The 1970s brought oil production from the oil fields of Qara Shuk, according to eyewitnesses, the action was a protest against the Syrian government. In 2012, Al-Hasakah which has a large Kurdish population, began witnessing protests of several people against the Syrian government. From 2013, the associated with the Kurdish Democratic Union Party. There were also clashes in the city between an Arab insurgent group and the YPG, on 1 August 2016 the Syrian Democratic Council opened a public office in Al-Hasakah
7.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
8.
Halaf culture
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The Halaf culture is a prehistoric period which lasted between about 6100 BCE and 5100 BCE. Small amounts of Halaf material were excavated in 1913 by Leonard Woolley at Carchemish. However, the most important site for the Halaf tradition was the site of Tell Arpachiyah, now located in the suburbs of Mosul, the Halaf period was succeeded by the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period which comprised the late Halaf, and then by the Ubaid period. However, those views changed with the recent archaeology conducted since 1986 by Peter Akkermans, a formerly unknown transitional culture between the pre-Halaf Neolithics era and Halafs era was uncovered in the Balikh valley, at Tell Sabi Abyad. Currently, eleven occupational layers have been unearthed in Sabi Abyad, levels from 11 to 7 are considered pre-Halaf, from 6 to 4, transitional, and from 3 to 1, early Halaf. No hiatus in occupation is observed except between levels 11 and 10, although no Halaf settlement has been extensively excavated some buildings have been excavated, the tholoi of Tell Arpachiyah, circular domed structures approached through long rectangular anterooms. Only a few of these structures were ever excavated and they were constructed of mud-brick sometimes on stone foundations and may have been for ritual use. Other circular buildings were probably just houses, the best known, most characteristic pottery of Tell Halaf, called Halaf ware, produced by specialist potters, can be painted, sometimes using more than two colors with geometric and animal motifs. Other types of Halaf pottery are known, including unpainted, cooking ware and ware with burnished surfaces, there are many theories about why the distinctive pottery style developed. The theory is that the pottery came about due to regional copying, Halaf pottery has been found in other parts of northern Mesopotamia, such as at Nineveh and Tepe Gawra, Chagar Bazar and at many sites in Anatolia suggesting that it was widely used in the region. In addition, the Halaf communities made female figurines of partially baked clay and stone, the seals are thought to mark the development of concepts of personal property, as similar seals were used for this purpose in later times. The Halaf people used tools made of stone and clay, copper was also known, but was not used for tools. Dryland farming was practiced by the population and this type of farming was based on exploiting natural rainfall without the help of irrigation, in a similar practice to that still practiced today by the Hopi people of Arizona. Emmer wheat, two-rowed barley and flax were grown and they kept cattle, sheep and goats. Halaf culture ended by 5000 BC after entering the so-called Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period, many Halafians settlements were abandoned, and the remaining ones showed Ubaidian characters. The new period is named Northern Ubaid to distinguish it from the proper Ubaid in southern Mesopotamia, the first maintain an invasion and a replacement of the Halafians by the Ubaidians, however, there is no hiatus between the Halaf and northern Ubaid which exclude the invasion theory. The most plausible theory is a Halafian adoption of the Ubaid culture, Akkermans, Peter M. M. G. Schwartz, Glenn M. The Archaeology of Syria, From Complex Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban Societies, the Ancient Near East, History, Society and Economy
9.
Hittites
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The Hittites were an Ancient Anatolian people who established an empire centered on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia around 1600 BC. Between the 15th and 13th centuries BC the Hittite Empire came into conflict with the Egyptian Empire, Middle Assyrian Empire, the Assyrians eventually emerged as the dominant power and annexed much of the Hittite empire, while the remainder was sacked by Phrygian newcomers to the region. They referred to their land as Hatti. The conventional name Hittites is due to their identification with the Biblical Hittites in 19th century archaeology. Before the discoveries, the source of information about Hittites had been the Old Testament. Francis William Newman expressed the view, common in the early 19th century. Uriah was a captain in King Davids army and counted among one of his mighty men in 1 Chronicles 11, french scholar Félix Marie Charles Texier discovered the first Hittite ruins in 1834, but did not identify them as Hittite. The first archaeological evidence for the Hittites appeared in tablets found at the Assyrian colony of Kültepe, some names in the tablets were neither Hattic nor Assyrian, but clearly Indo-European. The script on a monument at Boğazköy by a People of Hattusas discovered by William Wright in 1884 was found to match peculiar hieroglyphic scripts from Aleppo, in 1887, excavations at Tell El-Amarna in Egypt uncovered the diplomatic correspondence of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaton. Shortly after this, Archibald Sayce proposed that Hatti or Khatti in Anatolia was identical with the kingdom of Kheta mentioned in these Egyptian texts, as well as with the biblical Hittites. Others, such as Max Müller, agreed that Khatti was probably Kheta, sayces identification came to be widely accepted over the course of the early 20th century, and the name Hittite has become attached to the civilization uncovered at Boğazköy. He also proved that the ruins at Boğazköy were the remains of the capital of an empire that, at one point, under the direction of the German Archaeological Institute, excavations at Hattusa have been under way since 1907, with interruptions during the world wars. Kültepe was successfully excavated by Professor Tahsin Özgüç from 1948 until his death in 2005, the Hittites used Mesopotamian Cuneiform script. The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, Turkey houses the richest collection of Hittite, the Hittite kingdom was centred on the lands surrounding Hattusa and Neša, known as the land Hatti. For example, the reward for the capture of a slave after he managed to flee beyond the Halys is higher than that for a slave caught before he could reach the river. To the west and south of the core territory lay the region known as Luwiya in the earliest Hittite texts and this terminology was replaced by the names Arzawa and Kizzuwatna with the rise of those kingdoms. Nevertheless, the Hittites continued to refer to the language originated in these areas as Luwian. Prior to the rise of Kizzuwatna, the heart of territory in Cilicia was first referred to by the Hittites as Adaniya
10.
Arameans
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The Arameans, or Aramaeans, were an ancient Northwest Semitic Aramaic-speaking tribal confederacy who emerged from Syria in the Late Bronze Age the region known as Aram from the 11th-8th centuries BC. They established a patchwork of independent Aramaic kingdoms in the Levant, in the New Babylonian, or Chaldean, empire, Chaldeans, Aramaeans, Suteans and indigenous Babylonians became largely indistinguishable. This empire stretched from Cyprus and the East Mediterranean in the west to Persia and Elam in the east, and from Armenia, the Achaemenid Empire greatly spread Imperial Aramaic, north to the Coast of the Black Sea and westward to the Indus Valley. This Akkadian and later Old Persian influenced version of Aramaic later developed into the Syriac dialect of Edessa, one of the annals of Naram-Sin of Akkad mentions that he captured Dubul, the ensí of A-ra-me, in the course of a campaign against Simurrum in the northern mountains. Other early references to a place or people of Aram have appeared at the archives of Mari, urban settlements in The Levant diminished in size, until eventually fully nomadic pastoralist lifestyles came to dominate much of the region. These highly mobile, competitive tribesmen with their sudden raids continually threatened long-distance trade and interfered with the collection of taxes, however, they seem to have been displaced or wholly absorbed by the appearance of a people called the Ahlamu by the 13th century BC, disappearing from history. The presence of the Ahlamû is attested during the Middle Assyrian Empire, Shalmaneser I is recorded as having defeated Shattuara, King of the Mitanni and his Hittite and Ahlamû mercenaries. The Arameans would appear to be one part of the larger generic Ahlamû group rather than synonymous with the Ahlamu, the first certain reference to the Arameans appears in an inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I, which refers to subjugating the Ahlamû-Aramaeans. Shortly after, the Ahlamû rapidly disappear from Assyrian annals, to be replaced by the Aramaeans and this indicates that the Arameans had risen to dominance amongst the nomads, however, it is possible that the two peoples had nothing in common, but operated in the same area. By the late 12th century BC, the Arameans were firmly established in Syria, however, they were conquered by the Middle Assyrian Empire, as had been the Amorites and it is from this point that the region was called Aramea. Further north, the Arameans gained possession of Neo-Hittite Hamath on the Orontes and were soon to become strong enough to dissociate with the Indo-European speaking Neo-Hittite states. North of Samal was the Aramean state of Bit-Gabari, which was sandwiched between the Syro-Hittite states of Carchemish, Gurgum, Khattina, Unqi and the Georgian state of Tabal. At the same time, Arameans moved to the east of the Euphrates, where settled in such numbers that, for a time. Eastern Aramaean tribes spread into Babylonia and an Aramaean usurper was crowned king of Babylon under the name of Adad-apal-iddin, one of their earliest semi-independent kingdoms in southern Mesopotamia was Bît-Bahiâni (Tell Halaf. Assyrian annals from the end of the Middle Assyrian Empire c.1050 BC, the Assyrians would launch repeated raids into Aramea, Babylonia, Ancient Iran, Elam, Asia Minor, and even as far as the Mediterranean, in order to keep its trade routes open. This process was continued by Ashurnasirpal II, and his son Shalmaneser III, in 732 BC Aram-Damascus fell and was conquered by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III. The Assyrians named their Aramean colonies Eber Nari, whilst still using the term Aramean to describe many of its peoples, the Assyrians conducted forced deportations of hundreds of thousands Arameans into both Assyria and Babylonia. These Arameans were absorbed into the indigenous populations of Assyria and Babylonia, the Neo Assyrian Empire descended into a bitter series of brutal internal civil wars from 626 BC, weakening it greatly
11.
Assyria
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Assyria was a major Mesopotamian East Semitic-speaking kingdom and empire of the ancient Near East and the Levant. Centered on the Tigris in Upper Mesopotamia, the Assyrians came to rule powerful empires at several times. Assyria is named after its capital, the ancient city of Aššur. In the 25th and 24th centuries BC, Assyrian kings were pastoral leaders, Assyria can also refer to the geographic region or heartland where Assyria, its empires and the Assyrian people were centered. The indigenous modern Eastern Aramaic-speaking Assyrian Christian ethnic minority in northern Iraq, north east Syria, southeast Turkey, in prehistoric times, the region that was to become known as Assyria was home to a Neanderthal culture such as has been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria were the Jarmo culture c.7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, during the 3rd millennium BC, a very intimate cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians throughout Mesopotamia, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian, and vice versa, is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium BC as a sprachbund and it is highly likely that the city was named in honour of its patron Assyrian god with the same name. The city of Aššur, together with a number of other Assyrian cities, however it is likely that they were initially Sumerian-dominated administrative centres. In the late 26th century BC, Eannatum of Lagash, then the dominant Sumerian ruler in Mesopotamia, similarly, in c. the early 25th century BC, Lugal-Anne-Mundu the king of the Sumerian state of Adab lists Subartu as paying tribute to him. Of the early history of the kingdom of Assyria, little is known, in the Assyrian King List, the earliest king recorded was Tudiya. According to Georges Roux he would have lived in the mid 25th century BC, Tudiya was succeeded on the list by Adamu, the first known reference to the Semitic name Adam and then a further thirteen rulers. The earliest kings, such as Tudiya, who are recorded as kings who lived in tents, were independent semi-nomadic pastoralist rulers and these kings at some point became fully urbanised and founded the city state of Ashur in the mid 21st century BC. During the Akkadian Empire, the Assyrians, like all the Mesopotamian Semites, became subject to the dynasty of the city state of Akkad, the Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon the Great claimed to encompass the surrounding four quarters. Assyrian rulers were subject to Sargon and his successors, and the city of Ashur became an administrative center of the Empire. On those tablets, Assyrian traders in Burushanda implored the help of their ruler, Sargon the Great, the name Hatti itself even appears in later accounts of his grandson, Naram-Sin, campaigning in Anatolia. Assyrian and Akkadian traders spread the use of writing in the form of the Mesopotamian cuneiform script to Asia Minor, the Akkadian Empire was destroyed by economic decline and internal civil war, followed by attacks from barbarian Gutian people in 2154 BC. The rulers of Assyria during the period between c.2154 BC and 2112 BC once again fully independent, as the Gutians are only known to have administered southern Mesopotamia
12.
Syrian Civil War
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The Syrian Civil War is an armed conflict taking place in Syria. Syrian opposition groups formed the Free Syrian Army and seized control of the area surrounding Aleppo, over time, some factions of the Syrian opposition split from their original moderate position to pursue an Islamist vision for Syria, joining groups such as al-Nusra Front and ISIL. In 2015, the Yekîneyên Parastina Gel joined forces with Arab, Assyrian, Armenian, Russia and Hezbollah militarily engaged in support of the Syrian government, while beginning in 2014, a coalition of NATO countries began launching airstrikes against ISIL. International organizations have accused the Syrian government, ISIL, and some groups of severe human rights violations. The conflict has caused a major refugee crisis, over the course of the war a number of peace initiatives have been launched, including the March 2017 Geneva peace talks on Syria led by the United Nations, but fighting continues. Syria became an independent republic in 1946, although democratic rule ended with a coup in March 1949, a popular uprising against military rule in 1954 saw the army transfer power to civilians. From 1958 to 1961, a union with Egypt replaced Syrias parliamentary system with a highly centralized presidential government. The secular Baath Syrian Regional Branch government came to power through a successful coup détat in 1963, for the next several years Syria went through additional coups and changes in leadership. In March 1971, Hafez al-Assad, an Alawite, declared himself President, on 31 January 1973, Hafez al-Assad implemented a new constitution, which led to a national crisis. They labeled Assad the enemy of Allah and called for a jihad against his rule, the government survived a series of armed revolts by Sunni Islamists, mainly members of the Muslim Brotherhood, from 1976 until 1982. Upon Hafez al-Assads death in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad was elected as President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma, a Sunni Muslim born and educated in Britain, initially inspired hopes for democratic reforms. The Damascus Spring, a period of social and political debate, the Damascus Spring largely ended in August 2001 with the arrest and imprisonment of ten leading activists who had called for democratic elections and a campaign of civil disobedience. In the opinion of his critics, Bashar al-Assad had failed to deliver on promised reforms, Syrian Arabs, together with some 600,000 Palestinian Arabs, make up roughly 74 percent of the population. Syria Muslims are 74 percent Sunnis, and 13 percent Shias,3 percent were Druze, not all of the Sunnis are Arabs. Bashar is married to a Sunni, with whom he has several children and he is affiliated with the sect that his parents belong to, the minority Alawite sect which comprises an estimated 8-12 percent of the total population. Assyrians, an indigenous Eastern Aramaic-speaking Christian Semitic people, numbering approximately 500,000, are mainly in northeast Syria. A larger population lives over the border in northern Iraq, other ethnic groups include Armenians, Circassians, Turkmens, Greeks, Mhallami, Kawliya, Yezidi, Shabaks, and Mandeans. Socioeconomic inequality increased significantly after free market policies were initiated by Hafez al-Assad in his later years, the country also faced particularly high youth unemployment rates
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People's Protection Units
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The Peoples Protection Units is a Kurdish militia in Syria and the primary component of Rojavas Syrian Democratic Forces. The YPG is mostly ethnically Kurdish, but it also includes Arabs, Western volunteers, and the Syriac Military Council, the YPG was formed in 2004 as the armed wing of the Kurdish leftist Democratic Union Party. It expanded rapidly in the Syrian Civil War and came to predominate over other armed Kurdish groups. In early 2015, the group won a victory over the Islamic State at the Siege of Kobanî. Since then, the YPG has primarily fought against ISIL, as well as on occasion fighting other Syrian rebel groups. In late 2015, the YPG founded the Syrian Democratic Forces upon the USs urging, as a group to better incorporate Arabs. The SDFs Raqqa offensive was launched in late 2016 to capture the Arab city of Raqqa, a light infantry force, the YPG has limited military equipment and few armored vehicles. They receive substantial air support from the United States and some support from Russia, the Democratic Union Party was founded in 2003 as one of many Kurdish opposition parties in the Syrian parliament. The PYD distinguished itself as the only Kurdish party that supported the Qamishli uprising in 2004. As a result, it was repressed in the years leading up to the Syrian Civil War. In 2016, Turkish government officials claimed that it was the branch of the PKK in Syria. YPG militias were first formed in 2004, after the Syrian government quashed a rebellion in its largest Kurdish-majority city, Qamishli and it did not emerge as a significant force until the Syrian revolt erupted in 2011, but had been organising clandestinely during the interim. Iraq-based PKK fighters, who were either from or had trained in Syrian Kurdistan, the YPG is considered the armed wing of the PYD. Other groups in the YPG include the Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party, in July 2012, the YPG had a standoff with Syrian government forces in the Kurdish city of Kobanî and the surrounding areas. After negotiations, government forces withdrew and the YPG took possession of Kobanî, Amuda, by December 2012, it had expanded to eight brigades, which were formed in Qamişlo, Kobanî, and Ras al-Ayn and in the districts of Afrin, Al-Malikiyah, and Al-Bab. The YPG did not initially take an offensive posture in the Syrian Civil War, aiming mostly to defend Kurdish-majority areas, it avoided engaging Syrian government forces, which still controlled several enclaves in Kurdish territory. The YPG changed this policy when Ras al-Ayn was taken by the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, at first the YPG conquered the surrounding government-controlled areas, Al-Darbasiyah, Tel Tamer and Al-Malikiyah in order to prevent the FSA from gaining more power in the area. The subsequent Battle of Ras al-Ayn started in earnest when on 19 November 2012, the Al-Nusra Front, the battle ended with a YPG victory in July 2013
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Adana Archaeology Museum
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Adana Archaeology Museum, located just west of the Sabancı Mosque in Adana, houses the historical heritage of Çukurova region. It is one of the oldest ten museums of Turkey, the museum was established at the Police Department building just after the formation of the Republic in 1924. It initially started with the collection of the columns, column capitals, the museum was moved to the building presently occupied by the Ethnography Museum at Kuruköprü in 1950. At the museum entrance, there is a lion from the Hittite period. The exhibited material includes sarcophagi with rich decorations, jugs, catapult shots, inscriptions, altars. The ground floor is the hall of stone-cut artefacts, a marble sarcophagus depicting the Trojan wars in high relief is from Tarsus and is known as the Akhilleus sarcophagus. The Mosaic of Orpheus Playing the Lyre, discovered at Tepebağ in Adana, is also in this hall, at the Hall of Regional Objects, works from the Adana museums own collection obtained from the excavations and through purchases are exhibited. Glass object samples with rich forms, Seljuk tiles and seals from various civilizations are also displayed. At the Hall of Coins, Seals and Jewellery, starting with the Lydians, who were the first to mint coins, jewellery and buried treasures discovered in the districts of Adana are exhibited
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Ras al-Ayn
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Ras al-Ayn, also spelled Ras al-Ain, is a city in al-Hasakah Governorate in northeastern Syria, on the border with Turkey. One of the oldest civilizations in Upper Mesopotamia, the area of Ras al-Ayn has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic age, with the 1921 Treaty of Ankara Ras al-Ayn became a divided city when its northern part, todays Ceylanpınar, were ceded to Turkey. With a population of 29,347, it is the third largest city in al-Hasakah Governorate, the city is inhabited predominantly by Arabs and Kurds, with a significant number of Syriacs/Assyrians and a smaller number of Armenians and Chechens. During the Syrian Civil War of the 2010s, it part of Jazira Canton in the de facto autonomous region of Rojava. The first mention of the town is in Akkadian Rēš ina during the reign of the Assyrian king Adad-nirari II, the Arabic name Ras al-Ayn derives from the Akkadian and has the same meaning, head of the spring. Or, idiomatically, Hill of the spring - indicating a prominent mountain close to a well. The ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy names the town Raisena, the town was called in the Roman empire as Ressaina/Resaina. Another name was Theodosiopolis after emperor Theodosius I who enlarged the town in 380, in addition to Ras al-Ayn medieval Arabic Muslim sources refer to the town sometimes as Ain Werda. Nineteenth century English sources refer to the town as Ras Ain or Ain Verdeh or Ras el Ain, the Kurdish name Serê Kaniyê also means head of the spring or head of the Fountain. It means water source areas in Kurdish and this name is probably a modern literal translation of the ancient Semitic name. Ras al-Ayn is located in the Upper Khabur basin in the northern Syrian region of Jazira, the Khabur River, largest tributary of the Euphrates, crosses the border from Turkey near the town of Tell Halaf, just about 4 kilometres to the southwest of the city. While more than 80% of the Upper Khaburs water originates from Turkey, so rather than the overground streams, its the giant karstic springs of the Ras al-Ayn area that is considered the rivers main perennial source. Ras al-Ayn has more than 100 natural springs, the most famous spring is Naba al-Kebreet, a hot spring with a very high mineral content, containing everything from simple calcium to lithium, and even radium. The area of Ras al-Ayn is one of the oldest civilizations in Upper Mesopotamia, later it became known as the ancient Aramean city of Sikkan, the Roman city of Rhesaina, and the Byzantine city of Theodosiopolis. The city fell to the Arabs in 640, was several times destroyed and rebuild and it still remained an important site of the Syriac Orthodox Christians, until Tamerlane sacked the city at the end of the 14th century. During the Armenian Genocide, the Ottomans killed 80.000 Armenians in the infamous Ras al-Ayn camps, divided by the 1921 Treaty of Ankara, it was stripped off its northern neighborhoods, todays Ceylanpınar, Turkey. In the Syrian Civil War, Ras al-Ayn was engulfed by the long Battle of Ras al-Ayn, until in July 2013 the Kurdish YPG forces took over control, today the city with its predominantly Kurdish population is part of Jazira Canton in the de facto autonomous region of Rojava. The area of Ras al-Ayn was inhabited at least since the Neolithic age
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Khabur (Euphrates)
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Ultraman is a Japanese tokusatsu television series that first aired in 1966. Ultraman is a follow-up to the television series Ultra Q, though not technically a sequel or spin-off, the show was produced by Tsuburaya Productions, and was broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System from July 17,1966 to April 9,1967, with a total of 39 episodes. Although Ultraman is the first series to feature an Ultra-Crusader, it is actually the second show in the Ultra Series, in fact, Ultraman opens with the Ultra Q logo exploding into the Ultraman logo. Ultraman, and its hero, became a major pop culture phenomenon in Japan, spawning dozens of sequels, spin-offs, imitators. Ultramans central characters were created by Eiji Tsuburaya from Tsuburaya Productions, the shows predecessor was a series called Ultra Q, a black-and-white 28-episode series very much like the original Outer Limits. The name Woo ended up being used for an unrelated, yeti-like monster. Later, Tsuburaya Productions would ultimately produce a series dubbed Bio Planet WoO, in January 2006, Bemlar, then retitled Scientific Special Search Party, Bemlar, The main characters are a defense force, with the same Japanese name as the Science Special Search Party. One of the members, unknown to anyone, gained the ability to transform into a giant birdlike humanoid monster called Bemlar, who defends Earth from monsters, aliens and other threats. Unlike Woo, Bemlar was a tough and righteous fighter, and he looked similar in design to the title monster of the 1967 kaiju film Gappa. The plot was scrapped when it was worried viewers might have trouble telling the monsters apart, redman, The title hero of this project slightly resembled Ultraman as he came to be known, but he looked more demonic and had horns. He came to Earth after his planet was destroyed by aliens from Planet X, the characteristic Color Timer, more familiar to American audiences as the warning light on Ultramans chest, was added at the eleventh hour. The first series begins when Science Special Search Party member Shin Hayata is flying his plane, the sphere turns out to be the transport for a giant red-and-silver being who calls himself Ultraman. Feeling remorse for having killed the human, he merges his essence with Hayata to save him, the Ultraman series used various monster costumes, known as kaiju in Japan, prior to other series such as Kamen Rider and Super Sentai. The principals were played by famous monster suit actor Haruo Nakajima, another Toho actor, Satoshi Bin Furuya, was sought out for the role of Ultraman, because of his tall stature and perfect proportions. Nakajima had an outdoor-sports and martial-arts background, and they decided that Ultraman would not seem alien if he was using earth-bound martial arts techniques. So Ultramans fighting style was a mixture of grappling, Greco-Roman wrestling, and some Japanese martial arts, often costumes of famous monsters like Godzilla and Baragon would be recycled and altered, sometimes with nothing more than spray paint and often while the actor was still inside. Nakajima quipped once that the gait of some of the monsters he portrayed was due less to his acting than to the fumes he had to endure. Also, the expense of repairing the scale cities and landscapes used for battle scenes required economy of movement, not all monsters resembled Godzilla or a dinosaur
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Aramaic language
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Aramaic is a language or group of languages belonging to the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic language family. More specifically, it is part of the Northwest Semitic group, the Aramaic alphabet was widely adopted for other languages and is ancestral to the Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic alphabets. During its approximately 3000 years of history, Aramaic has served variously as a language of administration of empires, therefore, there is not one singular, static Aramaic language, each time and place rather has had its own variation. The Aramaic languages are now considered endangered, Aram is used as a proper name of several people in the Torah including descendants of Shem, Nahor, and Jacob. Ancient Aram, bordering northern Israel and now called Syria, is considered the epicenter of Aramaic. The language is often considered to have originated within Assyria. Interestingly, the Christian New Testament, for which the constituent texts are written in Koine Greek. The Hellenized Jewish community of Alexandria instead translated Aramaic to the Syrian tongue, a related language, Mlahsô, has recently become extinct. Mandaeans living in the Khuzestan Province of Iran and scattered throughout Iraq and it is quite distinct from any other Aramaic variety. Central Neo-Aramaic consists of Turoyo and the recently extinct Mlahsô, very little remains of Western Aramaic. All these speakers of Modern Western Aramaic are fluent in Arabic, Jewish Palestinian Aramaic and Samaritan Aramaic are preserved in liturgical and literary usage. Each dialect of Aramaic has its own pronunciation, and it would not be feasible here to go into all these properties. Aramaic has a palette of 25 to 40 distinct phonemes. The open vowel is an open near-front unrounded vowel and it usually has a back counterpart, and a front counterpart. There is much correspondence between these vowels between dialects, there is some evidence that Middle Babylonian dialects did not distinguish between the short a and short e. In West Syriac dialects, and possibly Middle Galilean, the long a became the o sound, the open e and back a are often indicated in writing by the use of the letters א alaph or ה he. The close front vowel is the long i and it has a slightly more open counterpart, the long e, as in the final vowel of café. Both of these have shorter counterparts, which tend to be pronounced more open
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Tell (archaeology)
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In archaeology, a tell or tel is an artificial mound formed from the accumulated remains of people living on the same site for hundreds or thousands of years. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a top and sloping sides. Tells are most commonly associated with the archaeology of the ancient Near East, within the Near East, they are concentrated in less arid regions, including Upper Mesopotamia, the Southern Levant, Anatolia and Iran. A tell is a hill created by many generations of people living and rebuilding on the same spot. Over time, the level rises, forming a mound, the single biggest contributor to the mass of a tell are mud bricks, which disintegrate rapidly. Excavating a tell can reveal buried structures such as government or military buildings, religious shrines and homes and they often overlap horizontally, vertically, or both. Archaeologists excavate tell sites to interpret architecture, purpose, and date of occupation, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press – via Internet Archive
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Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
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Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
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Deutsche Bank
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Deutsche Bank AG is a German global banking and financial services company with its headquarters in the Deutsche Bank Twin Towers in Frankfurt. It has more than 100,000 employees in over 70 countries, and has a presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific. In 2009, Deutsche Bank was the largest foreign exchange dealer in the world with a share of 21 percent. The company was a component of the STOXX Europe 50 stock market index until being replaced on that index on August 8,2016, the bank offers financial products and services for corporate and institutional clients along with private and business clients. Deutsche Bank’s core business is investment banking, which represents 50% of equity, 75% of leverage assets, in January 2014, Deutsche Bank reported a €1.2 billion pre-tax loss for the fourth quarter of 2013. This came after analysts had predicted a profit of nearly €600 million, revenues slipped by 16% versus the prior year. On 7 June 2015, the then co-CEOs, Juergen Fitschen and Anshu Jain, Anshu Jains resignation took effect on 30 June 2015, but he provided consultancy to the bank until January 2016. Juergen Fitschen temporarily continued as joint CEO until 19 May 2016, the appointment of John Cryan as joint CEO was announced, effective 1 July 2016, he became sole CEO at the end of Juergen Fitschens term. In January 2016, Deutsche Bank pre-announced a 2015 loss before income taxes of approximately €6.1 billion, Deutsche Bank was founded in Berlin in 1870 as a specialist bank for foreign trade. The banks statute was adopted on 22 January 1870, and on 10 March 1870 the Prussian government granted it a banking licence, three of the founders were Georg Siemens whose fathers cousin had founded Siemens and Halske, Adelbert Delbrück and L. Bamberger. Its first foray overseas came shortly afterwards, in Shanghai and London followed sometime by South America, major projects in the early years of the bank included the Northern Pacific Railroad in the US and the Baghdad Railway. In Germany, the bank was instrumental in the financing of bond offerings of steel company Krupp, the second half of the 1890s saw the beginning of a new period of expansion at Deutsche Bank. The bank formed alliances with large banks, giving itself an entrée into Germanys main industrial regions. Joint ventures were symptomatic of the then under way in the German banking industry. In addition, the bank rapidly perceived the value of specialist institutions for the promotion of foreign business, the immediate postwar period was a time of liquidations. Having already lost most of its assets, Deutsche Bank was obliged to sell other holdings. A great deal of energy went into shoring up what had been achieved, but there was new business, too, some of which was to have an impact for a long time to come. The bank played a significant role in the establishment of the production company, UFA
22.
Baghdad railway
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Completion of the project took several decades and by the outbreak of World War I, the railway was still 960 km away from its intended objective. The last stretch to Baghdad was built in the late 1930s, if the railway had been completed, the Germans would have gained access to suspected oil fields in Mesopotamia, as well as a connection to the port of Basra on the Persian Gulf. The latter would have provided access to the parts of the German colonial empire, and avoided the Suez Canal. The railway became a source of international disputes during the immediately preceding World War I. Although it has argued that they were resolved in 1914 before the war began. Construction resumed in the 1930s and was completed in 1940, the journey home to Germany would have given German industry direct supply of oil. The Europeans saw great potential to exploit the resources of the empire, irrigation could transform agriculture, there were chrome, antimony, lead and zinc mines. Not least there were potentially vast amounts of oil, during 1901 a German report announced the region had a veritable lake of petroleum of almost inexhaustible supply. In 1872 German railway engineer Wilhelm von Pressel was retained by the Ottoman government to develop plans for railways in Turkey, thus came into existence the Anatolian Railway Company. The two lines were the first two sections of the Baghdad Railway, another railway built at the same time by German engineers was the Hejaz railway, commissioned by Sultan Hamid II. The Ottoman Empire chose to place the line outside the range of the British Navy guns, therefore, the coastal way from Alexandretta to Aleppo was avoided. The line had to cross the Amanus Mountains inland at the cost of engineering including an 8 km tunnel between Ayran station and Fevzipaşa. A Russian plan was rejected for fear of it extending Russian influence in Constantinople, a well-financed British plan collapsed due to the outbreak of the Boer War. A well-financed French proposal titled the Imperial Ottoman Railway enabled them to become financiers of the winning Deutsche Bank plan and this Baghdad Railway Company was controlled by a few German banks. McMurray rejects the theory that the railway tied Turkey to Germany, there was concern in Russia, France, and Britain after 1903 as the implications of the German scheme to construct a great Berlin-Baghdad railway became apparent. A railway that would link Berlin to the Persian Gulf would provide Germany with a connection to its southernmost colonies in Africa, i. e. with German East Africa and German South-West Africa. The railway might eventually have strengthened the Ottoman Empire and its ties to Germany, despite obstructions at the diplomatic level, work slowly began on the railway. Both geographical and political obstacles prevented the completion of the Baghdad Railway before World War I commenced in 1914, much of the construction work was undertaken by Philipp Holzmann
23.
Ernst Herzfeld
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Ernst Emil Herzfeld was a German archaeologist and Iranologist. Herzfeld was born in Celle, Province of Hanover and he studied architecture in Munich and Berlin, while also taking classes in Assyriology, ancient history and art history. 1903–05 he was assistant to Walter Andrae in the excavations of Assur. He surveyed and documented many historical sites in Turkey, Syria, Persia, at Samarra he carried out the first excavations of an Islamic period site in 1911–13. After military service during World War I he was appointed professor of Landes- und Altertumskunde des Orients in Berlin in 1920. This was the first professorship for Near/Middle Eastern archaeology in the world, 1923–25 he started explorations in Persia and described many of the countries most important ruins for the first time. In 1925 he moved to Tehran and stayed there most of the time until 1934 and he was instrumental in creating a Persian law of antiquities and excavated in the Achaemenid capitals Pasargadae and Persepolis. He left Iran at the end of 1934 for a year in London, in 1935, he was forced to leave his position in Germany because of his Jewish descent, and became a faculty member of the New Jersey Institute for Advanced Study from 1936 to 1944. He died in Basel, Switzerland in 1948, the bulk of the Ernst Herzfeld Papers are housed in the archives of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, DC. The archives are open by appointment Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, other Herzfeld research materials, notes, photographs and drawings are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in the Departments of Islamic Art and Ancient Near Eastern art. Iranische Felsreliefs,1910 Archäologische Reise im Euphrat- und Tigris-Gebiet,4 Vols, 1911-1920 (together with Friedrich Sarre Paikuli,2 Vols. 1924 Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra,5 Vols, 1923-1930 Archaeological History of Iran, Altpersische Inschriften,1938 Iran in the ancient East,1940 Zoroaster and his world,2 Vols. 1947 Iranology Herzfeld, Ernst, Iranica Gunter, Ann C, Ernst Herzfeld and the Development of Near Eastern Studies, 1900–1950. The Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, finding Aids for the Herzfeld Archive in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. Ernst Herzfeld Papers Collections Search Center, S. I. R. I. S, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC Ernst Herzfeld-Gesellschaft. Ernst Herzfeld Papers collection from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries
24.
Kapara
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King Kapara of Guzana was the ruler of a small Aramaean kingdom of Bit Bahiani in the 10th or 9th century BC. He built a Bit-hilani, a palace in Neo-Hittite style discovered by Max von Oppenheim in 1911, with a rich decoration of statues. In 894 BC, the Assyrian king Adad-nirari II recorded the site in his archives as a tributary Aramaean city-state, in 808 BC the city and its surrounding area was reduced to a province of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. W. F. Albright, The Date of the Kapara Period at Gozan, Anatolian Studies, Orthostat relief, archer Orthostat relief, hunting scene Orthostat relief, lion hunt Orthostat relief, Relief with Two Heroes
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Hellenistic period
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It is often considered a period of transition, sometimes even of decadence or degeneration, compared to the enlightenment of the Greek Classical era. The Hellenistic period saw the rise of New Comedy, Alexandrian poetry, the Septuagint, Greek science was advanced by the works of the mathematician Euclid and the polymath Archimedes. The religious sphere expanded to include new gods such as the Greco-Egyptian Serapis, eastern deities such as Attis and Cybele, the Hellenistic period was characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa. This resulted in the export of Greek culture and language to new realms. Equally, however, these new kingdoms were influenced by the cultures, adopting local practices where beneficial, necessary. Hellenistic culture thus represents a fusion of the Ancient Greek world with that of the Near East, Middle East and this mixture gave rise to a common Attic-based Greek dialect, known as Koine Greek, which became the lingua franca through the Hellenistic world. Scholars and historians are divided as to what event signals the end of the Hellenistic era, Hellenistic is distinguished from Hellenic in that the first encompasses the entire sphere of direct ancient Greek influence, while the latter refers to Greece itself. The word originated from the German term hellenistisch, from Ancient Greek Ἑλληνιστής, from Ἑλλάς, Hellenistic is a modern word and a 19th-century concept, the idea of a Hellenistic period did not exist in Ancient Greece. Although words related in form or meaning, e. g, the major issue with the term Hellenistic lies in its convenience, as the spread of Greek culture was not the generalized phenomenon that the term implies. Some areas of the world were more affected by Greek influences than others. The Greek population and the population did not always mix, the Greeks moved and brought their own culture. While a few fragments exist, there is no surviving historical work which dates to the hundred years following Alexanders death. The works of the major Hellenistic historians Hieronymus of Cardia, Duris of Samos, the earliest and most credible surviving source for the Hellenistic period is Polybius of Megalopolis, a statesman of the Achaean League until 168 BC when he was forced to go to Rome as a hostage. His Histories eventually grew to a length of forty books, covering the years 220 to 167 BC, another important source, Plutarchs Parallel Lives though more preoccupied with issues of personal character and morality, outlines the history of important Hellenistic figures. Appian of Alexandria wrote a history of the Roman empire that includes information of some Hellenistic kingdoms, other sources include Justins epitome of Pompeius Trogus Historiae Philipicae and a summary of Arrians Events after Alexander, by Photios I of Constantinople. Lesser supplementary sources include Curtius Rufus, Pausanias, Pliny, in the field of philosophy, Diogenes Laertius Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is the main source. Ancient Greece had traditionally been a collection of fiercely independent city-states. After the Peloponnesian War, Greece had fallen under a Spartan hegemony, in which Sparta was pre-eminent but not all-powerful
26.
Samarra
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Sāmarrā is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate,125 kilometers north of Baghdad, in 2003 the city had an estimated population of 348,700. Samarra was once in the Sunni Triangle of violence during the violence in Iraq. In the medieval times, Samarra was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, in 2007, UNESCO named Samarra one of its World Heritage Sites. The remains of prehistoric Samarra were first excavated between 1911 and 1914 by the German archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld, Samarra became the type site for the Samarra culture. Since 1946, the notebooks, letters, unpublished excavation reports and photographs have been in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, the civilization flourished alongside the Ubaid period, as one of the first town states in the Near East. It lasted from 5,500 BCE and eventually collapsed in 3,900 BCE, a city of Sur-marrati is insecurely identified with a fortified Assyrian site of Assyrian at al-Huwaysh on the Tigris opposite modern Samarra. The State Archives of Assyria Online identifies Surimarrat as the site of Samarra. In 836 the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim founded a new capital at the banks of the Tigris, here he built extensive palace complexes surrounded by garrison settlements for his guards, mostly drawn from Central Asia and Iran or North Africa. Although quite often called Mamluk slave soldiers, their status was quite elevated, for his son al-Mutazz he built the large palace Bulkuwara. Samarra remained the residence of the caliph until 892, when al-Mutadid eventually returned to Baghdad, the city declined but maintained a mint until the early 10th century. After the collapse of the Abbasid empire in about 940 Samarra was abandoned and its population returned to Baghdad and the city rapidly declined. Its field of ruins is the only metropolis of late antiquity which is available for serious archaeology. This has made it an important pilgrimage centre for the Twelvers, in addition, Hakimah and Narjis, female relatives of the Muhammad and the Imams, held in high esteem by Muslims, are buried there, making this mosque one of the most significant sites of worship. In the eighteenth century, one of the most bloody battles of the 1730–1735 Ottoman–Persian War, the Battle of Samarra, took place, the engagement decided the fate of Ottoman Iraq and kept it under Istanbuls suzerainty until the First World War. Many local people were displaced by the dam, resulting in an increase in Samarras population, Samarra is a key city in Saladin Governorate, a major part of the so-called Sunni Triangle where insurgents were active during the Iraq War. Though Samarra is famous for its Shii holy sites, including the tombs of several Shii Imams, tensions arose between Sunnis and the Shia during the Iraq War. On February 22,2006, the dome of the al-Askari Mosque was bombed, setting off a period of rioting
27.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
28.
League of Nations
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The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organisation founded on 10 January 1920 as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first international organisation whose mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament, at its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a shift from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, however, the Great Powers were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them, after a number of notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s. Germany withdrew from the League, as did Japan, Italy, Spain, the onset of the Second World War showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to prevent any future world war. The League lasted for 26 years, the United Nations replaced it after the end of the Second World War on 20 April 1946 and inherited a number of agencies and organisations founded by the League. As historians William H. Harbaugh and Ronald E. Powaski point out, the organisation was international in scope, with a third of the members of parliaments serving as members of the IPU by 1914. Its aims were to encourage governments to solve disputes by peaceful means. Annual conferences were held to help refine the process of international arbitration. Its structure consisted of a council headed by a president, which would later be reflected in the structure of the League, at the start of the 20th century, two power blocs emerged from alliances between the European Great Powers. It was these alliances that, at the start of the First World War in 1914 and this was the first major war in Europe between industrialised countries, and the first time in Western Europe that the results of industrialisation had been dedicated to war. By the time the fighting ended in November 1918, the war had had an impact, affecting the social, political and economic systems of Europe. Anti-war sentiment rose across the world, the First World War was described as the war to end all wars, the causes identified included arms races, alliances, militaristic nationalism, secret diplomacy, and the freedom of sovereign states to enter into war for their own benefit. Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, a British political scientist, coined the term League of Nations in 1914, together with Lord Bryce, he played a leading role in the founding of the group of internationalist pacifists known as the Bryce Group, later the League of Nations Union. The group became more influential among the public and as a pressure group within the then governing Liberal Party. In Dickinsons 1915 pamphlet After the War he wrote of his League of Peace as being essentially an organisation for arbitration and conciliation
29.
French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon
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The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon was a League of Nations mandate founded after the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire concerning Syria and the Lebanon. The mandate system was supposed to differ from colonialism, with the country acting as a trustee until the inhabitants would be able to stand on their own. At that point, the mandate would terminate and an independent state would be born, Hatay was annexed by Turkey in 1939. The French mandate lasted until 1943, when two independent countries emerged, Syria and Lebanon, French troops completely left Syria and Lebanon in 1946. Faisal established the first new postwar Arab government in Damascus in October 1918, the new Arab administration formed local governments in the major Syrian cities, and the pan-Arab flag was raised all over Syria. The Arabs hoped, with faith in earlier British promises, that the new Arab state would all the Arab lands stretching from Aleppo in northern Syria to Aden in southern Yemen. However, in accordance with the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement between Britain and France, General Allenby assigned to the Arab administration only the regions of Syria. Palestine was reserved for the British, on 8 October, French troops disembarked in Beirut and occupied the Lebanese coastal region south to Naqoura, replacing British troops there. The French immediately dissolved the local Arab governments in the region, France demanded full implementation of the Sykes–Picot Agreement, with Syria under its control. On 26 November 1919, British forces withdrew from Damascus to avoid confrontation with the French, Faisal had traveled several times to Europe, since November 1918, trying to convince France and Britain to change their positions, but without success. Frances determination to intervene in Syria was shown by the naming of General Henri Gouraud as high commissioner in Syria and Cilicia, at the Paris Peace Conference, Faisal found himself in an even weaker position when the European powers decided to ignore the Arab demands. In May 1919, elections were held for the Syrian National Congress, 80% of seats went to conservatives. However, the minority included dynamic Arab nationalist figures such as Jamil Mardam Bey, Shukri al-Kuwatli, Ahmad al-Qadri, Ibrahim Hanano, the head was moderate nationalist Hashim al-Atassi. In June 1919, the American King–Crane Commission arrived in Syria to inquire into local public opinion about the future of the country, the commissions remit extended from Aleppo to Beersheba. They visited 36 major cities, met more than 2,000 delegations from more than 300 villages. Their conclusions confirmed the opposition of Syrians to the mandate in their country as well as to the Balfour Declaration, the conclusions of the commission were rejected by France and ignored by Britain. Unrest erupted in Syria when Faisal accepted a compromise with French Prime Minister Clemenceau, anti-Hashemite demonstrations broke out, and Muslim inhabitants in and around Mount Lebanon revolted in fear of being incorporated into a new, mainly Christian, state of Greater Lebanon. A part of Frances claim to territories in the Levant was that France was a protector of the minority Christian communities
30.
Megalithic architectural elements
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This article describes several characteristic architectural elements typical of European megalithic structures. In archaeology, a forecourt is the given to the area in front of certain types of chamber tomb. Forecourts were probably the venue for ritual practices connected with the burial, in European megalithic architecture, forecourts are curved in plan with the entrance to the tomb at the apex of the open semicircle enclosure that the forecourt creates. The sides were built up by either large upright stones or walls of stones laid atop one another. Some also had paved floors and some had blocking stones erected in front of them to seal the tomb such as at West Kennet Long Barrow. Their shape, which suggests an attempt to focus attention on the tomb itself may mean that they were used ceremonially as a kind of open air auditorium during ceremonies. Excavation within some forecourts has recovered animal bone, pottery and evidence of burning suggesting that they served as locations for votive offerings or feasting dedicated to the dead, see curb for the roadside edge. In archaeology, kerb or peristalith is the name for a ring built to enclose. European dolmens especially hunebed and dyss burials often provide examples of the use of kerbs in megalithic architecture, kerbs may be built in a dry stone wall method employing small blocks or more commonly using larger stones set in the ground. When larger stones are employed, peristalith is the term more properly used, often, when the earth barrow has been weathered away, the surviving kerb can give the impression of being a stone circle although these monuments date from considerably later. Excavation of barrows without stone rings such as Fussells Lodge in Wiltshire suggests that, in these examples, famous sites with kerbs include Newgrange where many of the stones are etched with megalithic art. An example of the dry stone wall type of kerb can be seen at Parc le Breos in Wales, an orthostat is a large stone with a more or less slab-like shape that has been artificially set upright. Menhirs and other standing stones are technically orthostats although the term is used by archaeologists only to describe individual prehistoric stones that constitute part of larger structures, common examples include the walls of chamber tombs and other megalithic monuments and the vertical elements of the trilithons at Stonehenge. Especially later, orthostats may be carved with decoration in relief, in the latter case, orthostats are large thin slabs of gypsum neatly and carefully formed, for use as a wall-facing secured by metal fixings and carrying reliefs, which were then painted. Many orthostats were a focus for art, as at Knowth in Ireland. In megalithic archaeology a port-hole slab is the name of an orthostat with a hole in it sometimes found forming the entrance to a chamber tomb, the hole is usually circular but square examples or those made from two adjoining slabs each with a notch cut in it are known. They are common in the graves of the Seine-Oise-Marne culture. Portal stones are a pair of Megalithic orthostats, usually flanking the entrance to a chamber tomb and they are commonly found in dolmens
31.
National Museum of Aleppo
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The National Museum of Aleppo is the largest museum in the city of Aleppo, Syria, and was founded in 1931. It is located in the heart of the city on Baron Street, adjacent to the famous Baron Hotel. The majority of the exhibitions are devoted to the archaeology of Syria. In 1931, under the decision of the Syrian authorities, a small Ottoman palace was designated to become the National Museum in the city of Aleppo, after three decades, the building became too small to host the growing number of exhibited items. Therefore, it was decided in 1966 to demolish the old building and replace it with a larger, in July 2016 the museum was hit by numerous missiles and mortar shells fired by rebel forces. This caused extensive damage to the roof and structure of the building, most of the collection had already been evacuated but concerns have been expressed regarding items which could not be moved. Items from all periods are exhibited in the museum. However, the largest sections of the museum are devoted to the Iron Age, the entrance to the museum is a temple gateway with a female sphinx from the Iron Age Neo-Hittite settlement of Tell Halaf. The ground floor consists of two sections, the section of Prehistoric Culture and the section of Ancient Syrian Civilizations, the first section is a large hall containing numerous samples of human items and tools form the Stone Age found in the regions of Aleppo, Ain Dara and Ebla. It also contains the oldest civilized human shelter brought from Mureybet, the second section is divide into a group of halls, classified geographically according to the Syrian regions and dedicated to the ancient civilizations of Syria. Many Bronze Age objects from Hama and Ugarit are exhibited in the halls, statues and cuneiform scripts from Mari, moreover, Iron Age materials and Assyrian style statues from archeological sites of the Al-Jazeera region, and the Euphrates region could be found. The section of Arabic-Islamic History, This section contains several Arabic coins, manuscripts, potteries and an Islamic 12th-century tomb, the section of Modern Art, Dedicated to the modern artists of Aleppo and other Syrian cities. It contains a model of the old city of Aleppo. The internal courtyard of the museum is home to huge basaltic statues of ancient Hittite and Roman mythological characters, at the external courtyard, monuments of Assyrian, Aramaic, Byzantine and Arabic civilizations are exhibited. Deir ez-Zor Museum National Museum of Damascus List of museums in Syria
32.
Pergamon Museum
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The Pergamon Museum is situated on the Museum Island in Berlin. The building was designed by Alfred Messel and Ludwig Hoffmann and was constructed over a period of twenty years, the museum is subdivided into the antiquity collection, the Middle East museum, and the museum of Islamic art. It is visited by approximately 1,135,000 people every year, making it the most visited art museum in Germany, Alfred Messel began a design for the large three-wing building in 1906. After his death in 1909 his friend Ludwig Hoffman took charge of the project and construction began in 1910, continuing during the First World War, the completed building was opened In 1930. The Pergamon Museum was severely damaged during the air attacks on Berlin at the end of the Second World War, many of the display objects had been stored in safe places, and some of the large exhibits were walled in for protection. In 1945, the Red Army collected all of the museum items, either as war booty or, ostensibly, to rescue them from looting. Not until 1958 were most of the returned to East Germany. Significant parts of the remain in Russia. Some are currently stored in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, the return of these items has been arranged in a treaty between Germany and Russia but, as of June 2003, is blocked by Russian restitution laws. It first became accessible to the public in 1830, when the Altes Museum was opened, the collection expanded greatly with the excavations in Olympia, Samos, Pergamon, Miletus, Priene, Magnesia, Cyprus and Didyma. This collection is divided between the Pergamon Museum and the Altes Museum, as Germany was divided following the Second World War, so was the collection. The Pergamon Museum was reopened in 1959 in East Berlin, while what remained in West Berlin was displayed in Schloss Charlottenburg, when the Bode Museum was opened in 1904, a section for Islamic art was created and later included in the Pergamon Museum. It was a gift from the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II to Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, parts of the eastern portion of the facade and the ruins of the structure of which it formed a part remain in Jordan. Another unique exhibition is the Aleppo room and this area of the museum features a reception room from a brokers home in Aleppo, Syria, that was commissioned during the Ottoman Period. The Islamic Art Museum also regularly hosts exhibitions of modern art from the Islamic world, such as the 2008 Turkish Delight. In 2008 part of the Keir Collection of Edmund de Unger, formerly housed in his home in Ham, the Middle East Museum exhibition displays objects found by German archeologists and others from the areas of Assyrian, Sumerian and Babylonian culture. Additionally there are buildings, reliefs and lesser cultural objects. The main display is the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way of Babylon together with the throne room facade of Nebuchadnezzar II, the Vorderasiatisches Museum also displays the Meissner fragment from the Epic of Gilgamesh
33.
White phosphorus munitions
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White phosphorus is a material made from a common allotrope of the chemical element phosphorus that is used in smoke, tracer, illumination, and incendiary munitions. As an incendiary weapon, white phosphorus is pyrophoric, burns fiercely and can ignite cloth, fuel, ammunition, in addition to its offensive capabilities, white phosphorus is a highly efficient smoke-producing agent, which burns quickly and produces an immediate blanket of smoke. These create smoke screens to mask from the movement, position, infrared signatures. White phosphorus is believed to have been first used by Fenian arsonists in the 19th century, when the carbon disulfide evaporated, the phosphorus would burst into flames. This mixture was known as Fenian fire and allegedly was used by disgruntled itinerant workers in Australia to cause delayed destruction of shabby sleeping quarters and it is believed that eight or nine men in this group, known as the Sydney Twelve, had been framed by the police. Most were released in 1920 after an inquiry, the British Army introduced the first factory-built WP grenades in late 1916. The British military also used white phosphorus bombs against Kurdish villagers, in the interwar years, the U. S. Army trained using white phosphorus, by artillery shell and air bombardment. The only one fielded was the Grenade, No.76 or Special Incendiary Phosphorus grenade, which consisted of a glass bottle filled with a mixture similar to Fenian fire, plus some latex. It came in two versions, one with a red cap intended to be thrown by hand, and a slightly stronger bottle with a green cap, intended to be launched from the Northover projector. These were improvised anti-tank weapons, hastily fielded in 1940 when the British were awaiting a German invasion after losing the bulk of their modern armaments in the Dunkirk evacuation. Instructions on each crate of SIP grenades included the observations, among other things, Store bombs in cool places, stringent precautions must be taken to avoid cracking bombs during handling. At the start of the Normandy campaign, 20% of American 81 mm mortar rounds were white phosphorus, the U. S. Army and Marines used white phosphorus shells in 107-mm mortars. White phosphorus was widely credited by Allied soldiers for breaking up German infantry attacks, US Sherman tanks carried a white phosphorus round intended for artillery spotting, but tank crews found it useful against German tanks. When American bombers raided Negros Island in the Philippines in 1945, late in the war, some of these bombs used white phosphorus in place of magnesium as the igniter for their flammable mixtures. The use of weapons against civilians was banned by signatory countries in the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Protocol III. The United States signed Protocols I and II on 24 March 1995 under the Clinton Administration and later Protocols III, IV, White phosphorus munitions were used extensively in Korea, Vietnam and later by Russian forces in Chechnya. White phosphorus was used by Saddam Hussein during the Halabja poison gas attack, White phosphorus had not been previously mentioned in other reports on Halabja, but the use of napalm was commonly reported. In April 2004, during the First Battle of Fallujah, Darrin Mortenson of Californias North County Times reported that white phosphorus was used as an incendiary weapon, insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorus burns
34.
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
35.
Basalt
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Basalt is a common extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of basaltic lava exposed at or very near the surface of a planet or moon. Flood basalt describes the formation in a series of basalt flows. By definition, basalt is an igneous rock with generally 45-55% silica and less than 10% feldspathoid by volume. Basalt commonly features a very fine-grained or glassy matrix interspersed with visible mineral grains, the average density is 3.0 gm/cm3. Basalt is defined by its content and texture, and physical descriptions without mineralogical context may be unreliable in some circumstances. Basalt is usually grey to black in colour, but rapidly weathers to brown or rust-red due to oxidation of its mafic minerals into hematite, although usually characterized as dark, basaltic rocks exhibit a wide range of shading due to regional geochemical processes. Due to weathering or high concentrations of plagioclase, some basalts can be quite light-coloured and these phenocrysts usually are of olivine or a calcium-rich plagioclase, which have the highest melting temperatures of the typical minerals that can crystallize from the melt. Basalt with a texture is called vesicular basalt, when the bulk of the rock is mostly solid. Gabbro is often marketed commercially as black granite and these ultramafic volcanic rocks, with silica contents below 45% are usually classified as komatiites. Agricola applied basalt to the black rock of the Schloßberg at Stolpen. Tholeiitic basalt is relatively rich in silica and poor in sodium, included in this category are most basalts of the ocean floor, most large oceanic islands, and continental flood basalts such as the Columbia River Plateau. Basalt rocks are in some cases classified after their content in High-Ti and Low-Ti varieties. High-Ti and Low-Ti basalts have been distinguished in the Paraná and Etendeka traps and it has greater than 17% alumina and is intermediate in composition between tholeiite and alkali basalt, the relatively alumina-rich composition is based on rocks without phenocrysts of plagioclase. Alkali basalt is relatively poor in silica and rich in sodium and it is silica-undersaturated and may contain feldspathoids, alkali feldspar and phlogopite. Boninite is a form of basalt that is erupted generally in back-arc basins. Ocean island basalt Lunar basalt On Earth, most basalt magmas have formed by melting of the mantle. Basalt commonly erupts on Io, the third largest moon of Jupiter, and has formed on the Moon, Mars, Venus. The crustal portions of oceanic tectonic plates are composed predominantly of basalt, produced from upwelling mantle below, the mineralogy of basalt is characterized by a preponderance of calcic plagioclase feldspar and pyroxene
36.
Thermal shock
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Thermal shock occurs when a thermal gradient causes different parts of an object to expand by different amounts. This differential expansion can be understood in terms of stress or of strain, at some point, this stress can exceed the strength of the material, causing a crack to form. If nothing stops this crack from propagating through the material, it cause the objects structure to fail. To measure thermal shock the impulse excitation technique proved to be a useful tool and it can be used to measure Youngs modulus, Shear modulus, Poissons ratio and damping coefficient in a non destructive way. The same test-piece can be measured after different thermal shock cycles, the laser gain medium generates heat. This heat is drained through the heat sink, the transfer of heat occurs at a certain temperature gradient. The non-uniform thermal expansion of a bulk material causes the stress and tension and this phenomenon is also called thermal shock. The robustness of a material to the thermal shock is characterized by the thermal shock parameter. This estimate assumes the unilateral heat drain, as it takes place in the active mirrors, for the double-side sink, the coefficient 4 should be applied. The estimate above is not the only parameter which determines the limit of overheating of a gain medium, the maximal raise Δ T of temperature, at which the medium still can efficiently lase, is also important property of the laser material. The thermal loading, saturation intensity Q and the loss β determine the limit of power scaling of the disk lasers, roughly, the maximal power at the optimised sizes L and h, is of order of P = R2 Q β3. This estimate is very sensitive to the loss β, however, the same expression can be interpreted as a robust estimate of the upper bound of the loss β required for the desirable output power P, β m a x =13. All the disk lasers reported work at the round-trip loss below this estimate, the thermal shock parameter and the loading depend of the temperature of the heat sink. Certain hopes are related with a laser, operating at cryogenic temperatures, the corresponding Increase of the thermal shock parameter would allow to softer requirements for the round-trip loss of the disk laser at the power scaling. Thermal shock testing exposes products to alternating low and high temperatures to accelerate failures caused by cycles or thermal shocks during normal use. The transition between temperature extremes occurs very rapidly, greater than 15 °C per minute, equipment with single or multiple chambers is typically used to perform thermal shock testing. When using single chamber thermal shock equipment, the remain in one chamber. Some equipment uses separate hot and cold chambers with a mechanism that transports the products between two or more chambers
37.
Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin
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The Vorderasiatisches Museum is an archaeological museum in Berlin. It is in the basement of the wing of the Pergamon Museum and has one of the worlds largest collections of Southwest Asian art. 14 halls distributed across 2,000 square meters of exhibition surface display southwest Asian culture spanning six millennia, the exhibits cover a period from the 6th millennium BCE into the time of the Muslim conquests. They originate particularly from todays states of Iraq, Syria and Turkey, starting with the Neolithic finds, the emphasis of the collection is of finds from Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria, as well as northern Syria and eastern Anatolia. Excavations in historically important cities like Uruk, Shuruppak, Assur, Hattusha, Tell el Amarna, Tell Halaf, Samal, Toprakkale, further acquisitions came from Nimrud, Nineveh, Susa and Persepolis. The museum shows finds from the cultures of Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia, Assyria, the Hittites and these finds often found their way to Berlin via the German Oriental Society. In 1899, the Middle East Department at the museums was created. In 1929, they were accommodated in the Bode Museum and the Pergamon Museum. During the Second World War, there were hardly any war-related losses, the mobile exhibits, which were taken as art spoliage to the Soviet Union, were returned to East Germany in 1958. The collection had already opened again as the Vorderasiatisches Museum in 1953, notable pieces of the collection are the Ishtar Gate and Procession Way of Babylon, remainders of the ancient city of Babylon, parts of the Eanna temple and Karaindashs temple to Inanna in Uruk. The museum also has an important number of Southwest Asian stamp and cylinder seals and it has more than 200 of the Amarna letters and the larger fragment of the Sippar tablet from the Epic of Gilgamesh, which includes Siduris advice, unlike later editions of the epic. At present Markus Hilgert is the director of the museum, previous directors were Beate Salje, Walter Andrae, Gerhard Rudolf Meyer, Liane Jakob Rust and Evelyn Klengel Brandt, among others. Nicola Crüsemann, Vom Zweistromland zum Kupfergraben, vorgeschichte und Entstehungsjahre der Vorderasiatischen Abteilung der Berliner Liane Jakob rust et al. Das Vorderasiatische Museum, of Zabern, Mainz 1992, Berlin, Paris, London, New York, eine Standortbestimmung, Kolloquium aus Anlass des Einhundertjährigen Bestehens des Vorderasiatischen Museums Berlin am 7. Mai 1999, of Zabern, Mainz 2001, joachim Marzahn, Beate Salje, Wiedererstehendes Assur,100 Jahre deutsche Ausgrabungen in Assyrien, of Zabern, Mainz 2003. Official site Assyrian origins, discoveries at Ashur on the Tigris, antiquities in the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries
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East Germany
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East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic, was an Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it, as a result, the German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. East Germany, which lies culturally in Central Germany, was a state of the Soviet Union. Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, Soviet forces, however, remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party, though other parties participated in its alliance organisation. The economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned, prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through supply and demand. Although the GDR had to pay war reparations to the USSR. Nonetheless it did not match the growth of West Germany. Emigration to the West was a significant problem—as many of the emigrants were well-educated young people, the government fortified its western borders and, in 1961, built the Berlin Wall. Many people attempting to flee were killed by guards or booby traps. In 1989, numerous social and political forces in the GDR and abroad led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the following year open elections were held, and international negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty on the status and borders of Germany. The GDR was dissolved and Germany was unified on 3 October 1990, internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin known as East Berlin which was also administered as the states de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom and France known collectively as West Berlin. The three sectors occupied by the Western nations were sealed off from the rest of the GDR by the Berlin Wall from its construction in 1961 until it was brought down in 1989, the official name was Deutsche Demokratische Republik, usually abbreviated to DDR. West Germans, the media and statesmen purposely avoided the official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like Ostzone, Sowjetische Besatzungszone. The centre of power in East Berlin was referred to as Pankow. Over time, however, the abbreviation DDR was also used colloquially by West Germans. However, this use was not always consistent, for example, before World War II, Ostdeutschland was used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe, as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Weber and political theorist Carl Schmitt
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Sal. Oppenheim
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Oppenheim is a German private bank founded in 1789 and headquartered in Cologne, Germany. It offers asset management solutions for individual clients and institutional investors. The bank became a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank in 2009, the bank was founded in 1789 in the city of Bonn by seventeen-year-old Salomon Oppenheim, Jr. as a commissions and exchange house. Oppenheim dealt in commodities, the exchanging of foreign currencies, extending credit, in 1798, the business moved to Cologne, then the most important banking location in Germany. In 1828, Salomon Oppenheim, Jr. died, and his wife Therese took over the direction of the bank along with their two sons, Simon and Abraham, in 1836, a subsidiary company was founded in Amsterdam that survived until 1856. 1837 saw, for the first-time, the financing of many evolving, in 1838, the bank, together with the A. Schaaffhausenscher Bank Association and the Herstatt Bank, founded the Colonia-Insurance Company. After the death of Therese Oppenheim in 1842, the continued under the leadership of her two remaining sons. In 1853, the founded the Darmstädter Bank and, in 1870, was involved in the mortgage bank Eurohypo AG. In 1868, Abraham Oppenheim was raised to the ranks of the Prussian Freiherr, after the death of Abraham and Simon in 1880, their sons, Albert and Eduard, assumed leadership of the bank. In 1904, the form of the changed from that of a general partnership to one of a limited partnership that, from then on, was led by Alfred von Oppenheim and his cousin. In 1912, with the appointment of Ferdinand Rinkel, the bank was led for the first time by someone outside the family, in 1921, he was replaced by Otto Kaufmann. From 1914 on, the bank was involved with nine war loans to Germany to help finance the first World War, in 1936, the bank voluntarily Aryanised with the addition of Robert Pferdmenges as partner. Likewise, in 1936, the bank absorbed the Jewish Bank of A. Levy, in 1938, the bank signed their name to the newspaper campaign of the Nazi Party as Robert Pferdmenges & Co. The first private German horse stud farm, Schlenderhan, which was founded by Eduard von Oppenheim in 1869, was transferred to the SS in 1942, after the imprisonment of Waldemar and Friedrich Carl von Oppenheim in 1944, the bank came to a standstill. In 1945, the bank started up again under the name of Pferdmenges & Co. and, in 1947. & Cie. with the Oppenheims once again becoming shareholders, the bank, amongst others, helped finance the Auto Union, which later became Audi AG. In 1968, the bank absorbed the Heinrich Kirchholtes & Co, later expansions took place through subsidiary companies in Zürich, München, Paris, and London. In the course of German reunification, the gained the position of advisor to the State on matters of privatisation
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Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
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The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is a German research funding organization and the largest such organization in Europe. The DFG supports research in science, engineering, and the humanities through a variety of grant programmes, prizes, the self-governed organization is based in Bonn and financed by the German states and the federal government. As of 2017, the organization consists of approx,100 research universities and other research institutions. The DFG endows various research prizes, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, in 1937, the Notgemeinschaft der Wissenschaft was renamed the Deutsche Gemeinschaft zur Erhaltung und Förderung der Forschung, for short known as the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. By the end of World War II in Germany, in 1945, in 1949, after formation of the Federal Republic, it was re-founded as the NG and again from 1951 as the DFG. On 9 June 2012, DFG launced a centre in Hyderabad, the German-based research foundation and Indias Department of Science and Technology are together working on 40 bilateral research projects in science and engineering. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is a member of Science Europe, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2008, ISBN 978-3-527-32064-6. Die DFG und die menschliche Vererbungswissenschaft, 1920–1970, franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-515-09099-5. Notker Hammerstein, Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in der Weimarer Republik und im Dritten Reich, wissenschaftspolitik in Republik und Diktatur 1920 –1945. Thomas Nipperdey, Ludwig Schmugge,50 jahre forschungsförderung in deutschland, bad Godesberg, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 1970 Official website DFG Science TV YouTube channel
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Ishtar Gate
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The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BCE by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the side of the city. It was excavated in the early 20th century and a reconstruction using original bricks is now shown in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin. Dedicated to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the gate was constructed using glazed brick with alternating rows of bas-relief mušḫuššu and aurochs, symbolizing the gods Marduk, the roof and doors of the gate were of cedar, according to the dedication plaque. The gate was covered in lapis lazuli, a deep-blue semi-precious stone that was revered in antiquity due to its vibrancy and these blue glazed bricks would have given the façade a jewel-like shine. Through the gate ran the Processional Way, which was lined with walls showing about 120 lions, bulls, dragons and flowers on enameled yellow and black glazed bricks, the gate itself depicted only gods and goddesses. These included Ishtar, Adad and Marduk, during celebrations of the New Year, statues of the deities were paraded through the gate and down the Processional Way. The gate, being part of the Walls of Babylon, was considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the World and it was replaced on that list by the Lighthouse of Alexandria from the third century BC. A reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way was built at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin out of material excavated by Robert Koldewey and it stands 14 m high and 30 m wide. The excavation ran from 1902 to 1914, and, during time,14 m of the foundation of the gate was uncovered. Claudius James Rich, British resident of Baghdad and a self-taught historian, acting as a scholar and collecting field data, he was determined to discover the wonders to the ancient world. C. J. Richs topographical records of the ruins in Babylon were the first ever published and it was reprinted in England no fewer than three times. C. J. Robert Koldewey, a successful German excavator, had previous work for the Royal Museum of Berlin, with his excavations at Surghul. Koldeweys part in Babylons excavation began in 1899, the method that the British were comfortable with was excavating tunnels and deep trenches, which was damaging the mud brick architecture of the foundation. Instead, it was suggested that the team focus on tablets. Despite the destructive nature of the used, the recording of data was immensely more thorough than in previous Mesopotamian excavations. Walter Andre, one of Koldeweys many assistants, was an architect and a draftsman and his contribution was documentation and reconstruction of Babylon. A small museum was built at the site and Andre was the museums first director, one of most complex and impressive architectural reconstructions in the history of archaeology, was the rebuilding of Babylons Ishtar gate and processional way in Berlin
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University of Bern
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The University of Bern is a university in the Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern and it is a comprehensive university offering a broad choice of courses and programs in eight faculties and some 150 institutes. With around 17,428 students, the University of Bern is the third biggest University in Switzerland, the University of Bern operates at three levels, university, faculties and institutes. Other organizational units include interfaculty and general university units, the universitys highest governing body is the Senate, which is responsible for issuing statutes, rules and regulations. Directly answerable to the Senate is the University Board of Directors, the Board comprises the Rector, the Vice-Rectors and the Administrative Director. The structures and functions of the University Board of Directors and the organizational units are regulated by the Universities Act. The University of Bern offers about 39 bachelor and 72 master programs, with enrolments of 7,869 and 4,425, the university also has 2,648 doctoral students. Around 1,575 bachelor,1,566 masters degree students and 534 PhD students graduate each year, for some time now, the university has had more female than male students, at the end of 2014, women accounted for 56% of students. Unlike other universities, the University of Bern does not have a large campus on the edge of the city. Most institutes and clinics are still in the Länggasse, the university district adjoining the city centre. The University has won awards for its intelligent, ecological. The vonRoll site, another factory building, is in the process of being refurbished to house the Faculty of Human Sciences. The roots of the University of Bern go back to the century, when, as a consequence of the Reformation. As part of its reorganization of education, the government of Bern transformed the existing theological college into an academy with four faculties in 1805. Henceforth, it was possible to not only theology in Bern. As in other countries of Europe, nineteenth century politics in Switzerland were dominated by the struggle between conservative and liberal currents. The liberals gained control of the Canton of Bern in 1831 and in 1834 turned the academy into a university, with an academic staff of 45 to teach 167 students. Owing to the situation, it was not until the promulgation of the federal constitution in 1848 that the university was able to embark on a period of peaceful development
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Type site
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In archaeology a type site is a site that is considered the model of a particular archaeological culture. For example, the site of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A culture is Jericho. A type site is often the eponym. For example, the site of the pre-Celtic/Celtic Bronze Age Hallstatt culture is the lakeside village of Hallstatt. In geology the term is used similarly for a site considered to be typical of a rock formation etc. A type site contains artifacts, in an assemblage, that are typical of that culture, type sites are often the first or foundational site discovered about the culture they represent. The use of term is therefore similar to that of the specimen type in biology or locus typicus in geology. New Caledonia, of the Lapita culture
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Ubaid period
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The Ubaid period is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The name derives from Tell al-Ubaid where the earliest large excavation of Ubaid period material was conducted initially by Henry Hall, in South Mesopotamia the period is the earliest known period on the alluvial plain although it is likely earlier periods exist obscured under the alluvium. In the south it has a long duration between about 6500 and 3800 BCE when it is replaced by the Uruk period In North Mesopotamia the period runs only between about 5300 and 4300 BCE. It is preceded by the Halaf period and the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period, the term Ubaid period was coined at a conference in Baghdad in 1930, where at the same time the Jemdet Nasr and Uruk periods were defined. This phase, showing clear connection to the Samarra culture to the north and these people pioneered the growing of grains in the extreme conditions of aridity, thanks to the high water tables of Southern Iraq. Ubaid 2 —, after the site of the same name. Ubaid artifacts spread also all along the Arabian littoral, showing the growth of a system that stretched from the Mediterranean coast through to Oman. Spreading from Eridu the Ubaid culture extended from the Middle of the Tigris and Euphrates to the shores of the Persian Gulf, and then spread down past Bahrain to the copper deposits at Oman. At this time, increased aridity led to an end in semi-desert nomadism, and there is no evidence of presence in the area for approximately 1000 years. That might be due to the 5.9 kiloyear event at the end of the Older Peron, but in the north, stone and sometimes metal were used. Villages thus contained specialised craftspeople, potters, weavers and metalworkers, although the bulk of the population were labourers, farmers. During the Ubaid Period, the movement towards urbanization began, agriculture and animal husbandry were widely practiced in sedentary communities. There were also tribes that practiced domesticating animals as far north as Turkey, the Ubaid period as a whole, based upon the analysis of grave goods, was one of increasingly polarised social stratification and decreasing egalitarianism. Bogucki describes this as a phase of Trans-egalitarian competitive households, in which some fall behind as a result of social mobility. Ubaid culture originated in the south, but still has connections to earlier cultures in the region of middle Iraq. The appearance of the Ubaid folk has sometimes been linked to the so-called Sumerian problem, stein and Özbal describe the Near East oecumene that resulted from Ubaid expansion, contrasting it to the colonial expansionism of the later Uruk period. The earliest evidence for sailing has been found in Kuwait indicating that sailing was known by the Ubaid 3 period, Ubaid house Tell Zeidan Martin, Harriet P. The Early Dynastic Cemetery at al-Ubaid, a Re-Evaluation, pottery Kiln Sites at al Ubaid and Eridu
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Genius
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Despite the presence of scholars in many subjects throughout history, many geniuses have shown high achievements in only a single kind of activity. Usually genius is associated with talent, but many authors systematically distinguish these terms, in ancient Rome, the genius was the guiding spirit or tutelary deity of a person, family, or place. The noun is related to the Latin verb genui, genitus, to bring into being, create, produce, the assessment of intelligence was initiated by Francis Galton and James McKeen Cattell. They had advocated the analysis of time and sensory acuity as measures of neurophysiological efficiency. Galton is regarded as the founder of psychometry and he studied the work of his older half-cousin Charles Darwin about biological evolution. Hypothesizing that eminence is inherited from ancestors, Galton did a study of families of eminent people in Britain, Galtons ideas were elaborated from the work of two early 19th-century pioneers in statistics, Carl Friedrich Gauss and Adolphe Quetelet. His initial work in criminology led him to observe the greater the number of individuals observed the more do peculiarities become effaced and this ideal from which the peculiarities were effaced became the average man. In contrast to Quetelet, Galtons average man was not statistical, there was no measure of general averageness, only a large number of very specific averages. Galtons method in Hereditary Genius was to count and assess the eminent relatives of eminent men and he found that the number of eminent relatives was greater with closer degree of kinship. This work is considered the first example of historiometry, a study of historical human progress. The work is controversial and has criticised for several reasons. Galton then departed from Gauss in a way that became crucial to the history of the 20th century AD, the bell-shaped curve was not random, he concluded. The apparent randomness of the scores was due to the randomness of natural ability in the population as a whole. Galton went on to develop the field of eugenics, Genius is expressed in a variety of forms. Persons with genius tend to have intuitions about their domains. But somehow he trusted his own experiencing of life, the process of himself and it was as though he could say, Good artists dont paint like this, but I paint like this. Or to move to field, Ernest Hemingway was surely aware that good writers do not write like this. But fortunately he moved toward being Hemingway, being himself, rather than someone elses conception of a good writer
