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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 inches (33.5 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 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 mm (1/250 of a fathom), and that of bronze-made one from Harapa was 9.33 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
Rose h

Battle of the Oranges in north Italy - in pictures | World news | guardian.co.uk - 0 views

    • Rose h
       
      This is so interesting!!!!
  • the festival's origins lie in the overthrow of a tyrant in the Middle Ages - instead of the sword and crossbow, however, the weapon of choice is the orange
  • the festival's origins lie in the overthrow of a tyrant in the Middle Ages - instead of the sword and crossbow, however, the weapon of choice is the orange
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  • the festival's origins lie in the overthrow of a tyrant in the Middle Ages - instead of the sword and crossbow, however, the weapon of choice is the orange
alove_

Translating Archaic Sumerian Cuneiform: Pinpointing Eden, or Kharsag, Garden of the God... - 0 views

  • Cuneiform was written with the wedge-shaped end of a reed, cutting into a wet clay tablet or cylinder, in many different shapes and styles for different purposes.  It evolved over a long period of time under the direction of scribes in the Near East, Mesopotamia, the wider Fertile Crescent and the Indus Valley, spreading outwards with the subsequent migrations of these people to all corners of the world, including Britain well before 2,000 BC.
John Woodbridge

Medieval beliefs about sin and forgiveness » English Lit Resources from Cross... - 1 views

  • Sin, in Christian teaching, consists of disobedience to the known will of God
  • Medieval Church inherited and taught the doctrine of original sin, the belief that all human beings share in collective guilt as a result of the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in the Fall of Humankind, together with an ongoing predisposition to disobey God
  • needed to be cleansed through baptism
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  • taking part in this, believers symbolically shared in the victory paid for – and won by - Christ over the power of sin (known as the atonement).
  • Celebrating mass
  • Everyone
  • sermons that people learnt Bible
  • few laypeople had direct access to the text of the Bible.
  • Sermons had several functions:
  • The idea of purgatory was based on the obvious fact that most people are neither extremely good nor extremely evil.
  • To educate people about the Christian faith and the Church’s rituals and practices To make known the contents of the Bible, the Church’s interpretations of the Bible, and also the lives of saints To help people understand the system of confession and to prepare for their confession to their parish priest in a careful way To explain about sin and virtues.
  • Venial sins were relatively small faults and shortcomings. The individual could confess these privately to God Mortal, or ‘deadly’, sins were wrong acts committed consciously and deliberately. They therefore placed the soul in serious danger and the Church taught that, in normal circumstances, they could only be forgiven through the sacrament of penance and by confession to a priest.
  • believed that being too absorbed in the life of the body and material things was bad for the soul.
  • The simple food monks and nuns were supposed to keep to The regular fasting periods that all Christians observed during the Church year.
  • repentance means the person wants to turn away from undertaking wrong behaviour and actively decides to do so henceforward.
  • The priest would hear the confession and talk to the penitent to ascertain that they truly repented and resolved to do better in future. The priest then pronounced absolution, declaring that Christ forgave the sins of the truly repentant.
  • Penance  This means an action which demonstrates that someone has repented of their sins. The priest might order a penitent, for example, to do one of the following for a period: Go on pilgrimage Fast (abstain from food) Donate alms to the Church or the poor.
  • knowledge of the Christian faith came, above all, from preaching and teaching, week by week from parish priests.
  • people,
  • would not go straight to heaven after death either. Instead, they would spend a period in the spiritual state of purgatory where they could ‘pay for’ / atone for sins committed on earth
  • It was believed that, whilst still alive, people could undertake deeds that would speed either themselves (in the future) or a dead friend or relative through this process
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    Discussion of sin, celebration of mass, importance of a sermon, confession, repentance, confession, penance, and purgatory
Andre Harris

Ancient Greece - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

    • Andre Harris
       
      cool
  • The territory of Greece is mountainous, and as a result, ancient Greece consisted of many smaller regions each with its own dialect, cultural peculiarities, and identity. Regionalism and regional conflicts were a prominent feature of ancient Greece. Cities tended to be located in valleys between mountains, or on coastal plains, and dominated a certain area around them.
  • Thus, the major peculiarities of the ancient Greek political system were; firstly, its fragmentary nature, and that this does not particularly seem to have tribal origin; and secondly the particular focus on urban centres within otherwise tiny states. The peculiarities of the Greek system are further evidenced by the colonies that they set up throughout the Mediterranean Sea, which, though they might count a certain Greek polis as their 'mother' (and remain sympathetic to her), were completely independent of the founding city. Inevitably smaller poleis might be
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  • Ancient Greece consisted of several hundred more or less independent city-states (poleis). This was a situation unlike that in most other contemporary societies, which were either tribal, or kingdoms ruling over relatively large territories. Undoubtedly the geography of Greece—divided and sub-divided by hills, mountains and rivers—contributed to the fragmentary nature of ancient Greece. On the one hand, the ancient Greeks had no doubt that they were 'one people'; they had the same religion, same basic culture, and same language. Furthermore, the Greeks were very aware of their tribal origins; Herodotus was able to extensively categorise the city-states by tribe. Yet, although these higher-level relationships existed, they seem to have rarely had a major role in Greek politics.
    • Andre Harris
       
      awesome 
cglosser c

Spanish Inquisition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 1 views

  • The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (Spanish: Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición), commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition (Inquisición española), was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.
    • cglosser c
       
      These rulers hired people from the church to kill of those accused of heretics.
    • cglosser c
       
      These are events that made the Spanish Inquisition possible.
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  • The Inquisition was extremely active between 1480 and 1530. Different sources give different estimates of the number of trials and executions in this period; Henry Kamen estimates about 2,000 executed, based on the documentation of the autos-da-fé, the great majority being conversos of Jewish origin. He offers striking statistics: 91.6% of those judged in Valencia between 1484 and 1530 and 99.3% of those judged in Barcelona between 1484 and 1505 were of Jewish origin.[12] "In 1498 the pope was still trying to...gain acceptance for his own attitude towards the New Christians, which was generally more moderate than that of the Inquisition and the local rulers."
  • Alonso de Hojeda, a Dominican friar from Seville, convinced Queen Isabella of the existence of Crypto-Judaism among Andalusian conversos during her stay in Seville between 1477 and 1478.[7] A report, produced by Pedro González de Mendoza, Archbishop of Seville, and by the Segovian Dominican Tomás de Torquemada, corroborated this assertion
    • cglosser c
       
      The churches all over Europe Started killing people
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    This is about the Spanish Inquisition. What it is, and who was involved in it. 
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    The King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella Killed many of heretics. Heretics had to make a choices. 
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    This is a website that I found on the Spanish Inquisition.
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    Info on the spanish inquisition
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    This is a Wikipedia article on the Spanish Inquisition.
Garth Holman

WHAT IS THE MAGNA CARTA - Awesome Stories - 0 views

  • The "Great Charter" (English for the Latin Magna Carta) was not in King John's best interests. Nor was it his original thought. It was also not the original thought of the barons who forced it on him.
  • nearly word for word, from "The Charter of Liberties of Henry I," an earlier charter (1100) from an earlier king (1100-1135) who had granted civil liberties to the English nobility.
  • e Magna Carta as a forerunner of American rights and liberties.
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    Magna Carta Part 2/9 parts to story.  What is Magna Carta? 
anl21dcs

The Roman Republic Fails - Ancient Rome for Kids - 2 views

  • graft
    • Garth Holman
       
       a form of political corruption, is the unscrupulous use of a politician's authority for personal gain. The term has its origins in the medical procedure whereby tissue is removed from one location and attached to another for which it was not originally intended.
  • legions, to build roads, sewers, aqueducts, and arenas, and to pay for the welfare programs that fed the poor.
    • Garth Holman
       
      A Legion, is a name for an army.  Each Legion was about 6000 men.  Could be more or less depending on the year
  • tax farmers.
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  • A tax farmer was a person who bought the right from the Senate to tax all the people and business in a certain area
  • didn't set up any controls
  • Tax farming was a business, and the tax farmers were in it to make a profit.
  • Plus, since the tax farmer decided who got taxed and who didn't, you could bribe the tax farmer to make your taxes low or maybe tax your competitors out of business, or if you had enough bribe money,
  • you and your entire family could be sold into slavery.
  • Rome was going broke.
    • Garth Holman
       
      Spending more then  they had.  This is always a problem! 
  • Under Roman law you could pay someone to vote for you.
  • Since they bought the position from the Senate, the Senate set the amount it cost and decided who actually got the job
  • Senate decided who got to build the roads, arenas etc.  So construction companies bribed the Senate to get the construction contracts.  Finally since the Senate made all the laws, people could bribe senators to make laws that they wanted.
  • Since there was no police force, there was no one to stop them.
  • Wealthy Romans hired guards and even built their own small armies to protect their homes and families.
  • Senators didn't trust each other, and they really didn't trust the legions. 
    • Garth Holman
       
      Why do you think the people of Rome did not trust each other?  Is trust in your fellow citizens important! 
  • They even passed laws making it illegal for a legion to enter Rome.
    • Garth Holman
       
      BUT one person will bring his army into Rome and things will change forever.  Who is that? 
  • They didn't say how much taxes were, or who got taxed.
  • They left all that up to the tax farmer.
    • coa21dcs
       
      They put the responsibility on the tax farmer
  • many of the tax farmers went way beyond
    • anl21dcs
       
      They taxed people they liked less or not at all and people they didn't like they taxed more heavily
mrs. b.

Greek Government - 7 Points to Know About Ancient Greek Government - 2 views

  • You may have heard that ancient Greece invented democracy, but democracy was only one type of government employed by the Greeks, and when it first evolved, many Greeks thought it a bad idea. In the pre-Classical period, ancient Greece was composed of small geographic units ruled by a local king. Over time, groups of the leading aristocrats replaced the kings. Greek aristocrats were powerful, hereditary noblemen and wealthy landowners whose interests were at odds with the majority of the populace.
  • 1. Ancient Greece Had Many Governments
  • Sparta was less interested than Athens in following the will of the people. The people were supposed to be working for the good of the state. However, just as Athens experimented with a novel form of government, so also was Sparta's system unusual. Originally, monarchs ruled Sparta, but over time, Sparta hybridized its government: The kings remained, but there were 2 of them at a time so one could go to war, there were also 5 annually-elected ephors, a council of 28 elders [technical term to learn: Gerousia], and an assembly of the people
    • mrs. b.
       
      Sparta's government was different from Athens
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  • Probably one of the first things learned from history books or classes on ancient Greece is that the Greeks invented democrac
  • Probably one of the first things learned from history books or classes on ancient Greece is that the Greeks invented democracy
  • Athens originally had kings, but gradually, by the 5th century B.C., it developed a system that required active, ongoing participation of the citizens.
  • While virtually all citizens were allowed to participate in the democracy, citizens did not include: women,children,slaves, orresident aliens, including those from other Greek poleis
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    Wow i never knew that before!!
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    A couple of Greek government facts
John Woodbridge

10 Things You May Not Know About William the Conqueror - HISTORY Lists - 0 views

  • 1. He was of Viking extraction
  • 2. He had reason to hate his original name.
  • 3. His future bride wanted nothing to do with him at first.
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  • 4. He couldn’t bear any disrespect toward his mother.
  • 5. He made England speak Franglais
  • 6. His jester was the first casualty of the Battle of Hastings
  • 7. He was touchy about his weight
  • 8. His body exploded at his funeral
  • 9. He is an ancestor of millions of people.
  • 10. He’s responsible for scores of British Wills.
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    This is a list of facts that give a deeper sense of who William was as a person and how these might have impacted his daily decisions.
Angela W

Sparta- everything about Sparta - 0 views

  • usually the only people eligible to receive the agoge were Spartiates, or people who could trace their ancestry to the original inhabitants of the city
  • Only those who had undertaken the Spartan education process
Martin M

Ancient Greek - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • The origins, early forms, and early development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of the lack of contemporaneous evidence. There are several theories about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period[1] is Mycenaean, but its relationship to the historical dialects and the historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form.
  • The major dialect groups of the Ancient Greek period can be assumed to have developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasion(s), and their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to the historical Dorians; moreover, the invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. The Greeks of this period considered there to be three major divisions of all the Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cyprian, far from the center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is:[2
    • Martin M
       
      Dialect of Greece is cool!
maria p

(original) Man In Nursing Home Reacts To Hearing Music From His Era - YouTube - 4 views

shared by maria p on 13 Apr 12 - No Cached
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    you have to see this!
Garth Holman

SDTV: American Gov't Transcript - 1 views

  • Types of Government After the Revolutionary War, the founding fathers got together to discuss what type of government they wanted to establish. They considered four types: monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy, democracy. Well, you probably already know which one they picked, but, for the sake of argument, pretend you don't. We know they didn't choose a monarchy, but what is a monarchy anyway? A monarchy is a form of government in which hereditary rulers (people who share the same bloodline) better known as kings and queens, wield absolute power over everybody. Absolute power? That means that the kings and queens can pretty much do whatever they want. Well, since the founders knew the monarchy thing didn't really fly in the original American colonies, they decided against a monarchy. They also considered oligarchy. An oligarchy consists of a body of individuals possessing high levels of wealth, social or military status, or achievement. These elite guys and gals pretty much rule everything and everyone. There was also aristocracy to consider. Aristocracy is rule by a privileged few. As nice as monarchies, oligarchies, and aristocracies may sound (at least to those lucky enough to be in power!), one of the reasons the colonists fought for independence in the first place was to free themselves from government structures that left little or no popular consent to the people. So, the founding fathers set up a democracy. A democracy is a form of government in which the people hold the power to rule themselves. But it's not quite as simple as that. In fact, there are two main types of democracy: direct democracy and indirect democracy. In a direct democracy, all the people get together and have an equal say in the laws they create. In an indirect democracy (also known as a representative democracy), people vote for representatives who work on their behalf to create laws. Once chosen, these representatives then vote within a government structure, making and passing laws. This is a two-step version of democracy. The founding fathers chose… an indirect democracy! After all, they figured that at some point in time, America would become a really, really big nation. And if that happened, there'd be no way they could possibly get everyone together to vote on every single thing.
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    "Types of Government
morgan m

List of Indian inventions and discoveries - 2 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
    • morgan m
       
      buttons are ok but we dont really need them
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    It has many inventions and discoveries
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    Yes, I agree. I used the same site.
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    It has many inventions and discoveries
ryan s

Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History - 0 views

  • Slavery is known to have existed as early as the Shang dynasty (18th–12th century BC) in China. It has been studied thoroughly in ancient Han China (206 BC–AD 25), where perhaps 5 percent of the population was enslaved. Slavery continued to be a feature of Chinese society down to the 20th century. For most of that period it appears that slaves were generated in the same ways they were elsewhere, including capture in war, slave raiding, and the sale of insolvent debtors. In addition, the Chinese practiced self-sale into slavery, the sale of women and children (to satisfy debts or because the seller could not feed them), and the sale of the relatives of executed criminals. Finally, kidnapping seems to have produced a regular flow of slaves at some times. The go-between or middleman was an important figure in the sale of local people into slavery; he provided the distance that made such slaves into outsiders, for the purchasers did not know their origins. Chinese family boundaries were relatively permeable, and some owners established kinlike relations with their slaves; male slaves were appointed as heirs when no natural offspring existed. As was also the case in other slave-owning societies, slaves in China were often luxury consumption items who constituted a drain on the economy. Th
mrs. b.

Gargoyles, Rain Spouts, and Gothic Style Architecture - Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris - 0 views

  • In addition to religious figures, many Gothic cathedrals are heavily ornamented with strange, leering creatures. These gargoyles are not merely decorative. Originally, the sculptures were waterspouts to protect the foundation from rain. Since most people in Medieval days could not read, the carvings took on the important role of illustrating lessons from the from the scriptures.
cglosser c

Black Death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

    • cglosser c
       
      The black death was a bio-hazard.
  • The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1348–50 CE.
  • The Black Death is thought to have originated in the arid plains of central Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road, reaching the Crimea by 1346
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  • The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social, and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover
  • The plague disease, generally thought to be caused by Yersinia pestis, is enzootic (commonly present) in populations of fleas carried by ground rodents, including marmots, in various areas including Central Asia, Kurdistan, Western Asia, Norther
  • India and Uganda
  • The plague reached Sicily in October 1347
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    This is a wikipedia article on the black death
Julia M

Geography of Greece and the islands - Greeka.com - 0 views

  • It is a peninsular and mountainous country located in Southern-Eastern Europe, in the Balkans peninsula
  • largest coastline
  • Greece has a total of 2,000 Greek islands but only 168 are inhabited.
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  • Two thirds of the territory is covered with mountains.
  • The country is very rich in natural resources providing petroleum, magnetite, lignite, bauxite, hydropower and marble.
  • The highest mountain peak is at Mount Olympus
  • It is located in the southern part of Greece and actually looks like an island connected to the mainland with two bridges
  • In fact, the limestone and volcanoes of Greece have composited the Greek territory and allowed the formation of many caves and canyons.
  • Athens is the capital of Greece.
  • Attica is actually a peninsula surrounded by four high mountains that form a basin. In this basin, the city and suburbs of Athens have been constructed.
  • The Greece mainland consists of the following regions: Sterea (Central Greece), Peloponnese, Thessaly (eastcentral), Epirus (north west), Macedonia (north) and Thrace (north west). Also Greece consists of many islands and island complexes: Crete, Cyclades, Dodecanese, Ionian, Sporades, Saronic and Eastern Aegean islands.
  • Greece has a rich diversity in flora and fauna and many species are original in this country, which means that they are found only there in the world.
  • There are more than 2,000 large and smaller greek islands scattered both in the Aegean and the Ionian Sea.
  • The largest Greek island is Crete and the second largest is Evia.
  • Lesvos and Rhodes come next.
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