1.
Egtved Girl
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The Egtved Girl was a Nordic Bronze Age girl whose well-preserved remains were discovered outside Egtved, Denmark in 1921. Aged 16–18 at death, she was slim,160 cm tall, had short, blond hair and her burial has been dated by dendrochronology to 1370 BC. She was discovered together with cremated remains of a child in a barrow approximately 30 metres wide and 4 metres high, only the girls hair, brain, teeth, nails and a little of her skin remain preserved. The barrow was excavated in 1921, and an east-western aligned coffin was found and it was transported in sealed condition to the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, where it was opened and the Egtved Girl discovered. She was buried fully dressed on a cowhide in the coffin and she wore a loose bodice with sleeves reaching the elbow. She had a bare waist and wore a string skirt. She had bronze bracelets and a belt with a large disc decorated with spirals. At her feet were the remains of a child age 5–6. By her head there was a small birch bark box which contained an awl, bronze pins, before the coffin was closed she was covered with a blanket and a cowhide. Flowering yarrow and a bucket of beer made of wheat, honey, bog-myrtle and her distinctive outfit, which caused a sensation when it was unearthed in the 1920s, is the best preserved example of a style now known to be common in Northern Europe during the Bronze Age. The good preservation of Egtved girl is due to the acidic bog conditions of the soil, scientists examined chemical isotopes from tissues in her teeth, fingernails, hair and clothing. The concentration of strontium in the earth varies with location and these concentrations are reflected in the local water sources from which humans drink, and retained in human tissues. Based on the concentrations of strontium-87 and strontium-86 they found, scientists made informed guesses about the area of origin. They suggest that the girl lived in the Black Forest region. She is believed to have traveled back and forth between the two areas and was buried in Denmark after her death, the outfit was reconstructed for the National Museum of Denmark by the Lejre Experimental Centre and is on display there. A reconstructed set of clothes, as well as details of the excavation, are on display in the Egtved Girls museum at the excavation site, håga mound Haraldskær Woman The Kings Grave Skrydstrup Woman Barber, E. W. Michael, Girl Barrow, The Megalithic Portal, editor A. Burnham 4 October 2007 Michaelsen, ISBN 87-00-69328-6 The Egtved Girl on National Museum of Denmark website
2.
Neugraben-Fischbek
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Neugraben-Fischbek is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany belongs to the borough Harburg. The quarter consists of the old settlements Neugraben and Fischbek, Fischbek was first mentioned in 1544 as Vischbecke. In 1937 the independent village Fischbek was merged into Hamburg, in 1937 the independent village of Neugraben was merged into Hamburg. In Neugraben was a subcamp of the Nazi concentration camp Neuengamme, on September 13,1944 the women subcamp was opened in Falkenbergweg. 500 Czechish-Jewish women coming from the Ghetto Theresienstadt were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, the SS in Auschwitz selected the women for labour in Hamburg. In the Neugraben camp the work was building homes, also laying supply pipes. During the last months of World War II, some of the women had to do clearing up work in Harburgs oil industry, in February 1945, the SS transferred the women to the camp Hamburg-Tiefstack and later from there to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Neugraben-Fischbek is southeast of the quarter Neuenfelde, in the northeast is Francop, in the south is the district Harburg of the German state Lower Saxony. A large part of the quarter is the nature reserve Harburger Berge in the south, Neugraben-Fischbek it a mixed rural and suburban area of 22.5 km². In Neugraben-Fischbek is the highest rise of Hamburg, the Hasselbrack, 19% were children under the age of 18, and 21. 4% were 65 years of age or older. Resident aliens were 10. 1% of the population,1,644 people were registered as unemployed. In 1999 there were 12,170 households out of which 27. 9% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 30. 5% of all households were made up of individuals, the average household size was 2.31. Population by year Neugraben-Fischbek is served by the transit system of the city train with the stations Neugraben
3.
Balts
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One of the features of Baltic languages is the number of conservative or archaic features retained. German medieval chronicler Adam of Bremen in the part of the 11th century CE was the first writer to use the term Baltic in its modern sense to mean the sea of that name. This is the first reference to the Baltic or Barbarian Sea, the Germanics, however, preferred some form of East Sea until after about 1600, when they began to use forms of Baltic Sea. Around 1840 the German nobles of the Governorate of Livonia devised the term Balts to mean themselves and they spoke an exclusive dialect, Baltic German. For all practical purposes that was the Baltic language until 1919, scandinavians begin settling in Western Baltic lands in Lithuania and Latvia during Vendel Age and with interruptions their presence in Baltic lands continued most of Viking Age. In 1845 Georg Heinrich Ferdinand Nesselmann proposed a language group for Latvian and Lithuanian to be called Baltic. It found some credence among linguists but was not generally adopted until the creation of the Baltic states as part of the settlement of World War I in 1919, estonia and Finland, however, also became counted among the Baltic states in the geopolitical sense. Because the thousands of lakes and swamps in this area contributed to the Balts geographical isolation and it is possible that around 3, 500–2,500 B. C. there was massive migration of peoples representing the Corded Ware culture. They came from the southeast and spread all across Eastern and Central Europe and it is believed that Corded Ware culture peoples were Indo-European ancestors of many Europeans, including Balts. It is thought that those Indo-European newcomers were quite numerous and in the Eastern Baltic assimilated earlier indigenous cultures, over time the new people formed the Baltic peoples and they spread in the area from the Baltic sea in the west to the Volga in the east. This information is summarized and synthesized by Marija Gimbutas in The Balts to obtain a likely proto-Baltic homeland, a possible early reference to a Baltic people occurs in 98 CE, when Tacitus names a tribe living near the Baltic Sea as the Aesti and describes them as amber gatherers. However, it is not clear if the Aesti mentioned by Tacitus were, a Baltic people, or, the Aesti appear to have inhabited the Sambian peninsula (in or near the present Kaliningrad Oblast. Over time, the area of Baltic habitation shrank, due to assimilation by other groups, finally, according to Slavic chronicles of the time, they warred with Slavs, and perhaps, were defeated and assimilated some time in the 11th to 13th centuries. Balts became differentiated into Western and Eastern Balts in the late centuries BCE, the eastern Baltic region was inhabited by ancestors of the Western Balts, Brus/Prūsa, Sudovians/Jotvingians, Scalvians, Nadruvians, and Curonians. The Eastern Balts, including the hypothesised Dniepr Balts, were living in modern-day Belarus, Ukraine, many other Eastern and Southern Balts either assimilated with other Balts, or Slavs in the 4th–7th centuries and were gradually slavicized. Gradually Old Prussians became Germanized or some Lithuanized during period from the 15th to the 17th centuries, the cultures of the Lithuanians and Latgalians/Latvians survived and became the ancestors of the populations of the modern countries of Latvia and Lithuania. Old Prussian was closely related to the other extinct Western Baltic languages and it is more distantly related to the surviving Eastern Baltic languages, Lithuanian and Latvian. Compare the Prussian word seme, the Latvian zeme, the Lithuanian žemė, Old Prussian contained a few borrowings specifically from Gothic and even North Germanic
4.
Christianization
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Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire groups at once. Various strategies and techniques were employed in Christianization campaigns from Late Antiquity, often the conversion of the ruler was followed by the compulsory baptism of his subjects. In essence, it was intended that the traditions and practices still existed, Early works of this type have tended to be downplayed and even dismissed as a form of Protestant apologetics aimed at purification of Christianity. The Council of Jerusalem, according to Acts 15, agreed that lack of circumcision could not be a basis for excluding Gentile believers from membership in the Jesus community. Rather, they instructed new believers to avoid pollution of idols, fornication, things strangled, the Apostolic Decree thus helped to establish nascent Christianity as a unique alternative among the forms of Judaism for prospective Proselytes. The Armenian and Ethiopian churches are the instances of imposition of Christianity by sovereign rulers predating the council of Nicaea. The initial conversion of the Roman Empire occurred mostly in areas of Europe. Later conversions happened among the Grecian-Roman-Celtic populations over centuries, often initially among its urban population, the term pagan is from Latin and means villager, rustic, civilian. It is derived from this historical transition, the root of that word is present in todays word paisan or paisano. The Christianization of the Roman Empire is typically divided into two phases, before and after the year 312, which marked the momentous quasi-conversion of Constantine. By this date, Christianity had already converted a significant but unknown proportion of at least the urban population of the empire, Constantine ended the intermittent persecution of Christianity with the Edict of Milan, which granted tolerance to all religions, but specifically mentioned Christianity. Under Constantines successors, Christianization of Roman society proceeded by fits and starts, Constantines sons, for example, banned pagan state religious sacrifices in 341, but did not close the temples. Although all state temples in all cities were ordered shut in 356, under Julian, the temples were reopened and state religious sacrifices performed once more. When Gratian declined the position and title of Pontifex Maximus, his act brought an end to the state religion due to the positions authority. Again, however, this process ended state official practices but not private religious devotion, however, many temples remained open until Theodosius Is edict of Thessalonica in 381 banned haruspices and other pagan religious practices. From 389 to 393 he issued a series of decrees which led to the banning of religious rites and by confiscating their property. Further laws were passed against remaining pagan practices over the course of the following years, the effectiveness of these laws empire-wide is debatable. Christianization of central Balkans is documented at the end of the 4th century, where Nicetas the Bishop of Remesiana brought the gospel to those mountain wolves, reportedly his mission was successful, and the worship of Dionysus and other Thracian gods was eventually replaced by Christianity
5.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
6.
King Arthur
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King Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD. The details of Arthurs story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, the sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas. Arthurs name also occurs in early sources such as Y Gododdin. Arthur is a figure in the legends making up the so-called Matter of Britain. The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouths fanciful, how much of Geoffreys Historia was adapted from such earlier sources, rather than invented by Geoffrey himself, is unknown. Geoffrey depicted Arthur as a king of Britain who defeated the Saxons and established an empire over Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Gaul. The 12th-century French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who added Lancelot, in these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various Knights of the Round Table. Arthurian literature thrived during the Middle Ages but waned in the centuries that followed until it experienced a resurgence in the 19th century. In the 21st century, the lives on, not only in literature but also in adaptations for theatre, film, television, comics. The historical basis for the King Arthur legend has long debated by scholars. These culminate in the Battle of Badon, where he is said to have single-handedly killed 960 men, recent studies, however, question the reliability of the Historia Brittonum. The other text that seems to support the case for Arthurs historical existence is the 10th-century Annales Cambriae, the Annales date this battle to 516–518, and also mention the Battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut were both killed, dated to 537–539. These details have often used to bolster confidence in the Historias account. Problems have been identified, however, with using this source to support the Historia Brittonums account, the latest research shows that the Annales Cambriae was based on a chronicle begun in the late 8th century in Wales. Additionally, the textual history of the Annales Cambriae precludes any certainty that the Arthurian annals were added to it even that early. They were more likely added at point in the 10th century. The Badon entry probably derived from the Historia Brittonum and this lack of convincing early evidence is the reason many recent historians exclude Arthur from their accounts of sub-Roman Britain. These modern admissions of ignorance are a recent trend, earlier generations of historians were less sceptical
7.
Glastonbury Abbey
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Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction, the abbey was founded in the 7th century and enlarged in the 10th. It was destroyed by a fire in 1184, but subsequently rebuilt. The abbey controlled large tracts of the land and was instrumental in major drainage projects on the Somerset Levels. The abbey was suppressed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII of England, the last abbot, Richard Whiting, was hanged, drawn and quartered as a traitor on Glastonbury Tor in 1539. From at least the 12th century the Glastonbury area has been associated with the legend of King Arthur, Christian legends have claimed that the abbey was founded by Joseph of Arimathea in the 1st century. In 1955 Ralegh Radfords excavations uncovered Romano-British pottery at the west end of the cloister, the abbey was founded by Britons and dates at least to the early-7th century. Dark Age occupation of the site is evidenced by pieces of wine jars that were imported from the Mediterranean. A medieval Christian legend claimed that the abbey was founded by Joseph of Arimathea in the 1st century and this fanciful legend is intimately tied to Robert de Borons version of the Holy Grail story and Glastonburys connection with King Arthur from the early-12th century. Glastonbury fell into Saxon hands after the Battle of Peonnum in 658, saxons under Cenwalh of Wessex conquered Somerset as far west as the River Parrett, perhaps with the intention of gaining control of the abbey. Cenwalh allowed the British abbot, Bregored, to remain in power, after Bregoreds death in 669, he was replaced by an Anglo-Saxon, Berhtwald, but British monks remained for many years. A glassworks was established at the site during the 7th century, Glastonbury was ravaged by the Danes in the 9th century. The contemporary reformed soldier Saint Neot was sacristan at Glastonbury before he founded his own establishment in Somerset, Dunstan became Archbishop of Canterbury in 960. In 967, King Edmund was interred at Glastonbury, in 1016 Edmund Ironside, who had lost England to Canute but held onto the title of King of Wessex, was also buried there. Cnuts charter of 1032 was written and promulgated in the church at Glastonbury. The medieval Glastonbury Canal was built about the middle of the 10th century to link the abbey with the River Brue, a distance of about 1.75 kilometres. Its purpose is believed to have been to transport stone to build the abbey, much of the building stone came from the abbeys quarries at Doulting, accessed by way of the River Sheppey at Pilton. In the 13th century, the head boatman transported the abbot in an eight-oared boat on visits to the abbeys nearby manors
8.
Gerald of Wales
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Gerald of Wales was a Cambro-Norman archdeacon of Brecon and historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and wrote extensively and he both studied and taught in France and visited Rome several times, meeting the Pope. He was nominated for several bishoprics but turned them down in the hope of becoming bishop of St Davids and his final post was as archdeacon of Brecon, from which he retired to academic study for the remainder of his life. Born c. 1146 at Manorbier Castle in Pembrokeshire, Wales, he was of mixed Norman and Welsh descent. His mother was Angharad FitzGerald, a daughter of Gerald FitzWalter of Windsor, Constable of Pembroke Castle, and his wife Nest ferch Rhys, daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, the last King of South Wales. Gerald received his education at the Benedictine house of Gloucester, followed by a period of study in Paris from c. 1165–74. He was appointed in 1174 archdeacon of Brecon, to which was attached a residence at Llanddew and he obtained this position by reporting the existence of the previous archdeacons mistress, the man was promptly fired. While administrating this post, Gerald collected tithes of wool and cheese from the populace, upon the death of his uncle, the Bishop of St Davids, in 1176, the chapter nominated Gerald as his successor. St Davids had long-term aims of becoming independent of Canterbury, such an appointment would only give strength to the Welsh and increase their pride. The chapter acquiesced in the decision, and Gerald, disappointed with the result, 1179-8, he studied and taught canon law and theology. He returned to England and spent an additional five years studying theology, in 1180, he received a minor appointment from the Bishop of St. Davids, which he soon resigned. Gerald became a clerk and chaplain to King Henry II of England in 1184. He was chosen to one of the kings sons, John. He followed it up, shortly afterwards, with an account of Henrys conquest of Ireland, both works were revised and added to several times before his death, and display a notable degree of Latin learning, as well as a great deal of prejudice against a foreign people. His account of that journey, the Itinerarium Cambriae was followed by the Descriptio Cambriae in 1194. It is uncertain whether Gerald was a Welsh speaker, although he quotes Welsh proverbs and appears familiar with the language and he turned them all down, possibly in the hopes of landing a more prominent bishopric in the future. He was acquainted with Walter Map whose career shares some similarities with Gerald, retiring from royal service, he lived in Lincoln from c. 1196 to 1198 where his friend William de Montibus was now chancellor of the Cathedral. It was in period that De instructione principis was probably first written
9.
Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
10.
Liss
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Liss is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 3.3 miles northeast of Petersfield, on the A3 road, Liss has its own railway station, on the Portsmouth Direct Line. The village lies in the South Downs National Park, Englands newest, the parish consists of 3,567 acres of semi-rural countryside, and is one of the largest in the region. The earliest written mention of Liss may be found in the Domesday book. The village comprises an old village at West Liss and the village, which congregated around the 19th-century Southern Railway station. The River Rother formed the boundary between West and East Liss, West Liss contains most of the historical and architectural interest. Suburbs later spread out toward Liss Forest, flint spearheads, arrowheads, scrapers, flakes and cores dating from Palaeolithic and Mesolithic times have been found. Evidence of Neolithic activity is present in axe heads and flint implements, there was settlement in the Rother Valley by the Bronze Age. Bowl barrows and other Bronze Age features exist at Berry Grove and it is likely that the area was also inhabited in the Iron Age, the Roman period and into the Romano-Celtic period prior to the arrival of Saxons in the area. The name Liss is Brythonic Celtic in origin presumed and it also implies that Liss was a place of considerable importance in the area. There are numerous elements of early Roman infrastructure in the area, the Liss Archaeological Group have recently uncovered an extensive Roman villa site close to East Liss, with further excavations to be made. It seems unlikely that there was any major community on the site of the original or the current villages. However, the comparative remoteness was useful when in the late Saxon at 900 Alfred the Great created an Abbey at Lyss Place under the control of St. Marys Abbey at Winchester as a retreat for nuns. In the time of Edward the Confessor, the penultimate Anglo-Saxon king, local historians indicate their belief that St Peters Church has Saxon footings, and that the remaining plan reflects an earlier Saxon Church on the site. However, Taylor and Taylor do not list St Stephens and no fabric is evident, hopefully future opportunities for specialist archaeological work will clarify the order of construction. In 1086, at the time of the Domesday Survey, the manor of Liss might have formed part of the endowment of the Abbey of St. Mary at Winchester. The manor was known as Liss Abbess, and the Abbess. The earliest wooden Church is normally regarded as one of the two churches mentioned as being held by two priests of the manor of Odiham in Domesday Book
