1.
Ceramic
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A ceramic is an inorganic, non-metallic, solid material comprising metal, non-metal or metalloid atoms primarily held in ionic and covalent bonds. This article gives an overview of ceramic materials from the point of view of materials science, the crystallinity of ceramic materials ranges from highly oriented to semi-crystalline, vitrified, and often completely amorphous. Most often, fired ceramics are either vitrified or semi-vitrified as is the case with earthenware, stoneware, varying crystallinity and electron consumption in the ionic and covalent bonds cause most ceramic materials to be good thermal and electrical insulators. With such a range of possible options for the composition/structure of a ceramic, the breadth of the subject is vast. Many composites, such as fiberglass and carbon fiber, while containing ceramic materials, are not considered to be part of the ceramic family. The earliest ceramics made by humans were pottery objects or figurines made from clay, either by itself or mixed with materials like silica, hardened, sintered. Later ceramics were glazed and fired to create smooth, colored surfaces, decreasing porosity through the use of glassy, ceramics now include domestic, industrial and building products, as well as a wide range of ceramic art. In the 20th century, new materials were developed for use in advanced ceramic engineering. The word ceramic comes from the Greek word κεραμικός, of pottery or for pottery, from κέραμος, potters clay, tile, the earliest known mention of the root ceram- is the Mycenaean Greek ke-ra-me-we, workers of ceramics, written in Linear B syllabic script. The word ceramic may be used as an adjective to describe a material, product or process, or it may be used as a noun, either singular, or, more commonly, as the plural noun ceramics. A ceramic material is an inorganic, non-metallic, often crystalline oxide, nitride or carbide material, some elements, such as carbon or silicon, may be considered ceramics. Ceramic materials are brittle, hard, strong in compression, weak in shearing and they withstand chemical erosion that occurs in other materials subjected to acidic or caustic environments. Ceramics generally can withstand high temperatures, such as temperatures that range from 1,000 °C to 1,600 °C. Glass is often not considered a ceramic because of its amorphous character. However, glassmaking involves several steps of the process and its mechanical properties are similar to ceramic materials. Traditional ceramic raw materials include minerals such as kaolinite, whereas more recent materials include aluminium oxide. The modern ceramic materials, which are classified as advanced ceramics, include silicon carbide, both are valued for their abrasion resistance, and hence find use in applications such as the wear plates of crushing equipment in mining operations. Advanced ceramics are used in the medicine, electrical, electronics industries. Crystalline ceramic materials are not amenable to a range of processing
2.
Glass art
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Glass art refers to individual works of art that are substantially or wholly made of glass. It ranges in size from monumental works and installation pieces, to wall hangings and windows, to works of art made in studios and factories, including glass jewelry, as a decorative and functional medium, glass was extensively developed in Egypt and Assyria. Invented by the Phoenicians, was brought to the fore by the Romans, Glass from Murano, in the Venetian Lagoon, is the result of hundreds of years of refinement and invention. Murano is still held as the birthplace of modern glass art, the turn of the 19th Century was the height of the old art glass movement while the factory glass blowers were being replaced by mechanical bottle blowing and continuous window glass. Great ateliers like Tiffany, Lalique, Daum, Gallé, the Corning schools in upper New York state, the first uses of glass were in beads and other small pieces of jewelry and decoration. Beads and jewelry are still among the most common uses of glass in art and it later became fashionable to wear functional jewelry with glass elements, such as pocketwatches and monocles. Starting in the late 20th century, glass couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing made from sculpted glass and these are made to order for the body of the wearer. They are partly or entirely made of glass with extreme attention to fit, the result is usually delicate, and not intended for regular use. Some of the earliest and most practical works of art were glass vessels. Goblets and pitchers were popular as glassblowing developed as an art form, many early methods of etching, painting, and forming glass were honed on these vessels. For instance the technique dates back at least to Rome. More recently, lead glass or crystal glass were used to make vessels that rang like a bell when struck, in the 20th century, mass produced glass work including artistic glass vessels were sometimes known as factory glass. Starting in the Middle Ages, glass became more widely produced, Stained glass became common for windows in cathedrals and grand civic buildings. The invention of glass and the Bessemer process allowed for glass to be used in larger segments, to support more structural loads. A striking example of this was the Crystal Palace in 1851, in the 20th century, glass became used for tables and shelves, for internal walls, and even for floors. Some of the best known sculptures are statuesque or monumental structures such as the statues by Livio Seguso, or by Stanislav Libenský. Another example is René Roubíceks Object 1960, a blown and hot-worked piece of 52.2 cm shown at the Design in an Age of Adversity exhibition at the Corning Museum of Glass in 2005, in the early 20th century, most glass production happened in factories. Even individual glassblowers making their own personalized designs would do their work in large shared buildings
3.
Rust
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Rust is an iron oxide, usually red oxide formed by the redox reaction of iron and oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture. Several forms of rust are distinguishable both visually and by spectroscopy, and form under different circumstances, Rust consists of hydrated iron oxides Fe2O3·nH2O and iron oxide-hydroxide. Given sufficient time, oxygen, and water, any iron mass will eventually convert entirely to rust, surface rust is flaky and friable, and it provides no protection to the underlying iron, unlike the formation of patina on copper surfaces. Rusting is the term for corrosion of iron and its alloys. Many other metals undergo similar corrosion, but the resulting oxides are not commonly called rust, other forms of rust exist, like the result of reactions between iron and chloride in an environment deprived of oxygen. Rebar used in concrete pillars, which generates green rust, is an example. Rust is another name for iron oxide, which occurs when iron or an alloy that contains iron, like steel, is exposed to oxygen and moisture for a long period of time. Over time, the oxygen combines with the metal at a level, forming a new compound called an oxide. Although some people refer to rust generally as oxidation, that term is more general, although rust forms when iron undergoes oxidation. Only iron or alloys that contain iron can rust, but other metals can corrode in similar ways, the main catalyst for the rusting process is water. Iron or steel structures might appear to be solid, but water molecules can penetrate the microscopic pits, the hydrogen atoms present in water molecules can combine with other elements to form acids, which will eventually cause more metal to be exposed. If chloride ions are present, as is the case with saltwater, meanwhile, the oxygen atoms combine with metallic atoms to form the destructive oxide compound. As the atoms combine, they weaken the metal, making the structure brittle, when impure iron is in contact with water, oxygen, other strong oxidants, or acids, it rusts. If salt is present, for example in seawater or salt spray, iron metal is relatively unaffected by pure water or by dry oxygen. As with other metals, like aluminium, a tightly adhering oxide coating, the conversion of the passivating ferrous oxide layer to rust results from the combined action of two agents, usually oxygen and water. Other degrading solutions are sulfur dioxide in water and carbon dioxide in water, under these corrosive conditions, iron hydroxide species are formed. Unlike ferrous oxides, the hydroxides do not adhere to the bulk metal, when iron rusts, the oxides take up more volume than the original metal, this expansion can generate enormous forces, damaging structures made with iron. See Economic effect for more details, the rusting of iron is an electrochemical process that begins with the transfer of electrons from iron to oxygen
4.
Metal
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A metal is a material that is typically hard, opaque, shiny, and has good electrical and thermal conductivity. Metals are generally malleable—that is, they can be hammered or pressed permanently out of shape without breaking or cracking—as well as fusible and ductile, about 91 of the 118 elements in the periodic table are metals, the others are nonmetals or metalloids. Some elements appear in both metallic and non-metallic forms, astrophysicists use the term metal to collectively describe all elements other than hydrogen and helium, the simplest two, in a star. The star fuses smaller atoms, mostly hydrogen and helium, to larger ones over its lifetime. In that sense, the metallicity of an object is the proportion of its matter made up of all chemical elements. Many elements and compounds that are not normally classified as metals become metallic under high pressures, the atoms of metallic substances are typically arranged in one of three common crystal structures, namely body-centered cubic, face-centered cubic, and hexagonal close-packed. In bcc, each atom is positioned at the center of a cube of eight others, in fcc and hcp, each atom is surrounded by twelve others, but the stacking of the layers differs. Some metals adopt different structures depending on the temperature, atoms of metals readily lose their outer shell electrons, resulting in a free flowing cloud of electrons within their otherwise solid arrangement. This provides the ability of metallic substances to easily transmit heat, while this flow of electrons occurs, the solid characteristic of the metal is produced by electrostatic interactions between each atom and the electron cloud. This type of bond is called a metallic bond, Metals are usually inclined to form cations through electron loss, reacting with oxygen in the air to form oxides over various timescales. Examples,4 Na + O2 →2 Na2O2 Ca + O2 →2 CaO4 Al +3 O2 →2 Al2O3, the transition metals are slower to oxidize because they form a passivating layer of oxide that protects the interior. Others, like palladium, platinum and gold, do not react with the atmosphere at all, some metals form a barrier layer of oxide on their surface which cannot be penetrated by further oxygen molecules and thus retain their shiny appearance and good conductivity for many decades. The oxides of metals are generally basic, as opposed to those of nonmetals, exceptions are largely oxides with very high oxidation states such as CrO3, Mn2O7, and OsO4, which have strictly acidic reactions. Painting, anodizing or plating metals are good ways to prevent their corrosion, however, a more reactive metal in the electrochemical series must be chosen for coating, especially when chipping of the coating is expected. Water and the two form an electrochemical cell, and if the coating is less reactive than the coatee. Metals in general have high conductivity, high thermal conductivity. Typically they are malleable and ductile, deforming under stress without cleaving, in terms of optical properties, metals are shiny and lustrous. Sheets of metal beyond a few micrometres in thickness appear opaque, although most metals have higher densities than most nonmetals, there is wide variation in their densities, lithium being the least dense solid element and osmium the densest
5.
Aluminum
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Aluminium or aluminum is a chemical element in the boron group with symbol Al and atomic number 13. It is a silvery-white, soft, nonmagnetic, ductile metal, Aluminium metal is so chemically reactive that native specimens are rare and limited to extreme reducing environments. Instead, it is combined in over 270 different minerals. The chief ore of aluminium is bauxite, Aluminium is remarkable for the metals low density and its ability to resist corrosion through the phenomenon of passivation. Aluminium and its alloys are vital to the industry and important in transportation and structures, such as building facades. The oxides and sulfates are the most useful compounds of aluminium, despite its prevalence in the environment, no known form of life uses aluminium salts metabolically, but aluminium is well tolerated by plants and animals. Because of these salts abundance, the potential for a role for them is of continuing interest. Aluminium is a soft, durable, lightweight, ductile. It is nonmagnetic and does not easily ignite, a fresh film of aluminium serves as a good reflector of visible light and an excellent reflector of medium and far infrared radiation. The yield strength of aluminium is 7–11 MPa, while aluminium alloys have yield strengths ranging from 200 MPa to 600 MPa. Aluminium has about one-third the density and stiffness of steel and it is easily machined, cast, drawn and extruded. Aluminium atoms are arranged in a cubic structure. Aluminium has an energy of approximately 200 mJ/m2. Aluminium is a thermal and electrical conductor, having 59% the conductivity of copper. Aluminium is capable of superconductivity, with a critical temperature of 1.2 kelvin. Aluminium is the most common material for the fabrication of superconducting qubits, the strongest aluminium alloys are less corrosion resistant due to galvanic reactions with alloyed copper. This corrosion resistance is reduced by aqueous salts, particularly in the presence of dissimilar metals. In highly acidic solutions, aluminium reacts with water to form hydrogen, primarily because it is corroded by dissolved chlorides, such as common sodium chloride, household plumbing is never made from aluminium
6.
Brass
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Brass is a metal alloy made of copper and zinc, the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties. It is an alloy, atoms of the two constituents may replace each other within the same crystal structure. By comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin, however, bronze and brass may also include small proportions of a range of other elements including arsenic, phosphorus, aluminium, manganese, and silicon. The term is applied to a variety of brasses. Modern practice in museums and archaeology increasingly avoids both terms for objects in favour of the all-embracing copper alloy. It is also used in zippers, Brass is often used in situations in which it is important that sparks not be struck, such as in fittings and tools used near flammable or explosive materials. Brass has higher malleability than bronze or zinc, the relatively low melting point of brass and its flow characteristics make it a relatively easy material to cast. By varying the proportions of copper and zinc, the properties of the brass can be changed, allowing hard, the density of brass is 8.4 to 8.73 grams per cubic centimetre. Today, almost 90% of all alloys are recycled. Because brass is not ferromagnetic, it can be separated from ferrous scrap by passing the scrap near a powerful magnet, Brass scrap is collected and transported to the foundry where it is melted and recast into billets. Billets are heated and extruded into the form and size. The general softness of brass means that it can often be machined without the use of cutting fluid, aluminium makes brass stronger and more corrosion-resistant. Aluminium also causes a highly beneficial hard layer of oxide to be formed on the surface that is thin, transparent. Tin has an effect and finds its use especially in seawater applications. Combinations of iron, aluminium, silicon and manganese make brass wear and tear resistant, to enhance the machinability of brass, lead is often added in concentrations of around 2%. Since lead has a melting point than the other constituents of the brass. The pattern the globules form on the surface of the brass increases the available surface area which in turn affects the degree of leaching. In addition, cutting operations can smear the lead globules over the surface and these effects can lead to significant lead leaching from brasses of comparatively low lead content
7.
Bronze
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These additions produce a range of alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties, such as stiffness, ductility, or machinability. The archeological period where bronze was the hardest metal in use is known as the Bronze Age. In the ancient Near East this began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, with India and China starting to use bronze around the same time, everywhere it gradually spread across regions. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age starting from about 1300 BC and reaching most of Eurasia by about 500 BC, the discovery of bronze enabled people to create metal objects which were harder and more durable than previously possible. Bronze tools, weapons, armor, and building such as decorative tiles were harder and more durable than their stone. It was only later that tin was used, becoming the major ingredient of bronze in the late 3rd millennium BC. Tin bronze was superior to arsenic bronze in that the process could be more easily controlled. Also, unlike arsenic, metallic tin and fumes from tin refining are not toxic, the earliest tin-alloy bronze dates to 4500 BCE in a Vinča culture site in Pločnik. Other early examples date to the late 4th millennium BC in Africa, Susa and some ancient sites in China, Luristan, ores of copper and the far rarer tin are not often found together, so serious bronze work has always involved trade. Tin sources and trade in ancient times had a influence on the development of cultures. In Europe, a source of tin was the British deposits of ore in Cornwall. In many parts of the world, large hoards of bronze artefacts are found, suggesting that bronze also represented a store of value, in Europe, large hoards of bronze tools, typically socketed axes, are found, which mostly show no signs of wear. With Chinese ritual bronzes, which are documented in the inscriptions they carry and from other sources and these were made in enormous quantities for elite burials, and also used by the living for ritual offerings. Pure iron is soft, and the process of beating and folding sponge iron to wrought iron removes from the metal carbon. Careful control of the alloying and tempering eventually allowed for wrought iron with properties comparable to modern steel, Bronze was still used during the Iron Age, and has continued in use for many purposes to the modern day. Among other advantages, it does not rust, the weaker wrought iron was found to be sufficiently strong for many uses. Archaeologists suspect that a disruption of the tin trade precipitated the transition. The population migrations around 1200–1100 BC reduced the shipping of tin around the Mediterranean, limiting supplies, there are many different bronze alloys, but typically modern bronze is 88% copper and 12% tin
8.
Stainless steel
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In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French inoxydable, is a steel alloy with a minimum of 10. 5% chromium content by mass. Stainless steel is notable for its resistance, and it is widely used for food handling. Stainless steel does not readily corrode, rust or stain with water as ordinary steel does, however, it is not fully stain-proof in low-oxygen, high-salinity, or poor air-circulation environments. There are various grades and surface finishes of stainless steel to suit the environment the alloy must endure, Stainless steel is used where both the properties of steel and corrosion resistance are required. Stainless steel differs from carbon steel by the amount of chromium present, unprotected carbon steel rusts readily when exposed to air and moisture. This iron oxide film is active and accelerates corrosion by making it easier for more iron oxide to form, since iron oxide has lower density than steel, the film expands and tends to flake and fall away. In comparison, stainless steels contain sufficient chromium to undergo passivation and this layer prevents further corrosion by blocking oxygen diffusion to the steel surface and stops corrosion from spreading into the bulk of the metal. Passivation occurs only if the proportion of chromium is high enough, Stainless steel’s resistance to corrosion and staining, low maintenance, and familiar lustre make it an ideal material for many applications. Storage tanks and tankers used to transport orange juice and other food are made of stainless steel. This also influences its use in kitchens and food processing plants, as it can be steam-cleaned and sterilized. High oxidation resistance in air at ambient temperature is achieved with addition of a minimum of 13% chromium. The chromium forms a layer of chromium oxide when exposed to oxygen. The layer is too thin to be visible, and the metal remains lustrous, the layer is impervious to water and air, protecting the metal beneath, and this layer quickly reforms when the surface is scratched. This phenomenon is called passivation and is seen in other metals, corrosion resistance can be adversely affected if the component is used in a non-oxygenated environment, a typical example being underwater keel bolts buried in timber. When stainless steel parts such as nuts and bolts are forced together, when forcibly disassembled, the welded material may be torn and pitted, a destructive effect known as galling. Galling can be avoided by the use of materials for the parts forced together, for example bronze and stainless steel. However, two different alloys electrically connected in a humid, even mildly acidic environment may act as a voltaic pile, nitronic alloys, made by selective alloying with manganese and nitrogen, may have a reduced tendency to gall. Additionally, threaded joints may be lubricated to provide a film between the two parts and prevent galling, low-temperature carburizing is another option that virtually eliminates galling and allows the use of similar materials without the risk of corrosion and the need for lubrication
9.
Wood
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Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees, and other woody plants. It is a material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers which are strong in tension embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression. Wood is sometimes defined as only the secondary xylem in the stems of trees, in a living tree it performs a support function, enabling woody plants to grow large or to stand up by themselves. It also conveys water and nutrients between the leaves, other growing tissues, and the roots, Wood may also refer to other plant materials with comparable properties, and to material engineered from wood, or wood chips or fiber. In 2005, the stock of forests worldwide was about 434 billion cubic meters. As an abundant, carbon-neutral renewable resource, woody materials have been of intense interest as a source of renewable energy, in 1991 approximately 3.5 billion cubic meters of wood were harvested. Dominant uses were for furniture and building construction, a 2011 discovery in the Canadian province of New Brunswick discovered the earliest known plants to have grown wood, approximately 395 to 400 million years ago. Wood can be dated by carbon dating and in species by dendrochronology to make inferences about when a wooden object was created. People have used wood for millennia for many purposes, primarily as a fuel or as a material for making houses, tools, weapons, furniture, packaging, artworks. Constructions using wood date back ten thousand years, buildings like the European Neolithic long house were made primarily of wood. Recent use of wood has changed by the addition of steel. The year-to-year variation in tree-ring widths and isotopic abundances gives clues to the climate at that time. This process is known as growth, it is the result of cell division in the vascular cambium, a lateral meristem. These cells then go on to form thickened secondary cell walls, composed mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose, if the distinctiveness between seasons is annual, these growth rings are referred to as annual rings. Where there is little seasonal difference growth rings are likely to be indistinct or absent, if the bark of the tree has been removed in a particular area, the rings will likely be deformed as the plant overgrows the scar. It is usually lighter in color than that near the portion of the ring. The outer portion formed later in the season is known as the latewood or summerwood. However, there are differences, depending on the kind of wood
10.
Dry rot
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Dry rot is wood decay caused by certain species of fungi that digest parts of the wood which give the wood strength and stiffness. It was previously used to describe any decay of cured wood in ships, the life-cycle of dry rot can be broken down into four main stages. Dry rot begins as a spore which, in high enough concentrations. If the spores are subjected to sufficient moisture they will begin to grow fine white strands known as hyphae, as the hyphae germinate they will eventually form a large mass known as mycelium. The final stage is a body which pumps new spores out into the surrounding air. In other fields, the term has been applied to the decay of crop plants by fungi, Dry rot is the term given to brown rot decay caused by certain fungi that deteriorate timber in buildings and other wooden construction without an apparent source of moisture. The term is a misnomer because all wood decaying fungi need a minimum amount of moisture before decay begins, the decayed wood takes on a dark or browner crumbly appearance, with cubical like cracking or checking, that becomes brittle and can eventually crush the wood into powder. Chemically, wood attacked by dry rot fungi is decayed by the process as other brown rot fungi. An outbreak of dry rot within a building can be a serious infestation that is hard to eradicate. Significant decay can cause instability and cause the structure to collapse, however, there has been no published experimental evidence to support the phenomena. Both species of fungi cause brown rot decay, preferentially removing cellulose and hemicellulose from the timber leaving a matrix of modified lignin. The term dry rot is somewhat misleading, as species of fungi Serpula lacrymans and Meruliporia incrassata require an elevated moisture content to initiate an attack on timber. Once established, the fungi can remain active in timber with a content of more than 20%. At relative humidities below 86 percent, growth of Serpula lacrymans is inhibited and these relative humidities correspond to equilibrium moisture contents of wood of 19 and 15 percent, respectively. An explanation of the dry rot circles around boatyards periodically. In the age of ships, boats were sometimes hauled for the winter. The boats already had some amount of rot occurring in the wood members, as the wood dried out, the cell walls would crumble. Some have suggested the importance of these fungi providing their own source of nutrients as being more significant than providing a source of moisture
11.
Teak
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Teak is a tropical hardwood tree species placed in the flowering plant family Lamiaceae. Tectona grandis is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests and it has small, fragrant white flowers and large papery leaves that are often hairy on the lower surface. It is sometimes known as the Burmese teak, Teak wood has a leather-like smell when it is freshly milled. It is particularly valued for its durability and water resistance, and is used for building, exterior construction, veneer, furniture, carving, turnings. Myanmars teak forests account for half of the worlds naturally occurring teak. Molecular studies show there are two centres of genetic origin of teak, one in India and the other in Myanmar. CP teak is a description of teak from the states of India. Nagpur teak is another regional Indian teak and it produces small, white flowers arranged in dense clusters at the end of the branches. Flowers contain both types of reproductive organs The word teak comes from, Tamil tekku, Malayalam word thekku, the plant is known as Thekka in Sinhala by Sri Lankan people. Teak is a large, deciduous tree up to 40 m tall with gray to grayish brown branches, leaves are ovate-elliptic to ovate, 15–45 cm long by 8–23 cm wide, and are held on robust petioles that are 2–4 cm long. Fragrant white flowers are borne on 25–40 cm long by 30 cm wide panicles from June to August, the corolla tube is 2. 5–3 mm long with 2 mm wide obtuse lobes. Tectona grandis sets fruit from September to December, fruits are globose and 1. 2-1.8 cm in diameter, flowers are weakly protandrous in that the anthers precede the stigma in maturity and pollen is shed within a few hours of the flower opening. The flowers are entomophilous, but can occasionally be anemophilous. A1996 study found that in its range in Thailand. Heartwood is brownish red in colour, sometimes there are dark patches on it. There is a scent in newly cut wood. Sapwood is whitish to yellowish brown in colour. It can easily separate from heartwood, wood texture is hard and ring porous
12.
Decorative arts
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The decorative arts are arts or crafts concerned with the design and manufacture of beautiful objects that are also functional. It includes interior design, but not usually architecture, the decorative arts are often categorized in opposition to the fine arts, namely, painting, drawing, photography, and large-scale sculpture, which generally have no function other than to be seen. The distinction between the decorative and the arts has essentially arisen from the post-Renaissance art of the West. This distinction is less meaningful when considering the art of other cultures and periods. For example, Islamic art in many periods and places consists entirely of the arts, often using geometric and plant forms. The distinction between decorative and fine arts is not very useful for appreciating Chinese art, and neither is it for understanding Early Medieval art in Europe, large-scale wall-paintings were much less regarded, crudely executed, and rarely mentioned in contemporary sources. They were probably seen as a substitute for mosaic, which for this period must be viewed as a fine art. The term ars sacra is sometimes used for medieval Christian art done in metal, ivory, textiles, illuminated manuscripts have a much higher survival rate, especially in the hands of the church, as there was little value in the materials and they were easy to store. Most European art during the Middle Ages had been produced under a different set of values. The lower status given to works of art in contrast to fine art narrowed with the rise of the Arts and Crafts Movement. This aesthetic movement of the half of the 19th century was born in England and inspired by William Morris. The movement represented the beginning of an appreciation of the decorative arts throughout Europe. Many converts, both professional artists ranks and from among the intellectual class as a whole, helped spread the ideas of the movement. The influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement led to the arts being given a greater appreciation and status in society. Until the enactment of the Copyright Act 1911 only works of art had been protected from unauthorised copying. The 1911 Act extended the definition of a work to include works of artistic craftsmanship
13.
Cut flower
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Cut flowers are flowers or flower buds that have been cut from the plant bearing it. It is usually removed from the plant for indoor decorative use, typical uses are in vase displays, wreaths and garlands. Many gardeners harvest their own cut flowers from gardens, but there is a significant commercial market. The plants cropped vary by climate, culture and the level of wealth locally, often the plants are raised specifically for the purpose, in field or glasshouse growing conditions. Cut flowers can also be harvested from the wild, the cultivation and practices of raising cut flowers form a part of horticulture. They are often included in that branch of horticulture called floriculture, a common use is for floristry, usually for decoration inside a house or building. Typically the cut flowers are placed in a vase, a number of similar types of decorations are used, especially in larger buildings and at events such as weddings. These are often decorated with additional foliage, in some cultures, a major use of cut flowers is for worship, this can be seen especially in south and southeast Asia. Sometimes the flowers are picked rather than cut, without any significant leaf or stem, such flowers may be used for wearing in hair, or in a button-hole. Masses of flowers may be used for sprinkling, in a way to confetti. Garlands, and wreaths are major derived and value added products, live cut flowers have a limited life. The majority of cut flowers can be expected to last several days with proper care and this generally requires standing them in water in shade. They can be treated in ways to increase their life. In most countries, cut flowers are a crop, because of their limited life after harvest they have to be marketed quickly. In India, much of the product has a life of only a day. Among these are marigold flowers for garlands and temples, which are harvested before dawn. There is also a market for everlasting or dried flowers, which species such as Helichrysum bracteatum. These can have a long shelf life
14.
Carinate
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Carinate is a shape in pottery, glassware and artistic design usually applied to amphorae or vases. The shape is defined by the joining of a base to the sides of an inward sloping vessel. This design is seen in ancient cultures such as recovered in archaeological digs in such sites as the palace of Knossos in Minoan Crete, an alternative adjectival form of this design is carinated. Ten Thousand Years of Pottery, fourth edition, University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 0-8122-3554-1, Knossos fieldnotes, The Modern Antiquarian, ed. J. Cope
15.
Chinese ceramics
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Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the Palaeolithic era, Porcelain is so identified with China that it is still called china in everyday English usage. Most later Chinese ceramics, even of the finest quality, were made on an industrial scale, many of the most important kiln workshops were owned by or reserved for the Emperor, and large quantities of ceramics were exported as diplomatic gifts or for trade from an early date. The earliest Chinese pottery was earthenware, which continued in production for utilitarian uses throughout Chinese history, but was increasingly less used for fine wares. Porcelain, on a Western definition, is a term comprising all ceramic ware that is white and translucent. The Chinese tradition recognizes two categories of ceramics, high-fired and low-fired, so doing without stoneware, which in Chinese tradition is mostly grouped with porcelain. Terms such as porcellaneous or near-porcelain may be used for stonewares with porcelain-like characteristics, the Erya defined porcelain as fine, compact pottery. Chinese pottery can also classified as being either northern or southern, the kiln types were also different. Southern materials have high silica, low alumina and high potassium oxide, the northern materials are often very suitable for stoneware, while in the south there are also areas highly suitable for porcelain. Chinese porcelain is made by a combination of the following materials. Porcelain stone - decomposed micaceous or feldspar rocks, historically known as petunse. Feldspar Quartz In the context of Chinese ceramics, the term lacks a universally accepted definition. This in turn has led to confusion about when the first Chinese porcelain was made, claims have been made for the late Eastern Han dynasty, the Three Kingdoms period, the Six Dynasties period, and the Tang dynasty. Chinese kiln technology has always been a key factor in the development of Chinese pottery, the Chinese developed effective kilns capable of firing at around 1, 000°C before 2000 BC. These were updraft kilns, often built below ground, two main types of kiln were developed by about 200 AD and remained in use until modern times. Both could reliably produce the temperatures of up to 1300°C or more needed for porcelain, in the late Ming, the egg-shaped kiln or zhenyao was developed at Jingdezhen, but mainly used there. This was something of a compromise between the types, and offered locations in the firing chamber with a range of firing conditions. According to Science, pottery dating from 20,000 years ago were found at the Xianrendong Cave site
16.
Native American pottery
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Native American pottery is an art form with at least a 7500-year history in the Americas. Pottery is fired ceramics with clay as a component, due to their resilience, ceramics have been key to learning more about Precolumbian indigenous cultures. The clay body is a component of pottery. Clay must be mined and purified in a laborious process. Different tribes have different processes for processing clay, which can include drying in the sun, soaking in water for days, in preparing the clay, potters spend hours wedging it to remove air pockets and humidity that could easily cause it to explode during firing. The clay then needs to cure over time, coiling is the most common means of shaping ceramics in the Americas. In coiling, the clay is rolled into a long, thin strands that are coiled upon each other to build up the shape of the pottery, potters wheels were not used prior to European contact and are only used today by a limited number of Native American artists. Pinch pots and other small objects could be formed directly by hand. In precontact South America, ceramics were mass-produced using molds, slip is a liquid clay suspension of mineral pigments applied to the ceramics before firing. Slips are typically red, buff, white, and black, however and they also used a hand-rotated turntable that allowed all sides of a ceramic piece to be painted with ease. These were first used in 500 BCE and continue to be used today, slips can be applied overall in washes, creating large color fields, often with cloth, or they can be painted in fine detail with brushes. Yucca leaves, chewed slightly to loosen fibers, make excellent brushes that are still in use today in the American Southwest, in the firing process the resists melts away, leaving the colored design. While still green, pottery can be incised with designs, cords, textiles, baskets, and corncobs have been rolled over wet clay, both as a decoration and to improve heat dispersion in cooking pots. Carved wood or ceramic stamping paddles are used throughout the Southeastern Woodlands to create repeating designs, clay can also be added to the main ceramic structure to build up designs. Before firing, ceramics can be burnished or polished to a sheen with a smooth instrument. Glazes are seldom used by indigenous American ceramic artists, grease can be rubbed onto the pot as well. Prior to contact, pottery was usually open-air fired or pit fired, precontact Indigenous peoples of Mexico, today many Native American ceramic artists use kilns. Finally, the surface is often polished with smooth stones
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Pottery of ancient Greece
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The shards of pots discarded or buried in the 1st millennium BC are still the best guide available to understand the customary life and mind of the ancient Greeks. There were various specific regional varieties, such as the South Italian ancient Greek pottery, throughout these places, various types and shapes of vases were used. Some were highly decorative and meant for consumption and domestic beautification as much as serving a storage or other function. As the culture recovered Sub-Mycenaean pottery finally blended into the Protogeometric style, the rise of vase painting saw increasing decoration. Geometric art in Greek pottery was contiguous with the late Dark Age and early Archaic Greece, the pottery produced in Archaic and Classical Greece included at first black-figure pottery, yet other styles emerged such as red-figure pottery and the white ground technique. Styles such as West Slope Ware were characteristic of the subsequent Hellenistic period, interest in Greek art lagged behind the revival of classical scholarship during the Renaissance and revived in the academic circle round Nicholas Poussin in Rome in the 1630s. Though modest collections of vases recovered from ancient tombs in Italy were made in the 15th and 16th centuries these were regarded as Etruscan. It is possible that Lorenzo de Medici bought several Attic vases directly from Greece and it was Gerhard who first outlined the chronology we now use, namely, Orientalizing, Black Figure, Red Figure, Polychromatic. Where the 19th century was a period of discovery and the out of first principles the 20th century has been one of consolidation. Efforts to record and publish the totality of public collections of vases began with the creation of the Corpus vasorum antiquorum under Edmond Pottier, Beazley and others following him have also studied fragments of Greek pottery in institutional collections, and have attributed many painted pieces to individual artists. Scholars have called these fragments disjecta membra and in a number of instances have been able to identify fragments now in different collections that belong to the same vase, some vase shapes were especially associated with rituals, others with athletics and the gymnasium. Within each category the forms are roughly the same in scale and whether open or closed, some have a purely ritual function, for example white ground lekythoi contained the oil used as funerary offerings and appear to have been made solely with that object in mind. Many examples have a second cup inside them to give the impression of being full of oil. There was a market for Greek pottery since the 8th century BC. An idea of the extent of trade can be gleaned from plotting the find maps of these vases outside of Greece. Only the existence of a second hand market could account for the number of found in Etruscan tombs. South Italian wares came to dominate the trade in the Western Mediterranean as Athens declined in political importance during the Hellenistic period. The process of making a pot and firing it is fairly simple, the first thing a potter needs is clay
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Greek mythology
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It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece. Greek mythology is explicitly embodied in a collection of narratives. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines. These accounts initially were disseminated in a tradition, today the Greek myths are known primarily from ancient Greek literature. The oldest known Greek literary sources, Homers epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on the Trojan War, archaeological findings provide a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featured prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles, in the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence. Greek mythology has had an influence on the culture, arts. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes, Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric period from c. Mythical narration plays an important role in every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus and this work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Apollodorus of Athens lived from c, 180–125 BC and wrote on many of these topics. His writings may have formed the basis for the collection, however the Library discusses events that occurred long after his death, among the earliest literary sources are Homers two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the cycle, but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the Homeric Hymns have no connection with Homer. They are choral hymns from the part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiods Works and Days, a poem about farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus, Pandora. The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, lyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar, Bacchylides and Simonides, and bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama
19.
Grayson Perry
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Grayson Perry CBE RA is an English artist, known mainly for his ceramic vases and cross-dressing. Perrys vases have classical forms and are decorated in bright colours, there is a strong autobiographical element in his work, in which images of Perry as Claire, his female alter-ego, often appear. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 2003, in 2008 Perry was ranked number 32 in The Telegraphs list of the 100 most powerful people in British culture. In 2012, Perry was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles Sgt, peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life. Grayson Perry was born in Chelmsford, when he was seven, his father left the family. Perry describes his fathers departure as the event that had the largest impact on him in his life. He subsequently lived at Bicknacre, Essex, with his mother, his stepfather, in his childhood Perry took an interest in drawing and building model aeroplanes, both of which were to become themes in his work. He was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Perry took interest in conventional boys activities, such as model aircraft, motorcycles and girls. He was in the schools Combined Cadet Corps and wanted to train as an army officer, in the late 1970s he was involved in the Chelmsford punk scene. Perry describes his first sexual experience at the age of seven when he tied himself up in his pyjamas, from an early age he liked to dress in womens clothes and in his teens realized that he was a transvestite. At the age of 15 he moved in with his fathers family in Chelmsford, when he was discovered by his father he said he would stop, but his stepmother told everyone about it and a few months later threw him out. He returned to his mother and stepfather at Great Bardfield, at this time he decided not to join the army and, following the encouragement of his art teacher, decided to study art. He did an art course at Braintree College of Further Education from 1978 to 1979. He studied for a BA in fine art at Portsmouth Polytechnic and he had an interest in film and exhibited his first piece of pottery at the New Contemporaries show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1980. They put on events at galleries and other venues, when he left for Portsmouth in 1979, his stepfather told him not to return home. Perry has been estranged from his mother since 1990 and he lives in London with his wife, the author and psychotherapist Philippa Perry. They have one daughter, Florence, born in 1992, in 2015 he was appointed to succeed Kwame Kwei-Armah as chancellor of University of the Arts London. Perry is also a mountain biker
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Turner Prize
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The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain, since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the UKs most publicised art award. As of 2004, the award was established at £40,000. There have been different sponsors, including Channel 4 television and Gordons Gin, a prominent event in British culture, the prize has been awarded by various distinguished celebrities, in 2006 this was Yoko Ono, and in 2012 it was presented by Jude Law. The prize was named after Turner because while he is now considered one of the countrys greatest artist, while he was active his work was controversial. While he is now looked at as a traditionalist, his new approach to landscape painting changed the course of art history, each year after the announcement of the four nominees and during the build-up to the announcement of the winner, the Prize receives intense attention from the media. Much of this attention is critical and the question is often asked, artists are chosen based upon a showing of their work that they have staged in the preceding year. Nominations for the prize are invited from the public, although this was considered to have negligible effect—a suspicion confirmed in 2006 by Lynn Barber. The exhibition remains on view until January, the prize is officially not judged on the Tate show, however, but on the earlier exhibition for which the artist was nominated. The exhibition and prize rely on commercial sponsorship, by 1987, money for the prize was provided by Drexel Burnham Lambert, its withdrawal after its demise led to the cancellation of the prize for 1990. Channel 4, an independent television channel, stepped in for 1991, doubling the money to £20,000. In 2004, they were replaced as sponsors by Gordons Gin, doubling the money to £40,000, with £5,000 going to each of the shortlisted artists. Tate Director Sir Nicholas Serota has been the Chair of the jury since his tenure at the Tate, there are conflicting reports as to how much personal sway he has over the proceedings. Most of the artists nominated for the prize selection become known to the public for the first time as a consequence. Some have talked of the difficulty of the media exposure. Sale prices of the winners have generally increased, Chris Ofili, Anish Kapoor and Jeremy Deller later became trustees of the Tate. Some artists, notably Sarah Lucas, have declined the invitation to be nominated, the first Turner Prize was awarded to Malcolm Morley, an English artist living in the United States. Other nominees included sculptor Richard Deacon, graphic-styled collaborative duo Gilbert & George, abstract painter Howard Hodgkin, Howard Hodgkin is awarded the Turner Prize for A Small Thing But My Own
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Pottery
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Pottery is the craft of making ceramic material into pots or potterywares using mud. Major types of potterywares include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain, the place where such wares are made by a potter is also called a pottery. Early Neolithic pottery have found in places such as Jomon Japan. A clay body can be decorated before or after firing, however, prior to shaping processes. Kneading helps to ensure an even moisture content throughout the body, air trapped within the clay body needs to be removed. This is called de-airing and can be accomplished either by a called a vacuum pug or manually by wedging. Wedging can also produce an even moisture content. Once a clay body has been kneaded and de-aired or wedged, after shaping, it is dried and then fired. Clay ware takes on varying physical characteristics during the making of pottery, at sufficient moisture content, bodies at this stage are in their most plastic form. Leather-hard refers to a body that has been dried partially. At this stage the clay object has approximately 15% moisture content, clay bodies at this stage are very firm and only slightly pliable. Trimming and handle attachment often occurs at the leather-hard state, bone-dry refers to clay bodies when they reach a moisture content at or near 0%. It is now ready to be bisque fired, bisque refers to the clay after the object is shaped to the desired form and fired in the kiln for the first time, known as bisque fired or biscuit fired. This firing changes the body in several ways. Mineral components of the body will undergo chemical changes that will change the colour of the clay. Glaze fired is the stage of some pottery making. A glaze may be applied to the form and the object can be decorated in several ways. After this the object is glazed fired, which causes the material to melt
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Coiling (pottery)
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Coiling is a method of creating pottery. It has been used to shape clay into vessels for many thousands of years and it ranges from Africa to Greece and from China to New Mexico. They have used this method in a variety of ways, using the coiling technique, it is possible to build thicker or taller walled vessels, which may not have been possible using earlier methods. There are many ways to build ceramic objects using the coiling technique, to do this, the potter takes a pliable material then rolls it until it forms a long roll. Then, by placing one coil on top of another, different shapes can be formed, one of the methods used in terra-cotta sculpture, the clay is rolled into cylindrical strips about the size of an ordinary pencil and wound up to create the desired shape
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Potter's wheel
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In pottery, a potters wheel is a machine used in the shaping of round ceramic ware. The wheel may also be used during the process of trimming the excess body from dried ware, use of the potters wheel became widespread throughout the Old World but was unknown in the Pre-Columbian New World, where pottery was handmade by methods that included coiling and beating. A potters wheel may occasionally be referred to as a potters lathe, however, that term is better used for another kind of machine that is used for a different shaping process, turning, similar to that used for shaping of metal and wooden articles. The jigger tool shapes one face, the mould the other, the term is specific to the shaping of flat ware, such as plates, whilst a similar technique, jolleying, refers to the production of hollow ware, such as cups. Much early ceramic ware was hand-built using a coiling technique in which clay was rolled into long threads that were then pinched. In the coiling method of construction, all the required to form the main part of a piece is supplied indirectly by the hands of the potter. Early ceramics built by coiling were often placed on mats or large leaves to allow them to be worked more conveniently, the evidence of this lies in mat or leaf impressions left in the clay of the base of the pot. This arrangement allowed the potter to rotate the vessel during construction, the earliest forms of the potters wheel were probably developed as an extension to this procedure. Tournettes, in use around 4500 BC in the Near East, were turned slowly by hand or by foot while coiling a pot, only a small range of vessels were fashioned on the tournette, suggesting that it was used by a limited number of potters. The introduction of the wheel increased the efficiency of hand-powered pottery production. In the mid to late 3rd millennium BC the fast wheel was developed and it utilised energy stored in the rotating mass of the heavy stone wheel itself to speed the process. This wheel was wound up and charged with energy by kicking, or pushing it around with a stick, providing a centrifugal force. The fast wheel enabled a new process of pottery-making to develop, called throwing, in which a lump of clay was placed centrally on the wheel, potters could now produce many more pots per hour, a first step towards industrialization. Many modern scholars suggest that the first potters wheel was first developed in Mesopotamia, however, southeastern Europe and China have also been claimed as possible places of origin. Furthermore, the wheel was also in use by potters starting around 3500 BC in major cities of the Indus Valley civilization in South Asia, namely Harappa. Others consider Egypt as being the place of origin of the potters wheel and it was here that the turntable shaft was lengthened about 3000 BC and a flywheel added. The flywheel was kicked and later was moved by pulling the edge with the hand while forming the clay with the right. This led to the motion for the potters wheel which is almost universal
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Mesopotamia
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In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. The Sumerians and Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of history to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthian Empire. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control. In AD226, eastern part of it fell to the Sassanid Persians, division of Mesopotamia between Roman and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and Muslim conquest of the Levant from Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος middle and ποταμός river and it is used throughout the Greek Septuagint to translate the Hebrew equivalent Naharaim. In the Anabasis, Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria, the Aramaic term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept. The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia. A further distinction is made between Northern or Upper Mesopotamia and Southern or Lower Mesopotamia. Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jazira, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf and includes Kuwait and parts of western Iran. In modern academic usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation and it is usually used to designate the area until the Muslim conquests, with names like Syria, Jazirah, and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date. It has been argued that these later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments, Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the Armenian Highlands. Both rivers are fed by tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 15,000 square kilometres region of marshes, lagoons, mud flats, in the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf. In the marshlands to the south of the area, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since prehistoric times, periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to periods of trade collapse and these trends have continued to the present day in Iraq
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New World
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The New World is one of the names used for the Earths Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas. The term was coined by Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci, the Americas were also referred to as the fourth part of the world. New World are meaningful in historical context and for the purpose of distinguishing the worlds major ecozones, and to classify plant and animal species that originated therein. One can speak of the New World in a context, e. g. when discussing the voyages of Christopher Columbus. For lack of alternatives, the term is still useful to those discussing issues that concern the Americas. The term New World is used in a context, when one speaks of Old World. Biological taxonomists often attach the New World label to groups of species that are exclusively in the Americas, to distinguish them from their counterparts in the Old World. New World monkeys, New World vultures, New World warblers, the label is also often used in agriculture. Common Old World crops, and domesticated animals did not exist in the Americas until they were introduced by contact in the 1490s. Other famous New World crops include the cashew, cocoa, rubber, sunflower, tobacco, and vanilla, there are rare instances of overlap, e. g. In wine terminology, New World has a different definition, Vespucci was finally convinced when he proceeded on his mapping expedition through 1501-02, covering the huge stretch of coast of eastern Brazil. But this opinion is false, and entirely opposed to the truth, Vespuccis letter was a publishing sensation in Europe, immediately reprinted in several other countries. The Venetian explorer Alvise Cadamosto had used the term un altro mundo to refer to sub-Saharan Africa, however, this was merely a literary flourish, not a suggestion of a new fourth part of the world. Cadamosto was quite aware sub-Saharan Africa was firmly part of the African continent, the Italian-born Spanish chronicler Peter Martyr dAnghiera often shares credit with Vespucci for designating the Americas as a new world. Peter Martyr used the term Orbe Novo in the title of his history of the discovery of the Americas as a whole, a year later, Peter Martyr again refers to the marvels of the New Globe and the Western hemisphere. Christopher Columbus touched the continent of South America in his 1498 third voyage, in another letter, Columbus refers to having reached a new heavens and world and that he had placed another world under the dominion of the Kings of Spain. The Vespucci passage above applied the New World label to merely the continental landmass of South America, although the proceedings of the Toro-Burgos conferences are missing, it is almost certain that Vespucci articulated his recent New World thesis to his fellow navigators there. In English usage the term New World was problematic and only accepted relatively late, while it became generally accepted after Vespucci that Columbuss discoveries were not Asia but a New World, the geographic relationship between the two continents was still unclear
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Ethnic groups in Europe
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The ethnic groups in Europe are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. The total number of minority populations in Europe is estimated at 105 million people. There is no precise or universally accepted definition of the ethnic group or nationality. There are eight peoples of Europe with more than 30 million members residing in Europe and these eight groups between themselves account for some 465 million or about 65% of European population, Russians, Germans, French, British, Italians, Spanish, Ukrainians, Poles. About 20–25 million residents are members of diasporas of non-European origin, the population of the European Union, with some five hundred million residents, accounts for two thirds of the European population. Of the total population of Europe of some 730 million, over 80% or some 600 million fall within three large branches of Indo-European languages, viz. Slavic, Italic and Germanic, the largest groups that do not fall within these three are the Greeks and the Albanians. Beside the Indo-European languages there are two major language families on the European continent, Turkic languages and Uralic languages. The Semitic languages that dominate the coast of northern Africa as well as the Near East are preserved in Malta, abkhaz–Adyghean, Basque, Kartvelian, and Nakho-Dagestani are linguistic isolates with no known relation to each other or to any other languages inside or outside of Europe. The Basques are assumed to descend from the populations of the Atlantic Bronze Age directly, the Indo-European groups of Europe are assumed to have developed in situ by admixture of early Indo-European groups arriving in Europe by the Bronze Age. The Finnic peoples are mostly assumed to be descended from populations that had migrated to their homelands by about 3,000 years ago. A group of Tyrrhenian languages appears to have included Etruscan, Rhaetian and perhaps also Eteocretan, a pre-Roman stage of Proto-Basque can only be reconstructed with great uncertainty. Regarding the European Bronze Age, the only secure reconstruction is that of Proto-Greek, a Proto-Italo-Celtic ancestor of both Italic and Celtic, and a Proto-Balto-Slavic language has been postulated with less confidence. Old European hydronymy has been taken as indicating an early Indo-European predecessor of the later centum languages, iron Age populations of Europe known from Greco-Roman historiography, notably Herodotus, Pliny, Ptolemy and Tacitus, Aegean, Greek tribes, Pelasgians/Tyrrhenians, and Anatolians. Armenian Highlands/Anatolia, Armenians Balkans, Illyrians, Dacians, and Thracians, Caucasus, Georgians Italian peninsula, Italic peoples, Etruscans, Adriatic Veneti, Ligurians and Greek colonies. Western/Central Europe, Celts, Rhaetians and Swabians, Vistula Veneti, Lugii, Iberian peninsula, Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula Basques and Phoenicians. Sardinia, ancient Sardinians, comprising the Corsi, Balares and Ilienses tribes, British Isles, Celtic tribes in Britain and Ireland and Picts/Priteni. Northern Europe, Finnic peoples, Germanic peoples, iranian influence, Achaemenid control of Thrace and the Bosporan Kingdom, Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Ossetes. The Jewish diaspora reached Europe in the Roman Empire period, the Jewish community in Italy dating to around AD70, the Bulgars, a semi-nomadic people, originally from Central Asia, eventually absorbed by the Slavs
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Plastic
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Plastic is a material consisting of any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic compounds that are malleable and can be molded into solid objects. Plastics are typically organic polymers of high mass, but they often contain other substances. They are usually synthetic, most commonly derived from petrochemicals, due to their relatively low cost, ease of manufacture, versatility, and imperviousness to water, plastics are used in an enormous and expanding range of products, from paper clips to spaceships. They have already displaced many traditional materials, such as wood, stone, horn and bone, leather, paper, metal, glass, and ceramic, in most of their former uses. In developed countries, about a third of plastic is used in packaging, other uses include automobiles, furniture, and toys. In the developing world, the ratios may be different - for example, the worlds first fully synthetic plastic was bakelite, invented in New York in 1907 by Leo Baekeland who coined the term plastics. Toward the end of the century, one approach to this problem was met with wide efforts toward recycling, the word plastic is derived from the Greek πλαστικός meaning capable of being shaped or molded, from πλαστός meaning molded. The common word plastic should not be confused with the technical adjective plastic, used for insulating parts in electrical fixtures, paper laminated products, thermally insulation foams. Problems include the probability of moldings naturally being dark colors, One of the most expensive commercial polymers. It forms the basis of artistic and commercial acrylic paints when suspended in water with the use of other agents, polytetrafluoroethylene – Heat-resistant, low-friction coatings, used in things like non-stick surfaces for frying pans, plumbers tape and water slides. It is more known as Teflon. Urea-formaldehyde – One of the aminoplasts and used as an alternative to phenolics. Used as an adhesive and electrical switch housings. Early plastics were bio-derived materials such as egg and blood proteins, in 1600 BC, Mesoamericans used natural rubber for balls, bands, and figurines. Treated cattle horns were used as windows for lanterns in the Middle Ages, materials that mimicked the properties of horns were developed by treating milk-proteins with lye. In the 1800s, as industrial chemistry developed during the Industrial Revolution, the development of plastics also accelerated with Charles Goodyears discovery of vulcanization to thermoset materials derived from natural rubber. Parkesine is considered the first man-made plastic, the plastic material was patented by Alexander Parkes, In Birmingham, UK in 1856. It was unveiled at the 1862 Great International Exhibition in London, parkesine won a bronze medal at the 1862 Worlds fair in London
28.
Torlonia Vase
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The vase is of calyx krater shape, with a high frieze carved with a Bacchic symposium and an everted rim, standing on a gadrooned base imitative of metalwork. It has three handles, joined to the body with bearded satyrs masks and it stands on three lions legs, and a triangular base, all provided for it in the 16th century. For centuries, until the discovery of the Tazza Albani, it was the largest in diameter of known antique vases. The whereabouts of the vase can be traced through the interest it incited in artists, starting in the 16th century, amico Aspertini also made a drawing of the vase, but giving a location a santo francesco in tristeuaro. A statue of Silenus emptying water from a wineskin into the vase, the Flemish artist Pieter Perret created an engraving of the Fountain with Silenus in the Garden of the Cesi Palace in 1581. Luca Leoncini suggests the possibility that the vase had been in the Palazzo del Drago alle Quattro Fontane, which Albani purchased from the heirs of Cardinal Camillo Massimi, with all its contents. In 1760 Albani moved it to his newly built Villa Albani, when the Albani collection was eventually inherited by the Castelbarco family, the vase was resited in the villas casina. In 1869 Prince Alessandro Torlonia, having inherited the collection, moved the vase to his private museum, a comparable neo-Attic marble vase was unearthed in fragmented condition near the Ospedale Santo Spirito, on the Lungotevere in Sassia, Rome, in 1929. It is conserved in the Museo Nazionale Romano
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Medici Vase
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The Medici Vase is a monumental marble bell-shaped krater sculpted in Athens in the second half of the 1st century AD as a garden ornament for the Roman market. It is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, two fluted loop handles rise from satyrs heads on either side of the acanthus-leaf carved base, and it stands on a spreading gadrooned base on a low square plinth. The vase reappeared in the 1598 inventory of the Villa Medici, Rome, transferred from the villa in 1780, it has ever since been displayed in the Uffizi Gallery, today in the first-floor Verone sull’Arno overlooking the River Arno. It was often illustrated in engravings, the most famous of which is by Stefano della Bella, he depicted the young Medici heir who would become Grand Duke Cosimo III seated, drawing the vase. Often paired as garden ornaments since the later 17th century with the similar Borghese Vase, angelica Kauffman painted the second Lord Berwick on his Grand Tour seated beside the vase. Many copies, sometimes rather loose, were made to decorate palaces or their gardens, the Medici Vase remains a popular subject for imitation in bronze or porcelain, for example by Wedgwood. Material on the many later versions of the pairing can be found at Borghese Vase. Medici lions Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny,1981, taste and the Antique, the Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-19001981, cat. Flickr, Replica of Medici Vase in Kew Gardens — photo, mallettantiques. com, 19th century copy of the Medici Vase
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Uffizi
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The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in central Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. The building of Uffizi complex was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de Medici so as to accommodate the offices of the Florentine magistrates, hence the name uffizi, the construction was later continued by Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti and completed in 1581. The niches in the piers that alternate with columns filled with sculptures of artists in the 19th century. The Uffizi brought together under one roof the administrative offices, the Tribunal and the Archivio di Stato, the state archive. He commissioned from the architect Buontalenti the design of the Tribuna degli Uffizi that collected a series of masterpieces in one room, over the years, more sections of the palace were recruited to exhibit paintings and sculpture collected or commissioned by the Medici. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, because of its huge collection, some of its works have in the past been transferred to other museums in Florence—for example, some famous statues to the Bargello. A project was finished in 2006 to expand the exhibition space some 6,000 metres² to almost 13,000 metres². On 27 May 1993, a car exploded in Via dei Georgofili and damaged parts of the palace. The most severe damage was to the Niobe room and classical sculptures and neoclassical interior, the identity of the bomber or bombers are unknown, although it was almost certainly attributable to the Sicilian Mafia who were engaged in a period of terrorism at that time. Today, the Uffizi is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Florence, in high season, waiting times can be up to five hours. In early August 2007, Florence experienced a heavy rainstorm, the Gallery was partially flooded, with water leaking through the ceiling, and the visitors had to be evacuated. There was a more significant flood in 1966 which damaged most of the art collections in Florence severely. Here is a selection from the collection, The collection also contains some ancient sculptures, such as the Arrotino. Collections of the Uffizi Official website Uffizi – Google Art Project
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Florence
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Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
32.
Amphora
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An amphora is a type of container of a characteristic shape and size, descending from at least as early as the Neolithic Period. Amphorae were used in vast numbers for the transport and storage of various products and they are most often ceramic, but examples in metals and other materials have been found. The amphora complements the large container, the pithos, which makes available capacities between one-half and two and one-half tons. In contrast, the amphora holds under a half-ton, typically less than 100 pounds, the bodies of the two types have similar shapes. Where the pithos may have small loops or lugs for fastening a rope harness. The necks of pithoi are wide for scooping or bucket access, the necks of amphorae are narrow for pouring by a person holding it by the bottom and a handle. The handles might not be present, the size may require two or three handlers to lift. For the most part, however, an amphora was tableware, or sat close to the table, was intended to be seen, stoppers of perishable materials, which have rarely survived, were used to seal the contents. Two principal types of amphorae existed, the amphora, in which the neck and body meet at a sharp angle. Neck amphorae were used in the early history of ancient Greece. Most were produced with a base to allow upright storage by embedding in soft ground. The base facilitated transport by ship, where the amphorae were packed upright or on their sides in as many as five staggered layers. If upright, the bases probably were held by some sort of rack, heather and reeds might be used as packing around the vases. Racks could be used in kitchens and shops, the base also concentrated deposits from liquids with suspended solid particles, such as olive oil and wines. Amphorae are of use to maritime archaeologists, as they often indicate the age of a shipwreck. They are occasionally so well preserved that the content is still present, providing information on foodstuffs. Amphorae were too cheap and plentiful to return to their origin-point and so, amphora is a Greco-Roman word developing in ancient Greek during the Bronze Age. The Romans acquired it during the Hellenization that occurred in the Roman Republic, cato is the first known literary person to use it
33.
Hydria
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A hydria is a type of water-carrying vessel in the and metalwork and pottery of Ancient Greece. Two horizontal handles on either side of the body of the pot were used for lifting and carrying the pot, the third handle, a vertical one, located in the center of the other two handles, was used when pouring water. If the third handle is missing, the type is called a kalpis and this water vessel can be found in both red- and black-figure technique. They often depicted scenes of Greek mythology that reflected moral and social obligations, as well as holding water hydriai could be used for holding ashes in burials and collecting ballots in elections. By the mid-5th century BC, Greek artisans were also creating hydria from bronze, a 6th-century example is in the Historisches Museum, Berne. Such vessels were known from Minoan pottery. Regina Vasorum is a famous late hydria in the Hermitage Museum, aquamanile Hydriske Galleries of Greek hydriai
34.
Krater
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A krater or crater was a large vase in Ancient Greece, particularly used for watering down wine. At a Greek symposium, kraters were placed in the center of the room and they were quite large, so they were not easily portable when filled. Thus, the mixture would be withdrawn from the krater with other vessels. In fact, Homers Odyssey describes a steward drawing wine from a krater at a banquet and then running to, the modern Greek word now used for undiluted wine, krasi, originates from the krasis of wine and water in kraters. Kraters were glazed on the interior to make the surface of the clay more impervious for holding water, at the beginning of each symposium a symposiarch, or lord of the common drink, was elected by the participants. He would then control of the wine servants, and thus of the degree of wine dilution and how it changed during the party. The krater and how it was filled and emptied was thus the centerpiece of the symposiarchs authority, an astute symposiarch should be able to diagnose the degree of inebriation of his fellow symposiasts and make sure that the symposium progressed smoothly and without drunken excess. Drinking ákratos wine was considered a faux pas in ancient Greece, enough to characterize the drinker as a drunkard and someone who lacked restraint. By using dehydrated grapes, and could withstand dilution with water better, such wines would have also withstood time and the vagaries of transportation much better. Nevertheless, the ancient writers offer scant details of ancient vinification methods and this form originated in Corinth in the seventh century BCE but was taken over by the Athenians where it is typically black-figure. They ranged in size from 35 centimetres to 56 centimetres in height and were thrown in three pieces, the body/ shoulder area was one, the base another, and the neck/ lip/ rim a third. These are among the largest of the kraters, supposedly developed by the potter Exekias in black figure though in fact almost always seen in red, the lower body is shaped like the calyx of a flower, and the foot is stepped. The psykter-shaped vase fits inside it so well stylistically that it has suggested that the two might have often been made as a set. It is always made with two robust upturned handles positioned on opposite sides of the body or cul. This type of krater, defined by volute-shaped handles, was invented in Laconia in the early 6th century BC and its production was carried on by Greeks in Apulia until the end of the 4th century BC. This strip would then have been continued downward until the bottom of the handle where the potter would have cut a U-shaped arch in the clay before attaching the handle to the body of the vase and this form looks like an inverted bell. According to most scholars ceramic kraters imitated shapes designed initially for metal vessels, these were common in antiquity, among the largest and most famous metal kraters in antiquity were one in the possession of the Samian tyrant Polycrates, and another one dedicated by Croesus to the Delphic oracle. There are a few extant Archaic bronze kraters, almost exclusively of the volute-type and their main production centres were Sparta, Argos and Corinth, in Peloponnesus
35.
Lekythos
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A lekythos is a type of Ancient Greek vessel used for storing oil, especially olive oil. It has a body and one handle attached to the neck of the vessel, and is thus a narrow type of jug, with no pouring lip. However, there are a number of varieties, and the word seems to have used even more widely in ancient times than by modern archeologists. They are normally in pottery, but there are carved stone examples. Lekythoi were especially associated with rites, and with the white ground technique of vase painting. Because of their handle they were only decorated with one image, on the other side from the handle, they are often photographed with the handle hidden. The lekythos was used for anointing dead bodies of unmarried women, the images on lekythoi were often depictions of daily activities or rituals. Because they are so used in funerary situations, they may also depict funerary rites. These drawings are usually outline drawings that are quite expressionless and somber in appearance, the decoration of these ceramic vessels consists of a dull red and black paint. These colors may have derived from the Bronze Age, but were not used until 530 BC in Athens. Many artists of these attempted to add more color to the figures, but later abandoned the idea. These vessels were very popular during the 5th century BC, however there are many that have been dating all the way back to 700 BC. They contained an oil which was offered either to the dead person or to the gods of the underworld. Some lekythoi were fitted with a small, inner chamber so that they appear full. The Lekythos was used to smear perfumed oil on a womans skin before getting married and were placed in tombs to allow the woman to prepare for a wedding in the afterlife. There are also plastic lekythoi, with bodies formed in the shape of a head, animal, or other form
36.
Oinochoe
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An oenochoe, also spelled oinochoe, is a wine jug and a key form of ancient Greek pottery. There are many different forms of oenochoe, Sir John Beazley distinguished ten types, the earliest is the olpe, with no distinct shoulder and usually a handle rising above the lip. The type 8 oenochoe is what one would call a mug, with no single pouring point, the chous was a squat rounded form, with trefoil mouth. Small examples with scenes of children, as in the illustrated, were placed in the graves of children. Oenochoai may be decorated or undecorated, oenochoai typically have only one handle at the back and may include a trefoil mouth and pouring spout. Their size also varies considerably, most, at up to 25 cm tall, could be held and poured with one hand. Most Greek oenochoe were in painted terracotta pottery but metal oenochoai were probably common among the better off, though as with other vessel shapes. Again as with other shapes, large versions in stone were used as grave markers. In pottery, some oinochoai are plastic, with the body formed as sculpture, typology of Greek vase shapes Corpus vasorum antiquorum Ancient Greek vase painting Pottery of ancient Greece Media related to Oinochoes at Wikimedia Commons
37.
Olpe (container)
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An oenochoe, also spelled oinochoe, is a wine jug and a key form of ancient Greek pottery. There are many different forms of oenochoe, Sir John Beazley distinguished ten types, the earliest is the olpe, with no distinct shoulder and usually a handle rising above the lip. The type 8 oenochoe is what one would call a mug, with no single pouring point, the chous was a squat rounded form, with trefoil mouth. Small examples with scenes of children, as in the illustrated, were placed in the graves of children. Oenochoai may be decorated or undecorated, oenochoai typically have only one handle at the back and may include a trefoil mouth and pouring spout. Their size also varies considerably, most, at up to 25 cm tall, could be held and poured with one hand. Most Greek oenochoe were in painted terracotta pottery but metal oenochoai were probably common among the better off, though as with other vessel shapes. Again as with other shapes, large versions in stone were used as grave markers. In pottery, some oinochoai are plastic, with the body formed as sculpture, typology of Greek vase shapes Corpus vasorum antiquorum Ancient Greek vase painting Pottery of ancient Greece Media related to Oinochoes at Wikimedia Commons
38.
Meiping
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A meiping is a shape of vase in Chinese ceramics. It is traditionally used to display branches of plum blossoms, the meiping was first made of stoneware during the Tang dynasty. It was originally used as a vessel, but since the Song dynasty it also became popular as a plum vase. It is tall, with a narrow base spreading gracefully into a body, followed by a sharply-rounded shoulder, a short and narrow neck. They may have lids, and many lids have no doubt been lost, the equivalent shape in Korean ceramics, where it was derived from Chinese examples, is called a Maebyeong. A distinct variant is the truncated meiping, where there is only the top half of the usual shape and this is largely restricted to Cizhou ware. A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
39.
Bottle
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A bottle is a rigid container with a neck that is narrower than the body and a mouth. By contrast, a jar has a large mouth or opening which may be as wide as the overall container. A device applied in the line to seal the mouth of a bottle is termed an external bottle cap, closure. A bottle can also be sealed by a conductive innerseal by using induction sealing, the bottle has developed over millennia of use, with some of the earliest examples appearing in China, Phoenicia, Rome and Crete. Bottles are often recycled according to the SPI recycling code for the material, some regions have a legally mandated deposit which is refunded after returning the bottle to the retailer. The glass bottle was an important development in the history of wine, because, glass has all the qualities required for long-term storage. It eventually gave rise to château bottling, the practice where a wine is put in a bottle at the source. Prior to this, wine would be sold by the barrel and put into bottles only at the merchants shop and this left a large and often abused opportunity for fraud and adulteration, as the consumer had to trust the merchant as to the contents. It is thought that most wine consumed outside of wine-producing regions had been tampered with in some way, also, not all merchants were careful to avoid oxidation or contamination while bottling, leading to large bottle variation. Particularly in the case of port, certain conscientious merchants bottling of old ports fetch higher prices even today, to avoid these problems, most fine wine is bottled at the place of production. There are many sizes and shapes of bottles used for wine, some of the known shapes, Bordeaux, This bottle is roughly straight sided with a curved shoulder that is useful for catching sediment and is also the easiest to stack. Traditionally used in Bordeaux but now worldwide, this is probably the most common type, Burgundy, Traditionally used in Burgundy, this has sides that taper down about 2/3 of the height to a short cylindrical section, and does not have a shoulder. Champagne, Traditionally used for Champagne, it is similar to a Burgundy bottle, in 1872, British soft drink maker Hiram Codd of Camberwell, London, designed and patented a bottle designed specifically for carbonated drinks. The Codd-neck bottle was designed and manufactured to enclose a marble, the bottles were filled upside down, and pressure of the gas in the bottle forced the marble against the washer, sealing in the carbonation. The bottle was pinched into a shape, as can be seen in the photo to the left. This prevented the marble from blocking the neck as the drink was poured, one etymology of the term codswallop originates from beer sold in Codd bottles, though this is generally dismissed as a folk etymology. The bottles were produced for many decades, but gradually declined in usage. Since children smashed the bottles to retrieve the marbles, they are scarce and have become collector items
40.
Gourd
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A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly Cucurbita and Lagenaria or the fruit of the two genera of Bignoniaceae calabash tree, Crescentia and Amphitecna. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, likely one of the earliest domesticated types of plants, subspecies of the bottle gourd, Lagenaria siceraria, have been discovered in archaeological sites dating from as early as 13,000 BC. Gourds have had numerous uses throughout history, including as tools, musical instruments, objects of art, film, gourd is occasionally used to describe crop plants in the family Cucurbitaceae, like pumpkins, cucumbers, squash, luffa, and melons. More specifically, gourd refers to the fruits of plants in the two Cucurbitaceae genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita, or also to their hollow, dried-out shell, a gourd can also have a hard shell when dehydrated. There are many different gourds worldwide, the main plants referred to as gourds include several species from the Cucurbita genus, Crescentia cujete and Lagenaria siceraria. The bitter melon/balsam apple/balsam pear is also referred to as a gourd. L. siceraria was brought to Europe and the Americas very early in history, being found in Peruvian archaeological sites dating from 13,000 to 11,000 BC and Thailand sites from 11,000 to 6,000 BC. The gourds found in the Americas appear to have come from the Asian subspecies, very early in history, a new study now indicates Africa. The archaeological and DNA records show it likely that the gourd was among the first domesticated species, gourds continued to be used throughout history, in almost every culture throughout the world. European contact in North America found extensive use, including the use of bottle gourds as birdhouses to attract purple martins. Almost every culture had musical instruments made of gourds, including drums, stringed instruments common to Africa and wind instruments and these include Teasle gourd, Spine gourd, Sweet gourd, balsam apple and Momordica sahyadrica. Cultures from arid regions often associated gourds with water, and they appear in creation myths. Since the beginning of their history, they have had a multitude of uses, including food, kitchen tools, toys, musical instruments and decoration. Today, gourds are used for a wide variety of crafts, including jewelry, furniture, dishes, utensils. The Chinese developed a technique of tying a two-part mould around young gourds, or a part of them, so that the gourd grew into the mould, shaped gourds had various decorative uses, especially as boxes, bottles and other containers. The Luffa gourds, Luffa aegyptiaca and Luffa acutangula, have been used throughout recent history as scrubbing sponge and this is prepared by removing the skin and pulp from the gourd, and bleaching the fibers. A güiro is a Latin American percussion instrument made from a gourd, maracas are percussion instruments often made from gourds. A sitar is a stringed instrument, parts of which are made from gourds
41.
Pitcher
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In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the pitcher is assigned the number 1. The pitcher is often considered the most important defensive player, there are many different types of pitchers, such as the starting pitcher, relief pitcher, middle reliever, lefty specialist, setup man, and closer. The National League in Major League Baseball and the Japanese Central League are among the leagues that have not adopted the designated hitter position. In most cases, the objective of the pitcher is to deliver the pitch to the catcher without allowing the batter to hit the ball with the bat. A successful pitch is delivered in such a way that the batter either allows the pitch to pass through the zone, swings the bat at the ball and misses it. If the batter elects not to swing at the pitch, it is called a strike if any part of the passes through the strike zone. A check swing is when the batter begins to swing, If the batter successfully checks the swing and the pitch is out of the strike zone, it is called a ball. There are two legal pitching positions, the windup and the set position or stretch, either position may be used at any time, typically, the windup is used when the bases are empty, while the set position is used when at least one runner is on base. Each position has certain procedures that must be followed, a balk can be called on a pitcher from either position. A power pitcher is one who relies on the velocity of his pitches to succeed, generally, power pitchers record a high percentage of strikeouts. A control pitcher succeeds by throwing accurate pitches and thus records few walks, nearly all action during a game is centered on the pitcher for the defensive team. A pitchers particular style, time taken between pitches, and skill heavily influence the dynamics of the game and can determine the victor. Meanwhile, a batter stands in the box at one side of the plate. The type and sequence of pitches chosen depend upon the situation in a game. The relationship between pitcher and catcher is so important that some teams select the starting catcher for a game based on the starting pitcher. Together, the pitcher and catcher are known as the battery, although the object and mechanics of pitching remain the same, pitchers may be classified according to their roles and effectiveness. The starting pitcher begins the game, and he may be followed by relief pitchers, such as the long reliever, the left-handed specialist, the middle reliever. In Major League Baseball, every team uses Baseball Rubbing Mud to rub game balls in before their pitchers use them in games, a skilled pitcher often throws a variety of different pitches to prevent the batter from hitting the ball well
42.
Turnip
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The turnip or white turnip is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, bulbous taproot. Small, tender varieties are grown for consumption, while larger varieties are grown as feed for livestock. In the north of England and Scotland, and eastern Canada, turnip often refers to rutabaga, the most common type of turnip is mostly white-skinned apart from the upper 1–6 centimetres, which protrude above the ground and are purple or red or greenish where the sun has hit. This above-ground part develops from stem tissue, but is fused with the root, the interior flesh is entirely white. The root is roughly globular, from 5–20 centimetres in diameter, underneath, the taproot is thin and 10 centimetres or more in length, it is trimmed off before the vegetable is sold. The leaves grow directly from the shoulder of the root. Turnip leaves are eaten as turnip greens, and they resemble mustard greens in flavor. Turnip greens are a side dish in southeastern U. S. cooking, primarily during late fall. Smaller leaves are preferred, but the taste of larger leaves can be reduced by pouring off the water from the initial boiling and replacing it with fresh water. Varieties of turnip grown specifically for their leaves resemble mustard greens and have small or no storage roots and these include rapini, bok choy, and Chinese cabbage. Similar to raw cabbage or radish, turnip leaves and roots have a pungent flavor that becomes milder after cooking, Turnip roots weigh up to 1 kilogram, although they are usually harvested when smaller. Size is partly a function of variety and partly a function of the length of time the turnip has grown, most very small turnips are specialty varieties. These are only available when freshly harvested and do not keep well, most baby turnips can be eaten whole, including their leaves. Baby turnips are sold in yellow-, orange-, and red-fleshed varieties and their flavor is mild, so they can be eaten raw in salads like radishes and other vegetables. The turnips root is high in vitamin C, the green leaves of the turnip top are a good source of vitamin A, folate, vitamin C, vitamin K and calcium. Turnip greens are also high in lutein, sensitivity to the bitterness of these cyanoglucosides is controlled by a paired gene. Some evidence shows the turnip was domesticated before the 15th century BC, the turnip was a well-established crop in Hellenistic and Roman times, which leads to the assumption that it was brought into cultivation earlier. Sappho, a Greek poet from the seventh century BC, calls one of her paramours Gongýla, Zohary and Hopf note, however, there are almost no archaeological records available to help determine its earlier history and domestication
43.
Urn
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In computing, a Uniform Resource Name is the historical name for a Uniform Resource Identifier that uses the urn scheme. The functional requirements for Uniform Resource Names were described in 1994 by RFC1737, uRNs were distinguished from URLs, which identify resources by specifying their locations in the context of a particular access protocol, such as HTTP or FTP. However, URCs never progressed past the stage, and other technologies such as the Resource Description Framework later took their place. A URI is a string of characters used to identify or name a resource, URIs are used in many Internet protocols to refer to and access information resources. URI schemes include the familiar http, as well as hundreds of others, other URIs are not locators and are not necessarily resolvable within the bounds of the systems where they are found. These URIs may serve as names or identifiers of resources, but whether a URI is resolvable depends on many operational and practical details, irrespective of whether it is called a name or a locator. In the contemporary view, there is no line between names and locators. The term URN continues now as one of more than a hundred URI schemes, urn, paralleling http, ftp, and so forth. URIs of the urn, scheme are not necessarily locators, are not required to be associated with a protocol or access method. They should be assigned by a procedure which provides some assurance that they remain unique. Some namespaces under the urn, scheme, such as urn, uuid, assign identifiers in a manner which does not require a registration authority, a typical URN namespace is urn, isbn, for International Standard Book Numbers. There are other URI schemes, such as tag, info, and ni, which are similar to the urn, scheme in not being locators and not being associated with particular resolution or access protocols. The syntax of a urn, scheme URI is represented in Backus-Naur form as, <URN>, = urn, <NID>, <NSS> This renders as, urn, <NID>, <NID> is the namespace identifier, and may include letters, digits, and -. The NID is followed by the namespace-specific string <NSS>, the interpretation of which depends on the specified namespace, the NSS may contain ASCII letters and digits, and many punctuation and special characters. Disallowed ASCII and Unicode characters may be included if percent-encoded, a URI in the urn, scheme is syntactically a valid URI, consisting of the scheme, and a path, with no authority, query string, or fragment component. The characters allowed within the NSS component are a subset of those generally allowed within a URI path component, notably, slashes are not permitted in the NSS. As of March 2017, the Internet Engineering Task Force has approved a revision of the URN syntax standard, dubbed URNbis. However, the new states that some features of the new syntax, such as query string r-components
44.
Tulip vase
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A tulip vase, or pyramid vase, is a vase designed to put cut flowers and especially tulips in, but it primarily serves as a decorative showpiece. They were first made in the Netherlands in the 17th century and were decorated with Delfts blauw or Chinese decoration, replicas of the original tulip vases were made in China and were imported by the Dutch East India Company. The tulip vase is a form of Delftware faience known for its blue colour which is used to decorate the earthenware. Delftware originated from the attempt to imitate Chinese porcelain, the Dutch potters tried to copy it, the stackable tulip vases were made like that because the potters werent able to make the vase out of one piece around 1700, it would collapse while firing it. Tulips were introduced in the Netherlands at the end of the 16th century, to this day tulips are very popular flowers. Sometimes the pyramid vases were not used as flower vases at all, at every level of the vase, one can insert flowers in the appropriate spouts around the vase. The big tulip vases were used to decorate the hearth during the summer, flower-holder History of Delftware Rijksmuseum - Pyramid vase Rijksmuseum - Pots with spouts Rijksmuseum - Stacked Rijksmuseum - Delftware
45.
Millefiori
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Millefiori is a glasswork technique which produces distinctive decorative patterns on glassware. The term millefiori is a combination of the Italian words mille, apsley Pellatt in his book Curiosities of Glass Making was the first to use the term millefiori, which appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1849. The beads were then called mosaic beads. While the use of this technique long precedes the term millefiori, more recently, the millefiori technique has been applied to polymer clay and other materials. As the polymer clay is quite pliable and does not need to be heated and reheated to fuse it, it is a much easier medium in which to produce millefiori patterns than glass, the manufacture of mosaic beads can be traced to Ancient Roman, Phoenician and Alexandrian times. The technical knowledge for creating millefiori was lost by the century. Within several years of the rediscovery, factories in Italy, France. They were often incorporated into fine glass art paperweights, until the 15th century, Murano glass makers were only producing drawn Rosetta beads made from molded Rosetta canes. It is then cut into segments for further processing. The millefiori technique involves the production of glass canes or rods, known as murrine, a murrine rod is heated in a furnace and pulled until thin while still maintaining the cross sections design. It is then cut into beads or discs when cooled, mille-fleur, a French term used to refer to a background composed of small flowers Glass museums and galleries Venetian beads
46.
Pressed glass
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Pressed glass is a form of glass made using a plunger to press molten glass into a mold. It was first patented by American inventor John P. Bakewell in 1825 to make knobs for furniture, the technique was developed in the United States from the 1820s and in Europe, particularly France, Bohemia, and Sweden from the 1830s. By the mid-19th century most inexpensive mass-produced glassware was pressed, one type of pressed glass is carnival glass. Painted pressed glass produced in the early 20th century is often called goofus glass, the method is also used to make beads
_in_the_Form_of_an_Ancient_Ritual_Wine_Cup_(Gu)_with_the_Eight_Buddhist_Symbols_(Bajixiang)_and_Floral_Scrolls_LACMA_M.72.16.jpg)
