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Slavery in Ancient India: Greek, African, Criminal and Volunteer Slaves | Suite101.com - 2 views

  • What was
  • the nature of slavery in Ancient India? What kind of people were slaves? Was it possible to escape?
  • e moment of birth, be freed together with her child. Of course, no one can minimize the misery of being enslaved and it is almost certain that many masters were able to disregard these kinds of rules but, nevertheless, at least some structure of protection were provided. These were supplemented by both Hindu and Buddhist precepts, which will also have been influential in affecting the behaviour of some people. A large number of slaves appear to have been sourced from Greece and Greek colony cities. This is shown both by written records and by illustrations of the people involved. The female slave armies that protected the king’s harem were frequently known as Ionians and fought hard to maintain the traditions, names and language of their homelands. Other slaves were bought by traders from the west, bringing people from Africa, Arabia and from time to time, no doubt, the European mainland as well. Traders in eastern waters surely did the same, with slaves brought from Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. It was also possible for free-born Indians to become slaves, perhaps through a court decision after having committed a serious crime. Others might be enslaved as a result of war or trafficking but it was also possible for people to put themselves up for enslavement. They could put their freedom at stake as surety for a cash loan or for a gambling stake. However, enslavement need not be permanent. A financial arrangement could be made in these cases but, if worst came to worst, slaves were allowed one chance to try to escape and, if they managed to get away, they were permitted to claim their freedom permanently. Ads by Google Microsoft® Private Cloud Microsoft.com/readynowBe Ready For The Future. Learn More About Microsoft® Private Cloud! MA in Ancient Greek www.brandeis.edu/gsasGenerous scholarships for 1-year Master's @ Brandeis. Learn more. Native Americans indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comNews, Culture, Events and More. Visit Our Site & Stay Up To Date! document.getElementById('adsense_placeholder_3').innerHTML = document.getElementById('adsense_ad_3_hidden').innerHTML; Copyright John Walsh. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication. John Walsh - I am a lecturer in business with a wide range of interests. These include anything relating to East and Southeast Asia, especially ... Print Article var addthis_share = { templates: { twitter: '{{title}}: {{url}} via @suite101' } } var addthis_config = { ui_language: "en", ui_cobrand: "Suite101", ui_header_color: "#FFFFFF", ui_header_background: "#336666", data_track_clickback: true } http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/tweet_button.html#_=1321539691113&count=horizontal&dnt=&id=twitter_tweet_button_0&lang=en&original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fjohn-walsh.suite101.com%2Fslavery-in-ancient-ind
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  • lavery has existed in India since the time of the Mauryas at least. However, since Indian society has throughout been subject to the strictly-enforced caste system, the differences between those in the lowest caste and the lot of the slaves are not very great and, in some cases, it may have been better to be a slave. For example, a low caste person had to work constantly to obtain food and water while slaves occasionally (although not very often) could have time off from work. Laws also existed as to what sort of treatment it was permitted to use with slaves: they could be beaten on the back but not the head, for example, while a woman who was made pregnant by her master would, at th  e
  • S &nbsp;lavery has existed in India since the time of the Mauryas at least. However, since Indian society has throughout been subject to the strictly-enforced caste system, the differences between those in the lowest caste and the lot of the slaves are not very great and, in some cases, it may have been better to be a slave. For example, a low caste person had to work constantly to obtain food and water while slaves occasionally (although not very often) could have time off from work. Laws also existed as to what sort of treatment it was permitted to use with slaves: they could be beaten on the back but not the head, for example, while a woman who was made pregnant by her master would, at th &nbsp; e moment of birth, be freed together with her child. Of course, no one can minimize the misery of being enslaved and it is almost certain that many masters were able to disregard these kinds of rules but, nevertheless, at least some structure of protection were provided. These were supplemented by both Hindu and Buddhist precepts, which will also have been influential in affecting the behaviour of some people. A large number of slaves appear to have been sourced from Greece and Greek colony cities. This is shown both by written records and by illustrations of the people involved. The female slave armies that protected the king’s harem were frequently known as Ionians and fought hard to maintain the traditions, names and language of their homelands. Other slaves were bought by traders from the west, bringing people from Africa, Arabia and from time to time, no doubt, the European mainland as well. Traders in eastern waters surely did the same, with slaves brought from Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. It was also possible for free-born Indians to become slaves, perhaps through a court decision after having committed a serious crime. Others might be enslaved as a result of war or trafficking but it was also possible for people to put themselves up for enslavement. They could put their freedom at stake as surety for a cash loan or for a gambling stake. However, enslavement need not be permanent. A financial arrangement could be made in these cases but, if worst came to worst, slaves were allowed one chance to try to escape and, if they managed to get away, they were permitted to claim their freedom permanently. Ads by Google Microsoft® Private Cloud Microsoft.com/readynow Be Ready For The Future. Learn More About Microsoft® Private Cloud! MA in Ancient Greek www.brandeis.edu/gsas Generous scholarships for 1-year Master's @ Brandeis. Learn more. Native Americans indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com News, Culture, Events and More. Visit Our Site &amp; Stay Up To Date! document.getElementById('adsense_placeholder_3').innerHTML = document.getElementById('adsense_ad_3_hidden').innerHTML; Copyright John Walsh . Contact the author to obtain permission for republication. John Walsh - I am a lecturer in business with a wide range of interests. These include anything relating to East and Southeast Asia, especially ... <IMG s
  • &nbsp;lavery has existed in India since the time of the Mauryas at least. However, since Indian society has throughout been subject to the strictly-enforced caste system, the differences between those in the lowest caste and the lot of the slaves are not very great and, in some cases, it may have been better to be a slave. For example, a low caste person had to work constantly to obtain food and water while slaves occasionally (although not very often) could have time off from work. Laws also existed as to what sort of treatment it was permitted to use with slaves: they could be beaten on the back but not the head, for example, while a woman who was made pregnant by her master would, at th &nbsp; e moment of birth, be freed together with her child. Of course, no one can minimize the misery of being enslaved and it is almost certain that many masters were able to disregard these kinds of rules but, nevertheless, at least some structure of protection were provided. These were supplemented by both Hindu and Buddhist precepts, which will also have been influential in affecting the behaviour of some people. A large number of slaves appear to have been sourced from Greece and Greek colony cities. This is shown both by written records and by illustrations of the people involved. The female slave armies that protected the king’s harem were frequently known as Ionians and fought hard to maintain the traditions, names and language of their homelands. Other slaves were bought by traders from the west, bringing people from Africa, Arabia and from time to time, no doubt, the European mainland as well. Traders in eastern waters surely did the same, with slaves brought from Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. It was also possible for free-born Indians to become slaves, perhaps through a court decision after having committed a serious crime. Others might be enslaved as a result of war or trafficking but it was also possible for people to put themselves up for enslavement. They could put their freedom at stake as surety for a cash loan or for a gambling stake. However, enslavement need not be permanent. A financial arrangement could be made in these cases but, if worst came to worst, slaves were allowed one chance to try to escape and, if they managed to get away, they were permitted to claim their freedom permanently. Ads by Google Microsoft® Private Cloud Microsoft.com/readynow Be Ready For The Future. Learn More About Microsoft® Private Cloud! MA in Ancient Greek www.brandeis.edu/gsas Generous scholarships for 1-year Master's @ Brandeis. Learn more. Native Americans indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com News, Culture, Events and More. Visit Our Site &amp; Stay Up To Date! document.getElementById('adsense_placeholder_3').innerHTML = document.getElementById('adsense_ad_3_hidden').innerHTML; Copyright John Walsh . Contact the author to obtain permission for republication. John Walsh
  •  
    India slavery system and the caste system.
Kalina P

Barbara Ehrenreich: Nickel and Dimed (2011 Version) - 2 views

  • , “Make love not war,” and then -- down at the bottom -- “Screw it, just make money.”
  • A Florida woman wrote to tell me that, before reading it, she’d always been annoyed at the poor for what she saw as their self-inflicted obesity.
  • . I started with my own extended family, which includes plenty of people without jobs or health insurance, and moved on to trying to track down a couple of the people I had met while working on Nickel and Dimed
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  • widely read among low-wage workers. In the last few years, hundreds of people have written to tell me their stories: the mother of a newborn infant whose electricity had just been turned off, the woman who had just been given a diagnosis of cancer and has no health insurance, the newly homeless man who writes from a library computer.
  • t things have gotten much worse, especially since the economic downturn that began in 2008.
  • earned less than a barebones budget covering housing, child care, health care, food, transportation, and taxes -- though not, it should be noted, any entertainment, meals out, cable TV, Internet service, vacations, or holiday gifts. Twenty-nine percent is a minority, but not a reassuringly small one, and other studies in the early 2000s came up with similar figures.
  • -- the skipped meals, the lack of medical care, the occasional need to sleep in cars or vans -
  • The economy was growing, and jobs, if poorly paid, were at least plentiful.
  • many of these jobs had disappeared and there was stiff competition for those that remained
  • a healthy diet wasn’t always an option. &nbsp;And if I had a quarter for every person who’s told me he or she now tipped more generously, I would be able to start my own foundation.
  • and and was subsisting on occasional cleaning and catering jobs. Neither seemed unduly afflicted by the recessi
  • suicide a “coping strategy,” but it is one way some people have responded to job los
  • Media attention has focused, understandably enough, on the “nouveau poor” -- formerly middle and even upper-middle class people who lost their jobs, their homes, and/or their investments in the financial crisis of 2008 and the economic downturn that followed it, but the brunt of the recession has been borne by the blue-collar working class, which had already been sliding downwards since de-industrialization began in the 1980s.
  • were especially hard hit for the simple reason that they had so few assets and savings to fall back on as jobs disappea
  • cut back on health care.
  • e to moves and suspensions of telephone service
  • Food i
  • “food auctions,” which offer items that may be past their sell-by dates.
  • urban hunting. In Racine, Wisconsin, a 51-year-old laid-off mechanic told me he was supplementing his diet by “shooting squirrels and rabbits and eating them stewed, baked, and grilled.” In Detroit, where the wildlife population has mounted as the human population ebbs, a retired truck driver was doing a brisk business in raccoon carcasses, which he recommends marinating with vinegar and spices.
  • ncrease the number of paying people per square foot of dwelling space -- by doubling up or renting to couch-surfer
  • “people who’ve lost their jobs, or at least their second jobs, cope by doubling or tripling up in overcrowded apartments, or by paying 50 or 60 or even 70 percent of their incomes in rent.”
  • g members of my extended family, have given up their health insurance.
  • - a government safety net that is meant to save the poor from spiraling down all the way to destitutio
  • The food stamp program has responded to the crisis fairly well, to the point where it now reaches about 37 million people, up about 30% from pre-recession levels.
  • ? There is a right to food stamps. You go to the office and, if you meet the statutory definition of need, they h
  • elp you. For welfare, the street-level bureaucrats can, pretty much at their own discretion, just say no.
  • Delaware residents who had always imagined that people turned to the government for help only if “they didn’t want to work.
  • ace a state-sponsored retraining course in computer repairs -- only to find that those skills are no longer in demand.
  • 44% of laid-off people at the time, she failed to meet the fiendishly complex and sometimes arbitrary eligibility requirements for unemployment benefits. Their car started falling apart.
  • Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.
  • TANF does not offer straightforward cash support like Aid to Families with Dependent Children, which it replaced in 1996. It’s an income supplementation program for working parents, and it was based on the sunny assumption that there would always be plenty of jobs for those enterprising enough to get them.
  • When the Parentes finally got into “the system” and began receiving food stamps and some cash assistance, they discovered why some recipients have taken to calling TANF “Torture and Abuse of Needy Families.” From the start, the TANF experience was “humiliating,” Kristen says. The caseworkers “treat you like a bum. They act like every dollar you get is coming out of their own paychecks.”
  • 40 jobs a week
  • miles a day to attend “job readiness” classes offered by a private company called Arbor, wh
  • were “frankly a joke.”
  • , “applying for welfare is a lot like being booked by the police.”&nbsp; There may be a mug shot, fingerprinting, and lengthy interrogations as to one’s children’s true paternity. The ostensible goal is to prevent welf
  • fraud, but the psychological impact is to turn poverty itself into a kind of crime.
  • The most shocking thing I learned from my research on the fate of the working poor in the recession was the extent to which poverty has indeed been criminalized in America.
  • Perhaps the constant suspicions of drug use and theft that I encountered in low-wage workplaces should have alerted me to the fact that, when you leave the relative safety of the middle class, you might as well have given up your citizenship and taken residence in a hostile nation.
  • Most cities, for example, have ordinances designed to drive the destitute off the streets by outlawing such necessary activities of daily life as sitting, loitering, sleeping, or lying down. Urban officials boast that there is nothing discriminatory about such laws: “If you’re lying on a sidewalk, whether you’re homeless or a millionaire, you’re in violation of the ordinance,” a St. Petersburg, Florida, city attorney stated in June 2009, echoing Anatole France’s immortal observation that “the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges...”
  • the criminalization of poverty has actually intensified as the weakened economy generates ever more poverty.
  • ordinances against the publicly poor has been rising since 2006, along with the harassment of the poor for more “neutral” infractions like jaywalking, littering, or carrying an open container.
  • ban on begging
  • grizzled 62-year-old, he inhabits a wheelchair and is often found on G Street in Washington, D.C. -- the city that is ultimately responsible for the bullet he took in the spine in Phu Bai, Vietnam, in 1972.
  • “They arrested a homeless man in a shelter for being homeless?”
  • , led by Las Vegas, passed ordinances forbidding the sharing of food with the indigent in public places, leadi
  • way to be criminalized by poverty is to have the wrong color skin. Indignation runs high when a celebrity professor succumbs to racial profiling, but whole communities are effectively “profiled” for the suspicious combination of being both dark-skinned and poor. Flick a cigarette and you’re “littering”; wear the wrong color T-shirt and you’re displaying gang allegiance. Just strolling around in a dodgy neighborhood can mark you as a potential suspect. And don’t get grumpy about it or you could be “resisting arrest.”
  • e government defunds services that might help the poor while ramping up law enforcement.
  • &nbsp;Shut down public housing, then make it a crime to be homeless. Generate no public-sector jobs, then penalize people for falling into debt.
  • The experience of the poor, and especially poor people of color, comes to resemble that of a rat in a cage scrambling to avoid erratically administered electric shocks. And if you should try to escape this nightmare reality into a brief, drug-induced high, it’s “gotcha” all over again, because that of course is illegal too.
  • r staggering level of incarceration,
  • g. And what public housing remains has become ever more prison-like, with random police sweeps and, in a growing number of cities, proposed drug tests for residents.
  • The safety net, or what remains of it, has been transformed into a dragnet.
  • official level of poverty increasing -- to over 14% in 2010 -- some states are beginning to ease up on the criminalization of poverty, using alternative sentencing methods, shortening probation, and reducing the number of people locked up for technical violations like missing court appointments. But others, diabolically enough, are tightening the screws: not only increasing the number of “crimes,” but charging prisoners for their room and board, guaranteeing they’ll be released with potentially criminalizing levels of debt.
  • a higher minimum wage, universal health care, affordable housing, good schools, reliable public transportation, and all the other things we, uniquely among the developed nations, have neglected to do.
  • : if we want to reduce poverty, we have to stop doing the things that make people poor and keep them that way. Stop underpaying people for the jobs they do. Stop treating working people as potential criminals and let them have the right to organize for better wages and working conditions.
  • : if we want to reduce poverty, we have to stop doing the things that make people poor and keep them that way. Stop underpaying people for the jobs they do. Stop treating working people as potential criminals and let them have the right to organize for better wages and working conditions.
  • : if we want to reduce poverty, we have to stop doing the things that make people poor and keep them that way. Stop underpaying people for the jobs they do. Stop treating working people as potential criminals and let them have the right to organize for better wages and working conditions.
  • : if we want to reduce poverty, we have to stop doing the things that make people poor and keep them that way. Stop underpaying people for the jobs they do. Stop treating working people as potential criminals and let them have the right to organize for better wages and working conditions.
  • Stop the institutional harassment of those who turn to the government for help or find themselves destitute in the streets
  • But at least we should decide, as a bare minimum principle, to stop kicking people when they’re down.
megan s

List of Indian inventions and discoveries - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • Button, ornamental: Buttons—made from seashell—were used in the Indus Valley Civilization for ornamental purposes by 2000 BCE.[1] Some buttons were carved into geometric shapes and had holes pieced into them so that they could attached to clothing by using a thread.[1] Ian McNeil (1990) holds that: "The button, in fact, was originally used more as an ornament than as a fastening, the earliest known being found at Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley. It is made of a curved shell and about 5000 years old."
  • Calico: Calico had originated in the subcontinent by the 11th century and found mention in Indian literature, by the 12th century writer Hemachandra. He has mentioned calico fabric prints done in a lotus design.[3] The Indian textile merchants traded in calico with the Africans by the 15th century and calico fabrics from Gujarat appeared in Egypt.[3] Trade with Europe followed from the 17th century onwards.[3] Within India, calico originated in Calicut.[3] Carding, devices for: Historian of science Joseph Needham ascribes the invention of bow-instruments used in textile technology to India.[4] The earliest evidence for using bow-instruments for carding comes from India (2nd century CE).[4] These carding devices, called kaman and dhunaki would loosen the texture of the fiber by the means of a vibrating string.[4]
  • The words for "chess" in Old Persian and Arabic are chatrang and shatranj respectively — terms derived from caturaṅga in Sanskrit,[11][12] which literally means an army of four divisions or four corps.[13][14] Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape.[15] This game was introduced to the Near East from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education of Persian nobility.[13] Buddhist pilgrims, Silk Road traders and others carried it to the Far East where it was transformed and assimilated into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares.[15] Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the Byzantine empire and the expanding Arabian empire.[14][16] Muslims carried Shatranj to North Africa, Sicily, and Spain by the 10th century where it took its final modern form of chess.[15] Chintz: The origin of Chintz is from the printed all cotton fabric of calico in India.[17] The origin of the word chintz itself is from the Hindi language word चित्र् (chitr), which means a spot
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  • Coherer, iron and mercury: In 1899, the Bengali physicist Jagdish Chandra Bose announced the development of an "iron-mercury-iron coherer with telephone detector" in a paper presented at the Royal Society, London.[19] He also later received U.S. Patent 755,840, "Detector for electrical disturbances" (1904), for a specific electromagnetic receiver. Cotton gin, single-roller: The Ajanta caves of India yield evidence of a single roller cotton gin in use by the 5th century.[20] This cotton gin was used in India until innovations were made in form of foot powered gins.[21] The cotton gin was invented in India as a mechanical device known as charkhi, more technically the "wooden-worm-worked roller". This mechanical device was, in some parts of India, driven by water power.[4] Crescograph: The crescograph, a device for measuring growth in plants, was invented in the early 20th century by the Bengali scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose.[22][
  • Perhaps as early as 300 BCE—although certainly by 200 CE—high quality steel was being produced in southern India also by what Europeans would later call the crucible technique.[24] In this system, high-purity wrought iron, charcoal, and glass were mixed in a crucible and heated until the iron melted and absorbed the carbon.[24] The first crucible steel was the wootz steel that originated in India before the beginning of the common era.[25] Archaeological evidence suggests that this manufacturing process was already in existence in South India well before the Christian era.[26][27][28][29] Dock (maritime): The world's first dock at Lothal (2400 BCE) was located away from the main current to avoid deposition of silt.[30] Modern oceanographers have observed that the Harappans must have possessed knowledge relating to tides in order to build such a dock on the ever-shifting course of the Sabarmati, as well as exemplary hydrography and maritime engineering.[30] This was the earliest known dock found in the world, equipped to berth and service ships.[30][31] It is speculated that Lothal engineers studied tidal movements, and their effects on brick-built structures, since the walls are of kiln-burnt bricks.[32] This knowledge also enabled them to select Lothal's location in the first place, as the Gulf of Khambhat has the highest tidal amplitude and ships can be sluiced through flow tides in the river estuar
  • location in the first place, as the Gulf of Khambhat has the highest tidal amplitude and ships can be sluiced through flow tides in the river estuar y
  • Incense clock: Although popularly associated with China the incense clock is believed to have originated in India, at least in its fundamental form if not function.[33][34] Early incense clocks found in China between the 6th and 8th century CE—the period it appeared in China all seem to have Devanāgarī carvings on them instead of Chinese seal characters.[33][34] Incense itself was introduced to China from India in the early centuries CE, along with the spread of Buddhism by travelling monks.[35][36][37] Edward Schafer asserts that incense clocks were probably an Indian invention, transmitted to China, which explains the Devanāgarī inscriptions on early incense clocks found in China.[33] Silvio Bedini on the other hand asserts that incense clocks were derived in part from incense seals mentioned in Tantric Buddhist scriptures, which first came to light in China after those scriptures from India were translated into Chinese, but holds that the time-telling function of the seal was incorporated by the Chinese.[34] India ink, carbonaceous pigment for: The source of the carbon pigment used in India ink was India.[38][39] In India, the carbon black from which India ink is produced is obtained by burning bones, tar, pitch, and other substances.[39][40] Ink itself has been used in India since at least the 4th century BCE.[41] Masi, an early ink in India was an admixture of several chemical components.[41] Indian documents written in Kharosthi with ink have been unearthed in Xinjiang.[42] The practice of writing with ink and a sharp pointed needle was common in ancient South India.[43] Several Jain sutras in India were compiled in ink
  • Indian clubs: The Indian club—which appeared in Europe during the 18th century—was used long by India's native soldiery before its introduction to Europe.[45] During the British Raj the British officers in India performed calisthenic exercises with clubs to keep in for physical conditioning.[45] From Britain the use of club swinging spread to the rest of the world.[45] Kabaddi: The game of kabaddi originated in India during prehistory.[46] Suggestions on how it evolved into the modern form range from wrestling exercises, military drills, and collective self defense but most authorities agree that the game existed in some form or the other in India during the period between 1500-400 BCE.[46] Ludo: Pachisi originated in India by the 6th century.[47] The earliest evidence of this game in India is the depiction of boards on the caves of Ajanta.[47] This game was played by the Mughal emperors of India; a notable example being that of Akbar, who played living Pachisi using girls from his harem.[47][48] A variant of this game, called Ludo, made its way to England during the British Raj.[
  • Ruler: Rulers made from Ivory were in use by the Indus Valley Civilization in what today is Pakistan and some parts of Western India prior to 1500 BCE.[64] Excavations at Lothal (2400 BCE) have yielded one such ruler calibrated to about 1/16 of an inch—less than 2 millimeters.[64] Ian Whitelaw (2007) holds that 'The Mohenjo-Daro ruler is divided into units corresponding to 1.32&nbsp;inches (33.5&nbsp;mm) and these are marked out in decimal subdivisions with amazing accuracy—to within 0.005 of an inch. Ancient bricks found throughout the region have dimensions that correspond to these units.'[65] Shigeo Iwata (2008) further writes 'The minimum division of graduation found in the segment of an ivory-made linear measure excavated in Lothal was 1.79&nbsp;mm (that corresponds to 1/940 of a fathom), while that of the fragment of a shell-made one from Mohenjo-daro was 6.72&nbsp;mm (1/250 of a fathom), and that of bronze-made one from Harapa was 9.33&nbsp;mm (1/180 of a fathom).'[66] The weights and measures of the Indus civilization also reached Persia and Central Asia, where they were further modified.[66] Seamless celestial globe: Considered one of the most remarkable feats in metallurgy, it was invented in Kashmir by Ali Kashmiri ibn Luqman in between 1589 and 1590 CE, and twenty other such globes were later produced in Lahore and Kashmir during the Mughal Empire.[67][68] Before they were rediscovered in the 1980s, it was believed by modern metallurgists to be technically impossible to produce metal globes without any seams, even with modern technology.[68] These Mughal metallurgists pioneered the method of lost-wax casting in order to produce these globes
  • Simputer: The Simputer (acronym for "simple, inexpensive and multilingual people's computer") is a self-contained, open hardware handheld computer, designed for use in environments where computing devices such as personal computers are deemed inappropriate. It was developed in 1999 by 7 scientists of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, led by Dr. Swami Manohar in collaboration with Encore India, a company based in Bangalore.[69][70] Originally envisaged to bring internet to the masses of India, the Simputer and its derivatives are today widely utilized by governments of several Indian states as part of their e-governance drive, the Indian Army, as well as by other public and private organizations.[71][72] Snakes and ladders: Snakes and ladders originated in India as a game based on morality.[73] During British rule of India, this game made its way to England, and was eventually introduced in the United States of America by game-pioneer Milton Bradley in 1943.[73] Stepwell: Earliest clear evidence of the origins of the stepwell is found in the Indus Valley Civilization's archaeological site at Mohenjodaro in Pakistan.[74] The three features of stepwells in the subcontinent are evident from one particular site, abandoned by 2500 BCE, which combines a bathing pool, steps leading down to water, and figures of some religious importance into one structure.[74] The early centuries immediately before the common era saw the Buddhists and the Jains of India adapt the stepwells into their architecture.[74] Both the wells and the form of ritual bathing reached other parts of the world with Buddhism.[74] Rock-cut step wells in the subcontinent date from 200-400 CE.[75] Subsequently the wells at Dhank (550-625 CE) and stepped ponds at Bhinmal (850-950 CE) were constructed.[75] Stupa: The origin of the stupa can be traced to 3rd century BCE India.[76] It was used as a commemorative monument associated with storing sacred relics.[76] The stupa architecture was adopted in Southeast and East Asia, where it evolved into the pagoda, a Buddhist monument used for enshrining sacred relics.[76] Toe stirrup: The earliest known manifestation of the stirrup, which was a toe loop that held the big toe was used in India in as early as 500 BCE[77] or perhaps by 200 BCE according to other sources.[78][79] This ancient stirrup consisted of a looped rope for the big toe which was at the bottom of a saddle made of fibre or leather.[79] Such a configuration made it suitable for the warm climate of most of India where people used to ride horses barefoot.[79] A pair of megalithic double bent iron bars with curvature at each end, excavated in Junapani in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have been regarded as stirrups although they could as well be something else.[80] Buddhist carvings in the temples of Sanchi, Mathura and the Bhaja caves dating back between the 1st and 2nd century BCE figure horsemen riding with elaborate saddles with feet slipped under girths.[81][82][83] Sir John Marshall described the Sanchi relief as "the earliest example by some five centuries of the use of stirrups in any part of the world".[83] In the 1st century CE horse riders in northern India, where winters are sometimes long and cold, were recorded to have their booted feet attached to hooked stirrups.[78] However the form, the conception of the primitive Indian stirrup spread west and east, gradually evolving into the stirrup of today.http://en.wikipe
hmcphillips h

Renaissance -- Out of the Middle Ages - 2 views

  • more than enough money to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter.
  • leisure time to spend on education and entertainment.
  • As the fortunes of merchants, bankers, and tradespeople improved, they had more than enough money to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter. They began to desire larger, more luxurious homes, fine art for these residences, sumptuous clothing to show off their wealth in public, and exotic delicacies to eat. These desires of the middle class stimulated the economy.
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  • leisure time to spend on education and entertainment.
  • Bankers and accountants needed to understand arithmetic
  • knowledge of foreign currencies and languages
  • Reading was essential for anyone who needed to understand a contract.
  • reading for pleasure, learning to play musical instruments, and studying a variety of topics unrelated to their businesses.
  • Bankers and accountants needed to understand arithmetic. Those trading with other countries needed a knowledge of foreign currencies and languages. Reading was essential for anyone who needed to understand a contract.
  • Many Italian coastal cities became centers for trade and commerce, and for the wealth and education that ensued.
  • the Medici family, made their wealth as business people
  • Many Italian coastal cities became centers for trade and commerce, and for the wealth and education that ensued.
  • Florence.
  • made their wealth as business people
  • Medicis had the appearance of nobility.
    • Garth Holman
       
      So, what did the creation of a middle class do to society? How did it change society?  And how did their spending impact others?  Why is a strong middle class important today? 
    • jashapiro j
       
      The creation of the middle class stimulated society by having the new wealthier middle class buy expensive things. This impacted others because it made jobs for bankers (which led to learning math,) and made people around them want to buy more too. It is important to have a middle class today so we can have a balance.
    • Garth Holman
       
      What do banks do today?   How do banks help people today?  They want do you think banks did to make peoples lives better in the 1450's? 
    • jwoomer j
       
      Banks help people today by holding peoples money for them so they don't lose it or so that it doesn't get stolen as easily. Also, banks help you balance out your budget so you don't over spend. 
    • cglosser c
       
      Compared to banks today, banks earned people money, not hold on to it.
  • They lived in beautiful homes, employed great artists, and engaged in intellectual pursuits for both business and pleasure.
  • One of the cities that exemplified these new trends was Florence.
morgan m

Slavery in India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 2 views

  • The history of slavery in India is complicated by the presence of factors which relate to the definition, ideological and religious perceptions, difficulties in obtaining and interpreting written sources, and perceptions of political impact of interpretations of written sources.[1] If current scholarly interpretations of various literary sources are accepted, then slavery as forced appropriation of labour, skill or sexual gratification appears to have existed in various forms from the pre-500 BCE period, though never as a legitimate and generally acceptable widespread practice. Historical consensus points to an intensification of slavery under India's Islamic period.[2][3][4][5][6] For instance, K. S. Lal discussed in his work "Muslim Slave System in Medieval India" the import of African slaves to India by Muslims through the Middle East, a trade never undertaken by India's indigenous religions due to limited contact with Africa. Often, claims about slavery in India, and the sources they are based on, need to be analyzed with special attention to context. Some modern scholars appear to treat most claims of slavery by Persian or Arabic chroniclers as propaganda or exaggeration for military and political glorification, whereas similar arguments are not applied to the textual claims of the epics, the Smriti, or other pre-Islamic Indian texts (Levi admits the possibility of exaggeration on the part of Muslim chroniclers but accepts Basham's claims based on Mahabharata without such doubts.[1]) Susan Bayly of Cambridge University noted in her work "Caste, Society and Politics" that India was never a monolithic caste society [7] with noted shifting and fluidity of the caste structures in some parts of India, and its non-existence in others. Irfan Habib notes in his study of the agrarian system of Mughal India, that in many parts of the country, caste barriers were fluid, and the working classes formed a type of vast labour pool, from which specializations were formed as and when needed without consideration of caste.
  • The slave appears to have retained degrees of control over money, property, right to compensation or wage for labour, and had the right of redemption, and deceiving or depriving a slave of these rights is also a punishable offence. Slavery also appears to have been of limited duration or of temporary status, as only specific conditions are given for slavery for life
  • Employing a slave to carry the dead, or to sweep human waste, remnant of meal, stripping or keeping in nudity, hurting or abusing, violating the chastity (of a female slave), causes the forfeiture of the value paid for the slave (although it is not clear whether this earns the slave his or her freedom). In the same paragraph, however, it is stated that the violations of the chastity of nurses, female cooks, or female servants of the class of joint cultivators or of any other category shall at once earn them their liberty. A master’s connections with a nurse or pledged female slave against her will is a punishable offence, (for a stranger the degree of offence is higher), and rape is specifically mentioned as particularly offensive with high penalties as well as forfeiture of sale price.[10] In fact if a child is born to the female slave as a result of sexual union with the master, then the mother and child have to be freed immediately.
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  • For an Arya, slavery appears to have been
  • limited to the person who has sold himself, and not automatically to his family or offspring, as the status of the offspring as Arya is categorically emphasized. A slave is also guaranteed to not only whatever he has earned without prejudice to his master’s work, but also any inheritance he has received from his father.
  • As for prisoners of war, enslavement does not appear to have been automatic, as it is stated that an Arya who is captured in war can only be ransomed for an amount proportionate to the damage or dangerous work done by the captive at the time of his capture (or half the amount
  • Slavery begins to appear in explicit and extensive reference in surviving historical records following the raids of Mahmud of Ghazni in the 11th century. Many chroniclers claim that his campaign of 1024 in which he sacked Ajmer, Nehrwala, Kathiawar, and Somnath was particularly successful in garnering more than 100,000 Hindu slaves for the Muslim general.
  • The history of slavery in India is complicated by the presence of factors which relate to the definition, ideological and religious perceptions, difficulties in obtaining and interpreting written sources, and perceptions of political impact of interpretations of written sources.[1] If current scholarly interpretations of various literary sources are accepted, then slavery as forced appropriation of labour, skill or sexual gratification appears to have existed in various forms from the pre-500 BCE period, though never as a legitimate and generally acceptable widespread practice. Historical consensus points to an intensification of slavery under India's Islamic period.[2][3][4][5][6] For instance, K. S. Lal discussed in his work "Muslim Slave System in Medieval India" the import of African slaves to India by Muslims through the Middle East, a trade never undertaken by India's indigenous religions due to limited contact with Africa.
  •  
    Slavery in Inida
  •  
    slavory in india
  •  
    This descibes the caste system in india
John Woodbridge

Why did people go on pilgrimages in the Middle Ages? | The Free Resource for Kids - 0 views

  • For most people, all that sustained them was a sense of hope and belief in a better world to come with salvation in Jesus Christ.
  • undertaking a long and arduous pilgrimage was a way for people to ask God to perform a miracle on their behalf
  • demonstrate their repentance for any sins they might have committed
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  • Going on a pilgrimage was also the only way a poor person could see some of the world
  • The masses often worshipped pagan idols and had many shrines and sacred places which were associated with those idols
  • Christian authorities either destroyed these sites or replaced them with Christian significance.
  • they sanctified the former places of idol worship and encouraged the common people to continue making pilgrimages to these places
  • Pilgrimage sites in Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem were important landmarks of places where significant events occurred in the Christian narrative. There were many holy places throughout Europe for those who could only make shorter pilgrimages.
  • Crusaders returning from the Holy Land brought back many relics that were placed in churches throughout Europe.
  •  
    describes why people went on pilgrimages, where they went, and how the church promoted the idea of pilgrimage
Garth Holman

Martin Luther Biography - 0 views

  • His parents were from peasant stock, but had high ambitions for their intelligent, eldest son
  • Bachelors and Masters degrees in Theology. He was in his first year of Law School in Erfurt when an incident occurred that would change the course of European history.
  • Two weeks later, Luther joined the Augustinian Order in Erfurt; his father was furious.
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  • Many Christians of the late Middle Ages had a great fear of demons and devils, and were terrified of ending up in hell. Mortality rates were high and life was very uncertain due to disease, accidents, childbirth and wars. Luther shared those fears and his first years in the monastery he was tormented with the idea that all men were hopeless sinners in the sight of God and unworthy of salvation.
  • reason, he was sent to teach theology at the University of Erfurt, and in 1511, at the University of Wittenberg, where he received his Doctorate in Theology. In Wittenberg he was also the parish priest assigned to minister to the citizens of the town.
  • A major source of church funding during this period was the sale of indulgences. An indulgence was a "get out of purgatory card" that could be obtained for oneself or others by paying a certain sum to the church.
  • The Pope was selling offices and indulgences to get money for an ambitious building program which included the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. The Pope's representative, the Dominican Father Tetzel, encouraged people to buy the indulgences with the jingle, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings The soul from Purgatory springs"
  • telling them their loved ones were crying out to be released from suffering.
  • He was shocked by the lack of morality and piety of the local clergy and by the luxurious lifestyle of the Pope Leo X, a member of the Medici family. Pope Leo was known for his expensive tastes and was fond of hunting, gambling and carnivals. The papacy was at a low point in its history and others had been calling out for reform prior to Luther.
  • He came to the conclusion there was no evidence in the Bible for believing the Pope had power to release souls from Purgatory.
  • He wrote out a list of his objections to the practice; he named 95 issues he wished to dispute.
  • On October 31, 1517, Luther nailed his ninety-five theses, or points of discussion, on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. The document was in Latin and invited other scholars to debate the statements set out.
  • The 95 Theses were translated into German and widely distributed throughout Germany, courtesy of the printing press.
  • There is no question, however, that Luther wrote the list and sent a copy of it to Prince Albert of Mainz.
  • The reaction of the Church initially was to try and suppress the attack on indulgences by suppressing Martin Luther.
  • The protest against the indulgences set off a conflagration which, step by step, resulted in most of Northern Europe breaking away from the authority of the Catholic Church.
  • It was clear by this time that there could be no coming together on these issues, since the very authority of the Pope was called into question.
  • The Church did act to curb the worst abuses of indulgences, but it was too late.
  • Luther was given safe conduct to attend the meeting and defend his positions. At the Diet of Worms, Luther was shown a table with a pile of his books and other writings. He was offered the opportunity to recant, but refused. Luther's reply was written down as he spoke it: "Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason -- I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other -- my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen." The printed document released after the Diet of Worms also contained the famous words, "Here I stand, I can do no other."
  • but he was now considered an outlaw.
  • declaring Luther a heretic and ordering his death.
  • He spent nearly a year there, writing furiously and fighting depression and numerous physical ailments. It was in a small study in the castle in 1522 that he translated the New Testament from Greek into German and profoundly influenced the form and standardization of the German language.
    • Garth Holman
       
      Maybe one of the most important ideas.  He gave the people the bible in the local language, so more people could read what the bible said...not have someone tell them.  See this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Bible#Surviving_copies  
  • in Luther's absence numerous leaders had sprung up, each with his own interpretation of doctrine, and most having far more radical views than Luther.
  • Priests wore ordinary clothing and grew their hair, services were performed in German, monks and nuns were leaving the cloisters and getting married. Some groups were smashing images and statues in the churches and dragging priests away from the altars.
  • He convinced a couple of the more radical preachers to stop preaching or leave town.
  • twelve who had been smuggled out in herring barrels.
  • However, he impulsively announced he was marrying Katharina von Bora, to the great surprise of his friends.
  • Many were inspired by Martin Luther's challenge to the authority of the Church to challenge the secular powers as well.
  • Martin Luther wrote an appeal to the aristocrats to restore order by force.
  • Both sides were angry with Luther: the nobles blamed him for stirring up the people and the peasants blamed him for encouraging the nobles to use violence against them.
  • Luther wrote to and met with other leaders of the Reformation, such as Zwingli, to try and produce a unified statement of belief for the reformed church, but nothing came out of it because they were not able to agree on many of the doctrinal issues.
Garth Holman

Preamble and Articles of the Magna Carta (1215) - 0 views

  • Only those Articles pertaining to today’s constitutional guarantees under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 1867 to 1997, the Constitution of the United States of America and other relevant statutes are reproduced herein Ed.
    • Garth Holman
       
      Article 1:  In the common words: the Church and State are to be two groups, not one. separation of Church and State   
  • that the English Church shall be free,3 a
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  • Common pleas1 shall not follow our court but shall be held in some fixed place
    • Garth Holman
       
      What does this mean? 
  • A freeman shall not be amerced10 for a small offence, except in accordance with the degree of the offence and for a grave offence he shall be amerced according to its gravity,
    • Garth Holman
       
      The punishment of the crime should be fair for the crime committed.  Fairness of the courts..
  • Let there be throughout our kingdom a single measure for wine and a single measure for ale and a single measure for corn, namely "the London quarter," and a single width of cloth (whether dyed, russet
    • Garth Holman
       
      Use the same weights and measure everyone, so people are treated fairly.  Look at a gas pump next time you parents fill up do you see this? 
  • In future no official shall put anyone to trial merely on his own testimony, without reliable witnesses produced for this purpose.
    • Garth Holman
       
      Need for evidence against someone, not just the persons own words. 
  • 39. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; No freeman shall be arrested or imprisoned or deprived of his freehold or outlawed or banished or in any way ruined, nor will we take or order action against him, except by the lawful judgment of his equals and according to the law of the land.
    • Garth Holman
       
      The big one: The right of A writ of habeas corpus (English pronunciation: /ˌheɪbiəs ˈkɔrpəs/; Latin: "you may have the body") is a writ (court order) that requires a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court.[1][2] The principle of habeas corpus ensures that a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention-that is, detention lacking sufficient cause or evidence.  See link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus
  • To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay right or justice.
  • Wherefore we wish and firmly order that the English Church shall be free, and the men in our kingdom shall have and hold all the aforesaid privileges, rights and concessions well and peacefully, freely and quietly, fully and completely for themselves and their heirs from us and our heirs in all things and places for ever as is aforesaid. Moreover an oath has been taken, as well on our part as on the part of the barons, that all these things aforesaid shall be observed in good faith and without any evil intention. As witness the above-mentioned and many others. Given under our hand in the meadow which is called Runnymede (Ronimed) between Windsor and Staines on the fifteenth day of June in the seventeenth year of our reign.&nbsp;
    • Garth Holman
       
      We establish a free church and provide for the rights and privileges of the people.  The king and nobles (barons) agree to this and our children, children will have these rights. 
Eric G

Hone the Top 5 Soft Skills Every College Student Needs - US News - 0 views

  • "hard" skills like writing, mathematics and science
  • Soft skills include the ability to adapt to changing circumstances and the willingness to learn through experience, and are applicable across multiple disciplines and careers.
  • five important soft skills college-bound students require.
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  • People who succeed only when working alone will struggle in college and beyond
  • majority of careers require collaboration.
  • young people do not know how to effectively carry on a conversation and are unable to do things like ask questions, listen actively and&nbsp;maintain eye contact.
  • The current prevalence of electronic devices has connected young individuals to one another
  • An inability to employ these skills effectively translates poorly in college and&nbsp;job interviews, for instance.
  • solve problems in creative ways and to determine solutions to issues with no prescribed formula.
  • They must be able to
  • Students who are accustomed to learned processes, and who cannot occasionally veer off-course, will struggle to handle unanticipated setbacks
  • Students can improve problem-solving abilities by enrolling in classes that us​e experiential learning
  • Students can improve this skill by assuming responsibility in multiple areas during high school&nbsp;–
  • It is imperative that they be fully self-sufficient in managing their time and prioritizing actions.
  • The ability to track multiple projects in an organized and efficient manner, as well as intelligently prioritize tasks, is also extremely important for students long after graduation​​.
  • The best way for students to develop this skill as they prepare for college is to search for leadership opportunities in high school.
  • Both in college and within the workforce, the ability to assume the lead when the situation calls for it is a necessity for anyone who hopes to draw upon their knowledge and "hard" skills in a position of influence.
  • or gaining professional employment experience
    • Eric G
       
      The first soft skill is collaboration, which means working with other people appropriately in a group.
  • These skills will again be important not only in college,&nbsp;where students must engage with professors to gain references and recommendations for future endeavors,&nbsp;but beyond as well.
    • Eric G
       
      The second soft skill is communication, which means to have a conversation with someone.
  • Students should also try new pursuits that place them in unfamiliar and even uncomfortable situations
  • Whatever structure students may have had in high school to organize their work and complete assignments in a timely manner will be largely absent in college.
    • Eric G
       
      The third soft skill is being able to solve problems with little help.
    • Eric G
       
      The fourth soft skill is being able to manage your time when it comes to homework and projects.
  • While it is important to be able to function in a group, it is also important to demonstrate leadership skills when necessary.
    • Eric G
       
      The fifth soft skill is being a leader and having good leadership skills.
  • Soft skills include the ability to adapt to changing circumstances and the willingness to learn through experience, and are applicable across multiple disciplines and careers.
  • It is imperative for college-bound students to function efficiently and appropriately in groups, collaborate on projects and accept constructive criticism when working with others.
Garth Holman

The Assassination of Julius Caesar, 44 BC - 4 views

  • In January of 49 BC, Julius Caesar led his army across the Rubicon River in Northern Italy (see Caesar Crosses the Rubicon, 49 BC) and plunged the Roman Republic into civil war. Caesar's rival, Pompey, fled to Greece. Within three months Caesar controlled the entire Italian peninsula and in Spain had defeated the legions loyal to Pompey. Caesar now pursued Pompey to Greece. Although outnumbered, Caesar crushed the forces of his enemy but not before Pompey escaped to Egypt. Following Pompey to Egypt, Caesar was presented with his rival's severed head as a token of friendship. Before leaving the The Assassination of Caesar region, Caesar established Cleopatra as his surrogate ruler of Egypt. Caesar defeated his remaining rivals in North Africa in 47 BC and returned to Rome with his authority firmly established. Caesar continued to consolidate his power and in February 44 BC, he declared himself dictator for life. This act, along with his continual effort to adorn himself with the trappings of power, turned many in the Senate against him. Sixty members of the Senate concluded that the only resolution to the problem was to assassinate Caesar
  • The Plan: "The conspirators never met openly, but they assembled a few at a time in each others' homes. There were many discussions and proposals, as might be expected, while they investigated how and where to execute their design. Some suggested that they should make the attempt as he was going along the Sacred Way, which was one of his favorite walks. Another idea was for it to be done at the elections during which he bad to cross a bridge to appoint the magistrates in the Campus Martius; they should draw lots for some to push him from the bridge and for others to run up and kill him. A third plan was to wait for a coming gladiatorial show. The advantage of that would be that, because of the show, no suspicion would be aroused if arms were seen prepared for the attempt. But the majority opinion favored killing him while he sat in the Senate, where he would be by himself since non-Senators would not be admitted, and where the many conspirators could hide their daggers beneath their togas. This plan won the day."
  • "...his friends were alarmed at certain rumors and tried to stop him going to the Senate-house, as did his doctors, for he was suffering from one of his occasional dizzy spells. His wife, Calpurnia, especially, who was frightened by some visions in her dreams, clung to him and said that she would not let him go out that day. But Brutus, one of the conspirators who was then thought of as a firm friend, came up and said, 'What is this, Caesar? Are you a man to pay attention to a woman's dreams and the idle gossip of stupid men, and to insult the Senate by not going out, although it has honored you and has been specially summoned by you? But listen to me, cast aside the forebodings of all these people, and come. The Senate has been in session waiting for you since early this morning.' This swayed Caesar and he left."
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  • The Attack: "The Senate rose in respect for his position when they saw him entering. Those who were to have part in the plot stood near him. Right next to him went Tillius Cimber, whose brother had been exiled by Caesar. Under pretext of a humble request on behalf of this brother, Cimber approached and grasped the mantle of his toga, seeming to want to make a more positive move with his hands upon Caesar. Caesar wanted to get up and use his hands, but was prevented by Cimber and became exceedingly annoyed. That was the moment for the men to set to work. All quickly unsheathed their daggers and rushed at him. First Servilius Casca struck him with the point of the blade on the left shoulder a little above the collar-bone. He had been aiming for that, but in the excitement he missed. Caesar rose to defend himself, and in the uproar Casca shouted out in Greek to his brother. The latter heard him and drove his sword into the ribs. After a moment, Cassius made a slash at his face, and Decimus Brutus pierced him in the side. While Cassius Longinus was trying to give him another blow he missed and struck Marcus Brutus on the hand. Minucius also hit out at Caesar and hit Rubrius in the thigh. They were just like men doing battle against him. Under the mass of wounds, he fell at the foot of Pompey's statue. Everyone wanted to seem to have had some part in the murder, and there was not one of them who failed to strike his body as it lay there, until, wounded thirty-five times, he breathed his last. "
Garth Holman

Intro to the Medieval Era - 1 views

  • The Medieval Era, often called The Middle Ages or the Dark Ages, began just before 500 A.D. following a great loss of power throughout Europe by the Roman Emperor. The Middle Ages span roughly 1,000 years, ending around 1450 A.D. (Medieval actually means "Middle"!) In The Middle Ages people were busy: Building great Cathedrals as there was a huge rise in Christianity Building Great castles for local nobility Clearing large tracts of land by peasants and slaves for their Lords and Kings New towns and villages were popping up all over Europe
  • esulting in the foundation of many of today's modern European countries.
  • For safety and for defense, people formed small communities around a central Lord or Master. Most lived on a Manor, which consisted of the Castle, the Church, the Village, and the surrounding Farm Land. These Manors were isolated, with only occasional visits from peddlers or pilgrims on their way to the Crusades or soldiers from other fiefdoms (kingdoms).
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  • Feudalism ~ The King awarded land grants to his most important nobles, like Barons and Bishops, in return for their contribution of soldiers for the King's armies. Lords could have a variety of other official titles including Earl, Marquis or Viscount. Lords did more than fund wars. They were the local justice and held court for local matters. Lords provided some of their land to Vassals, or tenants who were a somewhat higher class than peasants. Vassals were required to serve guard duty, and later they paid a fee to acquire mercenaries (soldiers-for-hire). &nbsp;At the lowest class of society were the Peasants, also called "serfs" or "villeins." Peasants provided the Lord with labor or a share of the produce or livestock yielded from his lands in exchange for protection, land to work and a place to live.
  •  
    This page of the site is good.
Emily J

The Seven Catholic Sacraments | Seasonal Feature | American Catholic - 2 views

  • The Latin word sacramentum means "a sign of the sacred." The seven sacraments are ceremonies that point to what is sacred, significant and important for Christians. They are special occasions for experiencing God's saving presence.
  • For Catholics, the Sacrament of Baptism is the first step in a lifelong journey of commitment and discipleship. Whether we are baptized as infants or adults, Baptism is the Church's way of celebrating and enacting the embrace of God
  • Catholics believe the Eucharist, or Communion, is both a sacrifice and a meal. We believe in the real presence of Jesus, who died for our sins. As we receive Christ's Body and Blood, we also are nourished spiritually and brought closer to God.
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  • The Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation (also known as Penance, or Penance and Reconciliation) has three elements: conversion, confession and celebration. In it we find God's unconditional forgiveness; as a result we are called to forgive others.
    • Shira H
       
      The seven Sacraments are Baptism, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Confirmation,Marriage,Holy Orders, Anointing of the Sick. Great site for quest 5. 
  • Confirmation is a Catholic Sacrament of mature Christian commitment and a deepening of baptismal gifts. It is one of the three Sacraments of Initiation for Catholics. It is most often associated with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
  • For Catholics, the Sacrament of Marriage, or Holy Matrimony, is a public sign that one gives oneself totally to this other person. It is also a public statement about God: the loving union of husband and wife speaks of family values and also God's values.
  • In the Sacrament of Holy Orders, or Ordination, the priest being ordained vows to lead other Catholics by bringing them the sacraments (especially the Eucharist), by proclaiming the Gospel, and by providing other means to holiness.
  • The Catholic Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, formerly known as Last Rites or Extreme Unction, is a ritual of healing appropriate not only for physical but also for mental and spiritual sickness.
Garth Holman

Castles in Medieval Times - 0 views

  • &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Large stone castles were built in Europe from about the 1100’s to about the 1500’s. These huge buildings served not only to defend the country from foreign invaders but as the basic tool in preserving the king’s and the nobles’ power over the land. The social system was very rigid in the Middle Ages.
  • Under Feudalism, the basic social structure in this time, all land was held by the king. The king gave pieces of this land to various high nobles, in return for their help in fighting his wars or in putting down rebellions. Not only did the higher nobles have to fight for the king themselves, they had to supply a certain number of lesser lords and other knights to help fight also. These higher nobles then gave some of their land to lesser knights, in return for their help in battle. Below all the knights were the serfs, who actually farmed the land. They gave a portion of their crops each year to the lord who ruled over them, in return for use of the land and protection.
  • castles as symbols of their power for all to see.
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  • A man’s son inherited his lands and his obligations to fight
  • The castle was both a residence for the lord and his family, and a fortification. It was a strong place for the lord to defend himself against his enemies (and the king’s enemies, and his overlord’s enemies), a safe place for him and his knights to return to, and a place to live which emphasized his power.
  • &nbsp; Castles were built to keep out enemies. When an attack was expected, the drawbridge was raised, the gates and portcullis were closed, and archers were stationed on the towers.
  • The walls were not only high, in a well-planned castle, but they were arranged as much as possible so that anyone climbing the walls could be shot at from two directions.
  • The castle’s defenses invited a great deal of ingenuity from the attackers. Rolling wooden towers, covered with thick hides to stop arrows and kept wet so they could not be set on fire, were brought up to the walls in an attack. Sometimes they even worked. Catapults threw heavy stones at the walls to make a breach or loads of rocks (or diseased livestock, or fire bombs) over the walls. The battering ram—generally used against a door—was an old favorite.
  • he knights and their servants and their mounts all had to eat, as did the lord, his family, and his servants and officials, and their families. Many castles grew certain types of food inside their walls, to add variety to the diet of those inside the castle, but it was not nearly enough to feed the people in the castle, much less their guests. Castles might have beehives, herb gardens, fruit trees or a fishpond. Because the land inside the castle walls was not enough to feed all these people, they got their food from the peasants who farmed outside, and from hunting. There were restrictions on hunting by the peasants, and sometimes it was forbidden entirely, so that the lord and his retainers would have plenty of game to hunt. Hunting was also a major recreation for the lord and his men.
David W

Pope Urban II orders first Crusade - Nov 27, 1095 - HISTORY.com - 5 views

  • On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II makes perhaps the most influential speech of the Middle Ages, giving rise to the Crusades by calling all Christians in Europe to war against Muslims in order to reclaim the Holy Land, with a cry of "Deus vult!" or "God wills it!"
  • By the end of the 11th century, the Holy Land—the area now commonly referred to as the Middle East—had become a point of conflict for European Christians. Since the 6th century, Christians frequently made pilgrimages to the birthplace of their religion, but when the Seljuk Turks took control of Jerusalem, Christians were barred from the Holy City. When the Turks then threatened to invade the Byzantine Empire and take Constantinople, Byzantine Emperor Alexius I made a special appeal to Urban for help. This was not the first appeal of its kind, but it came at an important time for Urban. Wanting to reinforce the power of the papacy, Urban seized the opportunity to unite Christian Europe under him as he fought to take back the Holy Land from the Turks.
  • Urban delivered a rousing speech summoning rich and poor alike to stop their in-fighting and embark on a righteous war to help their fellow Christians in the East and take back Jerusalem. Urban denigrated the Muslims, exaggerating stories of their anti-Christian acts, and promised absolution and remission of sins for all who died in the service of Christ.
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  • European nobles were tempted by the prospect of increased land holdings and riches to be gained from the conquest. These nobles were responsible for the death of a great many innocents both on the way to and in the Holy Land, absorbing the riches and estates of those they conveniently deemed opponents to their cause. Adding to the death toll was the inexperience and lack of discipline of the Christian peasants against the trained, professional armies of the Muslims. As a result, the Christians were initially beaten back, and only through sheer force of numbers were they eventually able to triumph
    • Garth Holman
       
      God Wills it  -- this was the call.  All who went on Crusade were to paint a RED cross on their shirt to show they were on a mission for GOD. 
    • Garth Holman
       
       So Jews, Christians and Muslims all "share" the holy land.  But the Muslim Turks closed the pilgrimage route and said they were going to attack their neighbors, so Byzantine Emperor asks for help and Pope URBAN II sees a way to gain more power.  And The crusades begin. 
    • Garth Holman
       
      Urban asks rich (Kings/Nobles) and poor (peasants) alike to travel and free the holy land. He did not tell the whole truth, but added a little to make it sound worse.  Then he promised "A FREE PASS TO HEAVEN" for all who go and destroy Muslims.  The words Absolution (forgiveness) and Remission (take away) all sins=your free pass. 
    • Garth Holman
       
      People did not just go to "Serve G-D" but to gain wealth and power.  Christians only win one time and then lose the next six Crusades, but the impact of these events changed history forever. 
    • Nicole G
       
      Pope Urban II died in 1099 that was two weeks after the fall of Jerusalem and The Christians won and made it back to the Europe. 
    • parker g
       
      Truuuu
    • Garth Holman
       
      This is the key phrase: promised absolution and remission of sins for all who died in the service of Christ.  What does this mean? 
    • Kanrry K
       
      It means that your sins will be forgiven.
    • David W
       
      This is the beginning of all wars.
dcs-armstrong

Middle Ages for Kids: Knight's Coat of Arms - 0 views

  • Red was the color of a warrior and nobility. Other colors included blue for truth and sincerity, black for piety and knowledge, and green for hope and joy. The colors in heraldry are called tinctures.
  • the lion stood for majesty and strength, the elephant for wit and ambition, the boar for courage and ferocity, and the sun for power and glory.
  • Knights and nobles in the Middle Ages often had a coat of arms.
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  • "heraldry"
  • coat of arms was used to distinguish one knight from another. When a knight had on his full armor, including plate mail and helmet, even his friends couldn't recognize him. Because of this, knights began to paint symbols on their shields.
  • job of people called heralds to keep track of the different coats of arms.
  • A coat of arms belonged to the family of the knight. He would pass the coat of arms down to his eldest son.
  • Knights and nobles in the Middle Ages often had a coat of arms.
    • dcs-armstrong
       
      Peasants did NOT have their own coat of arms
    • dcs-armstrong
       
      Peasants did NOT have their own coat of arms.
  • original coats of arms had fairly simple designs
  • As there became more and more
  • designs became more complicated in order for each one to be unique.
Paige W

BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: The Democratic Experiment - 1 views

  • Take politics for example: apart from the word itself (from polis, meaning city-state or community) many of the other basic political terms in our everyday vocabulary are borrowed from the ancient Greeks: monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy and - of course - democracy.
  • demokratia
  • It meant literally 'people-power'
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  • The Greek word demos could mean either
  • Was it all the people
  • Or only some of the people
  • There's a theory that the word demokratia was coined by democracy's enemies, members of the rich and aristocratic elite who did not like being outvoted by the common herd, their social and economic inferiors.
  • By the time of Aristotle (fourth century BC) there were hundreds of Greek democracies. Greece in those times was not a single political entity but rather a collection of some 1,500 separate poleis or 'cities' scattered round the Mediterranean and Black Sea shores 'like frogs around a pond', as Plato once charmingly put it.
  • cities that were not democracies
  • power was in the hands of the few richest citizens
  • monarchies, called 'tyrannies' in cases where the sole ruler had usurped power by force rather than inheritanc
  • most stable,
  • most long-lived,
  • most radical, was Athens.
  • origin of the Athenian democracy of the fifth and fourth centuries can be traced back to Solon,
  • flourished
  • 600 BC.
  • was a poet and a wise statesman
  • but not - contrary to later myth - a democrat.
  • Solon's constitutional reform package that laid the basis on which democracy could be pioneered
  • Cleisthenes was the son of an Athenian, but the grandson and namesake of a foreign Greek tyrant
  • also the brother-in-law of the Athenian tyrant, Peisistratus,
  • eized power three times
  • before finally establishing a stable and apparently benevolent dictatorship.
    • Paige W
       
      Interesting insight on the beginning of democracy.
  • nder this political system that Athens successfully resisted the Persian onslaughts of 490 and 480/79
  • victory in turn encouraged the poorest Athenians to demand a greater say in the running of their city
  • Ephialtes and Pericles presided over a radicalisation of power that shifted the balance decisively to the poorest sections of society
  • he democratic Athens that won and lost an empire,
  • built the Parthenon,
  • eschylus, Sophocles,
  • Euripides and Aristophanes
  • laid the foundations of western rational and critical thought
  • was not, of course, without internal critics
  • when Athens had been weakened by the catastrophic Peloponnesian War (431-404) these critics got their chance
  • n 411 and again in 404 Athenian oligarchs led counter-revolutions that replaced democracy with extreme oligarchy
  • oligarchs were supported by Athens's old enemy, Sparta
  • mpossible to maintain themselves in power
  • democracy was restored
  • 'blips' such as the trial of Socrates - the restored Athenian democracy flourished stably and effectively for another 80 years
  • There were no proper population censuses in ancient Athens,
  • total population of fifth-century Athens, including its home territory of Attica, at around 250,000 - men, women and children, free and unfree, enfranchised and disenfranchised. Of those
  • 250,000 some 30,000 on average were fully paid-up citizens -
  • adult males of Athenian birth and full status
  • second key difference is the level of participation.
  • representative
  • we choose politicians to rule for us
  • Athenian
  • democracy
  • was direct
  • and in-your-face.
  • most officials and all jurymen were selected by lot.
  • This was thought to be the democratic way, since election favoured the rich, famous and powerful over the ordinary citizen.
  • mid fifth century, office holders, jurymen, members of the city's main administrative Council of 500, and even Assembly attenders were paid a small sum from public funds to compensate them for time spent on political service away from field or workshop.
  • eligibility
  • adult male citizens need apply for the privileges and duties of democratic government, and a birth criterion of double descent - from an Athenian mother as well as father -
  • Athenian democracy did not happen only in the Assembly and Council. The courts were also essentially political spaces, located symbolically right at the centre of the city.
  • defined the democratic citizen as the man 'who has a share in (legal) judgment and office'.
  • Athenian drama,
  • was a fundamentally political activity as well,
  • One distinctively Athenian democratic practice that aroused the special ire of the system's critics was the practice of ostracism -
  • potsherd
  • rom the Greek word for
  • decide which leading politician should be exiled for ten years
  • on a piece of broken pottery.
  • voters scratched or painted the name of their preferred candidate
  • 6,000 citizens had to 'vote' for an ostracism to be valid,
  • biggest
  • political
  • risked being fried
  • For almost 100 years ostracism fulfilled its function of aborting serious civil unrest or even civil war
  • Power to the people, all the people, especially the poor majority, remained the guiding principle of Athenian democracy.
  •  
    About of Greek Democracy
Garth Holman

HISTORY OF FEUDALISM - 0 views

  •  
    "The top players in feudal Europe come from a small group of people - an aristocracy, based on skill in battle, with a shared commitment to a form of Christianity (at once power-hungry and idealistic) in which the pope in Rome has special powers as God's representative on earth. As a great feudal lord with moral pretensions, holding the ring between secular sovereigns, the pope can be seen as Europe's headmaster. Bishops and abbots are part of the small feudal aristocracy, for they are mostly recruited from the noble families holding the great fiefs. Indeed bishops can often be found on the battlefield, fighting it out with with the best. As in any other context, the strongest argument in feudalism - transcending the niceties of loyalty - is naked force. The Normans in England or in Sicily rule by right of conquest, and feudal disputes are regularly resolved in battle. But feudalism also provides many varieties of justification for force. And the possession of a good justification is almost as reassuring to a knight as a good suit of armour. One excellent excuse for warfare is the approval of the church. In 1059 the pope virtually commands the Normans to attack Sicily, by giving them feudal rights over territory not as yet theirs. Similarly Rome lets it be known that the Holy See is on the side of William when he invades England in 1066. Another important form of justification is a dynastic claim to a territory. Generations of marriages, carefully arranged for material gain, result in an immensely complex web of relationships - reflected often in kingdoms of very surprising shape on the map of Europe.
Garth Holman

The Medieval Church - 3 views

  • From the very earliest of ages, the people were taught that the only way they could get to Heaven was if the Roman Catholic Church let them. Everybody would have been terrified of Hell and the people would have been told of the sheer horrors awaiting for them in Hell in the weekly services they attended.
  • The control the Church had over the people was total. Peasants worked for free on Church land. This proved difficult for peasants as the time they spent working on Church land, could have been better spent working on their own plots of land producing food for their families.
  • They paid 10% of what they earned in a year to the Church (this tax was called tithes). Tithes could be paid in either money or in goods produced by the peasant farmers. As peasants had little money, they almost always had to pay in seeds, harvested grain, animals etc. This usually caused a peasant a lot of hardship as seeds, for example, would be needed to feed a family the following year.
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  • What the Church got in tithes was kept in huge tithe barns; a lot of the stored grain would have been eaten&nbsp; by rats or poisoned by their urine.
  • A failure to pay tithes, so the peasants were told by the Church, would lead to their souls going to Hell after they had died.&nbsp;
  • People were too scared not to pay tithes despite the difficulties it meant for them.
  • You also had to pay for baptisms (if you were not baptised you could not go to Heaven when you died), marriages (there were no couples living together in Medieval times as the Church taught that this equaled sin) and burials - you had to be buried on holy land if your soul was to get to heaven. Whichever way you looked, the Church received money.
  • The Church also did not have to pay taxes.
  • Important cities would have cathedrals in them.
  • To work on the building of a cathedral was a great honour. Those who did the skilled work had to belong to a guild. They would have used just the most basic of tools and less than strong scaffolding to do the ceilings. However, if you were killed in an accident while working in a cathedral or a church, you were guaranteed a place in Heaven - or so the workers were told.
  • Their sheer size meant that people would see them from miles around, and remind them of the huge power of the Catholic Church in Medieval England.
    • Shira H
       
      Great site for quest 5
  •  
    Medieval Church
Garth Holman

Untitled - 2 views

  • Warlike Games of the Nobles; the Tournament. So eager for war and adventure were the nobles that times of peace seemed dull. Even hunting, of which they were very fond, was not exciting enough. So they had "tournaments." These were simply play-wars in which knights contended, either in single combat or in opposing troops.
  • Galleries were erected from which the ladies might view the combats and applaud their champions; and high nobles and even kings in splendid costume eagerly attended. The knights in their shining armor, with colored streamers fluttering from their lances, made a gallant picture.
  • One of them was "chivalry," which taught that every boy of noble birth should strive to be a true "knight" and every girl a "lady."
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  • A true knight was a brave warrior who feared nothing, who was always ready to fight for the poor or the unfortunate, and who would never do a mean or underhand thing. To perform a gallant feat of arms, or to help any one in distress, he would gladly risk any danger and never ask for pay. A true knight must be a good Christian and serve the church. But most of all he was to select some noble lady for whose sake he would win renown and whose smile would be his highest reward.
  • chivalry marked out for each young noble what he was to learn. At about the age of seven his training began. Usually he was sent by his father to the castle of his lord or to that of some other famous knight. Here he became a "page." He waited constantly upon the lord and his wife, and by the ladies of the castle was taught courtly manners and perhaps how to play and sing. But when he grew strong enough for more active tasks, perhaps at fourteen or fifteen, he became a "squire." He now attended more especially upon the lord. He must care for his horses, keep his arms bright, and go with him on his campaigns. Meanwhile, under the direction of his lord, he practiced constantly in the use of arms, learning to ride, to wear the heavy armor, and to wield the lance. The older squires fought beside their lords in battle.
  • The giving of "knighthood" was an impressive ceremony. After bathing and arraying himself in the required costume of red, white, and black, the young man was required to watch for a whole night before the altar of a church in which his weapons and armor had been placed. In the morning he attended mass and then, in the presence of all his family, friends, and vassals, advanced to his lord and knelt. The lord drew his sword and with the flat of the blade smote the young man on the shoulder, saying as he did so, "In the name of God,’ St. Michael, and St. George, I dub thee knight. Be brave and loyal." Then the newly made knight arose joyfully, and leaping upon his horse showed his skill in riding and in the use of his sword and lance. The ceremony ended with a great feast.
megan s

Ancient Greece Inventions - 7 views

  • Ancient Greece Inventions
    • megan s
       
      Thanks to whoever highlighted this :)
  • It is thought that they were one of the first to use a Canon although it did not use gunpowder. By using compressed air, these canons were able to hurl a projectile over long distances.
  • One well-known ancient Greek invention is the Antikythera mechanism. Believe it or not, this was a type of calculator that is thought to have been invented some 2000 years ago. As a matter of fact, many people consider this to be the world's first computer,
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Another one of the ancient Greek inventions that is rather interesting is that of the shower. Although nothing was known about germs at that particular time, the Greeks thought that it was a healthful practice to wash the body with water. The fact that there were showers during this time period is recorded in various art murals that have been excavated
  • The ancient Grecian Empire was not only known for its unprecedented warfare, it was also known for some of the inventors and inventions that took place during that time. Most of these inventions occurred during the fifth century B.C. but that was really only the start of the ancient Greek inventions that we have a record of. Some of the most well-known of these ancient Greece inventions occurred even after the Roman Empire had come into power.
  • It would be easy to discuss many of the ancient Greeks inventions that took place which were associated with warfare. Almost everybody is aware of the fact that Alexander the Great and his conquests were some of the most renowned throughout all history. In just a short period of time, he and his army overtook most of the then known world and if his life would not have been cut short, he would have continued his conquests. There were, no doubt, many ancient Greek inventions which helped to make his conquests successful. The one invention that I will discuss, however, is the canon. It is thought that they were one of the first to use a Canon although it did not use gunpowder. By using compressed air, these canons were able to hurl a projectile over long distances.
  • The ancient Grecian Empire was not only known for its unprecedented warfare, it was also known for some of the inventors and inventions that took place during that time. Most of these inventions occurred during the fifth century B.C. but that was really only the start of the ancient Greek inventions that we have a record of. Some of the most well-known of these ancient Greece inventions occurred even after the Roman Empire had come into power.
  • It would be easy to discuss many of the ancient Greeks inventions that took place which were associated with warfare. Almost everybody is aware of the fact that Alexander the Great and his conquests were some of the most renowned throughout all history. In just a short period of time, he and his army overtook most of the then known world and if his life would not have been cut short, he would have continued his conquests. There were, no doubt, many ancient Greek inventions which helped to make his conquests successful. The one invention that I will discuss, however, is the canon. &nbsp;It is thought that they were one of the first to use a Canon although it did not use gunpowder. By using compressed air, these canons were able to hurl a projectile over long distances. &nbsp;One well-known ancient Greek invention is the Antikythera mechanism. Believe it or not, this was a type of calculator that is thought to have been invented some 2000 years ago. As a matter of fact, many people consider this to be the world's first computer, although it was nothing like the computers that we see today. Through the use of a complex system of gears, it was able to calculate the relative positions of the sun, moon and stars whenever a date was entered. This is one of the ancient Greeks inventions that was truly far ahead of its time. The ancient Greeks were also well known for their work that took place under water. Aristotle first described this type of contraption some 2400 years ago. It is thought that this is one of the ancient Greeks inventions that was used in order to salvage the floor of the ocean for various items. It is unknown what other applications this ancient Greek invention had but it was ingenious that they were able to come up with the concept. &nbsp;Another one of the ancient Greek inventions that is rather interesting is that of the shower. Although nothing was known about germs at that particular time, the Greeks thought that it was a healthful practice to wash the body with water. The fact that there were showers during this time period is recorded in various art murals that have been excavated . It is hard to know what other ancient Greeks inventions were in existence during that time. One thing's for certain, they were a society that was rather enlightened and well ahead of their time. Perhaps with some more archaeology work on our part, we may be able to discover that they were behind some other ingenious ideas as well.
  • One well-known ancient Greek invention is the Antikythera mechanism. Believe it or not, this was a type of calculator that is thought to have been invented some 2000 years ago. As a matter of fact, many people consider this to be the world's first computer, although it was nothing like the computers that we see today. Through the use of a complex system of gears, it was able to calculate the relative positions of the sun, moon and stars whenever a date was entered. This is one of the ancient Greeks inventions that was truly far ahead of its time.
  • Another one of the ancient Greek inventions that is rather interesting is that of the shower. Although nothing was known about germs at that particular time, the Greeks thought that it was a healthful practice to wash the body with water. The fact that there were showers during this time period is recorded in various art murals that have been excavated.
  •  
    The invetions of ancient Greece
  •  
    This website has many inventions for ancient greece
  •  
    The invetions of ancient Greece
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