71 résultats pour "earliest"
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Greek Art and Architecture - USA History.
The struggle between these two city-states and their allies ultimately led to the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), which Sparta won. Despite this conflict, the 5th century, often called the Classical period, is usually considered the culmination of Greek art, architecture, and drama, with its highest achievements being the Temple ofZeus at Olympia, the Parthenon in Athens, and the plays of Athenian dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. The 4th century, or Late Classical p...
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Neandertals.
Neandertals made stone tools by striking flakes from rock “cores.” The cores were carefully selected and prepared so that only a single blow was normally required todetach a flake. A number of relatively standardized flakes were sometimes produced from a single core. These sharp flakes served as “blanks” that were further workedand shaped into the desired tools. Suitable stone was sometimes rare, and often tools were sharpened and resharpened to make new tools, yielding a whole variety ofshapes...
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Human Evolution.
Strepsirhines are the most primitive types of living primates. The last common ancestors of strepsirhines and other mammals—creatures similar to tree shrews andclassified as Plesiadapiformes—evolved at least 65 million years ago. The earliest primates evolved by about 55 million years ago, and fossil species similar to lemursevolved during the Eocene Epoch (about 55 million to 38 million years ago). Strepsirhines share all of the basic characteristics of primates, although their brains are notpa...
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Human Evolution - biology.
classified as Plesiadapiformes—evolved at least 65 million years ago. The earliest primates evolved by about 55 million years ago, and fossil species similar to lemursevolved during the Eocene Epoch (about 55 million to 38 million years ago). Strepsirhines share all of the basic characteristics of primates, although their brains are notparticularly large or complex and they have a more elaborate and sensitive olfactory system (sense of smell) than do other primates. B Haplorhines B1 Tarsiers T...
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Native Americans of North America.
addition to smallpox and measles, explorers and colonists brought a host of other diseases: bubonic plague, cholera, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, pleurisy, mumps,diphtheria, pneumonia, whooping cough, malaria, yellow fever, and various sexually transmitted infections. Despite the undisputed devastation wreaked on Indian populations after European contact, native populations showed enormous regional variability in their response todisease exposure. Some peoples survived and, in some cases, even...
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Native Americans of North America - Canadian History.
addition to smallpox and measles, explorers and colonists brought a host of other diseases: bubonic plague, cholera, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, pleurisy, mumps,diphtheria, pneumonia, whooping cough, malaria, yellow fever, and various sexually transmitted infections. Despite the undisputed devastation wreaked on Indian populations after European contact, native populations showed enormous regional variability in their response todisease exposure. Some peoples survived and, in some cases, even...
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Ancient Rome .
attributed to Numa, including the selection of virgins to be priestesses of the goddess Vesta. He also established a calendar to differentiate between normal workingdays and those festival days sacred to the gods on which no state business was allowed. His peaceful reign lasted from 715 to 673 BC. Under Tullus Hostilius (672–641 BC) the Romans waged an aggressive foreign policy and began to expand their lands by the conquest of nearby cities like Alba Longa. When the warlike King Hostilius co...
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Ancient Rome - USA History.
attributed to Numa, including the selection of virgins to be priestesses of the goddess Vesta. He also established a calendar to differentiate between normal workingdays and those festival days sacred to the gods on which no state business was allowed. His peaceful reign lasted from 715 to 673 BC. Under Tullus Hostilius (672–641 BC) the Romans waged an aggressive foreign policy and began to expand their lands by the conquest of nearby cities like Alba Longa. When the warlike King Hostilius co...
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Stone Age.
limestone, quartzite, and indurated shale. Ground stone tools could be made on a wider range of raw material types, including coarser grained rock such as granite. Flaking produces several different types of stone artifacts, which archaeologists look for at prehistoric sites. The parent pieces of rock from which chips have beendetached are called cores, and the chips that have been removed from cores are called flakes. A flake that has had yet smaller flakes removed from one or more edgesin orde...
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Mythology.
Across cultures, mythologies tend to describe similar characters. A common character is the trickster. The trickster is recklessly bold and even immoral, but through hisinventiveness he often helps human beings. In Greek mythology, Hermes (best known as the messenger of the gods) was a famous trickster. In one version of acharacteristic tale, Hermes, while still an infant, stole the cattle of his half-brother Apollo. To avoid leaving a trail that could be followed, Hermes made shoes from thebark...
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Alphabet
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INTRODUCTION
Bengali Script
India developed a number of different writing systems over the course of its history.
A Pictographic and Ideographic Systems Early systems of writing used pictures to represent things and then to represent the sounds of those things. Pictographic writing, in which a simplified picture of the sunstood for the word sun, was probably the first step toward a written language. Chinese began as a pictographic language. To represent abstract ideas, the Chinese writing system combined pictographs. For example, the pictographs for sun and tree were combined to represent the concept of...
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Mesoamerica.
for cooking. In other regions, the earliest ceramics are more sophisticated technically and aesthetically. At around 1800 BC in the Pacific coastal region of Soconusco (in what is now southeastern Chiapas State, Mexico), the earliest pottery was very complex both in forms and decoration. It seems to have had a social function and beenused primarily for ritual feasting. III MAJOR CIVILIZATIONS Over a period of 3000 years, beginning in about 1500 BC, a number of important cultures emerged in M...
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Greek Art and Architecture - history.
powerful independent city-states. From 334 to 323 BC, Alexander the Great extended his father's empire into Asia Minor (now Turkey), Syria, Egypt, Persia, Afghanistan, and as far as India. D The Hellenistic Period (323-31 BC) Although Alexander the Great extended Greek civilization far beyond the Greek mainland and the boundaries of the Aegean Sea, his empire did not survive his death in 323.After Alexander died, his generals and successors divided the empire into a number of kingdoms: Ptolem...
- Mars Roman The god of war who, in his earliest forms, was a god of agriculture and prosperity.
- Sol Roman In the earliest Roman religion, a sun god worshiped by the Sabines, who introduced the cult of Sol to the Roman people when a Sabine king ruled over that city.
- personal gods Roman The earliest Romans, those living on the hills that would eventually form the center of the great city and those living in nearby regions in the 700s and 600s b.
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Archaeology.
Prehistoric archaeology is practiced by archaeologists known as prehistorians and deals with ancient cultures that did not have writing of any kind. Prehistory, a term coined by 19th-century French scholars, covers past human life from its origins up to the advent of written records. History—that is, the human past documented insome form of writing—began 5000 years ago in parts of southwestern Asia and as recently as the late 19th century AD in central Africa and parts of the Americas. Becaus...
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Ancient Egypt.
around 4500 BC. The style and decoration of the pottery found at these sites differ from those of pottery found in Upper Egypt. The northern type eventually fell out of use. Other differences between the peoples in Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt include the nature of their architecture and the arrangements for burial of the dead, thelatter perhaps signifying differing religious beliefs. B Unification and Early Dynastic Period By 3500 BC, the settlement of Hierakonpolis, located on the west bank...
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Ancient Egypt - USA History.
around 4500 BC. The style and decoration of the pottery found at these sites differ from those of pottery found in Upper Egypt. The northern type eventually fell out of use. Other differences between the peoples in Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt include the nature of their architecture and the arrangements for burial of the dead, thelatter perhaps signifying differing religious beliefs. B Unification and Early Dynastic Period By 3500 BC, the settlement of Hierakonpolis, located on the west bank...
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Puzzle.
Visual puzzles involve searching a picture to find hidden or disguised figures or answering a question about some part of a visual illusion. For instance, the popular 19th- century prints of American lithographic company Currier & Ives featured hidden people, animals, and other objects. A 16th-century painting from Bukhara, Uzbekistan,of a camel includes hidden figures of 17 people, 10 rabbits, a monkey, and a dragon (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City). B Mathematical Puzzles and Logic...
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United Kingdom - country.
B Natural Regions and Topography The island of Great Britain can be divided into two major natural regions—the highland zone and the lowland zone. The highland zone is an area of high hills andmountains in the north and west. The lowland zone in the south and east consists mostly of rolling plains. The zones are divided by an imaginary line running throughEngland from the River Exe on the southwest coast to the mouth of the River Tees on the northeast coast. The lowland zone has a milder climat...
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Mythology
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INTRODUCTION
Mythology, the body of myths of a particular culture, and the study and interpretation of such myths.
usually define a myth as a story that has compelling drama and deals with basic elements and assumptions of a culture. Myths explain, for example, how the worldbegan; how humans and animals came into being; how certain customs, gestures, or forms of human activity originated; and how the divine and human worlds interact.Many myths take place at a time before the world as human beings know it came into being. Because myth-making often involves gods, other supernatural beings, andprocesses beyond...
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Indian Literature
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INTRODUCTION
Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things
Indian author Arundhati Roy poses with a copy of her acclaimed first novel, The God of Small Things (1997).
Mathura BuddhaMany of the earliest texts of Indian literature were religious writings of Buddhism. This Buddha figure carved out ofsandstone is from Mathura, a city in northern India that was at the center of Buddhist sculptural activity from the 2ndcentury bc to the 6th century ad.Angelo Hornak/Corbis The sacred Vedas were composed in Old Sanskrit by Aryan poet-seers between about 1500 BC and about 1000 BC. The Vedas are compilations of two major literary forms: hymns of praise to nature deit...
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First Americans.
bones and artifacts helped 19th-century archaeologists establish the age of ancient human encampments in Europe. Yet, search as they might, American archaeologists found no comparable evidence of a Pleistocene-era human presence. But several sites revealed stone artifacts thatsome scholars believed looked similar to the ancient stone tools found in Europe. On the basis of this similarity, these experts claimed the American artifacts must be asold. By the 1890s, however, other scholars had challe...
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First Americans - Canadian History.
bones and artifacts helped 19th-century archaeologists establish the age of ancient human encampments in Europe. Yet, search as they might, American archaeologists found no comparable evidence of a Pleistocene-era human presence. But several sites revealed stone artifacts thatsome scholars believed looked similar to the ancient stone tools found in Europe. On the basis of this similarity, these experts claimed the American artifacts must be asold. By the 1890s, however, other scholars had challe...
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Dinosaur - biology.
The behavior of dinosaurs was governed by their metabolism and by their central nervous system. The dinosaurs’ metabolism—the internal activities that supply thebody’s energy needs—affected their activity level. It is unclear whether dinosaurs were purely endothermic (warm-blooded), like modern mammals, or ectothermic (cold-blooded), like modern reptiles. Endotherms regulate their body temperature internally by means of their metabolism, rather than by using the temperature oftheir surroundin...
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Arthropod - biology.
through a series of distinct phases to become adults. Larvae may also inhabit different environments and eat different foods than their parents. The life spans ofarthropods range from a few weeks to several decades. V ARTHROPOD EVOLUTION The evolutionary origins of modern arthropods are unclear and complex. It is generally accepted that the phylum is polyphyletic—that is, derived from several separateancestral lines. The ancestors of arthropods were ancient aquatic segmented worms, similar to p...
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Eritrea - country.
1993 decree set up a formal transitional government under EPLF control. This provided for a National Assembly, a president, and council of ministers. Isaias Afwerki,secretary general of the EPLF, was formally elected president by the National Assembly in June 1993. A new constitution was approved in 1997. Under this constitution, the National Assembly is the country’s legislature. Its members are popularly elected to five-yearterms. A president, elected by the National Assembly to a five-year te...
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Native American Literature
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INTRODUCTION
Leslie Marmon Silko
Native American writer Leslie Marmon Silko is perhaps best known for her first novel, Ceremony (1977), a coming-of-age
story about a young man of mixed Native American and white ancestry.
SequoyahNative Americans did not use a complex written language before the immigration of Europeans to the Americas. In theearly 1820s the Cherokee leader Sequoyah developed an alphabet and written language for his native tongue. ManyCherokee learned the new written language readily, and in 1828 they published the first Native American newspaper,written in both Cherokee and English.THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE Before Native Americans came into contact with Europeans, many tribes supplemented the spoken...
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Illustration
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INTRODUCTION
Illustration, pictorial material appearing with a text and amplifying or enhancing it.
Hypnerotomachia PoliphiliThe Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (The Strife of Love in a Dream), a work attributed to Dominican monk Francesco deColonna, was first published in Venice, Italy, in 1499 by Aldus Manutius. Its text and its beautiful woodcut illustrationsinfluenced Renaissance art and architecture. This illustration shows the book’s protagonist, Poliphilus, asleep under a tree.The Pierpont Morgan Library/Art Resource, NY The first illustrated book with a text printed from movable type was pro...
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Musical
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INTRODUCTION
George Gershwin
American pianist, songwriter, and composer George Gershwin was one of the most important figures in popular song in
the 1920s and 1930s.
C Extravaganzas Another predecessor of musical comedy, the extravaganza, evolved soon after the American Civil War (1861-1865) from traditional English pantomime. Extravaganzaswere typically based on fairy tales and Mother Goose. They introduced some of the elements—songs, dances, and comedy combined with spectacular stage sets andeffects—that American musical comedy later became known for. The first and most famous extravaganza show was The Black Crook (1866), often described as America’s fi...
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Ancient Greece - history.
Palace of KnossosThe ancient city of Knossos was a center of the Minoan civilization, an advanced society on Crete named after Minos, a legendaryCretan king. Skilled in such fields as engineering and architecture, the Minoans constructed the palace at Knossos in 1700 bc. Aserious fire at least three centuries later caused the collapse of the palace and foreshadowed the subsequent decline of the city.Wolfgang Kaehler Settlers had begun sailing from Asia Minor to Crete about 6000 BC because the i...
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Dentistry.
Together with dentists, dental hygienists and dental assistants make up the team that provides dental care to patients. Hygienists record patient medical histories, suchas blood pressure and pulse. They clean teeth, apply sealants and fluoride treatments, teach patients sound oral hygiene practices, and often assist with X rays. Manyhygienists receive a two-year associate degree, while others may choose to enroll in a four-year program at a university or in a master’s degree program. There are25...
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Pyramids (Egypt) - geography.
limestone debris left over from the construction work. When the workers had completed the pyramid and installed the pyramidion, or cap stone, ramps still covered the surface of the pyramid. As the workers dismantled the ramps from the top down, they slowly exposed the pyramid’s stone surface, which stonemasons smoothed and polished. When the ramp was gone, the pyramid wasdisplayed in its full majesty. B Interior The interior of the Great Pyramid is complex, with a series of passages leading t...
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Pyramids (Egypt) - History.
limestone debris left over from the construction work. When the workers had completed the pyramid and installed the pyramidion, or cap stone, ramps still covered the surface of the pyramid. As the workers dismantled the ramps from the top down, they slowly exposed the pyramid’s stone surface, which stonemasons smoothed and polished. When the ramp was gone, the pyramid wasdisplayed in its full majesty. B Interior The interior of the Great Pyramid is complex, with a series of passages leading t...
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Spread of Islam - History.
Muhammad died in 632 and was succeeded by Abu Bakr, the father of Muhammad’s favorite wife, Aisha. Abu Bakr was the first caliph ( khalifah, Arabic for “successor”) of Islam. Like Muhammad, Abu Bakr was a member of the Quraysh clan. While neither Abu Bakr nor any subsequent caliph claimed the role of prophet, they wereleaders of this new religious enterprise that was quickly becoming a political entity as well. The first four caliphs, all of whom were selected by some form of council ofMuslims,...
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Iranian Art and Architecture
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INTRODUCTION
Iranian Art and Architecture, the visual arts of Iran.
The first great development of ancient Persian architecture took place under the Achaemenid dynasty during the Persian Empire, from about 550 to 330 BC. Remains of Achaemenian architecture are numerous, the earliest being ruins at Pasargadae, the capital city of Cyrus the Great. These ruins include two palaces, a sacred precinct, acitadel, a tower, and the tomb of Cyrus. The palaces were set in walled gardens and contained central columnar halls, the largest of which was 37 m (111 ft) in length...
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Metalwork
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INTRODUCTION
Metalwork, in the fine arts, objects of artistic, decorative, and utilitarian value made of one or more kinds of metal--from precious to base--fashioned by either casting,
hammering, or joining or a combination of these techniques.
Early Bronze DiskThis disk with the head of Acheloos, an Etruscan river god, was made of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, sometime inthe early 5th century bc. It comes from the necropolis of Monte Quaglieri in Tarquinia. Alloys are made by smelting twodifferent metals together.Scala/Art Resource, NY Knowledge of smelting ultimately led to knowledge of mixing different ores together in the smelting process to produce simple alloys. This followed an intermediateperiod, about 3000 BC, when comp...
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Ancient Greece.
The first culture of Aegean civilization on the Greek mainland is named Mycenaean for the palace at Mycenae on the Pelopónnisos. Scholars call the Mycenaeans the“earliest Greeks” because they are the first people known to have spoken Greek. Mycenaean culture developed later than Minoan. The ancestors of the Mycenaean people wandered onto the mainland from the north and the east from about 4000 to2000 BC, mixing with the people already there, and by about 1400 BC the Mycenaeans had become very...
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Ancient Greece .
The first culture of Aegean civilization on the Greek mainland is named Mycenaean for the palace at Mycenae on the Pelopónnisos. Scholars call the Mycenaeans the“earliest Greeks” because they are the first people known to have spoken Greek. Mycenaean culture developed later than Minoan. The ancestors of the Mycenaean people wandered onto the mainland from the north and the east from about 4000 to2000 BC, mixing with the people already there, and by about 1400 BC the Mycenaeans had become very...
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Ancient Greece - USA History.
The first culture of Aegean civilization on the Greek mainland is named Mycenaean for the palace at Mycenae on the Pelopónnisos. Scholars call the Mycenaeans the“earliest Greeks” because they are the first people known to have spoken Greek. Mycenaean culture developed later than Minoan. The ancestors of the Mycenaean people wandered onto the mainland from the north and the east from about 4000 to2000 BC, mixing with the people already there, and by about 1400 BC the Mycenaeans had become very...
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Judaism.
is learned or memorized”), the earliest document of rabbinic literature, edited in Palestine at the turn of the 3rd century. Subsequent rabbinic study of the Mishnah inPalestine and Babylonia generated two Talmuds (“that which is studied”; also called Gemera, an Aramaic term with the same meaning; see Talmud), wide-ranging commentaries on the Mishnah. The Babylonian Talmud, edited about the 6th century, became the foundation document of rabbinic Judaism. Early rabbinic writings also include exe...
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American Westward Movement - U.
British expansion. However, Native Americans of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley lashed out against the English in an attempt to preserve their independence, theirland, and their way of life. With the Ottawa chief Pontiac as their most visible leader, the tribes waged a bloody and costly war. As a result, the British governmentdecided to keep the white settlers apart from the Native Americans. It issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, banning all white settlement beyond the Appalachians andstatin...
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Hinduism.
they do not share any basic terms. B Sanātana Dharma Evidence from inscriptions indicates that Hindus had begun to use the word dharma for their religion by the 7th century. After other religions of Indian origin also began to use this term, Hindus then adopted the expression san ātana dharma to distinguish their dharma from others. The word san ātana, meaning immemorial as well as eternal, emphasized the unbroken continuity of the Hindu tradition in contrast to the other dharmas . The Bu...
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Communism
access to, resources, but the underlying principle is quite similar. Rather than freeing some or even all people in a society to devote themselves to a higher cause, secular communism is designed to allow everyone to pursue personal fulfilment. It may best be characterized by a slogan adopted by Marx that appears to have been first published on the title page of Cabet's Voyage en Icarie (1840): ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his need' . In other words, each pers...
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Roman Art and Architecture - history.
house, records office, and basilica. Imperial Forum, RomeThe Roman Forum was founded at the beginning of the Roman republic (around 500 bc), and it continued to develop into the late 2ndcentury ad. Among the ruins seen here are the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina (since converted into a church, background, left),the foundations of the Basilica Julia (foreground, center), and the three remaining columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux(background, right).Donadoni/Bruce Coleman, Inc. The basili...
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Electronic Music
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INTRODUCTION
Electronic Music, music that requires the use of electronic devices to produce or manipulate sound during its composition and performance.
III SYNTHESIZERS AND OTHER ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY Moog SynthesizerThe musical synthesizer was invented by American Robert Moog. Soon after Moog introduced an early version in 1964, itbecame known as the “Moog Synthesizer,” and then simply as the “Moog.” Here, Japanese composer Isao Tomita uses aMoog synthesizer in his studio.Huynh Cong/AP/Wide World Photos In the 1950s sound synthesizers were developed, principally in the United States. Synthesizers enabled composers to produce sounds electroni...
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Paleolithic Art
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INTRODUCTION
Cave Painting, Lascaux
This portion of a cave painting in what is now Lascaux, France, was done by Paleolithic artists about 13,000 bc.
Venus of WillendorfThis so-called Venus figurine from the area of Willendorf, Austria, is one of the earliest known examples of sculpture,dating from about 23,000 bc. The figure, which is carved out of limestone, is only 11.25 cm (4.5 in) high, and wasprobably designed to be held in the hand. It is believed the Venus may be a fertility symbol, which would explain theexaggerated female anatomy.Ali Meyer/Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York Paleolithic art usually is classified as either figura...
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Ancient Egypt - history.
The Nile River runs through the ancient city of Thebes in eastern Egypt. For a time, beginning in 2040 bc, Thebes was the capital ofEgypt.Farrell Grehan/Photo Researchers, Inc. According to inscriptions and documents found by archaeologists, the Egyptians called their country Kemet, meaning “the Black Land,” a reference to the dark, fertile soil that remained after the Nile floodwaters had receded. They also used another term, Deshret, or “the Red Land,” a designation for the desert sands th...
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Indian Art and Architecture
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INTRODUCTION
Art on the Indian Subcontinent
This map highlights places in India and Pakistan where prominent examples of Indian art and architecture have been
produced.
Sun Temple of KonarakThis 13th-century relief depicting a wheel of the chariot of Indian sun god Surya is situated in the Konarak temple. Thetemple, dedicated to Surya, is situated at Puri in the Gulf of Bengal.Keren Su/Corbis The arts of India expressed in architecture, sculpture, painting, jewelry, pottery, metalwork, and textiles, were spread throughout the Far East with the diffusion ofBuddhism and Hinduism and exercised a strong influence on the arts of China, Japan, Myanmar (formerly known...