Prehistory Unit 1
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
The Sweep of History
STUDENT’S World History & Geography 1 1 1 Essentials of World History to 1500 Ver. 3.1.10 – Rev. 2/1/2011 WHG1 The following pages describe significant people, places, events, and concepts in the story of humankind. This information forms the core of our study; it will be fleshed-out by classroom discussions, audio-visual mat erials, readings, writings, and other act ivit ies. This knowledge will help you understand how the world works and how humans behave. It will help you understand many of the books, news reports, films, articles, and events you will encounter throughout the rest of your life. The Student’s Friend World History & Geography 1 Essentials of world history to 1500 History What is history? History is the story of human experience. Why study history? History shows us how the world works and how humans behave. History helps us make judgments about current and future events. History affects our lives every day. History is a fascinating story of human treachery and achievement. Geography What is geography? Geography is the study of interaction between humans and the environment. Why study geography? Geography is a major factor affecting human development. Humans are a major factor affecting our natural environment. Geography affects our lives every day. Geography helps us better understand the peoples of the world. CONTENTS: Overview of history Page 1 Some basic concepts Page 2 Unit 1 - Origins of the Earth and Humans Page 3 Unit 2 - Civilization Arises in Mesopotamia & Egypt Page 5 Unit 3 - Civilization Spreads East to India & China Page 9 Unit 4 - Civilization Spreads West to Greece & Rome Page 13 Unit 5 - Early Middle Ages: 500 to 1000 AD Page 17 Unit 6 - Late Middle Ages: 1000 to 1500 AD Page 21 Copyright © 1998-2011 Michael G. -
The Birth of Christ & Christmas Star- a Possible Explanation
The Birth of Christ & Christmas Star- A Possible Explanation By Rich Jacobs, M.D. Godʼs Word tells us about the “Star of Bethlehem”. This star has baffled believers and cynics alike for generations. To know what the Christmas star could have been, we must first look at what Godʼs Word has to say about it. Then, we must look to the historical and astronomical clues to gather the facts we need to come to a conclusion. And, we must forget all the wrong things we have been told about the Star and that wonderful night, if we are to come to the truth. Letʼs begin with Godʼs Word. Matthew 2:1-12 1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5 "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: 6 "'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'" 7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. -
Calendar of Roman Events
Introduction Steve Worboys and I began this calendar in 1980 or 1981 when we discovered that the exact dates of many events survive from Roman antiquity, the most famous being the ides of March murder of Caesar. Flipping through a few books on Roman history revealed a handful of dates, and we believed that to fill every day of the year would certainly be impossible. From 1981 until 1989 I kept the calendar, adding dates as I ran across them. In 1989 I typed the list into the computer and we began again to plunder books and journals for dates, this time recording sources. Since then I have worked and reworked the Calendar, revising old entries and adding many, many more. The Roman Calendar The calendar was reformed twice, once by Caesar in 46 BC and later by Augustus in 8 BC. Each of these reforms is described in A. K. Michels’ book The Calendar of the Roman Republic. In an ordinary pre-Julian year, the number of days in each month was as follows: 29 January 31 May 29 September 28 February 29 June 31 October 31 March 31 Quintilis (July) 29 November 29 April 29 Sextilis (August) 29 December. The Romans did not number the days of the months consecutively. They reckoned backwards from three fixed points: The kalends, the nones, and the ides. The kalends is the first day of the month. For months with 31 days the nones fall on the 7th and the ides the 15th. For other months the nones fall on the 5th and the ides on the 13th. -
The Antikythera Mechanism, Rhodes, and Epeiros
The Antikythera Mechanism, Rhodes, and Epeiros Paul Iversen Introduction I am particularly honored to be asked to contribute to this Festschrift in honor of James Evans. For the last nine years I have been engaged in studying the Games Dial and the calendar on the Metonic Spiral of the Antikythera Mechanism,1 and in that time I have come to admire James’s willingness to look at all sides of the evidence, and the way in which he conducts his research in an atmosphere of collaborative and curious inquiry combined with mutual respect. It has long been suggested that the Antikythera Mechanism may have been built on the is- land of Rhodes,2 one of the few locations attested in ancient literary sources associated with the production of such celestial devices. This paper will strengthen the thesis of a Rhodian origin for the Mechanism by demonstrating that the as-of-2008-undeciphered set of games in Year 4 on the Games Dial were the Halieia of Rhodes, a relatively minor set of games that were, appro- priately for the Mechanism, in honor of the sun-god, Helios (spelled Halios by the Doric Greeks). This paper will also summarize an argument that the calendar on the Metonic Spiral cannot be that of Syracuse, and that it is, contrary to the assertions of a prominent scholar in Epirote stud- ies, consistent with the Epirote calendar. This, coupled with the appearance of the extremely minor Naan games on the Games Dial, suggests that the Mechanism also had some connection with Epeiros. The Games Dial and the Halieia of Rhodes The application in the fall of 2005 of micro-focus X-ray computed tomography on the 82 surviv- ing fragments of the Antikythera Mechanism led to the exciting discovery and subsequent publi- cation in 2008 of a dial on the Antikythera Mechanism listing various athletic games now known as the Olympiad Dial (but which I will call the Games or Halieiad Dial—more on that below), as well as a hitherto unknown Greek civil calendar on what is now called the Metonic Spiral.3 I begin with my own composite drawing of the Games Dial (Fig. -
When Was Jesus Born? a Response to a Recent Proposal
When Was Jesus Born? A Response to a Recent Proposal Lincoln H. Blumell and Thomas A. Wayment Editor’s note: We are pleased to publish this article, which pushes forward the con- versation about what is known and not known about the dating of the birth of Jesus Christ. This article responds to the article by ProfessorJeffrey R. Chadwick on this subject, which appeared in 1 in our volume 49, number 4, available on the BYU Studies website. The goal of the Chadwick article was to harmonize as much of the evidence, both scriptural and historical, as possible, sometimes using new or uncommon interpretations in order to reconcile apparent dispari- ties in the sources. By contrast, Professors Wayment and Blumell prefer a more cautious approach, placing less weight on positions that cannot be established with historical or textual certainty. While both of these articles agree on many points, this new analysis urges readers to adopt a less precise time frame in think- ing about when the birth of Jesus might have occurred. We welcome this rigorous and respectful give-and-take, and we hope that all readers will enjoy drawing their own conclusions about the evidences and approaches advanced by both of these articles. etermining an exact date (year, month, and day) for many events from Dantiquity is fraught with difficulties and challenges. Though modern society tends to implicitly associate “important” events with a specific date (or dates), like September 11, 2001, or December 7, 1941, ancient societies did not always feel compelled to remember such events by reference to the actual date on which they occurred. -
Welcome to the Source of Data on Calendars
19/04/2019 Calendopaedia - The Encyclopaedia of Calendars Welcome to THE source of data on calendars. I recommend that you start by looking at the Comparison of Calendars. Alternatively you could choose from one of these pull-down meus then click 'Go'. Choose a calendar :- Go or Choose a topic :- Go Since the dawn of civilisation man has kept track of time by use of the sun, the moon, and the stars. Man noticed that time could be broken up into units of the day (the time taken for the earth to rotate once on its axis), the month (the time taken for the moon to orbit the earth) and the year (the time taken for the earth to orbit the sun). This information was needed so as to know when to plant crops and when to hold religious ceremonies. The problems were that a month is not made up of an integral number of days, a year is not made of an integral number of months and neither is a year made up of an integral number of days. This caused man to use his ingenuity to overcome these problems and produce a calendar which enabled him to keep track of time. The ways in which these problems were tackled down the centuries and across the world is the subject of this Web site. It is recommended that you start by looking at the Comparison of Calendars. This page was produced by Michael Astbury. Thanks to all the reference sources which I have quoted (too many to list them all) and to all the friends who have contributed to these pages in so many ways. -
Calendars from Around the World
Calendars from around the world Written by Alan Longstaff © National Maritime Museum 2005 - Contents - Introduction The astronomical basis of calendars Day Months Years Types of calendar Solar Lunar Luni-solar Sidereal Calendars in history Egypt Megalith culture Mesopotamia Ancient China Republican Rome Julian calendar Medieval Christian calendar Gregorian calendar Calendars today Gregorian Hebrew Islamic Indian Chinese Appendices Appendix 1 - Mean solar day Appendix 2 - Why the sidereal year is not the same length as the tropical year Appendix 3 - Factors affecting the visibility of the new crescent Moon Appendix 4 - Standstills Appendix 5 - Mean solar year - Introduction - All human societies have developed ways to determine the length of the year, when the year should begin, and how to divide the year into manageable units of time, such as months, weeks and days. Many systems for doing this – calendars – have been adopted throughout history. About 40 remain in use today. We cannot know when our ancestors first noted the cyclical events in the heavens that govern our sense of passing time. We have proof that Palaeolithic people thought about and recorded the astronomical cycles that give us our modern calendars. For example, a 30,000 year-old animal bone with gouged symbols resembling the phases of the Moon was discovered in France. It is difficult for many of us to imagine how much more important the cycles of the days, months and seasons must have been for people in the past than today. Most of us never experience the true darkness of night, notice the phases of the Moon or feel the full impact of the seasons. -
The First Calends of the Julian Calendar
The first Calends of the Julian Calendar Amelia Carolina Sparavigna Dipartimento di Scienza Applicata e Tecnologia, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy Abstract This work is proposing an archaeo-astronomical study of the Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar proposed by Julius Caesar. The calendar was inaugurated on the first of January, 45 BC (historical date). Using astronomical software CalSKY, we can investigate if the first day of this new system of organizing the days was corresponding to a Calenda, that is, to a day of new moon. It was on January 2, 45 BC (Julian day). We can also see how the new calendar adapted itself to the following phases of the moon. Keywords: Archaeoastronomy, Calendars, Software. Written 16 May 2019. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.2860135 In origin, the Roman calendar was based on the first three phases of the moon. The days were counted, as told in [1], not according to a concept of a week, but backward from lunar phases. In this calendar, the new moon was the day of a Calenda - the Calendae, the Calends, were the first days of the months -, the first quarter was corresponding to the Nones, and the full moon to the Ides. It seems that, in origin, Calends, Nones and Ides had been linked to the first sighting of the crescent moon, the first-quarter and the full moon respectively. The Calends of each month were sacred to Juno and the Ides to Jupiter. The day before each of the above mentioned day was known as its eve (pridie) and the day after each (postridie). -
Star of Bethlehem
STAR OF BETHLEHEM Biblical evidence Matthew II, 1–2: “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the King behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him.” Matthew II, 9–10: “Then Herod, when he privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently when the star appeared.” [...] “When they had heard the King, they departed; and lo, the star, which they saw in the east went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.” What can we say from this? • The wise men (Magi) were most likely priests and/or astrologers. They came presumably from Babylon, but possibly from Assyria or Chaldea. • At about the sixth century tradition changed the Magi into Kings and their number was fixed at three because of the threefold nature of their gifts gold, frankincense and myrrh (but six Kings in the eastern tradition). • The star was not very bright and obvious to everybody, but must have held astrological significance. Also it must have been a fairly long lasting phenomenon. • It was only in medieval times that the star got to be depicted as very bright and with a tail, suggesting a comet or a meteorite. • It remains possible that the story about the star is only fiction; part of a tale to amplify the significance of Jesus’s birth and/or to fulfill the Old Testamental prophecy. -
Gregorian Calendar - Wikipedia
12/2/2018 Gregorian calendar - Wikipedia Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is internationally the most widely used civil calendar.[1][2][Note 1] It is named after Pope Gregory 2018 in various calendars XIII, who introduced it in October 1582. Gregorian 2018 [3] It was a refinement to the Julian calendar involving an approximately 0.002% correction in the length of the calendar calendar MMXVIII year. The motivation for the reform was to stop the drift of the calendar with respect to the equinoxes and solstices— Ab urbe 2771 particularly the northern vernal equinox, which helps set the date for Easter. Transition to the Gregorian calendar would condita restore the holiday to the time of the year in which it was celebrated when introduced by the early Church. The reform was Armenian 1467 adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe. Protestants and Eastern Orthodox countries continued to use the calendar ԹՎ ՌՆԿԷ traditional Julian calendar and adopted the Gregorian reform, one by one, after a time, at least for civil purposes and for the sake of convenience in international trade. The last European country to adopt the reform was Greece, in 1923. Many (but Assyrian 6768 not all) countries that have traditionally used the Julian calendar, or the Islamic or other religious calendars, have come to calendar adopt the Gregorian calendar for civil purposes. Bahá'í 174–175 calendar The Gregorian reform contained two parts: a reform of the Julian calendar as used prior to Pope Gregory XIII's time, and a reform of the lunar cycle used by the Church with the Julian calendar to calculate the date of Easter. -
On the Cusp of an Era
On the Cusp of an Era BIAL-18-srinivasan_CS2.indd i 16-3-2007 14:55:12 Brill’s Inner Asian Library Editors Nicola di Cosmo Devin Deweese Caroline Humphrey VOLUME 18 BIAL-18-srinivasan_CS2.indd ii 16-3-2007 14:55:12 On the Cusp of an Era Art in the Pre-KuߧÖa World Edited by Doris Meth Srinivasan LEIDEN • BOSTON 2007 BIAL-18-srinivasan_CS2.indd iii 16-3-2007 14:55:13 On the cover: Lavender Flowers near Maimana. © Luke Powell This book is printed on acid-free paper. ISSN 1566-7162 ISBN 978 90 04 15451 3 © Copyright 2007 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands BIAL-18-srinivasan_CS2.indd iv 16-3-2007 14:55:13 CONTENTS Chapter One Pre-Kußà»a Art: A New Concept ................ 1 Doris Meth Srinivasan Chapter Two Pathways Between Gandhàra and North India during Second Century B.C.–Second Century A.D. ........................................................................ 29 Saifur Rahman Dar Chapter Three Passages to India: •aka and Kußà»a Migrations in Historical Contexts ....................................... -
1 STAR of BETHLEHEM ABSTRACT for Over 400 Years Scholars And
STAR OF BETHLEHEM RONALD E. MICKLE Denver, Colorado 80211 ©2003 Ronald E. Mickle ABSTRACT For over 400 years scholars and theologians have studied the possible origins of the Star of Bethlehem. In preparing for this essay, it was quickly discovered that the articles and publications regarding the origin of the Star of Bethlehem numbered in the hundreds. Due to limited space and time, this critical review of possible interpretations of the Star will focus on only three areas: (1) the accuracy of dates of the event, (2) the possible astronomical origins (stellar and non-stellar), and (3) popular misconceptions. I will draw upon three publications and give my opinion. 1. ACCURACY OF THE DATES OF THE EVENT To help identify the phenomena referred to as the Star of Bethlehem, we must first decide when Jesus was born. Many scientific scholars and theologians have studied the documents over the years and not one, that this writer found, can definitively say in what year the birth occurred. While evidence used by various scholars is, for the most part, factual, their conclusions can be very subjective. In researching documents, I found three occurrences which help fix the date of Christ’s birth. First is the final years of King Herod’s reign, including his death. Second is the Roman census which required Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph, to return to their home of ancestry, and last, a series of celestial events. HEROD’S DEATH The reign and death of Herod the Great is documented in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, and, for the most part, agreed upon by scholars[Carroll].