Representing a more modern version of the number 1 bus route is Daimler Fleetline 3780 KOX 780F. The bus is taking part in Wythall Transport Museum's celebration of 100 years of the Birmingham number one bus route. The bus is seen at Westbourne Crescent in Edgbaston.

Copyright Geoff Dowling; all rights reserved

pastel on paper.

vu a l'exposition au Ranson Center ,"Frank Reaugh: Landscapes of Texas and the American West"

extra dresak con stik peñalolein

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. According to traditions dating back to the 4th century, it contains the two holiest sites in Christianity: the site where Jesus was crucified, at a place known as Calvary or Golgotha, and Jesus's empty tomb, where he is believed by Christians to have been buried and resurrected. Each time the church was rebuilt, some of the antiquities from the preceding structure were used in the newer renovation. The tomb itself is enclosed by a 19th-century shrine called the Aedicule. The Status Quo, an understanding between religious communities dating to 1757, applies to the site.

 

Within the church proper are the last four stations of the Cross of the Via Dolorosa, representing the final episodes of the Passion of Jesus. The church has been a major Christian pilgrimage destination since its creation in the 4th century, as the traditional site of the resurrection of Christ, thus its original Greek name, Church of the Anastasis ('Resurrection').

 

Control of the church itself is shared, a simultaneum, among several Christian denominations and secular entities in complicated arrangements essentially unchanged for over 160 years, and some for much longer. The main denominations sharing property over parts of the church are the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic, and to a lesser degree the Coptic, Syriac, and Ethiopian Orthodox churches.

 

Following the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 during the First Jewish–Roman War, Jerusalem had been reduced to ruins. In AD 130, the Roman emperor Hadrian began the building of a Roman colony, the new city of Aelia Capitolina, on the site. Circa AD 135, he ordered that a cave containing a rock-cut tomb be filled in to create a flat foundation for a temple dedicated to Jupiter or Venus. The temple remained until the early 4th century.

 

After allegedly seeing a vision of a cross in the sky in 312, Constantine the Great began to favor Christianity, signed the Edict of Milan legalising the religion, and sent his mother, Helena, to Jerusalem to look for Christ's tomb. With the help of Bishop of Caesarea Eusebius and Bishop of Jerusalem Macarius, three crosses were found near a tomb; one which allegedly cured people of death was presumed to be the True Cross Jesus was crucified on, leading the Romans to believe that they had found Calvary. Constantine ordered in about 326 that the temple to Jupiter/Venus be replaced by a church. After the temple was torn down and its ruins removed, the soil was removed from the cave, revealing a rock-cut tomb that Helena and Macarius identified as the burial site of Jesus. A shrine was built, enclosing the rock tomb walls within its own.

 

In 327, Constantine and Helena separately commissioned the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to commemorate the birth of Jesus.

 

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, planned by the architect Zenobius, was built as separate constructs over the two holy sites: a rotunda called the Anastasis ("Resurrection"), where Helena and Macarius believed Jesus to have been buried, and across a courtyard to the east, the great basilica, an enclosed colonnaded atrium (the Triportico, sometimes called the Martyrium) with the traditional site of Calvary in one corner. The church was consecrated on 13 September 335. The Church Of The Holy Sepulchre site has been recognized since early in the 4th century as the place where Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead.

 

This building was destroyed by a fire in May of AD 614, when the Sassanid Empire, under Khosrau II, invaded Jerusalem and captured the True Cross. In 630, the Emperor Heraclius rebuilt the church after recapturing the city. After Jerusalem came under Islamic rule, it remained a Christian church, with the early Muslim rulers protecting the city's Christian sites, prohibiting their destruction or use as living quarters. A story reports that the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab visited the church and stopped to pray on the balcony, but at the time of prayer, turned away from the church and prayed outside. He feared that future generations would misinterpret this gesture, taking it as a pretext to turn the church into a mosque. Eutychius of Alexandria adds that Umar wrote a decree saying that Muslims would not inhabit this location. The building suffered severe damage from an earthquake in 746.

 

Early in the 9th century, another earthquake damaged the dome of the Anastasis. The damage was repaired in 810 by Patriarch Thomas I. In 841, the church suffered a fire. In 935, the Christians prevented the construction of a Muslim mosque adjacent to the Church. In 938, a new fire damaged the inside of the basilica and came close to the rotunda. In 966, due to a defeat of Muslim armies in the region of Syria, a riot broke out, which was followed by reprisals. The basilica was burned again. The doors and roof were burnt, and Patriarch John VII was murdered.

 

On 18 October 1009, Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the complete destruction of the church as part of a more general campaign against Christian places of worship in Palestine and Egypt. The damage was extensive, with few parts of the early church remaining, and the roof of the rock-cut tomb damaged; the original shrine was destroyed. Some partial repairs followed. Christian Europe reacted with shock and expulsions of Jews, serving as an impetus to later Crusades.

 

In wide-ranging negotiations between the Fatimids and the Byzantine Empire in 1027–28, an agreement was reached whereby the new Caliph Ali az-Zahir (al-Hakim's son) agreed to allow the rebuilding and redecoration of the church. The rebuilding was finally completed during the tenures of Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos and Patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople in 1048. As a concession, the mosque in Constantinople was reopened and the khutba sermons were to be pronounced in az-Zahir's name. Muslim sources say a by-product of the agreement was the renunciation of Islam by many Christians who had been forced to convert under al-Hakim's persecutions. In addition, the Byzantines, while releasing 5,000 Muslim prisoners, made demands for the restoration of other churches destroyed by al-Hakim and the reestablishment of a patriarch in Jerusalem. Contemporary sources credit the emperor with spending vast sums in an effort to restore the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after this agreement was made. Still, "a total replacement was far beyond available resources. The new construction was concentrated on the rotunda and its surrounding buildings: the great basilica remained in ruins."

 

The rebuilt church site consisted of "a court open to the sky, with five small chapels attached to it." The chapels were east of the court of resurrection (when reconstructed, the location of the tomb was under open sky), where the western wall of the great basilica had been. They commemorated scenes from the passion, such as the location of the prison of Christ and his flagellation, and presumably were so placed because of the difficulties of free movement among shrines in the city streets. The dedication of these chapels indicates the importance of the pilgrims' devotion to the suffering of Christ. They have been described as 'a sort of Via Dolorosa in miniature'... since little or no rebuilding took place on the site of the great basilica. Western pilgrims to Jerusalem during the 11th century found much of the sacred site in ruins." Control of Jerusalem, and thereby the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, continued to change hands several times between the Fatimids and the Seljuk Turks (loyal to the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad) until the Crusaders' arrival in 1099.

 

Many historians maintain that the main concern of Pope Urban II, when calling for the First Crusade, was the threat to Constantinople from the Turkish invasion of Asia Minor in response to the appeal of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Historians agree that the fate of Jerusalem and thereby the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was also of concern, if not the immediate goal of papal policy in 1095. The idea of taking Jerusalem gained more focus as the Crusade was underway. The rebuilt church site was taken from the Fatimids (who had recently taken it from the Abassids) by the knights of the First Crusade on 15 July 1099.

 

The First Crusade was envisioned as an armed pilgrimage, and no crusader could consider his journey complete unless he had prayed as a pilgrim at the Holy Sepulchre. The classical theory is that Crusader leader Godfrey of Bouillon, who became the first Latin ruler of Jerusalem, decided not to use the title "king" during his lifetime, and declared himself Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri ("Protector [or Defender] of the Holy Sepulchre"). By the Crusader period, a cistern under the former basilica was rumoured to have been where Helena had found the True Cross, and began to be venerated as such; the cistern later became the Chapel of the Invention of the Cross, but there is no evidence of the site's identification before the 11th century, and modern archaeological investigation has now dated the cistern to 11th-century repairs by Monomachos.

 

According to the German priest and pilgrim Ludolf von Sudheim, the keys of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre were in hands of the "ancient Georgians", and the food, alms, candles and oil for lamps were given to them by the pilgrims at the south door of the church.

 

Eight 11th- and 12th-century Crusader leaders (Godfrey, Baldwin I, Baldwin II, Fulk, Baldwin III, Amalric, Baldwin IV and Baldwin V — the first eight rulers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem) were buried in the south transept and inside the Chapel of Adam. The royal tombs were destroyed by the Greeks in 1809–1810. It is unclear if the remains of those men were exhumed; some researchers hypothesize that some of them may still be in unmarked pits under the church.

 

William of Tyre, chronicler of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, reports on the renovation of the Church in the mid-12th century. The Crusaders investigated the eastern ruins on the site, occasionally excavating through the rubble, and while attempting to reach the cistern, they discovered part of the original ground level of Hadrian's temple enclosure; they transformed this space into a chapel dedicated to Helena, widening their original excavation tunnel into a proper staircase. The Crusaders began to refurnish the church in Romanesque style and added a bell tower. These renovations unified the small chapels on the site and were completed during the reign of Queen Melisende in 1149, placing all the holy places under one roof for the first time. The church became the seat of the first Latin patriarchs and the site of the kingdom's scriptorium. It was lost to Saladin, along with the rest of the city, in 1187, although the treaty established after the Third Crusade allowed Christian pilgrims to visit the site. Emperor Frederick II (r. 1220–50) regained the city and the church by treaty in the 13th century while under a ban of excommunication, with the curious consequence that the holiest church in Christianity was laid under interdict. The church seems to have been largely in the hands of Greek Orthodox patriarch Athanasius II of Jerusalem (c. 1231–47) during the Latin control of Jerusalem. Both city and church were captured by the Khwarezmians in 1244.

 

There was certainly a recognisable Nestorian (Church of the East) presence at the Holy Sepulchre from the years 1348 through 1575, as contemporary Franciscan accounts indicate. The Franciscan friars renovated the church in 1555, as it had been neglected despite increased numbers of pilgrims. The Franciscans rebuilt the Aedicule, extending the structure to create an antechamber. A marble shrine commissioned by Friar Boniface of Ragusa was placed to envelop the remains of Christ's tomb, probably to prevent pilgrims from touching the original rock or taking small pieces as souvenirs. A marble slab was placed over the limestone burial bed where Jesus's body is believed to have lain.

 

After the renovation of 1555, control of the church oscillated between the Franciscans and the Orthodox, depending on which community could obtain a favorable firman from the "Sublime Porte" at a particular time, often through outright bribery. Violent clashes were not uncommon. There was no agreement about this question, although it was discussed at the negotiations to the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. During the Holy Week of 1757, Orthodox Christians reportedly took over some of the Franciscan-controlled church. This may have been the cause of the sultan's firman (decree) later developed into the Status Quo.

 

A fire severely damaged the structure again in 1808, causing the dome of the Rotunda to collapse and smashing the Aedicule's exterior decoration. The Rotunda and the Aedicule's exterior were rebuilt in 1809–10 by architect Nikolaos Ch. Komnenos of Mytilene in the contemporary Ottoman Baroque style.[citation needed] The interior of the antechamber, now known as the Chapel of the Angel, was partly rebuilt to a square ground plan in place of the previously semicircular western end.

 

Another decree in 1853 from the sultan solidified the existing territorial division among the communities and solidified the Status Quo for arrangements to "remain in their present state", requiring consensus to make even minor changes.

 

The dome was restored by Catholics, Greeks and Turks in 1868, being made of iron ever since.

 

By the time of the British Mandate for Palestine following the end of World War I, the cladding of red marble applied to the Aedicule by Komnenos had deteriorated badly and was detaching from the underlying structure; from 1947 until restoration work in 2016–17, it was held in place with an exterior scaffolding of iron girders installed by the British authorities.

 

In 1948, Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan and the Old City with the church were made part of Jordan. In 1967, Israeli forces captured East Jerusalem in the Six Day War, and that area has remained under Israeli control ever since. Under Israeli rule, legal arrangements relating to the churches of East Jerusalem were maintained in coordination with the Jordanian government. The dome at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was restored again in 1994–97 as part of extensive modern renovations that have been ongoing since 1959. During the 1970–78 restoration works and excavations inside the building, and under the nearby Muristan bazaar, it was found that the area was originally a quarry, from which white meleke limestone was struck.

 

East of the Chapel of Saint Helena, the excavators discovered a void containing a second-century[dubious – discuss] drawing of a Roman pilgrim ship, two low walls supporting the platform of Hadrian's second-century temple, and a higher fourth-century wall built to support Constantine's basilica. After the excavations of the early 1970s, the Armenian authorities converted this archaeological space into the Chapel of Saint Vartan, and created an artificial walkway over the quarry on the north of the chapel, so that the new chapel could be accessed (by permission) from the Chapel of Saint Helena.

 

After seven decades of being held together by steel girders, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) declared the visibly deteriorating Aedicule structure unsafe. A restoration of the Aedicule was agreed upon and executed from May 2016 to March 2017. Much of the $4 million project was funded by the World Monuments Fund, as well as $1.3 million from Mica Ertegun and a significant sum from King Abdullah II of Jordan. The existence of the original limestone cave walls within the Aedicule was confirmed, and a window was created to view this from the inside. The presence of moisture led to the discovery of an underground shaft resembling an escape tunnel carved into the bedrock, seeming to lead from the tomb. For the first time since at least 1555, on 26 October 2016, marble cladding that protects the supposed burial bed of Jesus was removed. Members of the National Technical University of Athens were present. Initially, only a layer of debris was visible. This was cleared in the next day, and a partially broken marble slab with a Crusader-style cross carved was revealed. By the night of 28 October, the original limestone burial bed was shown to be intact. The tomb was resealed shortly thereafter. Mortar from just above the burial bed was later dated to the mid-fourth century.

 

On 25 March 2020, Israeli health officials ordered the site closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the keeper of the keys, it was the first such closure since 1349, during the Black Death. Clerics continued regular prayers inside the building, and it reopened to visitors two months later, on 24 May.

 

During church renovations in 2022, a stone slab covered in modern graffiti was moved from a wall, revealing Cosmatesque-style decoration on one face. According to an IAA archaeologist, the decoration was once inlaid with pieces of glass and fine marble; it indicates that the relic was the front of the church's high altar from the Crusader era (c. 1149), which was later used by the Greek Orthodox until being damaged in the 1808 fire.

 

The courtyard facing the entrance to the church is known as the parvis. Two streets open into the parvis: St Helena Road (west) and Suq ed-Dabbagha (east). Around the parvis are a few smaller structures.

 

South of the parvis, opposite the church:

 

Broken columns—once forming part of an arcade—stand opposite the church, at the top of a short descending staircase stretching over the entire breadth of the parvis. In the 13th century, the tops of the columns were removed and sent to Mecca by the Khwarezmids.

The Gethsemane Metochion, a small Greek Orthodox monastery (metochion).

On the eastern side of the parvis, south to north:

 

The Monastery of St Abraham (Greek Orthodox), next to the Suq ed-Dabbagha entrance to the parvis.

The Chapel of St John the Evangelist (Armenian Orthodox)

The Chapel of St Michael and the Chapel of the Four Living Creatures (both are disputed between the Copts and Ethiopians), giving access to Deir es-Sultan (also disputed), a rooftop monastery surrounding the dome of the Chapel of St Helena.

North of the parvis, in front of the church façade or against it:

 

Chapel of the Franks (Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows): a blue-domed Roman Catholic Crusader chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, which once provided exclusive access to Calvary. The chapel marks the 10th Station of the Cross (the stripping of Jesus's garments).

Oratory of St. Mary of Egypt: a Greek Orthodox oratory and chapel, directly beneath the Chapel of the Franks, dedicated to St. Mary of Egypt.

The tomb (including a ledgerstone) of Philip d'Aubigny aka Philip Daubeney (died 1236), a knight, tutor, and royal councilor to Henry III of England and signer of the Magna Carta—is placed in front of, and between, the church's two original entrance doors, of which the eastern one is walled up. It is one of the few tombs of crusaders and other Europeans not removed from the Church after the Khwarizmian capture of Jerusalem in 1244. In the 1900s, during a fight between the Greeks and Latins, some monks damaged the tomb by throwing stones from the roof. A stone marker[clarification needed] was placed on his tomb in 1925, sheltered by a wooden trapdoor that hides it from view.[citation needed]

A group of three chapels borders the parvis on its west side. They originally formed the baptistery complex of the Constantinian church. The southernmost chapel was the vestibule, the middle chapel the baptistery, and the north chapel the chamber in which the patriarch chrismated the newly baptized before leading them into the rotunda north of this complex. Now they are dedicated as (from south to north)

 

The Chapel of St. James the Just (Greek Orthodox),

The Chapel of St. John the Baptist (Greek Orthodox),

The Chapel of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (Greek Orthodox; at the base of the bell tower).

 

The 12th-century Crusader bell tower is just south of the Rotunda, to the left of the entrance. Its upper level was lost in a 1545 collapse. In 1719, another two storeys were lost.

 

The wooden doors that compose the main entrance are the original, highly carved arched doors. Today, only the left-hand entrance is currently accessible, as the right doorway has long since been bricked up. The entrance to the church leads to the south transept, through the crusader façade in the parvis of a larger courtyard. This is found past a group of streets winding through the outer Via Dolorosa by way of a souq in the Muristan. This narrow way of access to such a large structure has proven to be hazardous at times. For example, when a fire broke out in 1840, dozens of pilgrims were trampled to death.

 

According to their own family lore, the Muslim Nuseibeh family has been responsible for opening the door as an impartial party to the church's denominations already since the seventh century. However, they themselves admit that the documents held by various Christian denominations only mention their role since the 12th century, in the time of Saladin, which is the date more generally accepted. After retaking Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187, Saladin entrusted the Joudeh family with the key to the church, which is made of iron and 30 centimetres (12 in) long; the Nuseibehs either became or remained its doorkeepers.

 

The 'immovable ladder' stands beneath a window on the façade.

 

Just inside the church entrance is a stairway leading up to Calvary (Golgotha), traditionally regarded as the site of Jesus's crucifixion and the most lavishly decorated part of the church. The exit is via another stairway opposite the first, leading down to the ambulatory. Golgotha and its chapels are just south of the main altar of the catholicon.

 

Calvary is split into two chapels: one Greek Orthodox and one Catholic, each with its own altar. On the left (north) side, the Greek Orthodox chapel's altar is placed over the supposed rock of Calvary (the 12th Station of the Cross), which can be touched through a hole in the floor beneath the altar. The rock can be seen under protective glass on both sides of the altar. The softer surrounding stone was removed when the church was built. The Roman Catholic (Franciscan) Chapel of the Nailing of the Cross (the 11th Station of the Cross) stretches to the south. Between the Catholic Altar of the Nailing to the Cross and the Orthodox altar is the Catholic Altar of the Stabat Mater, which has a statue of Mary with an 18th-century bust; this middle altar marks the 13th Station of the Cross.

 

On the ground floor, just underneath the Golgotha chapel, is the Chapel of Adam. According to tradition, Jesus was crucified over the place where Adam's skull was buried. According to some, the blood of Christ ran down the cross and through the rocks to fill Adam's skull. Through a window at the back of the 11th-century apse, the rock of Calvary can be seen with a crack traditionally held to be caused by the earthquake that followed Jesus's death;[78] some scholars claim it is the result of quarrying against a natural flaw in the rock.

 

Behind the Chapel of Adam is the Greek Treasury (Treasury of the Greek Patriarch). Some of its relics, such as a 12th-century crystal mitre, were transferred to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Museum (the Patriarchal Museum) on Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Street.

 

Just inside the entrance to the church is the Stone of Anointing (also Stone of the Anointing or Stone of Unction), which tradition holds to be where Jesus's body was prepared for burial by Joseph of Arimathea, though this tradition is only attested since the crusader era (notably by the Italian Dominican pilgrim Riccoldo da Monte di Croce in 1288), and the present stone was only added in the 1810 reconstruction.

 

The wall behind the stone is defined by its striking blue balconies and taphos symbol-bearing red banners (depicting the insignia of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre), and is decorated with lamps. The modern mosaic along the wall depicts the anointing of Jesus's body, preceded on the right by the Descent from the Cross, and succeeded on the left by the Burial of Jesus.

 

The wall was a temporary addition to support the arch above it, which had been weakened after the damage in the 1808 fire; it blocks the view of the rotunda, separates the entrance from the catholicon, sits on top of four of the now empty and desecrated Crusader graves and is no longer structurally necessary. Opinions differ as to whether it is to be seen as the 13th Station of the Cross, which others identify as the lowering of Jesus from the cross and located between the 11th and 12th stations on Calvary.

 

The lamps that hang over the Stone of Unction, adorned with cross-bearing chain links, are contributed by Armenians, Copts, Greeks and Latins.

 

Immediately inside and to the left of the entrance is a bench (formerly a divan) that has traditionally been used by the church's Muslim doorkeepers, along with some Christian clergy, as well as electrical wiring. To the right of the entrance is a wall along the ambulatory containing the staircase leading to Golgotha. Further along the same wall is the entrance to the Chapel of Adam.

 

The rotunda is the building of the larger dome located on the far west side. In the centre of the rotunda is a small chapel called the Aedicule in English, from the Latin aedicula, in reference to a small shrine. The Aedicule has two rooms: the first holds a relic called the Angel's Stone, which is believed to be a fragment of the large stone that sealed the tomb; the second, smaller room contains the tomb of Jesus. Possibly to prevent pilgrims from removing bits of the original rock as souvenirs, by 1555, a surface of marble cladding was placed on the tomb to prevent further damage to the tomb. In October 2016, the top slab was pulled back to reveal an older, partially broken marble slab with a Crusader-style cross carved in it. Beneath it, the limestone burial bed was revealed to be intact.

 

Under the Status Quo, the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian Apostolic Churches all have rights to the interior of the tomb, and all three communities celebrate the Divine Liturgy or Holy Mass there daily. It is also used for other ceremonies on special occasions, such as the Holy Saturday ceremony of the Holy Fire led by the Greek Orthodox patriarch (with the participation of the Coptic and Armenian patriarchs). To its rear, in the Coptic Chapel, constructed of iron latticework, lies the altar used by the Coptic Orthodox. Historically, the Georgians also retained the key to the Aedicule.

 

To the right of the sepulchre on the northwestern edge of the Rotunda is the Chapel of the Apparition, which is reserved for Roman Catholic use.

 

In the central nave of the Crusader-era church, just east of the larger rotunda, is the Crusader structure housing the main altar of the Church, today the Greek Orthodox catholicon. Its dome is 19.8 metres (65 ft) in diameter, and is set directly over the centre of the transept crossing of the choir where the compas is situated, an omphalos ("navel") stone once thought to be the center of the world and still venerated as such by Orthodox Christians (associated with the site of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection).

 

Since 1996 this dome is topped by the monumental Golgotha Crucifix, which the Greek Patriarch Diodoros I of Jerusalem consecrated. It was at the initiative of Israeli professor Gustav Kühnel to erect a new crucifix at the church that would not only be worthy of the singularity of the site, but that would also become a symbol of the efforts of unity in the community of Christian faith.

 

The catholicon's iconostasis demarcates the Orthodox sanctuary behind it, to its east. The iconostasis is flanked to the front by two episcopal thrones: the southern seat (cathedra) is the patriarchal throne of the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, and the northern seat is for an archbishop or bishop. (There is also a popular claim that both are patriarchal thrones, with the northern one being for the patriarch of Antioch — which has been described as a misstatement, however.)

 

South of the Aedicule is the "Place of the Three Marys", marked by a stone canopy (the Station of the Holy Women) and a large modern wall mosaic. From here one can enter the Armenian monastery, which stretches over the ground and first upper floor of the church's southeastern part.

 

West of the Aedicule, to the rear of the Rotunda, is the Syriac Chapel with the Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, located in a Constantinian apse and containing an opening to an ancient Jewish rock-cut tomb. This chapel is where the Syriac Orthodox celebrate their Liturgy on Sundays.

 

The Syriac Orthodox Chapel of Saint Joseph of Arimathea and Saint Nicodemus. On Sundays and feast days it is furnished for the celebration of Mass. It is accessed from the Rotunda, by a door west of the Aedicule.

 

On the far side of the chapel is the low entrance to an almost complete first-century Jewish tomb, initially holding six kokh-type funeral shafts radiating from a central chamber, two of which are still exposed. Although this space was discovered relatively recently and contains no identifying marks, some believe that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were buried here. Since Jews always buried their dead outside the city, the presence of this tomb seems to prove that the Holy Sepulchre site was outside the city walls at the time of the crucifixion.

 

The Franciscan Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene – The chapel, an open area, indicates the place where Mary Magdalene met Jesus after his resurrection.

 

The Franciscan Chapel of the Apparition (Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament), directly north of the above – in memory of Jesus's meeting with his mother after the Resurrection, a non-scriptural tradition. Here stands a piece of an ancient column, allegedly part of the one Jesus was tied to during his scourging.

 

The Arches of the Virgin are seven arches (an arcade) at the northern end of the north transept, which is to the catholicon's north. Disputed by the Orthodox and the Latin, the area is used to store ladders.

 

In the northeast side of the complex, there is the Prison of Christ, alleged to be where Jesus was held. The Greek Orthodox are showing pilgrims yet another place where Jesus was allegedly held, the similarly named Prison of Christ in their Monastery of the Praetorium, located near the Church of Ecce Homo, between the Second and Third Stations of the Via Dolorosa. The Armenians regard a recess in the Monastery of the Flagellation at the Second Station of the Via Dolorosa as the Prison of Christ. A cistern among the ruins beneath the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu on Mount Zion is also alleged to have been the Prison of Christ. To reconcile the traditions, some allege that Jesus was held in the Mount Zion cell in connection with his trial by the Jewish high priest, at the Praetorium in connection with his trial by the Roman governor Pilate, and near the Golgotha before crucifixion.

 

The chapels in the ambulatory are, from north to south: the Greek Chapel of Saint Longinus (named after Longinus), the Armenian Chapel of the Division of Robes, the entrance to the Chapel of Saint Helena, and the Greek Chapel of the Derision.

 

Chapel of Saint Helena – between the Chapel of the Division of Robes and the Greek Chapel of the Derision are stairs descending to the Chapel of Saint Helena. The Armenians, who own it, call it the Chapel of St. Gregory the Illuminator, after the saint who brought Christianity to the Armenians.

 

Chapel of St Vartan (or Vardan) Mamikonian – on the north side of the Chapel of Saint Helena is an ornate wrought iron door, beyond which a raised artificial platform affords views of the quarry, and which leads to the Chapel of Saint Vartan. The latter chapel contains archaeological remains from Hadrian's temple and Constantine's basilica. These areas are open only on request.

 

Chapel of the Invention of the Cross (named for the Invention (Finding) of the Holy Cross) – another set of 22 stairs from the Chapel of Saint Helena leads down to the Roman Catholic Chapel of the Invention of the Holy Cross, believed to be the place where the True Cross was found.

 

An Ottoman decree of 1757 helped establish a status quo upholding the state of affairs for various Holy Land sites. The status quo was upheld in Sultan Abdülmecid I's firman (decree) of 1852/3, which pinned down the now-permanent statutes of property and the regulations concerning the roles of the different denominations and other custodians.

 

The primary custodians are the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic churches. The Greek Orthodox act through the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate as well as through the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre. Roman Catholics act through the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. In the 19th century, the Coptic Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox and the Syriac Orthodox also acquired lesser responsibilities, which include shrines and other structures in and around the building.

 

None of these controls the main entrance. In 1192, Saladin assigned door-keeping responsibilities to the Muslim Nusaybah family. The wooden doors that compose the main entrance are the original, highly carved doors. The Joudeh al-Goudia (al-Ghodayya) family were entrusted as custodian to the keys of the Holy Sepulchre by Saladin in 1187. Despite occasional disagreements, religious services take place in the Church with regularity and coexistence is generally peaceful. An example of concord between the Church custodians is the full restoration of the Aedicule from 2016 to 2017.

 

The establishment of the modern Status Quo in 1853 did not halt controversy and occasional violence. In 1902, 18 friars were hospitalized and some monks were jailed after the Franciscans and Greeks disagreed over who could clean the lowest step of the Chapel of the Franks. In the aftermath, the Greek patriarch, Franciscan custos, Ottoman governor and French consul general signed a convention that both denominations could sweep it. On a hot summer day in 2002, a Coptic monk moved his chair from its agreed spot into the shade. This was interpreted as a hostile move by the Ethiopians and eleven were hospitalized after the resulting fight. In another incident in 2004, during Orthodox celebrations of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a door to the Franciscan chapel was left open. This was taken as a sign of disrespect by the Orthodox and a fistfight broke out. Some people were arrested, but no one was seriously injured.

 

On Palm Sunday, in April 2008, a brawl broke out when a Greek monk was ejected from the building by a rival faction. Police were called to the scene but were also attacked by the enraged brawlers. On Sunday, 9 November 2008, a clash erupted between Armenian and Greek monks during celebrations for the Feast of the Cross.

 

In February 2018, the church was closed following a tax dispute over 152 million euros of uncollected taxes on church properties. The city hall stressed that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and all other churches are exempt from the taxes, with the changes only affecting establishments like "hotels, halls and businesses" owned by the churches. NPR had reported that the Greek Orthodox Church calls itself the second-largest landowner in Israel, after the Israeli government.

 

There was a lock-in protest against an Israeli legislative proposal which would expropriate church lands that had been sold to private companies since 2010, a measure which church leaders assert constitutes a serious violation of their property rights and the Status Quo. In a joint official statement the church authorities protested what they considered to be the peak of a systematic campaign in:

 

a discriminatory and racist bill that targets solely the properties of the Christian community in the Holy Land ... This reminds us all of laws of a similar nature which were enacted against the Jews during dark periods in Europe.

 

The 2018 taxation affair does not cover any church buildings or religious related facilities (because they are exempt by law), but commercial facilities such as the Notre Dame Hotel which was not paying the municipal property tax, and any land which is owned and used as a commercial land. The church holds the rights to land where private homes have been constructed, and some of the disagreement had been raised after the Knesset had proposed a bill that will make it harder for a private company not to extend a lease for land used by homeowners. The church leaders have said that such a bill will make it harder for them to sell church-owned lands. According to The Jerusalem Post:

 

The stated aim of the bill is to protect homeowners against the possibility that private companies will not extend their leases of land on which their houses or apartments stand.

 

In June 2019, a number of Christian denominations in Jerusalem raised their voice against the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the sale of three properties by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate to Ateret Cohanim – an organization that seeks to increase the number of Jews living in the Old City and East Jerusalem. The church leaders warned that if the organization gets to control the sites, Christians could lose access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In June 2022, the Supreme Court upheld the sale and ended the legal battle.

 

The site of the church had been a temple to Jupiter or Venus built by Hadrian before Constantine's edifice was built. Hadrian's temple had been located there because it was the junction of the main north–south road with one of the two main east–west roads and directly adjacent to the forum (now the location of the Muristan, which is smaller than the former forum). The forum itself had been placed, as is traditional in Roman towns, at the junction of the main north–south road with the other main east–west road (which is now El-Bazar/David Street). The temple and forum together took up the entire space between the two main east–west roads (a few above-ground remains of the east end of the temple precinct still survive in the Alexander Nevsky Church complex of the Russian Mission in Exile).

 

From the archaeological excavations in the 1970s, it is clear that construction took over most of the site of the earlier temple enclosure and that the Triportico and Rotunda roughly overlapped with the temple building itself; the excavations indicate that the temple extended at least as far back as the Aedicule, and the temple enclosure would have reached back slightly further. Virgilio Canio Corbo, a Franciscan priest and archaeologist, who was present at the excavations, estimated from the archaeological evidence that the western retaining wall of the temple itself would have passed extremely close to the east side of the supposed tomb; if the wall had been any further west any tomb would have been crushed under the weight of the wall (which would be immediately above it) if it had not already been destroyed when foundations for the wall were made.

 

Other archaeologists have criticized Corbo's reconstructions. Dan Bahat, the former city archaeologist of Jerusalem, regards them as unsatisfactory, as there is no known temple of Aphrodite (Venus) matching Corbo's design, and no archaeological evidence for Corbo's suggestion that the temple building was on a platform raised high enough to avoid including anything sited where the Aedicule is now; indeed Bahat notes that many temples to Aphrodite have a rotunda-like design, and argues that there is no archaeological reason to assume that the present rotunda was not based on a rotunda in the temple previously on the site.

 

The New Testament describes Jesus's tomb as being outside the city wall,[l] as was normal for burials across the ancient world, which were regarded as unclean. Today, the site of the Church is within the current walls of the old city of Jerusalem. It has been well documented by archaeologists that in the time of Jesus, the walled city was smaller and the wall then was to the east of the current site of the Church. In other words, the city had been much narrower in Jesus's time, with the site then having been outside the walls; since Herod Agrippa (41–44) is recorded by history as extending the city to the north (beyond the present northern walls), the required repositioning of the western wall is traditionally attributed to him as well.

 

The area immediately to the south and east of the sepulchre was a quarry and outside the city during the early first century as excavations under the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer across the street demonstrated.[citation needed]

 

The church is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Old City of Jerusalem.

 

The Christian Quarter and the (also Christian) Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem are both located in the northwestern and western part of the Old City, due to the fact that the Holy Sepulchre is located close to the northwestern corner of the walled city. The adjacent neighbourhood within the Christian Quarter is called the Muristan, a term derived from the Persian word for hospital – Christian pilgrim hospices have been maintained in this area near the Holy Sepulchre since at least the time of Charlemagne.

 

From the ninth century onward, the construction of churches inspired by the Anastasis was extended across Europe. One example is Santo Stefano in Bologna, Italy, an agglomeration of seven churches recreating shrines of Jerusalem.

 

Several churches and monasteries in Europe, for instance, in Germany and Russia, and at least one church in the United States have been wholly or partially modeled on the Church of the Resurrection, some even reproducing other holy places for the benefit of pilgrims who could not travel to the Holy Land. They include the Heiliges Grab ("Holy Tomb") of Görlitz, constructed between 1481 and 1504, the New Jerusalem Monastery in Moscow Oblast, constructed by Patriarch Nikon between 1656 and 1666, and Mount St. Sepulchre Franciscan Monastery built by the Franciscans in Washington, DC in 1898.

 

Author Andrew Holt writes that the church is the most important in all Christendom.

 

Jerusalem is an ancient city in West Asia, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Both Israel and Palestine claim Jerusalem as their capital; Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there, and the State of Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power. Neither claim, however, is widely recognized internationally.

 

Throughout its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times. The part of Jerusalem called the City of David shows first signs of settlement in the 4th millennium BCE, in the shape of encampments of nomadic shepherds. During the Canaanite period (14th century BCE), Jerusalem was named as Urusalim on ancient Egyptian tablets, probably meaning "City of Shalem" after a Canaanite deity. During the Israelite period, significant construction activity in Jerusalem began in the 10th century BCE (Iron Age II), and by the 9th century BCE, the city had developed into the religious and administrative centre of the Kingdom of Judah. In 1538, the city walls were rebuilt for a last time around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire. Today those walls define the Old City, which since the 19th century has been divided into four quarters – the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Since 1860, Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old City's boundaries. In 2022, Jerusalem had a population of some 971,800 residents, of which almost 60% were Jews and almost 40% Palestinians. In 2020, the population was 951,100, of which Jews comprised 570,100 (59.9%), Muslims 353,800 (37.2%), Christians 16,300 (1.7%), and 10,800 unclassified (1.1%).

 

According to the Hebrew Bible, King David conquered the city from the Jebusites and established it as the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel, and his son, King Solomon, commissioned the building of the First Temple. Modern scholars argue that Jews branched out of the Canaanite peoples and culture through the development of a distinct monolatrous—and later monotheistic—religion centred on El/Yahweh. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, assumed central symbolic importance for the Jewish people. The sobriquet of holy city (Hebrew: עיר הקודש, romanized: 'Ir ha-Qodesh) was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, which Christians adopted as their own "Old Testament", was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection there. In Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. The city was the first qibla, the standard direction for Muslim prayers (salah), and in Islamic tradition, Muhammad made his Night Journey there in 621, ascending to heaven where he speaks to God, according to the Quran. As a result, despite having an area of only 0.9 km2 (3⁄8 sq mi), the Old City is home to many sites of seminal religious importance, among them the Temple Mount with its Western Wall, Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

 

Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the core issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the areas captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured and later annexed by Jordan. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently effectively annexed it into Jerusalem, together with additional surrounding territory.[note 6] One of Israel's Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the country's undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset (Israel's parliament), the residences of the Prime Minister (Beit Aghion) and President (Beit HaNassi), and the Supreme Court. The international community rejects the annexation as illegal and regards East Jerusalem as Palestinian territory occupied by Israel.

 

Etymology

The name "Jerusalem" is variously etymologized to mean "foundation (Semitic yry' 'to found, to lay a cornerstone') of the pagan god Shalem"; the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city.

 

Shalim or Shalem was the name of the god of dusk in the Canaanite religion, whose name is based on the same root S-L-M from which the Hebrew word for "peace" is derived (Shalom in Hebrew, cognate with Arabic Salam). The name thus offered itself to etymologizations such as "The City of Peace", "Abode of Peace", "Dwelling of Peace" ("founded in safety"), or "Vision of Peace" in some Christian authors.

 

The ending -ayim indicates the dual, thus leading to the suggestion that the name Yerushalayim refers to the fact that the city initially sat on two hills.

 

Ancient Egyptian sources

The Execration Texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (c. 19th century BCE), which refer to a city called rwšꜣlmm or ꜣwšꜣmm, variously transcribed as Rušalimum, or Urušalimum, may indicate Jerusalem. Alternatively, the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba (1330s BCE), which reference an Úrušalim, may be the earliest mention of the city.

 

Hebrew Bible and Jewish sources

The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua. According to a Midrash, the name is a combination of two names united by God, Yireh ("the abiding place", the name given by Abraham to the place where he planned to sacrifice his son) and Shalem ("Place of Peace", the name given by high priest Shem).

 

Oldest written mention of Jerusalem

One of the earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states: "I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem", or as other scholars suggest: "Yahweh is the God of the whole earth. The mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem". An older example on papyrus is known from the previous century.

 

In extra-biblical inscriptions, the earliest known example of the -ayim ending was discovered on a column about 3 km west of ancient Jerusalem, dated to the first century BCE.

 

Jebus, Zion, City of David

An ancient settlement of Jerusalem, founded as early as the Bronze Age on the hill above the Gihon Spring, was, according to the Bible, named Jebus. Called the "Fortress of Zion" (metsudat Zion), it was renamed as the "City of David", and was known by this name in antiquity. Another name, "Zion", initially referred to a distinct part of the city, but later came to signify the city as a whole, and afterwards to represent the whole biblical Land of Israel.

 

Greek, Roman and Byzantine names

In Greek and Latin, the city's name was transliterated Hierosolyma (Greek: Ἱεροσόλυμα; in Greek hieròs, ἱερός, means holy), although the city was renamed Aelia Capitolina for part of the Roman period of its history.

 

Salem

The Aramaic Apocryphon of Genesis of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1QapGen 22:13) equates Jerusalem with the earlier "Salem" (שלם), said to be the kingdom of Melchizedek in Genesis 14. Other early Hebrew sources, early Christian renderings of the verse and targumim, however, put Salem in Northern Israel near Shechem (Sichem), now Nablus, a city of some importance in early sacred Hebrew writing. Possibly the redactor of the Apocryphon of Genesis wanted to dissociate Melchizedek from the area of Shechem, which at the time was in possession of the Samaritans. However that may be, later Rabbinic sources also equate Salem with Jerusalem, mainly to link Melchizedek to later Temple traditions.

 

Arabic names

In Arabic, Jerusalem is most commonly known as القُدس, transliterated as al-Quds and meaning "the holy" or "the holy sanctuary", cognate with Hebrew: הקדש, romanized: ha-qodesh. The name is possibly a shortened form of مدينة القُدس Madīnat al-Quds "city of the holy sanctuary" after the Hebrew nickname with the same meaning, Ir ha-Qodesh (עיר הקדש). The ق (Q) is pronounced either with a voiceless uvular plosive (/q/), as in Classical Arabic, or with a glottal stop (ʔ) as in Levantine Arabic. Official Israeli government policy mandates that أُورُشَلِيمَ, transliterated as Ūrušalīm, which is the name frequently used in Christian translations of the Bible into Arabic, be used as the Arabic language name for the city in conjunction with القُدس, giving أُورُشَلِيمَ-القُدس, Ūrušalīm-al-Quds. Palestinian Arab families who hail from this city are often called "Qudsi" (قُدسي) or "Maqdasi" (مقدسي), while Palestinian Muslim Jerusalemites may use these terms as a demonym.

 

Given the city's central position in both Jewish nationalism (Zionism) and Palestinian nationalism, the selectivity required to summarize some 5,000 years of inhabited history is often influenced by ideological bias or background. Israeli or Jewish nationalists claim a right to the city based on Jewish indigeneity to the land, particularly their origins in and descent from the Israelites, for whom Jerusalem is their capital, and their yearning for return. In contrast, Palestinian nationalists claim the right to the city based on modern Palestinians' longstanding presence and descent from many different peoples who have settled or lived in the region over the centuries. Both sides claim the history of the city has been politicized by the other in order to strengthen their relative claims to the city, and that this is borne out by the different focuses the different writers place on the various events and eras in the city's history.

 

Prehistory

The first archaeological evidence of human presence in the area comes in the form of flints dated to between 6000 and 7000 years ago, with ceramic remains appearing during the Chalcolithic period, and the first signs of permanent settlement appearing in the Early Bronze Age in 3000–2800 BCE.

 

Bronze and Iron Ages

The earliest evidence of city fortifications appear in the Mid to Late Bronze Age and could date to around the 18th century BCE. By around 1550–1200 BCE, Jerusalem was the capital of an Egyptian vassal city-state, a modest settlement governing a few outlying villages and pastoral areas, with a small Egyptian garrison and ruled by appointees such as king Abdi-Heba. At the time of Seti I (r. 1290–1279 BCE) and Ramesses II (r. 1279–1213 BCE), major construction took place as prosperity increased. The city's inhabitants at this time were Canaanites, who are believed by scholars to have evolved into the Israelites via the development of a distinct Yahweh-centric monotheistic belief system.

 

Archaeological remains from the ancient Israelite period include the Siloam Tunnel, an aqueduct built by Judahite king Hezekiah and once containing an ancient Hebrew inscription, known as the Siloam Inscription; the so-called Broad Wall, a defensive fortification built in the 8th century BCE, also by Hezekiah; the Silwan necropolis (9th–7th c. BCE) with the Monolith of Silwan and the Tomb of the Royal Steward, which were decorated with monumental Hebrew inscriptions; and the so-called Israelite Tower, remnants of ancient fortifications, built from large, sturdy rocks with carved cornerstones. A huge water reservoir dating from this period was discovered in 2012 near Robinson's Arch, indicating the existence of a densely built-up quarter across the area west of the Temple Mount during the Kingdom of Judah.

 

When the Assyrians conquered the Kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE, Jerusalem was strengthened by a great influx of refugees from the northern kingdom. When Hezekiah ruled, Jerusalem had no fewer than 25,000 inhabitants and covered 25 acres (10 hectares).

 

In 587–586 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered Jerusalem after a prolonged siege, and then systematically destroyed the city, including Solomon's Temple. The Kingdom of Judah was abolished and many were exiled to Babylon. These events mark the end of the First Temple period.

 

Biblical account

This period, when Canaan formed part of the Egyptian empire, corresponds in biblical accounts to Joshua's invasion, but almost all scholars agree that the Book of Joshua holds little historical value for early Israel.

 

In the Bible, Jerusalem is defined as lying within territory allocated to the tribe of Benjamin though still inhabited by Jebusites. David is said to have conquered these in the siege of Jebus, and transferred his capital from Hebron to Jerusalem which then became the capital of a United Kingdom of Israel, and one of its several religious centres. The choice was perhaps dictated by the fact that Jerusalem did not form part of Israel's tribal system, and was thus suited to serve as the centre of its confederation. Opinion is divided over whether the so-called Large Stone Structure and the nearby Stepped Stone Structure may be identified with King David's palace, or dates to a later period.

 

According to the Bible, King David reigned for 40 years and was succeeded by his son Solomon, who built the Holy Temple on Mount Moriah. Solomon's Temple (later known as the First Temple), went on to play a pivotal role in Jewish religion as the repository of the Ark of the Covenant. On Solomon's death, ten of the northern tribes of Israel broke with the United Monarchy to form their own nation, with its kings, prophets, priests, traditions relating to religion, capitals and temples in northern Israel. The southern tribes, together with the Aaronid priesthood, remained in Jerusalem, with the city becoming the capital of the Kingdom of Judah.

 

Classical antiquity

In 538 BCE, the Achaemenid King Cyrus the Great invited the Jews of Babylon to return to Judah to rebuild the Temple. Construction of the Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE, during the reign of Darius the Great, 70 years after the destruction of the First Temple.

 

Sometime soon after 485 BCE Jerusalem was besieged, conquered and largely destroyed by a coalition of neighbouring states. In about 445 BCE, King Artaxerxes I of Persia issued a decree allowing the city (including its walls) to be rebuilt. Jerusalem resumed its role as capital of Judah and centre of Jewish worship.

 

Many Jewish tombs from the Second Temple period have been unearthed in Jerusalem. One example, discovered north of the Old City, contains human remains in a 1st-century CE ossuary decorated with the Aramaic inscription "Simon the Temple Builder". The Tomb of Abba, also located north of the Old City, bears an Aramaic inscription with Paleo-Hebrew letters reading: "I, Abba, son of the priest Eleaz(ar), son of Aaron the high (priest), Abba, the oppressed and the persecuted, who was born in Jerusalem, and went into exile into Babylonia and brought (back to Jerusalem) Mattathi(ah), son of Jud(ah), and buried him in a cave which I bought by deed." The Tomb of Benei Hezir located in Kidron Valley is decorated by monumental Doric columns and Hebrew inscription, identifying it as the burial site of Second Temple priests. The Tombs of the Sanhedrin, an underground complex of 63 rock-cut tombs, is located in a public park in the northern Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sanhedria. These tombs, probably reserved for members of the Sanhedrin and inscribed by ancient Hebrew and Aramaic writings, are dated to between 100 BCE and 100 CE.

 

When Alexander the Great conquered the Achaemenid Empire, Jerusalem and Judea came under Macedonian control, eventually falling to the Ptolemaic dynasty under Ptolemy I. In 198 BCE, Ptolemy V Epiphanes lost Jerusalem and Judea to the Seleucids under Antiochus III. The Seleucid attempt to recast Jerusalem as a Hellenized city-state came to a head in 168 BCE with the successful Maccabean revolt of Mattathias and his five sons against Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and their establishment of the Hasmonean Kingdom in 152 BCE with Jerusalem as its capital.

 

In 63 BCE, Pompey the Great intervened in a struggle for the Hasmonean throne and captured Jerusalem, extending the influence of the Roman Republic over Judea. Following a short invasion by Parthians, backing the rival Hasmonean rulers, Judea became a scene of struggle between pro-Roman and pro-Parthian forces, eventually leading to the emergence of an Edomite named Herod. As Rome became stronger, it installed Herod as a client king of the Jews. Herod the Great, as he was known, devoted himself to developing and beautifying the city. He built walls, towers and palaces, and expanded the Temple Mount, buttressing the courtyard with blocks of stone weighing up to 100 tons. Under Herod, the area of the Temple Mount doubled in size. Shortly after Herod's death, in 6 CE Judea came under direct Roman rule as the Iudaea Province, although the Herodian dynasty through Agrippa II remained client kings of neighbouring territories until 96 CE.

 

Roman rule over Jerusalem and Judea was challenged in the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), which ended with a Roman victory. Early on, the city was devastated by a brutal civil war between several Jewish factions fighting for control of the city. In 70 CE, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple. The contemporary Jewish historian Josephus wrote that the city "was so thoroughly razed to the ground by those that demolished it to its foundations, that nothing was left that could ever persuade visitors that it had once been a place of habitation." Of the 600,000 (Tacitus) or 1,000,000 (Josephus) Jews of Jerusalem, all of them either died of starvation, were killed or were sold into slavery. Roman rule was again challenged during the Bar Kokhba revolt, beginning in 132 CE and suppressed by the Romans in 135 CE. More recent research indicates that the Romans had founded Aelia Capitolina before the outbreak of the revolt, and found no evidence for Bar Kokhba ever managing to hold the city.

 

Jerusalem reached a peak in size and population at the end of the Second Temple Period, when the city covered two km2 (3⁄4 sq mi) and had a population of 200,000.

 

Late Antiquity

Following the Bar Kokhba revolt, Emperor Hadrian combined Iudaea Province with neighbouring provinces under the new name of Syria Palaestina, replacing the name of Judea. The city was renamed Aelia Capitolina, and rebuilt it in the style of a typical Roman town. Jews were prohibited from entering the city on pain of death, except for one day each year, during the holiday of Tisha B'Av. Taken together, these measures (which also affected Jewish Christians) essentially "secularized" the city. Historical sources and archaeological evidence indicate that the rebuilt city was now inhabited by veterans of the Roman military and immigrants from the western parts of the empire.

 

The ban against Jews was maintained until the 7th century, though Christians would soon be granted an exemption: during the 4th century, the Roman emperor Constantine I ordered the construction of Christian holy sites in the city, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Burial remains from the Byzantine period are exclusively Christian, suggesting that the population of Jerusalem in Byzantine times probably consisted only of Christians.

 

Jerusalem.

In the 5th century, the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire, ruled from the recently renamed Constantinople, maintained control of the city. Within the span of a few decades, Jerusalem shifted from Byzantine to Persian rule, then back to Roman-Byzantine dominion. Following Sassanid Khosrau II's early 7th century push through Syria, his generals Shahrbaraz and Shahin attacked Jerusalem (Persian: Dej Houdkh) aided by the Jews of Palaestina Prima, who had risen up against the Byzantines.

 

In the Siege of Jerusalem of 614, after 21 days of relentless siege warfare, Jerusalem was captured. Byzantine chronicles relate that the Sassanids and Jews slaughtered tens of thousands of Christians in the city, many at the Mamilla Pool, and destroyed their monuments and churches, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This episode has been the subject of much debate between historians. The conquered city would remain in Sassanid hands for some fifteen years until the Byzantine emperor Heraclius reconquered it in 629.

 

Middle Ages

After the Muslim conquest of the Levant, Byzantine Jerusalem was taken by Umar ibn al-Khattab in 638 CE. Among the first Muslims, it was referred to as Madinat bayt al-Maqdis ("City of the Temple"), a name restricted to the Temple Mount. The rest of the city "was called Iliya, reflecting the Roman name given the city following the destruction of 70 CE: Aelia Capitolina". Later the Temple Mount became known as al-Haram al-Sharif, "The Noble Sanctuary", while the city around it became known as Bayt al-Maqdis, and later still, al-Quds al-Sharif "The Holy, Noble". The Islamization of Jerusalem began in the first year A.H. (623 CE), when Muslims were instructed to face the city while performing their daily prostrations and, according to Muslim religious tradition, Muhammad's night journey and ascension to heaven took place. After 13 years, the direction of prayer was changed to Mecca. In 638 CE the Islamic Caliphate extended its dominion to Jerusalem. With the Muslim conquest, Jews were allowed back into the city. The Rashidun caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab signed a treaty with Christian Patriarch of Jerusalem Sophronius, assuring him that Jerusalem's Christian holy places and population would be protected under Muslim rule. Christian-Arab tradition records that, when led to pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest sites for Christians, the caliph Umar refused to pray in the church so that Muslims would not request conversion of the church to a mosque. He prayed outside the church, where the Mosque of Umar (Omar) stands to this day, opposite the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. According to the Gaullic bishop Arculf, who lived in Jerusalem from 679 to 688, the Mosque of Umar was a rectangular wooden structure built over ruins which could accommodate 3,000 worshipers.

 

When the Arab armies under Umar went to Bayt Al-Maq

IM SERIOUS.

More Cheerful and Contrasty on Black

 

Have a good middle of the week, folks. :) Weekend isn't far away. :)

 

PS: Flickr's broken - 20 mins and only 3 views. :P

DRS 20s & 37 seen in store at Carnforth Steamtown.

 

The coaling plant at Carnforth is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Technology: the plant represents the peak of technological development for the refuelling of steam locomotives; * Rarity: the only steam-age mechanical coaling plant retaining its mechanism that survives nationally, also thought to be a rare survival internationally; * Efficiency: the London Midland Scottish Railway led the way nationally in improving operating efficiency and developed an ultra-efficient design for their Motive Power Depots, these representing the peak of development for steam traction, the coaling plant being an important, high-tech component of the depot; * Distinctiveness: the widely known and modelled structure that marks the high point of steam technology, being the most memorable feature of the last British Rail depot to close to steam locomotives; * Group value: part of a remarkably complete survival of a steam-age Motive Power Depot.

 

In 1846 the first railway station was opened at Carnforth as a simple wayside halt. By 1880 it had become an important junction between the London and North Western Railway's (LNWR) London to Glasgow main line, the Furness Railway to Furness and the joint Furness Midland Railway to Leeds, with all three railway companies having servicing facilities for their locomotives at the junction. With the formation of the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1923, Carnforth passed into single ownership, remaining an important junction and centre for the servicing and stabling of locomotives. In 1938-44 the LMS, which led the way nationally with improving operational efficiency, modernised the depot to conform to their standard depot layout developed in 1933, designed to service and stable large numbers of steam locomotives efficiently.

 

Commissioned in 1938, built in 1939 and operational by April 1940, the coaling plant, along with the associated ash plant, was a key feature of the modernised Motive Power Depot (MPD) and represented state-of-the-art technology. The coaling plant was based on the typical LMS cenotaph design with two 75 ton capacity hoppers, but modified with an extra pair of side chutes. These extra chutes allowed engines to be coaled on both the road immediately to the west of the structure as well as that which passes underneath. One hopper was used for class 1 and 2 coal used by passenger and heavy freight trains, the second hopper for class 3 and 4 coal used for locomotives with less demanding duties. The hoppers were filled directly from 15 ton open coal wagons which were electrically winched up the east face of the tower and inverted, water sprays being used to limit the spread of fine dust particles. The plant was operated from a control cabin at the top of the tower and was far more efficient in operation than previous practice which employed manual labour. The LMS built a number of these coaling plants across its network in its drive for increased efficiency, when other companies, such as the Great Western Railway, were still constructing traditional coaling stages employing manual labour.

 

Carnforth was the last MPD in the country to close to steam locomotives in August 1968, finally closing to all British Rail traffic in March 1969. However from December 1968, Carnforth became a base for steam locomotive preservation, first as Steamtown (a museum and steam locomotive restoration facility) and from the late 1990s as the base of West Coast Railways which operates private charter trains hauled by both steam and diesel traction. It is not known when the coaling plant was last operational. Both the ash and coaling plants have been the basis of models produced by a number of model railway manufacturers.

Hemlock Creek Trail, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon, USA

Represented by Getty Images

 

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www.myspace.com/represent952

Despite the popular belief that most naturists are generously proportioned Germans we had very few guests from Germany last year so we were pleased to welcome Sylvie & Susanne who clearly break the urban myth. They were great company and really helped contribute to the community spirit on-site by helping out with many of the daily meal time chores. Perhaps we should have given them a discount ;-)

Today as I'm walking down the catwalk, I'm representing Neve's Fallen Lingerie. Ladies, soo many colors, sooo many options of sections to turn sheer or solid. I assure you, there will be no disappointment. I'm working the runway for you, showing off the Fallen lingerie, which btw comes with wings, front and back. Ladies, if you're liking what you see, make sure you head down to Fetish Fair 2018 and stop by the Neve booth!!!! As always happy shopping ladies! ☺

 

Info

• Items with (♥) is what's being featured

• Neve's Fallen can be purchased @ Fetish Fair 2018

 

• Wordpress

• Blogspot

 

Body/Face/Nails/Jewelry

• Catwa • Catya Bento Face

• Maitreya • Bento Hands, Feet, and Body

• Empire • Square Nails • Long

• Slipper • Morning Josie Bento Rings

 

Skin

• Fiore • Stacy • Applier (Catwa) • SPF25

 

Hair

• Tram • G1204 Hair • HUD C

 

♥ Neve ♥

• Fallen • Mesh (Freya, HG, Isis, Maitreya, PHY) • Newness

 

Shoes

• N-Core • Ciara

Dated to the 2nd century AD. It is thought that the sculpture represents Sauromates II, King of the Bosporus, an ancient realm around present day Crimea. Little is known about him except that he reigned between around 173 and 210 AD. If it represents him, the bust would have been sculpted during his lifetime.

« Le monde est un spectacle à regarder et non un problème à résoudre. » de Jules de Gaultier

 

Thanks for all your comments, awards and faves.

(Please do not use without my written permission.)

Representing Moving People's Megadecker. Finished in the usual Cherry enamels - the black being an absolute pig to do. This is the result of no less than SEVEN attempts to get a smooth, solid black!!!

The MP prototype can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/37632849@N04/8161986570/in/faves-79...

'' Cherish yesterday, dream tomorrow, live TODAY ''

  

I wanted to do a short series of photographs that represent in different ways my most important and successful images from my time here on FLICKR and also with GETTY IMAGES, who are my worldwide agents. These photographs might be in the selections for a number of reasons, but each has played a significant part in my photographic journey and represent personal memories, some not having been seen for a while.

  

Whilst my photographic journey and success over the last fifty years pale to insignificance compared to many of the renowned and talented photographers out there, I am none the less proud of my achievements along the way with three published books, worldwide sales of my photographs, my contracts with Getty Images who are my agents, competition wins, appearances in photographic exhibitions and publications in magazines, books, online websites and in corporate calendars and merchandising. I have always where possible allowed free use of certain images when requested, and my passion for photography still runs deep and strong.

  

(2) FOG AT SUNRISE (THE FISH MARKET IN SIDNEY BC ON VANCOUVER ISLAND)

  

Taken on my last trip over to see my family who live in a beautiful little town called Sidney, nestled on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It's always a big deal when I return to the Island, a homecoming of sorts, a spiritual home and a place where I can be at one with nature and relax with my camera, watching the wildlife and the beauty that Mother Nature offers. I am never happier than when photographing amidst the splendour of the golden hour around sunrise and sunset, and here in Sidney it's a very sentimental location as my mother in law moved out here and spent her final years watching her grandchildren grow, enjoying the beauty and the tranquility.

  

On this morning the weather was changing so quickly. A bank of sea fog was rushing in across the Salish Sea from the Southern Gulf Islands, I could feel the drop in temperature and see the darkness as the fog swept across the landscape. I had to act quickly and knew that I only had a few frames possible before I was engulfed. Heading back to the Buick Enclave that I'd parked close to the seafront, I stopped and set up my tripod for my last few shots, the fog swirling all around me, the colours, ambient light and temperature all changing by the second. The Fish market on Beacon Avenue has long been a popular location in Sidney and is situated on the pier close to Beacon Park and the new bandstand. I managed about three thirty second long exposures before everything was bathed in a sea of white, balancing settings with the changing light conditions. An amazing experience.

  

The few frames of that moment have gone on to be published by Getty images in October 2019 and have sold around the world, appearing in magazines as well as being invited into thirteen Flickr groups and an equal number of galleries, as well as being selected for FLICKR EXPLORE, which was really nice. This frame for me represents my passion, my love for the golden hour and the disciplines it imposes on you as a photographer, and also in sentimental terms the place I call my spiritual home.

  

©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

  

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This thirty seconds long exposure was taken at an altitude of Zero metres at 06:35am on Saturday 21st September 2019 around sunrise off 1st Street and Bevan Avenue, between the boat jetty and Bevan Avenue Fishing Pier in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

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Nikon D850. Focal length 50mm Shutter speed Thirty seconds seconds long exposure (Electronic front-curtain) Aperture f/16.0 iso160 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3D- tracking. AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode - Aperture priority exposure. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Auto. White balance: Natural light auto. Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Distortion control on. Picture control: Auto. High ISO NR on. Vignette control: normal. Active D-lighting Auto.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 77mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 0.9 (3 stops) ND Grad soft resin.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Nikon EN-EL15a battery.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod 3 Sections (Payload: 5.6kgs). Manfrotto 327RC2 Light Duty Grip Ball Magnesium Tripod Head (Payload: 5.5kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag.Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release cable.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 53.70s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 23m 36.44s

ALTITUDE: 0.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 90.1MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 29.50MB

     

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PROCESSING POWER:

  

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00

  

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

  

Represented by SL Talent.

 

© Copyright 2017 Barrie Spence. All rights reserved and moral rights asserted. Theses images are not in the public domain and may not be used without licence.

 

Comments are very welcome and very much appreciated, but any with linked/embedded images will be removed.

The rectangular panel represents the entire decorated area of a floor and was found together with another mosaic (now in the Baltimore Museum of Art) in an olive grove at Daphne-Harbiye in 1937. In Roman times, Daphne was a popular holiday resort, used by the wealthy citizens and residents of Antioch as a place of rest and refuge from the heat and noise of the city. American excavations at Daphne in the late 1930s uncovered the remains of several well-appointed houses and villas, including the one that contained this mosaic. At its center is a panel (emblema) with the bust of a woman, decked out with a wreath of flowers around her head and a floral garland over her left shoulder.

 

Traditionally identified as Spring, the figure is probably the representation of a more generic personification of abundance and good living, well suited to the luxurious atmosphere created at Daphne by its rich patrons.

 

Imperial Roman, 2nd century CE.

 

Met Museum, New York (38.11.12)

Esta mujer Tauro está representada por las astas del toro.Su pecho y el cuerpo lo forman las astas y se corona con otra.Tauro simboliza el empuje,arranque y decisión,por eso no se me ocurría mejor modo de señalarlo que de esta manera.

Esta mujer Tauro está representada por las astas del toro.Su pecho y el cuerpo lo forman las astas y se corona con otra.Tauro simboliza el empuje,arranque y decisión,por eso no se me ocurrría mejor modo de señalarlo que de esta manera.

Características de Tauro

Fechas Tauro 21/4 - 21/5

Cómo es un Tauro

Un tauro es paciente, persistente, decidido y fiable. A un tauro le encanta sentirse seguro, tiene buen corazón y es muy cariñoso. Les gusta la estabilidad, las cosas naturales, el placer y la comodidad. Los tauro disfrutan con tiempo para reflexionar y les encanta sentirse atraído hacía alguien.

 

Características de Tauro

 

Tauro puede ser celoso y posesivo y tiene tendencia a ser inflexible y resentido. A veces los Tauro pecan de ser codiciosos y de permitírselo todo. No les gustan las interrupciones ni las prisas. Tampoco les gustan las cosas sintéticas o falsas. No les gusta sentirse presionados y no soportan estar demasiado tiempo en casa.

Descripción de Tauro

Un Tauro suele ser práctico, decidido y tener una gran fuerza de voluntad. Los tauro son personas estables y conservadores, y seguirán de forma leal un líder en el que tienen confianza. Les encanta la paz y tranquilidad y son muy respetuosos con las leyes y las reglas. Respetan los valores materiales y evitan las deudas. Son un poco reacios al cambio.

    

Son más prácticos que intelectuales, y como les gusta la continuidad y la rutina, suelen ser de ideas fijas. Los Tauro son prudentes, estables y tienen un gran sentido de la justicia. No suelen hundirse ante las dificultades sino que siguen adelante hasta salir.

 

A veces los Tauro pueden ser demasiado rígidos, argumentativos, egocentrísticos y tercos.

 

A los tauros les gustan las cosas bellas y suelen ser aficionados al arte y la música. Algunos tauros tienen una fe religiosa poco convencional y muy fuerte. Les encantan los placeres de la vida, el lujo y la buena comida y bebida. De hecho los tauro deben esforzarse para no dejarse llevar por la tentación de satisfacer en exceso estos gustos.

 

Tauro en el amor y las relaciones personales

Los tauro son amigos fieles y generosos. Tienen una gran capacidad para ser cariñosos aunque rara vez hagan amigos con personas fuera de su entorno social. Evitan los conflictos y los disgustos y prefieren el buen humor y la estabilidad. No obstante, si pierden los nervios son capaces de tener un genio tan furioso que sorprende a todos.

 

Los tauro son sensuales pero prácticos, y en este sentido son parejas fieles y considerados. Son buenos padres y no existen demasiado de su pareja ni tampoco de sus hijos. Tienen bastante amor propio y tienden a ser posesivos pero si su pareja intenta hacer las paces y comprenderles, hacen un esfuerzo para olvidar su enfado.

  

En el trabajo los tauros son trabajadores y no se les caen los anillos con ningún tipo de trabajo manual. Son fiables, prácticos, metódicos y ambiciosos. Asumen autoridad sobre los demás, y rinden más en puestos rutinarios de confianza y responsabilidad.

 

Son creativos y emprendedores. Pueden triunfar en profesiones como la banca, la arquitectura, la construcción, la administración, la agricultura, la medicina, la química y la industria.

 

También triunfan en la educación, las artes y la cocina. Pueden ser excelentes músicos y artistas.

Coria was a fort and town 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Hadrian's Wall, in the Roman province of Britannia at a point where a big Roman north–south road (Dere Street) bridged the River Tyne and met another Roman road (Stanegate), which ran east–west between Coria and Luguvalium (the modern Carlisle) in the Solway Plain. The full Latin name is uncertain. In English, it is known as Corchester or Corbridge Roman Site as it sits on the edge of the village of Corbridge in the English county of Northumberland. It is in the guardianship of English Heritage and is partially exposed as a visitor attraction, including a site museum.

 

The place-name appears in contemporary records as Corstopitum and Corie Lopocarium. These forms are generally recognised as corrupt. Suggested reconstructions include Coriosopitum, Corsopitum or Corsobetum. The Vindolanda tablets show that it was locally referred to by the simple form, Coria, the name for a local tribal centre. The suffix ought to represent the name of the local tribe, a member of the Brigantian confederation but its correct form is unknown. It gave its name to Corbridge, albeit by processes which are debated.

 

There is evidence of Iron Age round houses on the site but the first Romans in the area built the Red House Fort, 0.5 mi (0.80 km) to the west, as a supply camp for Agricola's campaigns.

 

Soon after Roman victories in modern Scotland, around AD 84, a new fort was built on the site with turf ramparts and timber gates. Barrack blocks surrounded a headquarters building, a commander's residence, administrative staff accommodation, workshops and granaries. It was probably occupied by a 500-strong cavalry unit called the Ala Gallorum Petriana but burnt down in AD 105. A second timber fort was built, guarding an important crossing of the River Tyne, when the Solway Firth–Tyne divide was the Roman frontier. Around AD 120, when Hadrian's Wall was built just over two miles to the north, the fort was rebuilt again, probably to house infantry away from the Wall. About twenty years later, when the frontier was pushed further north and the Antonine Wall built, the first stone fort was erected under the Governor Quintus Lollius Urbicus.

 

English Heritage has released monographs on the forts along Hadrian's Wall through the Archaeology Data Service. Bishop and Dore's report on the excavations at Corbridge 1947–80 reveal the complex history of the sequence of mainly earth and timber forts which preceded the masonry buildings. The reports also cover a metal hoard found within the fort, possibly linked to the abandonment between AD 122 and 138

 

After the Romans fell back to Hadrian's Wall in AD 163, the army seems to have been largely removed from Coria. Its ramparts were levelled and a big rebuilding programme of a very different nature was instigated. A series of probable temples were erected, followed by granaries, a fountain house and a large courtyard complex, which may have been intended to become a civilian forum or a military storehouse and workshop establishment. It was never finished in its original plan.

 

Burnt timber buildings may relate to Cassius Dio's reference to tribes crossing the frontier but by the early 3rd century there was more construction. Two compounds opposite the supposed forum were built as part of a military supply depot within the town. It was connected with the Second and the Sixth Legion and may have been part of the supply network for Septimius Severus' northern campaigns.

 

Information on the 3rd- and 4th-century town is lacking but an elaborate house was certainly put up which may have housed an Imperial official. Coria was probably a big market centre for the lead, iron and coal industries in the area, as well as agriculture, evidenced by the granaries. A pottery store has also been identified. When occupation came to an end is unclear. It is not even known if the site was still occupied when the Anglo-Saxons arrived to found adjoining Corbridge.

 

The Corbridge Hoard was found here.

 

Between 1906 and 1914, the site was excavated following a desire by the Northumberland County History Committee to assess the Roman remains at Corbridge ahead of a book on the history of the parish, overseen by Francis J. Haverfield. During that time, a number of scholars from Oxford University were sent by Haverfield to supervise local labourers tasked with the actual excavation, including J.P. Bushe-Fox and Leonard Woolley, making it one of the first training excavations in British archaeology. Brian Dobson later ran adult training excavations at Corbridge in the 1960s and 1970s.

 

Work on Hexham Abbey in 1881 brought to light a Roman funerary monument in the stonework of the south porch of the transept. An elaborately carved stone (now on display in the abbey) shows a standard-bearer in the Roman cavalry riding down a barbarian: its inscription shows it to commemorate Flavinus, an officer in the ala Petriana who died aged 25 after seven years' service. The ala Petriana is known to have been stationed at Corbridge, and the slab is thought to date to the late first century and to have once stood in the military cemetery near the fort there.

 

Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of Britannia after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410.

 

Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC as part of his Gallic Wars. According to Caesar, the Britons had been overrun or culturally assimilated by the Belgae during the British Iron Age and had been aiding Caesar's enemies. The Belgae were the only Celtic tribe to cross the sea into Britain, for to all other Celtic tribes this land was unknown. He received tribute, installed the friendly king Mandubracius over the Trinovantes, and returned to Gaul. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34, 27, and 25 BC. In 40 AD, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel on the continent, only to have them gather seashells (musculi) according to Suetonius, perhaps as a symbolic gesture to proclaim Caligula's victory over the sea. Three years later, Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain and restore the exiled king Verica over the Atrebates. The Romans defeated the Catuvellauni, and then organized their conquests as the province of Britain. By 47 AD, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way. Control over Wales was delayed by reverses and the effects of Boudica's uprising, but the Romans expanded steadily northward.

 

The conquest of Britain continued under command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola (77–84), who expanded the Roman Empire as far as Caledonia. In mid-84 AD, Agricola faced the armies of the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Battle casualties were estimated by Tacitus to be upwards of 10,000 on the Caledonian side and about 360 on the Roman side. The bloodbath at Mons Graupius concluded the forty-year conquest of Britain, a period that possibly saw between 100,000 and 250,000 Britons killed. In the context of pre-industrial warfare and of a total population of Britain of c. 2 million, these are very high figures.

 

Under the 2nd-century emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, two walls were built to defend the Roman province from the Caledonians, whose realms in the Scottish Highlands were never controlled. Around 197 AD, the Severan Reforms divided Britain into two provinces: Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. During the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicarius, who administered the Diocese of the Britains. A fifth province, Valentia, is attested in the later 4th century. For much of the later period of the Roman occupation, Britannia was subject to barbarian invasions and often came under the control of imperial usurpers and imperial pretenders. The final Roman withdrawal from Britain occurred around 410; the native kingdoms are considered to have formed Sub-Roman Britain after that.

 

Following the conquest of the Britons, a distinctive Romano-British culture emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, and architecture. The Roman goddess Britannia became the female personification of Britain. After the initial invasions, Roman historians generally only mention Britain in passing. Thus, most present knowledge derives from archaeological investigations and occasional epigraphic evidence lauding the Britannic achievements of an emperor. Roman citizens settled in Britain from many parts of the Empire.

 

History

Britain was known to the Classical world. The Greeks, the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians traded for Cornish tin in the 4th century BC. The Greeks referred to the Cassiterides, or "tin islands", and placed them near the west coast of Europe. The Carthaginian sailor Himilco is said to have visited the island in the 6th or 5th century BC and the Greek explorer Pytheas in the 4th. It was regarded as a place of mystery, with some writers refusing to believe it existed.

 

The first direct Roman contact was when Julius Caesar undertook two expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, as part of his conquest of Gaul, believing the Britons were helping the Gallic resistance. The first expedition was more a reconnaissance than a full invasion and gained a foothold on the coast of Kent but was unable to advance further because of storm damage to the ships and a lack of cavalry. Despite the military failure, it was a political success, with the Roman Senate declaring a 20-day public holiday in Rome to honour the unprecedented achievement of obtaining hostages from Britain and defeating Belgic tribes on returning to the continent.

 

The second invasion involved a substantially larger force and Caesar coerced or invited many of the native Celtic tribes to pay tribute and give hostages in return for peace. A friendly local king, Mandubracius, was installed, and his rival, Cassivellaunus, was brought to terms. Hostages were taken, but historians disagree over whether any tribute was paid after Caesar returned to Gaul.

 

Caesar conquered no territory and left no troops behind, but he established clients and brought Britain into Rome's sphere of influence. Augustus planned invasions in 34, 27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, and the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustus's reign, claimed that taxes on trade brought in more annual revenue than any conquest could. Archaeology shows that there was an increase in imported luxury goods in southeastern Britain. Strabo also mentions British kings who sent embassies to Augustus, and Augustus's own Res Gestae refers to two British kings he received as refugees. When some of Tiberius's ships were carried to Britain in a storm during his campaigns in Germany in 16 AD, they came back with tales of monsters.

 

Rome appears to have encouraged a balance of power in southern Britain, supporting two powerful kingdoms: the Catuvellauni, ruled by the descendants of Tasciovanus, and the Atrebates, ruled by the descendants of Commius. This policy was followed until 39 or 40 AD, when Caligula received an exiled member of the Catuvellaunian dynasty and planned an invasion of Britain that collapsed in farcical circumstances before it left Gaul. When Claudius successfully invaded in 43 AD, it was in aid of another fugitive British ruler, Verica of the Atrebates.

 

Roman invasion

The invasion force in 43 AD was led by Aulus Plautius,[26] but it is unclear how many legions were sent. The Legio II Augusta, commanded by future emperor Vespasian, was the only one directly attested to have taken part. The Legio IX Hispana, the XIV Gemina (later styled Martia Victrix) and the XX (later styled Valeria Victrix) are known to have served during the Boudican Revolt of 60/61, and were probably there since the initial invasion. This is not certain because the Roman army was flexible, with units being moved around whenever necessary. The IX Hispana may have been permanently stationed, with records showing it at Eboracum (York) in 71 and on a building inscription there dated 108, before being destroyed in the east of the Empire, possibly during the Bar Kokhba revolt.

 

The invasion was delayed by a troop mutiny until an imperial freedman persuaded them to overcome their fear of crossing the Ocean and campaigning beyond the limits of the known world. They sailed in three divisions, and probably landed at Richborough in Kent; at least part of the force may have landed near Fishbourne, West Sussex.

 

The Catuvellauni and their allies were defeated in two battles: the first, assuming a Richborough landing, on the river Medway, the second on the river Thames. One of their leaders, Togodumnus, was killed, but his brother Caratacus survived to continue resistance elsewhere. Plautius halted at the Thames and sent for Claudius, who arrived with reinforcements, including artillery and elephants, for the final march to the Catuvellaunian capital, Camulodunum (Colchester). Vespasian subdued the southwest, Cogidubnus was set up as a friendly king of several territories, and treaties were made with tribes outside direct Roman control.

 

Establishment of Roman rule

After capturing the south of the island, the Romans turned their attention to what is now Wales. The Silures, Ordovices and Deceangli remained implacably opposed to the invaders and for the first few decades were the focus of Roman military attention, despite occasional minor revolts among Roman allies like the Brigantes and the Iceni. The Silures were led by Caratacus, and he carried out an effective guerrilla campaign against Governor Publius Ostorius Scapula. Finally, in 51, Ostorius lured Caratacus into a set-piece battle and defeated him. The British leader sought refuge among the Brigantes, but their queen, Cartimandua, proved her loyalty by surrendering him to the Romans. He was brought as a captive to Rome, where a dignified speech he made during Claudius's triumph persuaded the emperor to spare his life. The Silures were still not pacified, and Cartimandua's ex-husband Venutius replaced Caratacus as the most prominent leader of British resistance.

 

On Nero's accession, Roman Britain extended as far north as Lindum. Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the conqueror of Mauretania (modern day Algeria and Morocco), then became governor of Britain, and in 60 and 61 he moved against Mona (Anglesey) to settle accounts with Druidism once and for all. Paulinus led his army across the Menai Strait and massacred the Druids and burnt their sacred groves.

 

While Paulinus was campaigning in Mona, the southeast of Britain rose in revolt under the leadership of Boudica. She was the widow of the recently deceased king of the Iceni, Prasutagus. The Roman historian Tacitus reports that Prasutagus had left a will leaving half his kingdom to Nero in the hope that the remainder would be left untouched. He was wrong. When his will was enforced, Rome[clarification needed] responded by violently seizing the tribe's lands in full. Boudica protested. In consequence, Rome[clarification needed] punished her and her daughters by flogging and rape. In response, the Iceni, joined by the Trinovantes, destroyed the Roman colony at Camulodunum (Colchester) and routed the part of the IXth Legion that was sent to relieve it. Paulinus rode to London (then called Londinium), the rebels' next target, but concluded it could not be defended. Abandoned, it was destroyed, as was Verulamium (St. Albans). Between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed in the three cities. But Paulinus regrouped with two of the three legions still available to him, chose a battlefield, and, despite being outnumbered by more than twenty to one, defeated the rebels in the Battle of Watling Street. Boudica died not long afterwards, by self-administered poison or by illness. During this time, the Emperor Nero considered withdrawing Roman forces from Britain altogether.

 

There was further turmoil in 69, the "Year of the Four Emperors". As civil war raged in Rome, weak governors were unable to control the legions in Britain, and Venutius of the Brigantes seized his chance. The Romans had previously defended Cartimandua against him, but this time were unable to do so. Cartimandua was evacuated, and Venutius was left in control of the north of the country. After Vespasian secured the empire, his first two appointments as governor, Quintus Petillius Cerialis and Sextus Julius Frontinus, took on the task of subduing the Brigantes and Silures respectively.[38] Frontinus extended Roman rule to all of South Wales, and initiated exploitation of the mineral resources, such as the gold mines at Dolaucothi.

 

In the following years, the Romans conquered more of the island, increasing the size of Roman Britain. Governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola, father-in-law to the historian Tacitus, conquered the Ordovices in 78. With the XX Valeria Victrix legion, Agricola defeated the Caledonians in 84 at the Battle of Mons Graupius, in north-east Scotland. This was the high-water mark of Roman territory in Britain: shortly after his victory, Agricola was recalled from Britain back to Rome, and the Romans initially retired to a more defensible line along the Forth–Clyde isthmus, freeing soldiers badly needed along other frontiers.

 

For much of the history of Roman Britain, a large number of soldiers were garrisoned on the island. This required that the emperor station a trusted senior man as governor of the province. As a result, many future emperors served as governors or legates in this province, including Vespasian, Pertinax, and Gordian I.

 

Roman military organisation in the north

In 84 AD

In 84 AD

 

In 155 AD

In 155 AD

 

Hadrian's Wall, and Antonine Wall

There is no historical source describing the decades that followed Agricola's recall. Even the name of his replacement is unknown. Archaeology has shown that some Roman forts south of the Forth–Clyde isthmus were rebuilt and enlarged; others appear to have been abandoned. By 87 the frontier had been consolidated on the Stanegate. Roman coins and pottery have been found circulating at native settlement sites in the Scottish Lowlands in the years before 100, indicating growing Romanisation. Some of the most important sources for this era are the writing tablets from the fort at Vindolanda in Northumberland, mostly dating to 90–110. These tablets provide evidence for the operation of a Roman fort at the edge of the Roman Empire, where officers' wives maintained polite society while merchants, hauliers and military personnel kept the fort operational and supplied.

 

Around 105 there appears to have been a serious setback at the hands of the tribes of the Picts: several Roman forts were destroyed by fire, with human remains and damaged armour at Trimontium (at modern Newstead, in SE Scotland) indicating hostilities at least at that site.[citation needed] There is also circumstantial evidence that auxiliary reinforcements were sent from Germany, and an unnamed British war of the period is mentioned on the gravestone of a tribune of Cyrene. Trajan's Dacian Wars may have led to troop reductions in the area or even total withdrawal followed by slighting of the forts by the Picts rather than an unrecorded military defeat. The Romans were also in the habit of destroying their own forts during an orderly withdrawal, in order to deny resources to an enemy. In either case, the frontier probably moved south to the line of the Stanegate at the Solway–Tyne isthmus around this time.

 

A new crisis occurred at the beginning of Hadrian's reign): a rising in the north which was suppressed by Quintus Pompeius Falco. When Hadrian reached Britannia on his famous tour of the Roman provinces around 120, he directed an extensive defensive wall, known to posterity as Hadrian's Wall, to be built close to the line of the Stanegate frontier. Hadrian appointed Aulus Platorius Nepos as governor to undertake this work who brought the Legio VI Victrix legion with him from Germania Inferior. This replaced the famous Legio IX Hispana, whose disappearance has been much discussed. Archaeology indicates considerable political instability in Scotland during the first half of the 2nd century, and the shifting frontier at this time should be seen in this context.

 

In the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161) the Hadrianic border was briefly extended north to the Forth–Clyde isthmus, where the Antonine Wall was built around 142 following the military reoccupation of the Scottish lowlands by a new governor, Quintus Lollius Urbicus.

 

The first Antonine occupation of Scotland ended as a result of a further crisis in 155–157, when the Brigantes revolted. With limited options to despatch reinforcements, the Romans moved their troops south, and this rising was suppressed by Governor Gnaeus Julius Verus. Within a year the Antonine Wall was recaptured, but by 163 or 164 it was abandoned. The second occupation was probably connected with Antoninus's undertakings to protect the Votadini or his pride in enlarging the empire, since the retreat to the Hadrianic frontier occurred not long after his death when a more objective strategic assessment of the benefits of the Antonine Wall could be made. The Romans did not entirely withdraw from Scotland at this time: the large fort at Newstead was maintained along with seven smaller outposts until at least 180.

 

During the twenty-year period following the reversion of the frontier to Hadrian's Wall in 163/4, Rome was concerned with continental issues, primarily problems in the Danubian provinces. Increasing numbers of hoards of buried coins in Britain at this time indicate that peace was not entirely achieved. Sufficient Roman silver has been found in Scotland to suggest more than ordinary trade, and it is likely that the Romans were reinforcing treaty agreements by paying tribute to their implacable enemies, the Picts.

 

In 175, a large force of Sarmatian cavalry, consisting of 5,500 men, arrived in Britannia, probably to reinforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings. In 180, Hadrian's Wall was breached by the Picts and the commanding officer or governor was killed there in what Cassius Dio described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus. Ulpius Marcellus was sent as replacement governor and by 184 he had won a new peace, only to be faced with a mutiny from his own troops. Unhappy with Marcellus's strictness, they tried to elect a legate named Priscus as usurper governor; he refused, but Marcellus was lucky to leave the province alive. The Roman army in Britannia continued its insubordination: they sent a delegation of 1,500 to Rome to demand the execution of Tigidius Perennis, a Praetorian prefect who they felt had earlier wronged them by posting lowly equites to legate ranks in Britannia. Commodus met the party outside Rome and agreed to have Perennis killed, but this only made them feel more secure in their mutiny.

 

The future emperor Pertinax (lived 126–193) was sent to Britannia to quell the mutiny and was initially successful in regaining control, but a riot broke out among the troops. Pertinax was attacked and left for dead, and asked to be recalled to Rome, where he briefly succeeded Commodus as emperor in 192.

 

3rd century

The death of Commodus put into motion a series of events which eventually led to civil war. Following the short reign of Pertinax, several rivals for the emperorship emerged, including Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. The latter was the new governor of Britannia, and had seemingly won the natives over after their earlier rebellions; he also controlled three legions, making him a potentially significant claimant. His sometime rival Severus promised him the title of Caesar in return for Albinus's support against Pescennius Niger in the east. Once Niger was neutralised, Severus turned on his ally in Britannia; it is likely that Albinus saw he would be the next target and was already preparing for war.

 

Albinus crossed to Gaul in 195, where the provinces were also sympathetic to him, and set up at Lugdunum. Severus arrived in February 196, and the ensuing battle was decisive. Albinus came close to victory, but Severus's reinforcements won the day, and the British governor committed suicide. Severus soon purged Albinus's sympathisers and perhaps confiscated large tracts of land in Britain as punishment. Albinus had demonstrated the major problem posed by Roman Britain. In order to maintain security, the province required the presence of three legions, but command of these forces provided an ideal power base for ambitious rivals. Deploying those legions elsewhere would strip the island of its garrison, leaving the province defenceless against uprisings by the native Celtic tribes and against invasion by the Picts and Scots.

 

The traditional view is that northern Britain descended into anarchy during Albinus's absence. Cassius Dio records that the new Governor, Virius Lupus, was obliged to buy peace from a fractious northern tribe known as the Maeatae. The succession of militarily distinguished governors who were subsequently appointed suggests that enemies of Rome were posing a difficult challenge, and Lucius Alfenus Senecio's report to Rome in 207 describes barbarians "rebelling, over-running the land, taking loot and creating destruction". In order to rebel, of course, one must be a subject – the Maeatae clearly did not consider themselves such. Senecio requested either reinforcements or an Imperial expedition, and Severus chose the latter, despite being 62 years old. Archaeological evidence shows that Senecio had been rebuilding the defences of Hadrian's Wall and the forts beyond it, and Severus's arrival in Britain prompted the enemy tribes to sue for peace immediately. The emperor had not come all that way to leave without a victory, and it is likely that he wished to provide his teenage sons Caracalla and Geta with first-hand experience of controlling a hostile barbarian land.

 

Northern campaigns, 208–211

An invasion of Caledonia led by Severus and probably numbering around 20,000 troops moved north in 208 or 209, crossing the Wall and passing through eastern Scotland on a route similar to that used by Agricola. Harried by punishing guerrilla raids by the northern tribes and slowed by an unforgiving terrain, Severus was unable to meet the Caledonians on a battlefield. The emperor's forces pushed north as far as the River Tay, but little appears to have been achieved by the invasion, as peace treaties were signed with the Caledonians. By 210 Severus had returned to York, and the frontier had once again become Hadrian's Wall. He assumed the title Britannicus but the title meant little with regard to the unconquered north, which clearly remained outside the authority of the Empire. Almost immediately, another northern tribe, the Maeatae, went to war. Caracalla left with a punitive expedition, but by the following year his ailing father had died and he and his brother left the province to press their claim to the throne.

 

As one of his last acts, Severus tried to solve the problem of powerful and rebellious governors in Britain by dividing the province into Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. This kept the potential for rebellion in check for almost a century. Historical sources provide little information on the following decades, a period known as the Long Peace. Even so, the number of buried hoards found from this period rises, suggesting continuing unrest. A string of forts were built along the coast of southern Britain to control piracy; and over the following hundred years they increased in number, becoming the Saxon Shore Forts.

 

During the middle of the 3rd century, the Roman Empire was convulsed by barbarian invasions, rebellions and new imperial pretenders. Britannia apparently avoided these troubles, but increasing inflation had its economic effect. In 259 a so-called Gallic Empire was established when Postumus rebelled against Gallienus. Britannia was part of this until 274 when Aurelian reunited the empire.

 

Around the year 280, a half-British officer named Bonosus was in command of the Roman's Rhenish fleet when the Germans managed to burn it at anchor. To avoid punishment, he proclaimed himself emperor at Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) but was crushed by Marcus Aurelius Probus. Soon afterwards, an unnamed governor of one of the British provinces also attempted an uprising. Probus put it down by sending irregular troops of Vandals and Burgundians across the Channel.

 

The Carausian Revolt led to a short-lived Britannic Empire from 286 to 296. Carausius was a Menapian naval commander of the Britannic fleet; he revolted upon learning of a death sentence ordered by the emperor Maximian on charges of having abetted Frankish and Saxon pirates and having embezzled recovered treasure. He consolidated control over all the provinces of Britain and some of northern Gaul while Maximian dealt with other uprisings. An invasion in 288 failed to unseat him and an uneasy peace ensued, with Carausius issuing coins and inviting official recognition. In 293, the junior emperor Constantius Chlorus launched a second offensive, besieging the rebel port of Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) by land and sea. After it fell, Constantius attacked Carausius's other Gallic holdings and Frankish allies and Carausius was usurped by his treasurer, Allectus. Julius Asclepiodotus landed an invasion fleet near Southampton and defeated Allectus in a land battle.

 

Diocletian's reforms

As part of Diocletian's reforms, the provinces of Roman Britain were organized as a diocese governed by a vicarius under a praetorian prefect who, from 318 to 331, was Junius Bassus who was based at Augusta Treverorum (Trier).

 

The vicarius was based at Londinium as the principal city of the diocese. Londinium and Eboracum continued as provincial capitals and the territory was divided up into smaller provinces for administrative efficiency.

 

Civilian and military authority of a province was no longer exercised by one official and the governor was stripped of military command which was handed over to the Dux Britanniarum by 314. The governor of a province assumed more financial duties (the procurators of the Treasury ministry were slowly phased out in the first three decades of the 4th century). The Dux was commander of the troops of the Northern Region, primarily along Hadrian's Wall and his responsibilities included protection of the frontier. He had significant autonomy due in part to the distance from his superiors.

 

The tasks of the vicarius were to control and coordinate the activities of governors; monitor but not interfere with the daily functioning of the Treasury and Crown Estates, which had their own administrative infrastructure; and act as the regional quartermaster-general of the armed forces. In short, as the sole civilian official with superior authority, he had general oversight of the administration, as well as direct control, while not absolute, over governors who were part of the prefecture; the other two fiscal departments were not.

 

The early-4th-century Verona List, the late-4th-century work of Sextus Rufus, and the early-5th-century List of Offices and work of Polemius Silvius all list four provinces by some variation of the names Britannia I, Britannia II, Maxima Caesariensis, and Flavia Caesariensis; all of these seem to have initially been directed by a governor (praeses) of equestrian rank. The 5th-century sources list a fifth province named Valentia and give its governor and Maxima's a consular rank. Ammianus mentions Valentia as well, describing its creation by Count Theodosius in 369 after the quelling of the Great Conspiracy. Ammianus considered it a re-creation of a formerly lost province, leading some to think there had been an earlier fifth province under another name (may be the enigmatic "Vespasiana"), and leading others to place Valentia beyond Hadrian's Wall, in the territory abandoned south of the Antonine Wall.

 

Reconstructions of the provinces and provincial capitals during this period partially rely on ecclesiastical records. On the assumption that the early bishoprics mimicked the imperial hierarchy, scholars use the list of bishops for the 314 Council of Arles. The list is patently corrupt: the British delegation is given as including a Bishop "Eborius" of Eboracum and two bishops "from Londinium" (one de civitate Londinensi and the other de civitate colonia Londinensium). The error is variously emended: Bishop Ussher proposed Colonia, Selden Col. or Colon. Camalodun., and Spelman Colonia Cameloduni (all various names of Colchester); Gale and Bingham offered colonia Lindi and Henry Colonia Lindum (both Lincoln); and Bishop Stillingfleet and Francis Thackeray read it as a scribal error of Civ. Col. Londin. for an original Civ. Col. Leg. II (Caerleon). On the basis of the Verona List, the priest and deacon who accompanied the bishops in some manuscripts are ascribed to the fourth province.

 

In the 12th century, Gerald of Wales described the supposedly metropolitan sees of the early British church established by the legendary SS Fagan and "Duvian". He placed Britannia Prima in Wales and western England with its capital at "Urbs Legionum" (Caerleon); Britannia Secunda in Kent and southern England with its capital at "Dorobernia" (Canterbury); Flavia in Mercia and central England with its capital at "Lundonia" (London); "Maximia" in northern England with its capital at Eboracum (York); and Valentia in "Albania which is now Scotland" with its capital at St Andrews. Modern scholars generally dispute the last: some place Valentia at or beyond Hadrian's Wall but St Andrews is beyond even the Antonine Wall and Gerald seems to have simply been supporting the antiquity of its church for political reasons.

 

A common modern reconstruction places the consular province of Maxima at Londinium, on the basis of its status as the seat of the diocesan vicarius; places Prima in the west according to Gerald's traditional account but moves its capital to Corinium of the Dobunni (Cirencester) on the basis of an artifact recovered there referring to Lucius Septimius, a provincial rector; places Flavia north of Maxima, with its capital placed at Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to match one emendation of the bishops list from Arles;[d] and places Secunda in the north with its capital at Eboracum (York). Valentia is placed variously in northern Wales around Deva (Chester); beside Hadrian's Wall around Luguvalium (Carlisle); and between the walls along Dere Street.

 

4th century

Emperor Constantius returned to Britain in 306, despite his poor health, with an army aiming to invade northern Britain, the provincial defences having been rebuilt in the preceding years. Little is known of his campaigns with scant archaeological evidence, but fragmentary historical sources suggest he reached the far north of Britain and won a major battle in early summer before returning south. His son Constantine (later Constantine the Great) spent a year in northern Britain at his father's side, campaigning against the Picts beyond Hadrian's Wall in the summer and autumn. Constantius died in York in July 306 with his son at his side. Constantine then successfully used Britain as the starting point of his march to the imperial throne, unlike the earlier usurper, Albinus.

 

In the middle of the century, the province was loyal for a few years to the usurper Magnentius, who succeeded Constans following the latter's death. After the defeat and death of Magnentius in the Battle of Mons Seleucus in 353, Constantius II dispatched his chief imperial notary Paulus Catena to Britain to hunt down Magnentius's supporters. The investigation deteriorated into a witch-hunt, which forced the vicarius Flavius Martinus to intervene. When Paulus retaliated by accusing Martinus of treason, the vicarius attacked Paulus with a sword, with the aim of assassinating him, but in the end he committed suicide.

 

As the 4th century progressed, there were increasing attacks from the Saxons in the east and the Scoti (Irish) in the west. A series of forts had been built, starting around 280, to defend the coasts, but these preparations were not enough when, in 367, a general assault of Saxons, Picts, Scoti and Attacotti, combined with apparent dissension in the garrison on Hadrian's Wall, left Roman Britain prostrate. The invaders overwhelmed the entire western and northern regions of Britannia and the cities were sacked. This crisis, sometimes called the Barbarian Conspiracy or the Great Conspiracy, was settled by Count Theodosius from 368 with a string of military and civil reforms. Theodosius crossed from Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer) and marched on Londinium where he began to deal with the invaders and made his base.[ An amnesty was promised to deserters which enabled Theodosius to regarrison abandoned forts. By the end of the year Hadrian's Wall was retaken and order returned. Considerable reorganization was undertaken in Britain, including the creation of a new province named Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north. A new Dux Britanniarum was appointed, Dulcitius, with Civilis to head a new civilian administration.

 

Another imperial usurper, Magnus Maximus, raised the standard of revolt at Segontium (Caernarfon) in north Wales in 383, and crossed the English Channel. Maximus held much of the western empire, and fought a successful campaign against the Picts and Scots around 384. His continental exploits required troops from Britain, and it appears that forts at Chester and elsewhere were abandoned in this period, triggering raids and settlement in north Wales by the Irish. His rule was ended in 388, but not all the British troops may have returned: the Empire's military resources were stretched to the limit along the Rhine and Danube. Around 396 there were more barbarian incursions into Britain. Stilicho led a punitive expedition. It seems peace was restored by 399, and it is likely that no further garrisoning was ordered; by 401 more troops were withdrawn, to assist in the war against Alaric I.

 

End of Roman rule

The traditional view of historians, informed by the work of Michael Rostovtzeff, was of a widespread economic decline at the beginning of the 5th century. Consistent archaeological evidence has told another story, and the accepted view is undergoing re-evaluation. Some features are agreed: more opulent but fewer urban houses, an end to new public building and some abandonment of existing ones, with the exception of defensive structures, and the widespread formation of "dark earth" deposits indicating increased horticulture within urban precincts. Turning over the basilica at Silchester to industrial uses in the late 3rd century, doubtless officially condoned, marks an early stage in the de-urbanisation of Roman Britain.

 

The abandonment of some sites is now believed to be later than had been thought. Many buildings changed use but were not destroyed. There was a growing number of barbarian attacks, but these targeted vulnerable rural settlements rather than towns. Some villas such as Chedworth, Great Casterton in Rutland and Hucclecote in Gloucestershire had new mosaic floors laid around this time, suggesting that economic problems may have been limited and patchy. Many suffered some decay before being abandoned in the 5th century; the story of Saint Patrick indicates that villas were still occupied until at least 430. Exceptionally, new buildings were still going up in this period in Verulamium and Cirencester. Some urban centres, for example Canterbury, Cirencester, Wroxeter, Winchester and Gloucester, remained active during the 5th and 6th centuries, surrounded by large farming estates.

 

Urban life had generally grown less intense by the fourth quarter of the 4th century, and coins minted between 378 and 388 are very rare, indicating a likely combination of economic decline, diminishing numbers of troops, problems with the payment of soldiers and officials or with unstable conditions during the usurpation of Magnus Maximus 383–87. Coinage circulation increased during the 390s, but never attained the levels of earlier decades. Copper coins are very rare after 402, though minted silver and gold coins from hoards indicate they were still present in the province even if they were not being spent. By 407 there were very few new Roman coins going into circulation, and by 430 it is likely that coinage as a medium of exchange had been abandoned. Mass-produced wheel thrown pottery ended at approximately the same time; the rich continued to use metal and glass vessels, while the poor made do with humble "grey ware" or resorted to leather or wooden containers.

 

Sub-Roman Britain

Towards the end of the 4th century Roman rule in Britain came under increasing pressure from barbarian attacks. Apparently, there were not enough troops to mount an effective defence. After elevating two disappointing usurpers, the army chose a soldier, Constantine III, to become emperor in 407. He crossed to Gaul but was defeated by Honorius; it is unclear how many troops remained or ever returned, or whether a commander-in-chief in Britain was ever reappointed. A Saxon incursion in 408 was apparently repelled by the Britons, and in 409 Zosimus records that the natives expelled the Roman civilian administration. Zosimus may be referring to the Bacaudic rebellion of the Breton inhabitants of Armorica since he describes how, in the aftermath of the revolt, all of Armorica and the rest of Gaul followed the example of the Brettaniai. A letter from Emperor Honorius in 410 has traditionally been seen as rejecting a British appeal for help, but it may have been addressed to Bruttium or Bologna. With the imperial layers of the military and civil government gone, administration and justice fell to municipal authorities, and local warlords gradually emerged all over Britain, still utilizing Romano-British ideals and conventions. Historian Stuart Laycock has investigated this process and emphasised elements of continuity from the British tribes in the pre-Roman and Roman periods, through to the native post-Roman kingdoms.

 

In British tradition, pagan Saxons were invited by Vortigern to assist in fighting the Picts, Scoti, and Déisi. (Germanic migration into Roman Britannia may have begun much earlier. There is recorded evidence, for example, of Germanic auxiliaries supporting the legions in Britain in the 1st and 2nd centuries.) The new arrivals rebelled, plunging the country into a series of wars that eventually led to the Saxon occupation of Lowland Britain by 600. Around this time, many Britons fled to Brittany (hence its name), Galicia and probably Ireland. A significant date in sub-Roman Britain is the Groans of the Britons, an unanswered appeal to Aetius, leading general of the western Empire, for assistance against Saxon invasion in 446. Another is the Battle of Deorham in 577, after which the significant cities of Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester fell and the Saxons reached the western sea.

 

Historians generally reject the historicity of King Arthur, who is supposed to have resisted the Anglo-Saxon conquest according to later medieval legends.

 

Trade

During the Roman period Britain's continental trade was principally directed across the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel, focusing on the narrow Strait of Dover, with more limited links via the Atlantic seaways. The most important British ports were London and Richborough, whilst the continental ports most heavily engaged in trade with Britain were Boulogne and the sites of Domburg and Colijnsplaat at the mouth of the river Scheldt. During the Late Roman period it is likely that the shore forts played some role in continental trade alongside their defensive functions.

 

Exports to Britain included: coin; pottery, particularly red-gloss terra sigillata (samian ware) from southern, central and eastern Gaul, as well as various other wares from Gaul and the Rhine provinces; olive oil from southern Spain in amphorae; wine from Gaul in amphorae and barrels; salted fish products from the western Mediterranean and Brittany in barrels and amphorae; preserved olives from southern Spain in amphorae; lava quern-stones from Mayen on the middle Rhine; glass; and some agricultural products. Britain's exports are harder to detect archaeologically, but will have included metals, such as silver and gold and some lead, iron and copper. Other exports probably included agricultural products, oysters and salt, whilst large quantities of coin would have been re-exported back to the continent as well.

 

These products moved as a result of private trade and also through payments and contracts established by the Roman state to support its military forces and officials on the island, as well as through state taxation and extraction of resources. Up until the mid-3rd century, the Roman state's payments appear to have been unbalanced, with far more products sent to Britain, to support its large military force (which had reached c. 53,000 by the mid-2nd century), than were extracted from the island.

 

It has been argued that Roman Britain's continental trade peaked in the late 1st century AD and thereafter declined as a result of an increasing reliance on local products by the population of Britain, caused by economic development on the island and by the Roman state's desire to save money by shifting away from expensive long-distance imports. Evidence has been outlined that suggests that the principal decline in Roman Britain's continental trade may have occurred in the late 2nd century AD, from c. 165 AD onwards. This has been linked to the economic impact of contemporary Empire-wide crises: the Antonine Plague and the Marcomannic Wars.

 

From the mid-3rd century onwards, Britain no longer received such a wide range and extensive quantity of foreign imports as it did during the earlier part of the Roman period; vast quantities of coin from continental mints reached the island, whilst there is historical evidence for the export of large amounts of British grain to the continent during the mid-4th century. During the latter part of the Roman period British agricultural products, paid for by both the Roman state and by private consumers, clearly played an important role in supporting the military garrisons and urban centres of the northwestern continental Empire. This came about as a result of the rapid decline in the size of the British garrison from the mid-3rd century onwards (thus freeing up more goods for export), and because of 'Germanic' incursions across the Rhine, which appear to have reduced rural settlement and agricultural output in northern Gaul.

 

Economy

Mineral extraction sites such as the Dolaucothi gold mine were probably first worked by the Roman army from c. 75, and at some later stage passed to civilian operators. The mine developed as a series of opencast workings, mainly by the use of hydraulic mining methods. They are described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History in great detail. Essentially, water supplied by aqueducts was used to prospect for ore veins by stripping away soil to reveal the bedrock. If veins were present, they were attacked using fire-setting and the ore removed for comminution. The dust was washed in a small stream of water and the heavy gold dust and gold nuggets collected in riffles. The diagram at right shows how Dolaucothi developed from c. 75 through to the 1st century. When opencast work was no longer feasible, tunnels were driven to follow the veins. The evidence from the site shows advanced technology probably under the control of army engineers.

 

The Wealden ironworking zone, the lead and silver mines of the Mendip Hills and the tin mines of Cornwall seem to have been private enterprises leased from the government for a fee. Mining had long been practised in Britain (see Grimes Graves), but the Romans introduced new technical knowledge and large-scale industrial production to revolutionise the industry. It included hydraulic mining to prospect for ore by removing overburden as well as work alluvial deposits. The water needed for such large-scale operations was supplied by one or more aqueducts, those surviving at Dolaucothi being especially impressive. Many prospecting areas were in dangerous, upland country, and, although mineral exploitation was presumably one of the main reasons for the Roman invasion, it had to wait until these areas were subdued.

 

By the 3rd and 4th centuries, small towns could often be found near villas. In these towns, villa owners and small-scale farmers could obtain specialist tools. Lowland Britain in the 4th century was agriculturally prosperous enough to export grain to the continent. This prosperity lay behind the blossoming of villa building and decoration that occurred between AD 300 and 350.

 

Britain's cities also consumed Roman-style pottery and other goods, and were centres through which goods could be distributed elsewhere. At Wroxeter in Shropshire, stock smashed into a gutter during a 2nd-century fire reveals that Gaulish samian ware was being sold alongside mixing bowls from the Mancetter-Hartshill industry of the West Midlands. Roman designs were most popular, but rural craftsmen still produced items derived from the Iron Age La Tène artistic traditions. Britain was home to much gold, which attracted Roman invaders. By the 3rd century, Britain's economy was diverse and well established, with commerce extending into the non-Romanised north.

 

Government

Further information: Governors of Roman Britain, Roman client kingdoms in Britain, and Roman auxiliaries in Britain

Under the Roman Empire, administration of peaceful provinces was ultimately the remit of the Senate, but those, like Britain, that required permanent garrisons, were placed under the Emperor's control. In practice imperial provinces were run by resident governors who were members of the Senate and had held the consulship. These men were carefully selected, often having strong records of military success and administrative ability. In Britain, a governor's role was primarily military, but numerous other tasks were also his responsibility, such as maintaining diplomatic relations with local client kings, building roads, ensuring the public courier system functioned, supervising the civitates and acting as a judge in important legal cases. When not campaigning, he would travel the province hearing complaints and recruiting new troops.

 

To assist him in legal matters he had an adviser, the legatus juridicus, and those in Britain appear to have been distinguished lawyers perhaps because of the challenge of incorporating tribes into the imperial system and devising a workable method of taxing them. Financial administration was dealt with by a procurator with junior posts for each tax-raising power. Each legion in Britain had a commander who answered to the governor and, in time of war, probably directly ruled troublesome districts. Each of these commands carried a tour of duty of two to three years in different provinces. Below these posts was a network of administrative managers covering intelligence gathering, sending reports to Rome, organising military supplies and dealing with prisoners. A staff of seconded soldiers provided clerical services.

 

Colchester was probably the earliest capital of Roman Britain, but it was soon eclipsed by London with its strong mercantile connections. The different forms of municipal organisation in Britannia were known as civitas (which were subdivided, amongst other forms, into colonies such as York, Colchester, Gloucester and Lincoln and municipalities such as Verulamium), and were each governed by a senate of local landowners, whether Brythonic or Roman, who elected magistrates concerning judicial and civic affairs. The various civitates sent representatives to a yearly provincial council in order to profess loyalty to the Roman state, to send direct petitions to the Emperor in times of extraordinary need, and to worship the imperial cult.

 

Demographics

Roman Britain had an estimated population between 2.8 million and 3 million people at the end of the second century. At the end of the fourth century, it had an estimated population of 3.6 million people, of whom 125,000 consisted of the Roman army and their families and dependents.[80] The urban population of Roman Britain was about 240,000 people at the end of the fourth century. The capital city of Londinium is estimated to have had a population of about 60,000 people. Londinium was an ethnically diverse city with inhabitants from the Roman Empire, including natives of Britannia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. There was also cultural diversity in other Roman-British towns, which were sustained by considerable migration, from Britannia and other Roman territories, including continental Europe, Roman Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. In a study conducted in 2012, around 45 percent of sites investigated dating from the Roman period had at least one individual of North African origin.

 

Town and country

During their occupation of Britain the Romans founded a number of important settlements, many of which survive. The towns suffered attrition in the later 4th century, when public building ceased and some were abandoned to private uses. Place names survived the deurbanised Sub-Roman and early Anglo-Saxon periods, and historiography has been at pains to signal the expected survivals, but archaeology shows that a bare handful of Roman towns were continuously occupied. According to S.T. Loseby, the very idea of a town as a centre of power and administration was reintroduced to England by the Roman Christianising mission to Canterbury, and its urban revival was delayed to the 10th century.

 

Roman towns can be broadly grouped in two categories. Civitates, "public towns" were formally laid out on a grid plan, and their role in imperial administration occasioned the construction of public buildings. The much more numerous category of vici, "small towns" grew on informal plans, often round a camp or at a ford or crossroads; some were not small, others were scarcely urban, some not even defended by a wall, the characteristic feature of a place of any importance.

 

Cities and towns which have Roman origins, or were extensively developed by them are listed with their Latin names in brackets; civitates are marked C

 

Alcester (Alauna)

Alchester

Aldborough, North Yorkshire (Isurium Brigantum) C

Bath (Aquae Sulis) C

Brough (Petuaria) C

Buxton (Aquae Arnemetiae)

Caerleon (Isca Augusta) C

Caernarfon (Segontium) C

Caerwent (Venta Silurum) C

Caister-on-Sea C

Canterbury (Durovernum Cantiacorum) C

Carlisle (Luguvalium) C

Carmarthen (Moridunum) C

Chelmsford (Caesaromagus)

Chester (Deva Victrix) C

Chester-le-Street (Concangis)

Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum) C

Cirencester (Corinium) C

Colchester (Camulodunum) C

Corbridge (Coria) C

Dorchester (Durnovaria) C

Dover (Portus Dubris)

Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) C

Gloucester (Glevum) C

Great Chesterford (the name of this vicus is unknown)

Ilchester (Lindinis) C

Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum) C

Lincoln (Lindum Colonia) C

London (Londinium) C

Manchester (Mamucium) C

Newcastle upon Tyne (Pons Aelius)

Northwich (Condate)

St Albans (Verulamium) C

Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) C

Towcester (Lactodurum)

Whitchurch (Mediolanum) C

Winchester (Venta Belgarum) C

Wroxeter (Viroconium Cornoviorum) C

York (Eboracum) C

 

Religion

The druids, the Celtic priestly caste who were believed to originate in Britain, were outlawed by Claudius, and in 61 they vainly defended their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey). Under Roman rule the Britons continued to worship native Celtic deities, such as Ancasta, but often conflated with their Roman equivalents, like Mars Rigonemetos at Nettleham.

 

The degree to which earlier native beliefs survived is difficult to gauge precisely. Certain European ritual traits such as the significance of the number 3, the importance of the head and of water sources such as springs remain in the archaeological record, but the differences in the votive offerings made at the baths at Bath, Somerset, before and after the Roman conquest suggest that continuity was only partial. Worship of the Roman emperor is widely recorded, especially at military sites. The founding of a Roman temple to Claudius at Camulodunum was one of the impositions that led to the revolt of Boudica. By the 3rd century, Pagans Hill Roman Temple in Somerset was able to exist peaceably and it did so into the 5th century.

 

Pagan religious practices were supported by priests, represented in Britain by votive deposits of priestly regalia such as chain crowns from West Stow and Willingham Fen.

 

Eastern cults such as Mithraism also grew in popularity towards the end of the occupation. The London Mithraeum is one example of the popularity of mystery religions among the soldiery. Temples to Mithras also exist in military contexts at Vindobala on Hadrian's Wall (the Rudchester Mithraeum) and at Segontium in Roman Wales (the Caernarfon Mithraeum).

 

Christianity

It is not clear when or how Christianity came to Britain. A 2nd-century "word square" has been discovered in Mamucium, the Roman settlement of Manchester. It consists of an anagram of PATER NOSTER carved on a piece of amphora. There has been discussion by academics whether the "word square" is a Christian artefact, but if it is, it is one of the earliest examples of early Christianity in Britain. The earliest confirmed written evidence for Christianity in Britain is a statement by Tertullian, c. 200 AD, in which he described "all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ". Archaeological evidence for Christian communities begins to appear in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Small timber churches are suggested at Lincoln and Silchester and baptismal fonts have been found at Icklingham and the Saxon Shore Fort at Richborough. The Icklingham font is made of lead, and visible in the British Museum. A Roman Christian graveyard exists at the same site in Icklingham. A possible Roman 4th-century church and associated burial ground was also discovered at Butt Road on the south-west outskirts of Colchester during the construction of the new police station there, overlying an earlier pagan cemetery. The Water Newton Treasure is a hoard of Christian silver church plate from the early 4th century and the Roman villas at Lullingstone and Hinton St Mary contained Christian wall paintings and mosaics respectively. A large 4th-century cemetery at Poundbury with its east–west oriented burials and lack of grave goods has been interpreted as an early Christian burial ground, although such burial rites were also becoming increasingly common in pagan contexts during the period.

 

The Church in Britain seems to have developed the customary diocesan system, as evidenced from the records of the Council of Arles in Gaul in 314: represented at the council were bishops from thirty-five sees from Europe and North Africa, including three bishops from Britain, Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelphius, possibly a bishop of Lincoln. No other early sees are documented, and the material remains of early church structures are far to seek. The existence of a church in the forum courtyard of Lincoln and the martyrium of Saint Alban on the outskirts of Roman Verulamium are exceptional. Alban, the first British Christian martyr and by far the most prominent, is believed to have died in the early 4th century (some date him in the middle 3rd century), followed by Saints Julius and Aaron of Isca Augusta. Christianity was legalised in the Roman Empire by Constantine I in 313. Theodosius I made Christianity the state religion of the empire in 391, and by the 5th century it was well established. One belief labelled a heresy by the church authorities — Pelagianism — was originated by a British monk teaching in Rome: Pelagius lived c. 354 to c. 420/440.

 

A letter found on a lead tablet in Bath, Somerset, datable to c. 363, had been widely publicised as documentary evidence regarding the state of Christianity in Britain during Roman times. According to its first translator, it was written in Wroxeter by a Christian man called Vinisius to a Christian woman called Nigra, and was claimed as the first epigraphic record of Christianity in Britain. This translation of the letter was apparently based on grave paleographical errors, and the text has nothing to do with Christianity, and in fact relates to pagan rituals.

 

Environmental changes

The Romans introduced a number of species to Britain, including possibly the now-rare Roman nettle (Urtica pilulifera), said to have been used by soldiers to warm their arms and legs, and the edible snail Helix pomatia. There is also some evidence they may have introduced rabbits, but of the smaller southern mediterranean type. The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) prevalent in modern Britain is assumed to have been introduced from the continent after the Norman invasion of 1066. Box (Buxus sempervirens) is rarely recorded before the Roman period, but becomes a common find in towns and villas

 

Legacy

During their occupation of Britain the Romans built an extensive network of roads which continued to be used in later centuries and many are still followed today. The Romans also built water supply, sanitation and wastewater systems. Many of Britain's major cities, such as London (Londinium), Manchester (Mamucium) and York (Eboracum), were founded by the Romans, but the original Roman settlements were abandoned not long after the Romans left.

 

Unlike many other areas of the Western Roman Empire, the current majority language is not a Romance language, or a language descended from the pre-Roman inhabitants. The British language at the time of the invasion was Common Brittonic, and remained so after the Romans withdrew. It later split into regional languages, notably Cumbric, Cornish, Breton and Welsh. Examination of these languages suggests some 800 Latin words were incorporated into Common Brittonic (see Brittonic languages). The current majority language, English, is based on the languages of the Germanic tribes who migrated to the island from continental Europe

From left:

 

- Amulet of Harpocrates

Faience

Provenance unknown

BAAM 0155

 

- Amulet representing Harpocrates, wearing a side lock and standing with finger to the lips

Faience

Graeco-Roman Period, the second century BC

Provenance: Lower Egypt, Alexandria, El-Hadara, Antoniades tombs

BAAM 0151

 

- Amulet of Harpocrates

Faience

Provenance unknown

BAAM 0156

 

Antiquities Museum of Bibliotheca Alexandrina

2021 represents a significant milestone in the history of the Phoenix Railway-Photographic Circle with the celebration of our 50th anniversary. Phoenix was set up in spring 1971 and was created to promote an alternative approach to railway photography. Why not take a look at the PRPC web site at www.phoenix-rpc.co.uk/index.html.

 

Photograph courtesy of Nigel Capelle

This is a continuation of the previous extinct birds plate in www.flickr.com/photos/10770266@N04/5043889621/

 

The species represented here are:

 

1. Alaotra grebe (Tachybaptus rufolarvatus)

This small waterfowl was endemic to lake Alaotra in Madagascar and have the sad "honour" of be the last bird declared extinct. Last record was in 1985 and the bird was declared extinct in march 2010, before that, the last declared extinct bird was the po'o-uli, treated in this same plate (number 5). Form this bird exist only one photograph of an alive bird. Causes of extinction are habitat destruction and introduced predatory fishes. Also hybridation with the widespread Little Grebe (T. ruficollis) played, but as this alwas happened before human destruction of Madagascar, this last fact only can damage a previously damaged population. In the Lake Alaotra also lives an endemic pochard (Aythya innotata) that was declared extinct, but in 2006 I readed that it was rediscovered alive so my hopes for the grebe aumented. However the grebe don't had the same luck as the pochard.

 

2. Red-moustached fruit dove (Ptilinopus mercierii)

This pigeon, as colorful as other fruit doves, lived once in Marquesas islands in Polynesia. This bird had two different subspecies but both are extinct now. It was extinct due to predators introduced by humans: owls, cats and rats.

 

3. Crested shelduck (Tadorna cristata)

This magnific duck lived in eastern Asia. Last reliable record was in 1964 although many sight was reported in recent times, so is slightly possible that the bird is not extinct. Direct hunt and habitat loss are the causes of its extinction.

 

4. Red rail (Aphanapteryx bonasia)

One more of the many Mauritius bird that, as the dodo, was killed after the discovery of the Western Indian Ocean islands by occidental explorers. Rails (family Rallidae) seems to have one of the highest tendence to extinction, probably because many are reluctant to fly, or even unable (the Red Rail was flightless), as well as sensitive to habitat destruction and often chased for food. Red Rail was known from bones, old paintings and descriptions. It was discovered around 1600 and it't known than a number to alive ones was brought to Europe. This bird was extinct by direct hunt for food. Also introduced pigs helped, eating eggs and chicks. Around 1700 the bird was disappeared.

 

5. Po'o-uli (Melamprosops phaeosoma)

This is the last bird species to die with an exact extinction date, the 28th November 2004. As many other Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanididae), that became extinct or are being extincted now, this bird suffered a lot the diseases caused by introduced mosquitoes in Hawaii. It was discovered in 1973 with a population estimated of 200 individuals, but in 2002 only three birds left, one female was captured and brought to a zone where lived the last male. But the female flew away to her own territory in next day. In 2004 was planned to capture the three birds and bring to a recovering center. So the male was captured and brough to the center, but none female could be captured before the male died of avian malaria, three months after captured. Probably these two females died too.

 

6. Bonin grosbeak (Chaunoproctus ferreorostris)

This finch was seen only in Chichi-jima island in the Bonin Islands (Japan). Discovered in 1827, three years after the island was used by whale killers, and in 1854 an expedition don't found the bird anymore, that probably died because of the introduced predators and other destructive animals: pigs, rats, dogs, goats, sheep and cats. Like the Bonin Thrush (Zoothera terrestris), the bird disappeared from these islands, and then, from the world. Now we count with about 10 taxidermy specimens.

 

7. Bachman's warbler (Vermivora bachmani)

A small colorful insectivorous from North America that was not seen since 1988. Probably is extinct due to habitat destruction, but as recently as in 2002 a female bird was filmed in Cuba and could belong to this species.

 

8. Carolina parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis)

Almost as well known as the dodo between extinct birds, due to its North American origin and the dramatic, almost impossible to believe, human stupidness of its extinction. This beautiful parrot was the only North American parrot, living even in temperate climates. Flocks of thousands of birds flew in the past in the sky, feeding overall in the fruits of Xanthium strumarium, an invasive weed that grows in cultivation fields. But the humans saw the parakeets in these fields and authomatically thinked that the bird feeds on the plants that they grow, instead of the weeds. So a giant persecution started and farmers killes thousands and thousands of this bird every day. Parrots are amongst most intelligent birds and they have personality and strong feelings. When Carolina parakeets are shot and killed, other parakeets go close to the died bodies trying to reanimate, in an unusual solidary behaviour. Then the farmers kill them more and more and more parakeets come to cry for the deads and are killed again attracting more parakeets etc... this never stop until last parakeet was killed. Last wild Carolina parakeet was killed in 1904, and captive ones lived a bit more, last individual in the world, "Incas", died in Cincinnati zoo in 21th February 1918, while the last female, "Lady Jane", died a year before in same zoo. "Incas" died in the same enclosure than the last Passenger Pigeon (number 13), died four years before. This parakeet breeded very well in captivity and much more could have been done for keep them in worlds zoos. Other causes of extinction was destruction of forest and introduction of european Honey Bee, that takes the nesting places.

 

9. Labrador duck (Camptorhynchus labradorius)

This marine duck of North America had a lifestyle similar to the eiders, harliquin ducks and scoters. The last sight was on 1878, three years before the last preserved individual was shooted. Causes of extinction are not clear, hunt for food is a reason but the bird is reported that don't tastes good. Collectong of eggs and killing for feathers can also be a reason, as well as decreasing of some mollusks by overcollecting.

 

10. Guam flycatcher (Myiagra freycineti)

I choosed this bird because I found good photos of them alive, beucase it's extinction is very recent. The only cause of it's extinction is the introduction of a predator, the Brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) . Last sight of this bird was in 1983.

 

11. Raiatea parakeet (Cyanoramphus ulietanus)

Like some other parakeets in this genus, C. ulietanus is gone. It was endemic to Raiatea island in Polynesia. This bird is only known by two collected specimens, and was not seen anymore after 1773. Probably it disappeared due to forest destruction, direct hunt and introduced predators.

 

12. Pink-headed duck (Rhodonessa caryophyllacea)

This atonishing duck from India is extinct since 1950's. Always was a rare bird and no much is known about it, probably its evanishing is due to habitat destruction. Last shooted individual was on 1935. Exist a photo of several alive pink-headed ducks in captivity in Foxwarren Park, England, taken about 1925.

 

13. Passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius)

Probably the most famous extinct bird after the dodo. Similar to Carolina Parakeet in their distribution, habits, and way and date of extinction. Passenger pigeons formed the largest bird focks ever, that can reach even more than TWO BILLION birds!!!!!! The flocks destroy branches with its weight. Despite that, now we don't have none more than taxidermy specimens. The birds was first chased as a cheap meat for slaves and poors, decreasing quickly the number of pigeons, and forest destruction deleted the pigeons habitat. Last wild bird was seen on 1900, and "Martha", the last passenger pigeon, died in Cincinnati Zoo in 1914.

Much more info at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Pigeon

 

14. Greater akialoa (Hemignathus ellisianus)

As is said in number 5, and in the other plate about the Mamo (Drepanis pacifica), the Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanididae) lost many species and many are disappearing now, and the major cause are the diseases transmited by introduced mosquitoes. The genus Hemignathus count with several olivaceous medium-sized birds with long curved bills, some of them still alive, but mainly extinct. The greater Akialoa was the one with longest bill. It had three subspecies, all of them extinct. Between all subspecies it inhabited islands of Oahu, Lanai, Molokai and Maui. Last record was in 1969, in Kauai. Like other Drpanididae, this species disappeared due to diseases and habitat destruction.

 

15. Robust white-eye (Zosterops strenuus)

This bird was endemic to Lord Howe island, near Australia. Probably it disappeared due to the introduction of black rats in the island. In 1923, the bird was extinct. Another species of white-eye, Zosterops lateralis, are still alive, but the subspecies of Lord Howe island is threatened.

 

16. Slender moa (Dinornis giganteus)

Moas are some of the most fascinating extinct birds. They formed a family of about 12 species of giant flightless birds endemic to New Zealands. The smallest species, Euryapteryx curtus, is not bigger than a chicken, while the biggest, Dinornis giganteus, was the tallest bird ever in human times, more than 3 meters high. Almost all moas was extinct when first Maoris arrived to New Zealand, coming from Polynesian. At least three species: Dinornis robustus, Emeus crassus and Megalapteryx didinus, passed the frontier of the XVI century, and was probably seen by the first Europeans that arrived to the islands in XVII century. Moas evolved in the island due to absence of any large mammal, and was predated by the also extinct Haas't eagle (Harpagornis moorei) before Maoris extincted this eagle.

Moas was scarce even before the arrival of Maoris to New Zealand, and maybe they could be extinct now without human help.

Moas are similar to Kiwis because they lost completely the wings. Is supposed that Kiwis are the closest living relatives. Several bones of many species was founs, as well as some feathers, and even a mummified head of Megalapteryx didinus.

Here can be seen a size comparison between skeletons of Ostrich, the largest living bird, and Dinornis giganteus.

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Kiwi,_ostrich,_Dinornis.jpg

 

17 Ryukyu wood pigeon (Columba jouyi)

This nice bird was endemic of Okinawa islands in Japan. It was extinct due to habitat destruction. Last record of this species is on 1904. If any remaining bird left, the complete destruction of the forest of these islands by milician settlement prerpairing for World War II, destroyed for sure the last of these pigeons.

 

18. Liverpool pigeon (Caloenas maculata)

This amazing creature is known by only two taxdermy individuals, one of which is lost, the other is conserved in Liverpool Pigeon and without any kind of location data. Pressumably it was collected in South East Asia, where lives the only close relative today, the Nicobar Pigeon.

 

19. Oahu O'o (Moho apicalis)

Moho is a fantastic genus with 4 species endemic to Hawaii islands, all of theme are already extinct. The O'os species are black, with long and curved bill, yellow plumes in the body and a strange tail. As in Hawaiian honeycreepers (see number 5 and 14), these true honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) suffered the diseases transmited by introduced mosquitoes, as well as habitat destruction, and direct chase for feathers. The Oahu o's (Moho apicalis) was extinct in 1837, the Molokai o's (M. bishopi) in 1904, the Hawaii o'o (M. nobilis) in 1934 and the Kauai o'o (M. braccatus) in 1987.

 

20. Mauritius blue pigeon (Alectroenas nitidissima)

The history is repeated among all these Mauritius, Comores and Seychelles birds. The dodo is the most famous but much more birds of the tropical western Indian Ocean islands was gone at same time. Only three taxidermy specimens rest now. Last specimen shooted was in 1826 and is one of the three remaining stuffed specimens, probably the species only lived few years more. Habitat destruction, direct hunt, and predation by introduced monkeys are probably the causes of extinction.

 

21. Atitlan grebe (Podilymbus gigas)

This bird, very similar to the common and widespread Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) but much bigger and unable to fly, was restricted only to the Atitlan lake in Guatemala. Probably it have the most well documented history of decline and extinction between birds. It also count with the best photo ever made to an alive specimen of an extinct bird now. Causes of extinction are destruction of the nesting areas, introduction of large predatory fishes that compited with the adults for food and chased the chicks, and an earthquacke that reduced the water level of the lake in 1976. The last two birds were seen in 1989.

 

22. Red-headed macaw (Ara erythrocephala)

As said in the other plate for Ara atwoodi, this is only one of the many extinct macaws of the Caribbean islands. Like other macaws, this one from Jamaica is hypothetical due to the lack of reliable registers: it's known only by descriptions. Probably it was hunted for foor and as pet until extinction in early XIX century.

 

23. Choiseul pigeon (Microgoura meeki)

This atonishing bird, as his name says, resembles very much a miniature version of the New Guinean crowned pigeons, Goura spp. It lived on Choiseul island in the Solomon Islands. In 1904 six individuals and an egg was collected and sent to a museum. Causes of extinction are human hunt and predation by introduced cats and dogs.

 

Many more species of birds was extinct by humans between XVI and XXI centuries. This and the other plate are only a small part. Since XVII century the number of extinct birds is of 165. And this is only birds! Counting other animals, plants, fungus, etc. a species are disappearing now EVERY 15 SECONDS!!!!

 

Much more birds species are evanishing now and will do in the future. We must put as many effort as we can for protect them.

The Hubble Legacy Field represents the largest, most comprehensive "history book" of galaxies in the universe.

 

The image, a combination of nearly 7,500 separate Hubble exposures, represents 16 years of observations gathered together into a unified whole, giving the image its uneven shape. It includes Hubble deep-field surveys, such as the 2012 eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) and the 2004 Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), as well as the 2003 Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS).

 

The wavelength range stretches from ultraviolet to near-infrared light.

 

The image presents a wide portrait of the distant universe and contains roughly 265,000 galaxies. They stretch back through 13.3 billion years of time to just 500 million years after the universe's birth in the Big Bang. The tiny, faint, most distant galaxies in the image are similar to the seedling villages from which today's great galaxy star-cities grew. The faintest and farthest galaxies are just one ten-billionth the brightness of what the human eye can see.

 

The wider view contains 100 times as many galaxies as in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The new portrait, a mosaic of multiple snapshots, covers almost the width of the full Moon. Lying in this region is the XDF, which penetrated deeper into space than this legacy field view. However, the XDF field covers less than one-tenth of the full Moon's diameter.

 

The Hubble Legacy Field is located in the constellation Fornax.

 

Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz; UCO/Lick Observatory)

 

For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2019/news-2019-17.html

 

Find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube

 

 

atelier ying, nyc

 

The M5 represented Leica's most ambitious foray at the time of its introduction. Size, heft and weight compensated for the forward thinking of its philosophy at that time.

 

Later on, when Leica was criticized, in view of the smaller and more compact trends in Camera making, The M5 was viewed as too much material, too much of everything, an eyesore and prodigal son of the line.

 

As Leica's design has been minimalist, to allow the materials to express themselves, my redesign emphasizes this relation but in a different way.

 

The traditional black leatherette skin of the camera is replaced with thin sheets of slate. The interior enclosure of the very small gallery space for this camera is lined instead with rich alligator skin. The floor is black onyx. The ceiling tiles and pattern of the stone floor are asymmetrical, along with the display table, all with the objective to allow the M5 to express, as material.

 

Following my sketch, there is a womblike, lozenge-like alcove area for a 5-seat cigar bar. The bar top and seats are lined with alligator skin. The scroll-like opening is a display alcove for M5 lenses, for viewing. Note that the bar area and the camera display area are separated, so the bar customers can meditate on the lenses alone. The gallery is expressly for experiencing the M5.

 

Design, concepts, text and drawing are copyright 2014 by David Lo.

1903

This mercantile building represents one of the finest complete works of art nouveau in Ljubljana. The year on the facade tells us that it was built in 1903, on the site of two smaller suburban buildings that had been severely damaged in the earthquake. Ljubljana merchant Felix Urbanc combined three lots and in July 1902 submitted an application to the city authorities for planning permission to build a three-storey retail building.

 

He entrusted the plans to the Graz architect Friedrich Sigmund, and in the opinion of some art historians, this was supposedly the architect's highest-quality work. The concept of the store as a single sales premises, which was linked via a monumental staircase to a walk-through sales gallery, was reminiscent of the department stores of that time in Paris, Vienna or Budapest. In his plans, Sigmund also supposedly drew from some Budapest department store.

 

The Urbanc Building has a ground plan in the form of an irregular pentangle. The main facade, which is just 5.5 metres wide, faces Prešeren Square, and in so doing softens the otherwise acute-angled corner between Miklošičeva and Trubarjeva streets, and forms the facade of the square; after the earthquake this evolved from a suburban crossroads into a new urban space, and in the words of architect Maks Fabiani it became "in many respects the centre of the city". The interior houses a five-cornered sales hall, which extends over two floors designed as a gallery space. The gallery is reached by a fabulously designed three-sectioned staircase, which lies on an axis with the entrance and begins with a rounded landing, which divides elegantly into two staircase wings that then wind in a narrow arc up to one and the other side of the gallery. The staircase is supported by two types of pillar, and above the arch between them stands the statue of a woman personifying crafts.

 

At the beginning of autumn this year, this retail building became Galerija Emporium and shine in all its grandeur.

Daffodils represent beauty and could apply to unanswered love or of dedication to just one person. To the rest of us in means spring has awakened.

 

Their botanical name is narcissus from an ancient Greek tale. A man called Narcissus who loved to look at himself in a pool of water fell in and drowned. From his grave supposed a flower grew and it was Narcissus more commonly known as daffodil.

 

Thank you for comments, fav's and visitations. It's genuinely appreciated.

 

Catholic Church of Morón. Located north of the city of Morón, it represents one of the most representative heritage symbols of this city's architecture.

 

Historical background

In the year 1763 , a hermitage that was the first religious temple of Morón was made, was of rustic construction of wood and straw (guano cana), in the place known as the Old Site. In the year 1775 , said hermitage was transferred by arrangement of the clergy, for a slightly wider Church, which was lined with guano board and roof, which had as dimensions: 8 rods long, 5 rods and 3 quarts of wide and 4 rods and half high. This work was manufactured by Mr. José Antonio Companioni, along with neighbors who helped her, on the land where the Martyrs Monument is located, in the Agramonte Park , land that said man donated.

 

The bell tower was built about 12 yards from the Church, where the current one is today. It was made up of 8 vertical jiqui horcones, 2 in each corner of the square it formed and 12 horizontal pieces of pecan wood to form the 3 floors it had, with a height of 36 feet. The bell tower was devoid of a roof. To climb from one floor to another he had a hard and sturdy ladder, on his last floor he had 2 bells.

 

In 1852 , by the Royal Certificate it was elevated to the category of Parish. On February 16, 1855 , the illustrious bishop Dr. Don Francisco Félix Fleix y Solans arrived in Pastoral on a Pastoral visit, appointing Don Antonio José López as the first pastor, who decreed a meeting made up of the coadjutor pastor José Julián Cegarra, as Secretary and vowels Don José Guillermo Pardo, Don Macario Machado Alfonso, Don Rafael Cañizares and Don Manuel Rodríguez Gómez, this board had to work for the construction of a masonry and tile house for the Catholic Temple.

 

The construction of the Church began on March 24 , 1861 , the first stone being laid that day. It was inaugurated on February 2, 1863, celebrating such an event with a sumptuous party attended by countless people from neighboring Parties and the city of Camaguey .

 

Historical evolution

At the beginning of the Ten Years War, it was occupied for the headquarters of the Spanish troops, which enabled it with loopholes as a fortification of defense until 1872, which was handed over to the parish priest Martin Velázquez, who ordered it to be repaired and repainted the lord. Ramón Lara master mason of the city of Sancti Spíritus .

 

In the War of Independence developed in Cuba it was occupied again by the Spanish troops. In 1898 , in order to be able to communicate the Spanish garrison of Morón with Turiguanó and Ciego de Ávila , the Engineer Commander Lord Gago, destroyed the dome of the Church tower and on the bell tower raised a tower with battlements and in the cusp placed a heliograph apparatus to communicate with the other troops since the church was in the Trocha de Júcaro to Morón , and was the only high place in the city. The church is preserved in that way, this being the only crenellated tower of all the churches in the country.

 

In February 1904 a group of people who constituted the Dramatic Association of Morón met that their first agreement was to initiate literary lyrical functions, to collect funds for a public clock which was installed in the church tower by Mr. José Rodríguez Castrillón, assisted by Mr. Fidel Rodríguez González. Its inauguration took place on June 14, 1911 .

 

In February 1917 , when the civil war of the Chambelona the Church was occupied as a barracks by the militiamen who organized themselves in this population. At the end of the year 1932 and beginning the year 1933 , the Church building was expanded by adding 11 meters and 50 cm, when the extension was made, an urn was built for the Virgen de la Candelaria in the center and an urn on the sides For two more saints. A Spanish painter made the religious paintings, all lined with a few concrete rounds, the other altars were also fixed.

 

In 1965 the main altar was reformed by placing a crucified Christ in the center and the urn of the Virgen de la Candelaria on the right side. The altar table that was previously attached to the wall moved forward allowing the priest to officiate behind the altar.

Semaine 48, Cette image représente l'intérieur de la Biosphère de l'île Sainte-Hélène de Montréal, la photo à été prise à l'intérieur de la sphère. Cette image a été prise avec un sténopé panoramique anamorphique de 20 par 24 pouces. Voir les détails ici :

www.flickr.com/photos/ericconstantineau/sets/721576239717...

 

Appareil : Anya, sténopé panoramique anamorphique 20x24

Lentille : sténopé à focale variable

Film : Papier Kodak FB

Développement : Ilford Multigrade, développement par inspection

 

---

 

Week 48, this image represents the inside view of the Biosphere on Sainte-Hélène island in Montréal. The photo was taken insode the sphere with a panoramic anamorphic 20-x24 pinhole camera. Details here : www.flickr.com/photos/ericconstantineau/sets/721576239717...

 

Camera : Anya, panoramic anamorphic 20x24 pinhole

Lens : variable focal length pinhole

Film : Oriental VC RC Paper

Processing : Ilford Multigrade, processing by inspection

 

For ABCs and 123s group, Letter M for Me, My doll that represents Me, and Masks.

  

(20201225_135834ME&MyDollDarkbutSomeTUresamInitMirCorFlickr122520)

Representing Herakles with kantharos, Dionysos, and a satyr treading grapes

Attributed to the Eucharides Painter, ca. 500-490 BCE.

Used as a funerary urn. Found on Samothrace.

 

www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/C2C2DF60-4488-4F09-85FC-16D5E344FE07 (?)

 

On display at the special exhibit "Samothrace. The mysteries of the Great Gods" at the Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece, June 30-September 30, 2015 (extended to January 10, 2016).

"Σαμοθράκη. Τα μυστήρια των Μεγάλων Θεών"

This title represents the strength and courage it can take to break free and “re-emerge” from our past and situations that can hold us back and negatively influence us.

 

Ellie is 29 years old. Ellie shared with me, her experiences of bullying she encountered that started as far back as grade school because of her red curly hair. It didn’t help matters that she went to an Italian school, and her “look” was notably different. It bothered her to the point that in about grade 6, she started having her hair straightened. Other than a brief period in her life, she never went back to her natural curls. In 2019, during COVID and working from home, she decided to let her hair grow back curly for a brief time. She did however make a decision to go back to straightening it. Luckily, she took a picture of that time and when she contacted me about my 2% Project, she sent a picture of herself with straightened hair and one from 2019 with her natural curly hair. In our initial get together for this project, she mentioned that she thought straightening would eventually train her hair, but that never worked and she commented she was “stuck with curly hair”. During that conversation I told her how striking I thought her naturally curly hair was and asked if she would let it go natural for the photo shoot. Thankfully, she agreed.

 

I’m happy to say she has now decided to keep her natural curls. Getting to know her over the past number of weeks, I really can’t envision her with anything other than her beautiful natural curls.

 

Please check out her other pictures in my Ellie album.

Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka, Alaska

 

I think the design on the wooden object is a whale. The notch behind the head represents the blow hole. The whale's lower jaw is apparent just below the whale's nose, as it were.

 

I wish I knew what the beaded design represents. I will resist the temptation to call the appendages at the top of the head horns unless I find a credible source that supports the idea.

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This is a wonderful and rare opportunity to enjoy art for art's sake here. The overwhelming number of objects at the Sheldon Jackson Museum, my excitement at seeing them and our limited time made me forget all about my practice of photographing the label of every item after taking a photo of it.

 

Unfortunately, Alaska State Museum's online object catalog is not working. It's possible that some of the objects I photographed were featured as one of the museum's artifacts of the month, in which case I might be able to retrieve information about the piece from that section of the museum's web site. I might also be able to retrieve general information about the object type to which the piece pertains.

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The Sheldon Jackson Museum collections include objects from each of the Native groups in Alaska: Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Aleut, Alutiiq, Yup’ik, Inupiat and Athabascan.

 

The collections strongly reflect the collecting done by founder, Sheldon Jackson, from 1887 through about 1898 during his tenure as General Agent of Education for Alaska.

 

Other objects were subsequently added to the collection, but in 1984 when the museum was purchased by the State of Alaska, the decision was made to add only Alaska Native materials made prior to the early 1930s.

 

The Yup’ik and Inupiat objects are the most widely represented and have the broadest selection of materials but in no way provide a comprehensive picture of the cultures.

 

The collection of objects from Southeast Alaska is rich in objects made for sale around the late 1800s and into the early 1900s. Spruce root baskets, engraved silver objects, and bead work are important representatives of traditional skills and materials being used to make items for sale.

 

However, there is only a smattering of stone tools, fishing and hunting equipment and clothing in the collection. Many everyday utilitarian objects are missing.

 

Sheldon Jackson only traveled deep into the interior once in his career in Alaska. He or his representative collected only a dozen Athabascan objects during that time. Athabascan objects have been added but well over half of the 106 Athabascan objects came to the museum after 1960.

 

Aleut and Alutiiq materials are even more rare. By the time Jackson and his teachers began collecting in the Aleutian Islands and Prince William Sound, those cultures had been impacted by Western cultures for nearly 150 years.

 

Museums in St. Petersburg, Russia and Finland are rich in material culture from those areas. Jackson was able to purchase made-for-sale grass baskets, gut bags and model baidarkas, but little else in the way of materials representing the people of the Aleutians.

 

To better represent the cultures of Alaska, the Museum is seeking items relating to certain areas and subjects. The following is a partial list:

 

Tlingit spoon bag, spoon mold, digging stick, bentwood box with woven cover and other utilitarian objects.

 

Aleut/Alutiiq clothing, kayak bailer, wood carvings and utilitarian objects.

 

Athabascan masks and utilitarian objects.

 

Any objects collected by Sheldon Jackson.

 

museums.alaska.gov/collections-about.html

iss056-s-001 (January 19, 2018) --- The official insignia representing the crew of Expedition 56.

“This is truly an honor to represent the Department during EMS Week. I honestly wouldn’t want to be anywhere else during this time in history. I’m grateful I can have an impact and help New Yorkers who need us the most. When I took the oath at graduation, I understood what that meant and this is what we are trained to do, to help people. FDNY EMS is a family. I have a great relationship with the members of my station. We have always been close, but this pandemic has brought us even closer. We’re here for each other and we are helping each other get through this. I’m forever grateful for them,” says FDNY EMT Michael Watenberg, Station 4, who is one of seven members featured on this year’s FDNY EMS Week Poster.

 

Sunday, May 17, 2020, marks the start of EMS Week 2020, an annual week-long initiative to promote public safety among all New Yorkers and celebrate the life-saving efforts of more than 4,400 members of FDNY’s Emergency Medical Service. The FDNY celebrates each year in conjunction with National EMS Week.

 

“EMS Week is a time each year when we stop to acknowledge and celebrate the tremendous work of our EMTs and Paramedics. COVID-19 has forced us to postpone or cancel our events this year, but I think every New Yorker – and those around the world – have witnessed the heroic efforts of our members during this pandemic and realized why they are rightfully known as ‘the Best’ in our city,” said Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro.

“The training, professionalism, and unwavering dedication to care for their patients have been on display each and every day as they’ve shouldered the highest call volume in our Department’s history. I’m incredibly proud of their remarkable service.”

 

Due to COVD-19, events which normally take place during EMS Week were postponed or cancelled, including the annual EMS Competition which featured teams of EMTs and Paramedics from all five boroughs competing in skills-based scenarios, and the Second Chance Ceremony, which would reunite cardiac arrest survivors with the EMS members who saved their lives.

  

EMS Week 2020 Poster

 

Each year during EMS Week, the FDNY unveils a poster which is intended to raise greater awareness about the life-saving work of FDNYs EMTs and Paramedics. This year’s FDNY-developed poster’s theme is “Ready Today, Preparing for Tomorrow,” and it focuses on the EMS response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 poster features seven members of the FDNY Emergency Medical Service, pictured as they responded in their assigned PPE to calls throughout New York City.

 

Featured members include:

 

· FDNY Paramedic Xiaotian Bao, Station 8, Manhattan

· FDNY EMT Michael Watenberg, Station 4, Manhattan

· FDNY Paramedic Juan Gavilanes, Station 31, Brooklyn

· FDNY EMT Jasmine Miranda, Station 46, Queens

· FDNY EMT Davidson Tout-Puissant, Station 8, Manhattan

· FDNY Captain Lorena Concepcion-Martinez, Station 55, Bronx

· FDNY Paramedic Kimberley Laychock, Division 5, Staten Island

 

Each day during EMS Week 2020, FDNY’s social media platforms will spotlight these members and share in their own words why they are proud to serve as a member of FDNY EMS. In addition, FDNY social media will present items from the NYC EMS Museum at Fort Totten that demonstrate the history of the Emergency Medical Service in New York City. Throughout the pandemic, the Department’s social media platforms have featured stories from the men and women of EMS who have been responding to a record-breaking number of medical calls.

 

Official FDNY social media accounts can be found @FDNY on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook

 

Images from this year’s poster will also be displayed on the exterior of the NYC Fire Museum, located at 278 Spring Street in Manhattan. Though the museum is currently closed, New Yorkers can share their gratitude with members of FDNY EMS for their extraordinary efforts during the COVID-19 crisis, but submitting notes, videos, and cards, or other objects through the FDNY Museum’s “Unmasking Our Heroes” project.

 

For more details on the “Unmasking Our Heroes” project, visit www.nycfiremuseum.org/thanksfdny

 

A digital version of the poster will also be displayed on LinkNYC kiosks citywide.

  

Medical Emergency Information:

 

At the height of the pandemic in New York City in late March/early April, the number of medical emergencies each day surged by as much as 50%, from a pre-pandemic daily average of approximately 4,000 emergencies each day. The single busiest day ever was March 30, 2020, when EMTs and Paramedics responded to more than 6,500 calls.

 

This record-setting call volume comes after FDNY EMS responded to a record high number of medical emergencies in 2019—1,531,870—up from 2018 when they responded to 1,529,569 emergencies.

Sometimes you get walked all over when you are in love...

St Albans Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban, is a Church of England cathedral church within St Albans, England. At 84 metres (276 ft), its nave is the longest of any cathedral in England. With much of its present architecture dating from Norman times, it was formerly known as St Albans Abbey before it became a cathedral in 1877. It is the second longest cathedral in the United Kingdom (after Winchester). Local residents often call it "the abbey", although the present cathedral represents only the church of the old Benedictine abbey.

 

The abbey church, although legally a cathedral church, differs in certain particulars from most of the other cathedrals in England: it is also used as a parish church, of which the dean is rector. He has the same powers, responsibilities and duties as the rector of any other parish.

 

Alban was a pagan living in the Roman city of Verulamium, now Verulamium Park, in St Albans, in Hertfordshire, England, about 22 miles (35 km) north of London along Watling Street. Before Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, local Christians were being persecuted by the Romans. Alban sheltered their priest, Saint Amphibalus, in his home and was converted to the Christian faith by him. When the soldiers came to Alban's house looking for the priest, Alban exchanged cloaks with the priest and let himself be arrested in his place. Alban was taken before the magistrate, where he avowed his new Christian faith and was condemned for it. He was beheaded, according to legend, on the spot where the cathedral named after him now stands. The site is on a steep hill and legend has it that his head rolled down the hill after being cut off and that a well sprang up at the point where it stopped.

A well certainly exists today and the road up to the cathedral is named Holywell Hill. However the current well structure is no older than the late 19th century and it is thought that the name of the street derives from the "Halywell" river and "Halywell Bridge", not from the well.

 

The date of Alban's execution is a matter of some debate and is generally given as "circa 250"—scholars generally suggest dates of 209, 254 or 304.

 

History of the abbey and cathedral

 

A memoria over the execution point and holding the remains of Alban existed at the site from the mid-4th century (possibly earlier); Bedementions a church and Gildas a shrine. Bishop Germanus of Auxerre visited in 429 and took a portion of the apparently still bloody earth away. The style of this structure is unknown; the 13th century chronicler Matthew Paris (see below) claimed that the Saxons destroyed the building in 586.

 

Saxon buildings

Offa II of Mercia, who ruled in the 8th century, is said to have founded the Benedictine abbey and monastery at St Albans. All later religious structures are dated from the foundation of Offa's abbey in 793. The abbey was built on Holmhurst Hill—now Holywell Hill—across the River Ver from the ruins of Verulamium. Again there is no information to the form of the first abbey. The abbey was probably sacked by the Danes around 890 and, despite Paris's claims, the office of abbot remained empty from around 920 until the 970s when the efforts of Dunstanreached the town.

 

There was an intention to rebuild the abbey in 1005 when Abbot Ealdred was licensed to remove building material from Verulamium. With the town resting on clay and chalk the only tough stone is flint. This was used with a lime mortar and then either plastered over or left bare. With the great quantities of brick, tile and other stone in Verulamium the Roman site became a prime source of building material for the abbeys, and other projects in the area, up to the 18th century. Sections demanding worked stone used Lincolnshire limestone (Barnack stone) from Verulamium, later worked stones include Totternhoe freestone from Bedfordshire, Purbeck marble, and different limestones (Ancaster, Chilmark, Clipsham, etc.).

Renewed Viking raids from 1016 stalled the Saxon efforts and very little from the Saxon abbey was incorporated in the later forms.

 

The nave. The north wall (left) features a mix of Norman arches dating back to 1077 and arches in the Early English style of 1200.

 

Norman abbey

Much of the current layout and proportions of the structure date from the first Norman abbot, Paul of Caen (1077–1093). The 14th abbot, he was appointed by the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc.

 

Building work started in the year of Abbot Paul's arrival. The design and construction was overseen by the Norman Robert the Mason. The plan has very limited Anglo-Saxon elements and is clearly influenced by the French work at Cluny, Bernay, and Caen and shares a similar floor plan to Saint-Étienne and Lanfranc's Canterbury—although the poorer quality building material was a new challenge for Robert and he clearly borrowed some Roman techniques, learned while gathering material in Verulamium. To take maximum use of the hilltop the abbey was oriented to the south-east. The cruciform abbey was the largest built in England at that time, it had a chancel of four bays, a transept containing seven apses, and a nave of ten bays—fifteen bays long overall. Robert gave particular attention to solid foundations, running a continuous wall of layered bricks, flints and mortar below and pushing the foundations down to twelve feet to hit bedrock. Below the crossing tower special large stones were used.

 

The tower was a particular triumph—it is the only 11th century great crossing tower still standing in England. Robert began with special thick supporting walls and four massive brick piers. The four-level tower tapers at each stage with clasping buttresses on the three lower levels and circular buttresses on the fourth stage. The entire structure masses 5,000 tons and is 144 feet high. The tower was probably topped with a Norman pyramidal roof; the current roof is flat. The original ringing chamber had five bells—two paid for by the Abbot, two by a wealthy townsman, and one donated by the rector of Hoddesdon. None of these bells has survived.

There was a widespread belief that the abbey had two additional, smaller towers at the west end. No remains have been found.

 

The monastic abbey was completed in 1089 but not consecrated until Holy Innocents' Day, 1115, (28 Dec) by the Archbishop of Rouen. King Henry I attended as did many bishops and nobles.

A nunnery (Sopwell Priory) was founded nearby in 1140.

 

Internally the abbey was bare of sculpture, almost stark. The plaster walls were coloured and patterned in parts, with extensive tapestries adding colour. Sculptural decoration was added, mainly ornaments, as it became more fashionable in the 12th century—especially after the Gothic style arrived in England around 1170.

 

In the current structure the original Norman arches survive principally under the central tower and on the north side of the nave. The arches in the rest of the building are Gothic, following medieval rebuilding and extensions, and Victorian era restoration.

 

The abbey was extended in the 1190s by Abbot John de Cella (also known as John of Wallingford) (1195–1214); as the number of monks grew from fifty to over a hundred, the abbey was extended westwards with three bays added to the nave. The severe Norman west front was also rebuilt by Hugh de Goldclif—although how is uncertain, it was very costly but its 'rapid' weathering and later alterations have erased all but fragments. A more prominent shrine and altar to Saint Amphibalus were also added. The work was very slow under de Cella and was not completed until the time of Abbot William de Trumpington (1214–35). The low Norman tower roof was demolished and a new, much higher, broached spire was raised, sheathed in lead.

The St Albans Psalter (ca. 1130–45) is the best known of a number of important Romanesque illuminated manuscripts produced in the Abbey scriptorium. Later, Matthew Paris, a monk at St Albans from 1217 until his death in 1259, was important both as a chronicler and an artist. Eighteen of his manuscripts survive and are a rich source of contemporary information for historians.

Nicholas Breakspear was born near St Albans and applied to be admitted to the abbey as a novice, but he was turned down. He eventually managed to be accepted into an abbey in France. In 1154 he was elected Pope Adrian IV, the only English Pope there has ever been. The head of the abbey was confirmed as the premier abbot in England also in 1154.

 

13th to 15th centuries

 

An earthquake shook the abbey in 1250 and damaged the eastern end of the church. In 1257 the dangerously cracked sections were knocked down—three apses and two bays. The thick Presbytery wall supporting the tower was left. The rebuilding and updating was completed during the rule of Abbot Roger de Norton (1263–90).

 

On 10 October 1323 two piers on the south side of the nave collapsed dragging down much of the roof and wrecking five bays. Mason Henry Wy undertook the rebuilding, matching the Early English style of the rest of the bays but adding distinctly 14th century detailing and ornaments. The shrine to St Amphibalus had also been damaged and was remade.

 

Abbey Gateway, now part of St. Albans School.

Richard of Wallingford, abbot from 1297 to 1336 and a mathematician and astronomer, designed a celebrated clock, which was completed by William of Walsham after his death, but apparently destroyed during the reformation.

 

A new gateway, now called the Abbey Gateway, was built to the abbey grounds in 1365, which was the only part of the monastery buildings (besides the church) to survive the dissolution, later being used as a prison and now part of St Albans School. The other monastic buildings were located to the south of the gateway and church.

 

In the 15th century a large west window of nine main lights and a deep traced head was commissioned by John of Wheathampstead. The spire was reduced to a 'Hertfordshire spike', the roof pitch greatly reduced and battlements liberally added. Further new windows, at £50 each, were put in the transept by Abbot Wallingford (also known as William of Wallingford), who also had a new high altar screen made.

 

Dissolution and after

After the death of Abbot Ramryge in 1521 the abbey fell into debt and slow decay under three weak abbots. At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and its surrender on 5 December 1539 the income was £2,100 annually. The abbot and remaining forty monks were pensioned off and then the buildings were looted. All gold, silver and gilt objects were carted away with all other valuables; stonework was broken and defaced and graves opened to burn the contents.

 

The abbey became part of the diocese of Lincoln in 1542 and was moved to the diocese of London in 1550. The buildings suffered—neglect, second-rate repairs, even active damage. Richard Lee purchased all the buildings, except the church and chapel and some other Crown premises, in 1550. Lee then began the systematic demolition for building material to improve Lee Hall at Sopwell. In 1551, with the stone removed, Lee returned the land to the abbot. The area was named Abbey Ruins for the next 200 years or so.

 

In 1553 the Lady chapel became a school, the Great Gatehouse a town jail, some other buildings passed to the Crown, and the Abbey Church was sold to the town for £400 in 1553 by King Edward VI to be the church of the parish.

 

The cost of upkeep fell upon the town, although in 1596 and at irregular intervals later the Archdeacon was allowed to collect money for repairs by Brief in the diocese. After James I visited in 1612 he authorised another Brief, which collected around £2,000—most of which went on roof repairs. The English Civil War slashed the monies spent on repairs, while the abbey was used to hold prisoners of war and suffered from their vandalism, as well as that of their guards. Most of the metal objects that had survived the Dissolution were also removed and other ornamental parts were damaged in Puritan sternness. Another round of fund-raising in 1681–84 was again spent on the roof, repairing the Presbytery vault. A royal grant from William and Mary in 1689 went on general maintenance, 'repairs' to conceal some of the unfashionable Gothic features, and on new internal fittings. There was a second royal grant from William in 1698.

By the end of the 17th century the dilapidation was sufficient for a number of writers to comment upon it.

 

In 1703, from 26 November to 1 December, the Great Storm raged across southern England; the abbey lost the south transept window which was replaced in wood at a cost of £40. The window was clear glass with five lights and three transoms in an early Gothic Revival style by John Hawgood. Other windows, although not damaged in the storm, were a constant drain on the abbey budget in the 18th century.

 

A brief in 1723–24, seeking £5,775, notes a great crack in the south wall, that the north wall was eighteen inches from vertical, and that the roof timbers were decayed to the point of danger. The money raised was spent on the nave roof over ten bays.

 

Another brief was not issued until 1764. Again the roof was rotting, as was the south transept window, walls were cracked or shattered in part and the south wall had subsided and now leant outwards. Despite a target of £2,500 a mere £600 was raised.

In the 1770s the abbey came close to demolition; the expense of repairs meant a scheme to destroy the abbey and erect a smaller church almost succeeded.

 

A storm in 1797 caused some subsidence, cracking open graves, scattering pavement tiles, flooding the church interior and leaving a few more arches off-vertical.

 

19th century

 

The Wallingford Screen of c. 1480—the statues are Victorian replacements (1884–89) of the originals, destroyed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when the screen itself was also damaged. Statues of St Alban and St Amphibalus stand on either side of the altar.

 

This century was marked with a number of repair schemes. The abbey received some money from the 1818 "Million Act", and in 1820 £450 was raised to buy an organ—a second-hand example made in 1670.

 

The major efforts to revive the abbey church came under four men—L. N. Cottingham, Rector H. J. B. Nicholson, and, especially, George Gilbert Scott and Edmund Beckett, first Baron Grimthorpe.

 

In February 1832 a portion of the clerestory wall fell through the roof of the south aisle, leaving a hole almost thirty feet long. With the need for serious repair work evident the architect Lewis Nockalls Cottingham was called in to survey the building. His Survey was presented in 1832 and was worrying reading: everywhere mortar was in a wretched condition and wooden beams were rotting and twisting. Cottingham recommended new beams throughout the roof and a new steeper pitch, removal of the spire and new timbers in the tower, new paving, ironwork to hold the west transept wall up, a new stone south transept window, new buttresses, a new drainage system for the roof, new ironwork on almost all the windows, and on and on. He estimated a cost of £14,000. A public subscription of £4,000 was raised, of which £1,700 vanished in expenses. With the limited funds the clerestory wall was rebuilt, the nave roof re-leaded, the tower spike removed, some forty blocked windows reopened and glazed, and the south window remade in stone.

 

Henry Nicholson, rector from 1835 to 1866, was also active in repairing the abbey church—as far as he could, and in uncovering lost or neglected Gothic features.

 

In 1856 repair efforts began again; £4,000 was raised and slow moves started to gain the abbey the status of cathedral. George Gilbert Scottwas appointed the project architect and oversaw a number of works from 1860 until his death in 1878.

Scott began by having the medieval floor restored, necessitating the removal of tons of earth, and fixing the north aisle roof. From 1872–77 the restored floors were re-tiled in matching stone and copies of old tile designs. A further 2,000 tons of earth were shifted in 1863 during work on the foundation and a new drainage system. In 1870 the tower piers were found to be badly weakened with many cracks and cavities. Huge timbers were inserted and the arches filled with brick as an emergency measure. Repair work took until May 1871 and cost over £2,000. The south wall of the nave was now far from straight; Scott reinforced the north wall and put in scaffolding to take the weight of the roof off the wall, then had it jacked straight in under three hours. The wall was then buttressed with five huge new masses and set right. Scott was lauded as "saviour of the Abbey." From 1870–75 around £20,000 was spent on the abbey.

In 1845 St Albans was transferred from the Diocese of Lincoln to the Diocese of Rochester. Then, in 1875, the Bishopric of St Albans Act was passed and on 30 April 1877 the See of St Albans was created, which comprises about 300 churches in the counties of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. The then Bishop of Rochester, the Right Revd Dr Thomas Legh Claughton, elected to take the northern division of his old diocese and on 12 June 1877 was enthroned first Bishop of St Albans, a position he held until 1890. He is buried in the churchyard on the north side of the nave.

George Gilbert Scott was working on the nave roof, vaulting and west bay when he died on 27 March 1878. His plans were partially completed by his son, John Oldrid Scott, but the remaining work fell into the hands of Lord Grimthorpe, whose efforts have attracted much controversy—Nikolaus Pevsner calling him a "pompous, righteous bully." However, he donated much of the immense sum of £130,000 the work cost.

 

Whereas Scott's work had clearly been in sympathy with the existing building, Grimthorpe's plans reflected the Victorian ideal. Indeed, he spent considerable time dismissing and criticising the work of Scott and the efforts of his son.

Grimthorpe first reinstated the original pitch of the roof, although the battlements added for the lower roof were retained. Completed in 1879, the roof was leaded, following on Scott's desires.

 

1805 engraving of the west front of the abbey showing the lost Wheathampstead window.

His second major project was the most controversial. The west front, with the great Wheathampstead window, was cracked and leaning, and Grimthorpe, never more than an amateur architect, designed the new front himself—attacked as dense, misproportioned and unsympathetic: "His impoverishment as a designer ... [is] evident"; "this man, so practical and ingenious, was utterly devoid of taste ... his great qualities were marred by arrogance ... and a lack of historic sense". Counter proposals were deliberately substituted by Grimthorpe for poorly drawn versions and Grimthorpe's design was accepted?. During building it was considerably reworked in order to fit the actual frontage and is not improved by the poor quality sculpture. Work began in 1880 and was completed in April 1883, having cost £20,000.

 

The Lady Chapel at the east end of the cathedral.

Grimthorpe was noted for his aversion to the Perpendicular—to the extent that he would have sections he disliked demolished as "too rotten" rather than remade. In his reconstruction, especially of windows, he commonly mixed architectural styles carelessly (see the south aisle, the south choir screen and vaulting). He spent £50,000 remaking the nave. Elsewhere he completely rebuilt the south wall cloisters, with new heavy buttresses, and removed the arcading of the east cloisters during rebuilding the south transept walls. In the south transept he completely remade the south face, completed in 1885, including the huge lancet window group—his proudest achievement—and the flanking turrets; a weighty new tiled roof was also made. In the north transept Grimthorpe had the Perpendicular window demolished and his design inserted—a rose window of circles, cusped circles and lozenges arrayed in five rings around the central light, sixty-four lights in total, each circle with a different glazing pattern.

 

Grimthorpe continued through the Presbytery in his own style, adapting the antechapel for Consistory Courts, and into the Lady Chapel. After a pointed lawsuit with Henry Hucks Gibbs, first Baron Aldenham over who should direct the restoration, Grimthorpe had the vault remade and reproportioned in stone, made the floor in black and white marble (1893), and had new Victorian arcading and sculpture put below the canopy work. Externally the buttresses were expanded to support the new roof, and the walls were refaced.

As early as 1897, Grimthorpe was having to return to previously renovated sections to make repairs. His use of over-strong cement led to cracking, while his fondness for ironwork in windows led to corrosion and damage to the surrounding stone.

Grimthorpe died in 1905 and was interred in the churchyard. He left a bequest for continuing work on the buildings.

 

During this century the name St Albans Abbey was given to one of the town's railway stations.

 

20th century

John Oldrid Scott (died 1913) (George Gilbert Scott's son), despite frequent clashes with Grimthorpe, had continued working within the cathedral. Scott was a steadfast supporter of the Gothic revival and designed the tomb of the first bishop; he had a new bishop's throne built (1903), together with commemorative stalls for Bishop Festing and two Archdeacons, and new choir stalls. He also repositioned and rebuilt the organ (1907). Further work was interrupted by the war.

A number of memorials to the war were added to the cathedral, notably the painting The Passing of Eleanor by Frank Salisbury (stolen 1973) and the reglazing of the main west window, dedicated in 1925.

 

Following the Enabling Act of 1919 control of the buildings passed to a Parochial Church Council (replaced by the Cathedral Council in 1968), who appointed the woodwork specialist John Rogers as Architect and Surveyor of the Fabric. He uncovered extensive death watch beetledamage in the presbytery vault and oversaw the repair (1930–31). He had four tons of rubbish removed from the crossing tower and the main timbers reinforced (1931–32), and invested in the extensive use of insecticide throughout the wood structures. In 1934, the eight bells were overhauled and four new bells added to be used in the celebration of George V's jubilee.

 

Cecil Brown was architect and surveyor from 1939 to 1962. At first he merely oversaw the lowering of the bells for the war and established a fire watch, with the pump in the slype. After the war, in the 1950s, the organ was removed, rebuilt and reinstalled and new pews added. His major work was on the crossing tower. Grimthorpe's cement was found to be damaging the Roman bricks: every brick in the tower was replaced as needed and reset in proper mortar by one man, Walter Barrett. The tower ceiling was renovated as were the nave murals. Brown established the Muniments Room to gather and hold all the church documents.

In 1972, to encourage a closer link between celebrant and congregation, the massive nine-ton pulpit along with the choir stalls and permanent pews was dismantled and removed. The altar space was enlarged and improved. New 'lighter' wood (limed oak) choir stalls were put in, and chairs replaced the pews. A new wooden pulpit was acquired from a Norfolk church and installed in 1974. External floodlighting was added in 1975.

A major survey in 1974 revealed new leaks, decay and other deterioration, and a ten-year restoration plan was agreed. Again the roofing required much work. The nave and clerestory roofs were repaired in four stages with new leading. The nave project was completed in 1984 at a total cost of £1.75 million. The clerestory windows were repaired with the corroded iron replaced with delta bronze and other Grimthorpe work on the clerestory was replaced. Seventy-two new heads for the corbel table were made. Grimthorpe's west front was cracking, again due to the use originally of too strong a mortar, and was repaired.

 

A new visitors' centre was proposed in 1970. Planning permission was sought in 1973; there was a public inquiry and approval was granted in 1977. Constructed to the south side of the cathedral close to the site of the original chapter house of the abbey, the new 'Chapter House' cost around £1 million and was officially opened on 8 June 1982 by Queen Elizabeth. The main building material was 500,000 replica Roman bricks.

 

Other late 20th-century works include the restoration of Alban's shrine, with a new embroidered canopy, and the stained glass designed by Alan Younger for Grimthorpe's north transept rose window, unveiled in 1989 by Diana, Princess of Wales.

 

Modern times

The Bishop is the Right Reverend Alan Smith, installed in September 2009. The Venerable Jonathan Smith is Archdeacon of St Albans, installed in October 2008. On 2 July 2004, the Very Reverend Canon Dr Jeffrey John became the ninth Dean of the Cathedral.

 

Robert Runcie, later Archbishop of Canterbury, was bishop of St Albans from 1970 to 1980 and returned to live in the city after his retirement; he is commemorated by a gargoyle on the Cathedral as well as being buried in the graveyard. Colin Slee, former Dean of Southwark Cathedral, was sub-dean at St Albans under Runcie and then Dean, Peter Moore. The bishop's house is in Abbey Mill Lane, St Albans, as is the house of the Bishop of Hertford. The Reverend Canon Eric James, Chaplain Extraordinary to HM the Queen, was Canon at St Albans for many years.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Albans_Cathedral

 

Sarcophagus Representing a Dionysiac Vintage Festival

Roman Empire - A.D. 290-300

Marble

A lively pastoral scene decorates this oval-shaped sarcophagus. It lacks a lid, but is carved on three sides in high relief. Two lions' heads with rings in their mouths flank the central panel depicting a mythological representation of the Vindemia, a rural Roman wine festival. An assortment of Erotes, or putti--chubby, naked infants with and without wings--harvest grapes from vines overhead. At right, they stomp on grapes in a lenos, or large wine pressing trough. The sarcophagus itself imitates the shape of the container with grapes.

Description from the Getty Villa website

 

This photo was taken by a Kowa/SIX medium format film camera with a KOWA 1:3.5/55mm lens using Ilford Delta 3200 film, the negative scanned by an Epson Perfection V600 and digitally rendered with Photoshop.

 

Also representing the MCSm Mk2 is a revamped fire support unit for the Oberon Tvier Self Defense Force. The frame itself is unchanged from the version I posted several months ago, but the systems are (mostly) different.

 

Loadout: WWRaRaGB +SSR

Long Rifle w/ Targeting Sensor Pod, Shoulder-Mounted Shield, Multi-directional Vernier Pack.

The design of the Blackwood screwdock is a superb example of Victorian engineering, representing dry dock design at its best – good even by modern standards. Two primary elements of the design were unique: the use of power screws for lifting and trussed timber beams for the transverse girders. Another key feature of the design was the spacing of the screw jacks which kept down the loading on individual screws and beams. Planking laid athwart each beam abuts that on adjacent beams and created a continuous working platform.

 

It turns out that the screwdock concept and the shiplift system was a uniquely American invention of the early 19th century. Judging by the surviving descriptions and the remnants of the Barbados Screwdock, it was an invention that displayed all the elegant simplicity, practicality and ingenuity of the time and place of its inception.

 

The earliest screwdock, the earliest shiplift, was patented and constructed by Captain Jesse Hurd of Connecticut in New York in 1827 and incorporated as the “New York Screwdock Company” in 1828.

 

Two screwdocks were built shortly thereafter, one in Baltimore and one on the Kensington Reach of the Delaware River in Philadelphia.

 

The New York screwdock was suspended from eight screws of 41⁄2” (114 mm) diameter and apparently had a capacity of 200 tons. It was hand operated; it took about 30 men about half-

an-hour to raise such a vessel 10 feet (3 m).

 

The Baltimore screwdock was suspended from forty screws of about 5” (127 mm) diameter.

 

The Kensington Screwdock would seem to have been suspended from about 50 screws

 

The Barbados screwdock with a platform of 217’0” (66 m) by 45’6” (13.9m) is suspended from 62 screws of 41⁄2” (114 mm) diameter. The estimated capacity was around 1200 tons.

 

[hr]

 

The shiplift in Barbados uses screw jacks for lifting gear leading to an elegantly simple and durable system that remained in operation for nearly 100 years. It only became derelict when the owners were liquidated and the facility was abandoned. Currently [2010] moves are afoot to restore the facility with both historical preservation and a fully working dry dock being issues involved.

 

The “screwdock” as it is known locally was built on the south side of an area known as the “Careenage” at the mouth of the Constitution river in Bridgetown by John Blackwood (see locality plan, figure 1). Work was begun in 1889 and the lift was formally opened on 10th March, 1893 by Miss Hay, daughter of Sir James Hay, then Governor of Barbados.

  

Figure 1 Screwdock Locality

 

John Blackwood came out from Scotland in the early 1880’s as Assistant Engineer in the employ of Messrs Grant and Morrison. Within a few years Blackwood took over the business and ran it under his own name until his death in 1904. The business was then taken over by his brother-in-law, William McLaren who ran it until the formation of Central Foundry who took over the running of the dock together with John Blackwood’s workshops on the Pier Head.

 

In the early 1980’s the Central Foundry was in financial difficulty when their workshops and offices with all records, including those of the screwdock, were destroyed in a fire. The company was never able to recover from this blow. In 1984 the Central Foundry went into liquidation and the screwdock ceased operations. The screwdock has been derelict ever since. For some time thereafter, the site was under the jurisdiction of the Coast Guard which probably explains why there appears to be almost no vandalism of the site, only deterioration.

 

In its early history, Barbados was one of the major ports of the new world partly, in a world of sailing ships, because of its windward position with respect to the rest of the Caribbean. Even in the 19th century, it was still a very busy port, some 1500 vessel a year calling in the 1890’s. The decision to build a dry dock in Barbados was very much a response to this shipping activity – at the time Campbell’s dock in Bermuda of 380 ft (116m) was the only other significant dry dock in the region.

 

In November 1887 the Barbados Parliament passed an act to authorise the lease of Government lands for harbour improvements and the construction of a dry dock. A lease for the site of the screwdock in favour of John Blackwood was only signed in February of 1899. Under the terms of the lease a construction period of two years was allowed at a rental of £40 a year. Thereafter, once the dock became operational, the lease would run for 20 years at a rental of £276.4.0. The Government reserved the right to take over the dock on expiry of the lease at prime cost less a reasonable allowance for deterioration. The cost of removing and re-erecting Government buildings, water and gas mains were excluded from the prime costs. The Government also claimed priority for docking their own vessels.

 

In March of 1889 a Bill was passed to allow all construction materials, including timber, cement and machinery to be imported free of duty. Permission was also given for the free use of a diving bell, centrifugal pumps and the Priestman Dredger. The the lift was formally opened on 10th March 1893 by Miss Hay, daughter of Sir James Hay,then Governor of Barbados.

  

Figure 2 View of the Screwdock and the Careenage

 

Actual construction took far longer than the two years allowed – the whole construction period being about four years. One of the reasons given was the flooding of the works by exceptionally high tides. Since the retaining walls had not yet been built, portions of the embankments collapsed into the works. While this can only be part of the explanation for the extended delays, it does serve to suggest that the works, at least initially, were coffered and built in the dry.

 

The initial drive for the dock was a 100 hp steam engine with a coal burning locomotive type boiler although, for much of the time, squeeze-dried sugar cane was used as fuel. In 1953 the steam engine was replaced by a 130 hp electric motor. (HUTSON F. 1973; THRELFALL T. 1995)

 

Hutson (HUTSON F. 1973) gives the following docking charges as originally provided for in the lease and those ruling in 1972. These figures are in Barbadian dollars as of 1972:

 

18891972

Vessels not exceeding 100 register tons

For 1st day including lifting$50$150

For each subsequent day25¢ per ton60¢ per ton

Vessels exceeding 100 register tons

For 1st day including lifting50¢ per ton$1.50 per ton

For each subsequent day25¢ per ton65¢ per ton

Elsewhere Threlfall (THRELFALL T. 1995) gives charges as embodied in the original lease of 2s per ton for lifting and 6d per ton per day for dock occupation.

 

In 1968 a high pressure water jet was acquired to speed up the cleaning of marine fouling from ships hulls and for paint stripping (ST. PIERRE GILL, C.H. 2009).

 

By the 1970’s, the dock was still lifting over 10 000 tons of shipping per year (HUTSON F. 1973).

In 1977, in correspondence with Andrew Hutchison (HUTCHINSON A.P. 1977) at that time secretary, later president of the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers, he stated that the original drawings still existed but that they were “very worn and unsuitable for reproduction”.

 

By the start of the fourth quarter of the 20th century the operations of the Central Foundry and the screwdock were coming to an end. Peter Simpson was quoted as saying that the dock was “antiquated and not easy to work” (ST. PIERRE GILL, C.H. 2009). Although ship construction was changing from wood to steel, labour rates were increasing and Barbados had lost its pre-eminence as a shipping centre, institutional and financial matters seem to have been at the heart of the problem. In the late 1970’s there were also problems with the lease of the site. Central Foundry was not able to reach agreement with the Government on this matter.

 

Central Foundry had suffered a number of fires, the first in 1938 and then in 1948. They were able to recover from these but it was the third fire in 1981 that ravaged the works and destroyed all the records. The firm never really recovered. In 1984 it went into liquidation and the screwdock ceased operations. It has been derelict ever since (THRELFALL T. 1995).

 

Threlfall (THRELFALL T. 1995) makes the comment that “after carefully studying some ideas embodying hydraulics, Blackwood chose a system based upon screw-jacks”. Although this quote is not explicit, this does sound rather like the Hydraulic Lift Dock of Edwin Clark (CLARK E. 1866; MACKIE K.P. 2008) built in London in 1857 – the first shiplift ever built. Clark was Robert Stevenson’s house boffin on the design of the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Staits and later his resident engineer on the construction of the bridge. His experience on that bridge seems to have been a significant influence on his choice of design. Although du Platt-Taylor (DU PLAT-TAYLOR F.M. 1949) mentions having seen it in operation as a child, it seems it was decommissioned and demolished early in the 20th century.

 

Blackwood’s Screwdock some 30 years later is the second shiplift ever built and, although it is currently derelict, it can be restored. It is this statement that makes the restoration of the screwdock such an important and viable proposal.

 

The modern, Syncrolift© style of shiplifts using steel wire rope winches was only developed in about 1957 by Raymond Pearlson.

 

In his paper on the screwdock Frank Hutson (HUTSON F. 1973) remarks: “It has been said that a similar dock was supplied to some country in the Far East, but where it went to and whether it is still in operation is unknown, if in fact it ever existed”. This comment has since been picked up by other commentators on the screwdock with the site being given variously as Hong Kong or Singapore often in the positive and without Hutson’s proviso.

 

The mechanical equipment for the dock was provided by the Glasgow based engineering firm of Duncan Stewart. A rendition of the various Scottish engineering firms involved in supplying sugar mill machinery to Barbados was given by Peter Simpson (MACKIE K.P. 2009) during an interview for the December 2009 investigations. Of significance, the firm of Duncan Stewart was only a small player in this industry in Barbados at the time the screwdock was built.

 

Although industrial accidents are to be deplored, they are of considerable value in advancing the state of the art. Hutson (HUTSON F. 1973) records four such incidents:

 

1935: The schooner Eastern Star fell over on its side after being docked causing the death of two workmen and injury to others. She was afterwards righted and repaired.

1948: M.V. Willemstad, a heavy vessel, said to have been badly docked, caused three sections to break four days after being docked and said to have caused enormous overload on adjacent sections. By working around the clock, the sections were repaired and the situation saved.

WWII: H.M.S. Black Bear was a converted yacht with an excessively sloping bow. This was not properly supported and some adjacent sections were broken. These were repaired in time to prevent further damage.

1953: The auxiliary schooner Cachalot caught fire while on the dock. The cause was overhead welding which caused considerable damage to the engine room but there were no casualties.

  

Design Concept

 

The four diagrams, figures 11 to 14, placed at the end of this paper have been compiled from measurements made on site during the week 7th to 11th December 2009. They have been drawn to scale but only the dimensions shown are the dimensions actually measured. The rest have been inferred from various sources. The dimensions shown are given in SI metric measure although the dock was originally built to imperial measurement which is still in general use in Barbados. Measurements were made with linen tape, pocket tape and vernier caliper and, except where an original exact, rounded, imperial dimension could be inferred, are of limited accuracy.

 

This lift differs in concept from the earlier Clark system or the later Pearlson Syncrolift© system. Where the Clark system uses long stroke hydraulic cylinders as the lifting medium and the Pearlson system steel wire rope winches, the Blackwood uses long power screws. The practical capacity of individual screws is much less than hydraulic cylinders or winches so many more are needed and the main beams are much more closely spaced – so much so that, at least in the case of the Barbados screwdock, no intermediate grillage is needed between the beams.

  

Figure 4 Screwdock with Large Coaster (HUTCHINSON A.P. 1983)

 

The Blackwood has a very simple plan. It uses 31 screws down each side set at intervals of 7’0” (2133.6mm) and 31 sets of girders spanning between pairs of screws. Planking laid athwart the main beams provides a continuous working platform when all the beams are up.

 

The main rectangular plan of the dock, allowing for run-off of the retaining walls past the screws is 217’0” (66142 mm) and the clear space between copes is 45’6” (13868). A triangular space at the landward end of the pit extends its length by another 23’0” (7010 mm) to give a total length of 240’0” (73152 mm).

 

The civil engineering structures consist of coral block walling – a vertical retaining wall around the perimeter of the dock with rectangular, 2’0” (610 mm) wide by 2’6” (762 mm) deep vertical buttresses at 7’0” (2133.6) centres to carry the screw loads. Aside from the actual facing of the wall and the buttresses, the details of the wall construction are unknown.

 

The buttresses have a pair of 12” (305 mm) by 9” (228 mm) timbers placed over their tops, extending from the face of the copes to some distance behind the retaining wall face to receive the timber cope beams – a pair of 12” (305 mm) by 12” (305 mm) Greenheart baulks

 

The girders are constructed as trussed beams. The beam portion is formed from two 20” by 20” ( 508 by 508 mm) baulks of greenheart timber (given, in some references as “whalebone” greenheart) laid side by side, each end resting on a cast iron plates at the end of the screw rod. A cotter and washer system underneath these plates transfers the load to the screw rods. It has not been possible to examine the bottom of the plates but from photos it seems that the end of each screw rod is squared where it passes through the plate to prevent it from turning with the gear wheel and so failing to rise or fall as the wheel turns.

  

Figure 5 Last Remaining Trussed Beam showing Planking Athwart the Beam and Timber Keel Block.

Timber Cope Beams and Coral Buttresses can be seen in the background.

 

Four cast iron brackets, one on top of each end of each baulk, act as anchors for the 2” dia (51 mm) steel tie rods that dip down to about 12” (304 mm) below the soffit of the baulks. Cross pieces of 12” (305 mm) square timbers passing under the main baulks serve to transfer the load from the baulks to the tie rods.

  

Figure 6 Main Drive Train

 

The main drive, which has the option of a 1:1 or a 1:2 reduction gear box, is transmitted by shafts and bevel gears to the two main drive shafts – one on each side running down the full length of the cope. At each screw there is a worm floating on the shaft and a sliding dog clutch keyed to the shaft that can engage or disengage the worm. The worm in turn engages a worm wheel. The screw passes through this wheel. It has a bronze nut and thrust washer embedded axially in it to engage the screw and raise or lower it. Each gear set is mounted on a cast iron base plate set onto the timber cope beams exactly between the wall buttresses.

 

The screw itself was cut from 4” (101.6 mm) OD “bright” steel shafting. The thread appeared to be a 0°/52° buttress thread with a pitch of 1” (25 mm) although actual measurement seemed to suggest something more like 0°/62°.

   

Docking Operations

Some information on the practice of docking vessels on the screwdock was obtained from Mr Joe Weeks. For a period of 10 years in the 1960’s and 1970’s he had been Assistant Dockmaster (MACKIE K.P. 2009).

 

Other than a steel ring embedded in the concrete at the head of the dock, there is no sign that the dock was ever fitted with any dock furniture – fenders, bollards, fairleads, capstans etc. Weeks confirmed that the dock was operated so. On occasion, the vessel being dry docked would hang a few used tyres over the side or a few would be hung over the side of the dock.

 

Generally, six lines were used to bring the vessel into the dock and to position it. A head line was made fast to a ring set into the concrete at the head of the dock and the crew on board the vessel would warp the vessel into the dock either by hauling manually or, if available, by using an on-board capstan. Two breasting lines were used each side to position the vessel. A stern line was also used mainly, presumable, to warp the vessel out of the dock.

 

Mr Weeks confirmed that vessels (presumably he was referring to larger vessels such as coasters) were always brought to an even keel by flooding the forepeak tanks to avoid any sue load. As the vessel took the blocks, the water would be pumped out to lighten the vessel. This water had to be replaced on undocking as the vessel went into the water.

 

If a section was lowered to work on the keel, the screws to that section were marked so that the beams in the section could be brought back up to exactly the original height against the keel.

If the platform was lowered too far and sat on the bottom, the load would come off the cotters that secured it to the screws and they could and sometimes did work loose so that the beam end became effectively disconnected.

 

Joe Weeks reported that surge was not a problem. No docking operations, docking or undocking were done when there was rough weather at sea with a surge running up the Careenage. In fact the screw drive system does not permit of any penduluming of the platform which would bend the screw rods if it happened. If the surge got bad, the lift was kept up, clear of the water. In the event of hurricanes and severe storms, blocks of wood were inserted between the main girders and the cope beams and the lift tensioned against the blocks to fix it securely.

 

Joe did comment that normal surge had never delayed docking or undocking, only hurricanes and severe storms. The deck planking was laid tight to prevent barnacles and scrapings falling through.

 

Staffing levels were:

 

1 dockmaster

1 assistant dockmaster

6 permanent men on dockmaster’s staff including the 2 no divers. Divers only received extra pay while they were diving. At other times they assisted the rest of the staff.

8 – 12 casual workers to assist with the docking as needed.

 

All parties assisted with the scraping and painting of the vessels

 

A separate department employed an engineer foreman and 6 engineers to work on the ships. These men had nothing to do with the docking of vessels.

 

Weeks and Peter Simpson (MACKIE K.P. 2009) concurred that it was unsafe to walk along the dock in the region of the main load concentrations when a heavy vessel was being lifted. Under these conditions, the gears and worms would emit sparks and small chips of hot metal. These sparks and chips made it uncomfortable to be near the gears when this was happening.

 

Central foundry made all replacement screws, bronze nuts and cotter pins. Gear wheels and worm wheels were imported. At one stage both were supplied in the wrong grade of metal and were sent back.

 

Joe commented that at one time during his stint, there had been a proposal to scrap the drive shaft, worm and gear system and fit each screw with its own motor.

 

Peter Simpson confirmed that the overall condition of the dock had been allowed to deteriorate to a dangerous level some time before the fire and before the lift was abandoned. He had in fact put in a report on the condition that was also lost in the fire. He stated that before the fire a complete set of documents including drawings of the dock were held by Central Foundry.

 

Nothing has survived of the bilge support system except old photos. It would appear that it consisted of Morton type sliding bilge blocks riding on inclined baulks (see figure 8). Rollinson (ROLLINSON D. 1993) states that these baulks were attached to the main girders by a metal hinge structure at the inboard end. Thus, the inclination of these slides could be varied by changing the blocking that supported the centres and the outboard ends of these baulks. With high bilge vessels, this reduced the build-up of the bilge blocks. The inclination of the slides did make it easier to pull the blocks in against hull of the vessel.

  

Here is the deal. Probably 20 years ago I bought a button collection which was probably very old then. I have no recall of from whence it came, nor who fastidiously and tediously strung together little sets or groups of hundreds of buttons, I'm surmising it came from a lady in the United States. I'm guessing she either didn't live near a stationary store that sold tags, or she was very frugal and simply did not want to pay for tags. Most of the button sets were strung together and then a tiny tag made from cutting up a thin cardboard item from around her house. The prices were generally 5 cents for 3 buttons up to 50 cents for say 4-6 buttons, or 3 fancy ones, All less than $1.00 which gives a clue to the economy of the time period I'm looking for. Clearly this lady used cardboard that was handy to cut into the little price tags. Most of her tags didn't give too much clue as to time period, but I'm hoping these with the bright yellow, red & blue might.

 

There are 3 tags that touch each other, and I think they go together, but not sure. Note that the type style is larger on the 3 I think go together than on the pieces that I'm not sure what they spell nor where they go. There is a stain on the one not quite dead center, but almost. It is just some inky stuff got under some Scotch tape she used long ago. The upper right piece has something that looks like thread; as maybe this place sold sewing items. Note there seems to be two different rope/cable design sizes and 3 different lettering sizes.

 

My first thought was Waremart, but they are mainly food, not sundries and such, and I don't think they have been around all that long compared to the sets of buttons.

 

Even if one of you knows exactly which store these tags were made from, they could have been from a cereal box and not from a store. Also, it will only be an idea, as we have no idea how long the woman had these buttons before she grouped them into sets and put little prices on them with various tags. It could well have been 20 or 30 years after the buttons were made, but it would be a start.

 

By the way, the little tags she cut out are only about 3/4 inch by a little less. I think my picture represents them a little bigger than real life.

 

How about it? Anyone recognize what business these little tags represent? THE END

 

P.S. I'm guessing this woman lived in the Midwest, but don't know for sure.

  

(DSCN0017IDTinyCardsGugeButtonCollectiionINITflickr091521)

VL-15 Vibria –

 

Background:

Recently, I decided to rebuild all the planes that the Imperial Lego Air Force used, from 1997 until today.

This aircraft represents one of the first planes I built, shortly after I started building tanks, battleships and planes instead of churches or cathedrals. The aircraft is a mix of two planes, the Junkers Ju-87B Stuka (built by Germany and used during the Blitzkrieg) and the PZL.23 Karas (built by Poland before the Second World War).

The two planes are similar in some things; they are both army cooperation airplanes, both feature a single engine, a monoplane design and fixed “spatted” landing gear. The main difference was that the Stuka featured a inline engine while the Karas had a radial one. The Karas also had a ventral defensive position with a light machine gun.

 

So I decided to combine the best parts of both planes and build a new one.

While I was working in Barcelona during the previous summer, I saw a series of popular celebrations and many of them featured correfocs (vehicles with representations of Dragons, Turtles and other monsters). One of those monsters was the Vibria, the female version of a Dragon. Since I love dragons, those events were truly awesome to see and I recommend everyone to visit Catalunia one day.

 

The Vibria is the 16º plane made by me in 2014. More images of this plane and others can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/einon/

 

The story:

For many years, the Lego economy was extremely weak; the democracy wasn’t working well and everybody felt that the government wasn’t effective. When the Democracy finally fell, the Lego Kingdom was created. Economy grew extremely fast thanks to the recent discovery of large reserves of Gold in land and Petrol on the sea. Those recent finds led to a large increase in military spending and therefore more money was available to develop new planes. All was going well when… the Great Androvakian Invasion began.

The Lego Air Force didn’t have a single aircraft operational around that time and when the army finally stopped the enemy invasion, it became urgent to rebuild the airforce. The Morko Morane became the new fighter interceptor while the Evrae became the new strategic bomber. For the ground attack role, the T-6G Texan was initially used but the lack of armour made the aircraft as dangerous to their pilots as they were for their enemies. A new plane was urgently needed.

 

Shortly before the invasion, a small bomber was designed by the Vila Disparador aircraft factory, the VL-15 Vibria. The aircraft however seemed to belong to a previous era, since it featured fixed landing gear when that same factory was already building heavy bombers and fighters with retractable landing gear at the same time. However, the need for any sort of ground attack aircraft was so huge that the new aircraft was eventually selected to start the production. 12 planes were hastily assembled and sent with a fighter escort of 30 Morko Moranes in a ground attack mission. Many Lego pilots felt that they wouldn’t return.

Surprisingly, all 12 planes returned to the base, many off them with combat damage that would have been enough to destroy any fighter or bomber. How was that possible?

The new plane was extremely armoured and heavy, most of the crucial components were separate and well protected by at least 24mm of armour plating, the 2000cv engine provided an acceptable speed of 430km/h fully loaded with 1000kg of bombs or rockets. Besides, the two defensive positions allowed the pilot to concentrate on the target while the gunners took care of the enemy fighters.

In just a few days, all T-6s were removed from the ground attack role and the new aircraft became a symbol of hope for all the Legos. When enemy tanks were first sighted in the invaded islands that once belong the Lego Nation, two semi-automatic 50mm anti-tank guns were installed under the wings firing high speed anti-tank rounds which, although reducing the maximum speed of the aircraft, turned the aircraft into a true flying tank.

Dive brakes were installed on all planes (including the anti-tank versions) allowing the plane to perform dive-bombing strikes with deadly accuracy, especially against enemy ships.

Although old, the aircraft featured two 20mm ENA-50 cannons on the wings and two 7,62mm machine guns on the engine (both capable of firing 2000rounds per minute) and two 12,7mm defensive heavy machine guns, which were later replaced by 20mm cannons.

A floatplane version of this aircraft became the first aircraft of the Lego Naval Aviation and later, a carrier capable version was also built, achieving remarkable success.

When the Lego Nation finally began to re-conquer their old territory, the Vibria opened the way for the Lego Army, destroying strongholds, bunkers and tanks before the enemy could do anything. For more than a year, 2000 airframes were built, contributing extensively for the victory.

 

Tactics

 

Initially, the main tactic used by the new bomber was a low altitude approach to the target covered by escort fighters flying at 3000 meters, which besides providing protection, could also look for targets. The tactic didn’t worked well.

The new tactic was completely different. The bombers started to flew at high altitude (often more than 6000 meters) waiting for targets, which were detected by T-6s or fighters flying at lower altitude. After the target had been “marked”, the bombers would perform a 90º dive bombing over the target, dropped the bombs and then straff the ground with the machine guns and cannons against any vehicle or target that might appear ahead of them. Shaped charges bomblets could also be carried inside two small containers under the wings, each one capable of destroying a enemy tank with a single hit.

 

150mm rockets were carried for ground traffing; although highly inaccurate, a single rocket had the explosive power of a 1000kg bomb.

With the appearance of the 50mm anti-tank guns, the bombers usually flew at medium altitude and then dive in a 35º angle against any enemy tank that might be detected.

 

The Vibria continued in frontline service for at least 4 more years, being finally replaced by the new jet ground attack planes.

To this day, it still represents the hope of a nation, bullied by all the nations of the world and which ultimately conquered them all.

 

The Vibria is the 16º plane made by me in 2014. More images of this plane and others can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/einon/

 

Hope you like it!

 

Eínon

 

TANK ENGINE FOR SOUTH AFRICA

 

THE locomotive illustrated above represents one of six tank engines recently constructed by Messrs. Beyer, Peacock, and Co., of Gorton, Manchester, for the Pretoria and Pietersburg Railway in the South African Republic.

 

The gauge of the railway is comparatively narrow, the rails being laid to the standard 3ft. 6in. gauge of South Africa, and as the ruling gradients are 1 in 50, with curves of 150 meters radius, while the gross loads specified to be hauled by these engines totalled out to 212 tons, exclusive of their own weight; while at the same time the maximum load per axle was limited to 12,000 kilos. (11 tons 16 cwt.) the problem was not an easy one to fulfil, more especially in view of the fact that the engines were required to carry 1540 gallons of water and three tons of coal. The coupled wheels were, further, specified to be not less than 1·15 metres (3ft. 9fin.) in diameter, so as to render the engines capable of running easily at a speed of 25 miles an hour. On examining the engraving and the statement of leading dimensions, along with the particulars given below, it will be seen that the problem has, nevertheless, been solved in an admirable manner, in combining lateral and vertical flexibility with a sufficiently long wheel base to ensure steadiness in running at the maximum speed required, the rigid wheel base being only l0 ft. 2in. long, while the total base is 28ft. 3in. The springs of the front bogie and first pair of coupled wheels are further compensated by beams, those of the driving and hind-coupled axles being compensated in like manner. The weight of the engines has also, it will be seen, been well distributed on the axles, the feedwater being accommodated in long side tanks, while the fuel is carried in a convenient position behind the footplate.

  

The Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway (PPR) was a private railway which operated between Pretoria West via Warmbad and Nylstroom to Pietersburg. It was constructed under a concession granted by the government of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) to Hendrik Jacobus Schoeman on 30 October 1895. Construction commenced in 1897 and the railway was opened to traffic as far as Nylstroom by 1 July 1898. Potgietersrus was reached on 1 October 1898 and Pietersburg on 1 May 1899. The P&P Railway ordered one additional 2-6-4T locomotive from Beyer Peacock in 1900, under the BP works number 4127, following the loss at sea of locomotive Nr. 5.

 

Illustration by John Swain for "The Engineer" from May 05, 1899

 

For more information about this 2-6-4T steam locomotive, please visit this Wikipedia link:

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Class_D_2-6-4T

   

Representing the "S" in CSX, MP15T is the second unit it the light power move.

represent

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