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I have mixed emotions in relation to Southern Magnolia trees and their flowers. They do very well here in Canberra and are very common. As an evergreen, they retain their leaves throughout the year. This is in stark contrast with many other magnolias such as the hybrid Magnolia soulangeana. It is very impressive to see these deciduous trees in full bloom - trees 5 to 7 metres in height with no leaves but with masses of white/purple/pink flowers.
Seemingly at odds to the size of the flowers, the Southern Magnolia blooms last only a few days before dying. The pure white tepals take on a rust color before dropping to the ground.
Whilst walking in the gardens around our apartment building, I came across this flower. I peered over the top of the tepals (i.e., undifferentiated petals and sepals) into the centre of the flower. Besides nearly being overcome by the strong sweet fragrance, I was delighted to see that the developing seed pod was on display and would make a strong photographic subject. The curled stems covering the upper half of the structure are the stigmas (female parts of the flower). The black spots on the crimson-colored base of the structure are scars left behind where the stamen (male parts) were attached. There is just one of these left - i.e., the single splayed-out stem on the righthand side.
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Links for background information ...
Basic reference ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia_grandiflora
www.nationalarboretum.act.gov.au/living-collection/trees/...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia_%C3%97_soulangeana
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[ Location - Barton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia ]
Photography notes ...
The photograph was taken using the following hardware configuration ...
(Year of manufacture indicated in braces where known.)
- Hasselblad 501CM Body (Chrome) - S/N 10SH26953 (2002).
- Hasselblad CFV-50c Digital Back for Hasselblad V mount camera.
- Hasselblad Focusing Screen for the CFV-50c digital back, with focussing prism and crop markings.
- Hasselblad 45 Degree Viewfinder PME-45 42297 (2001).
- Hasselblad Carl Zeiss lens - Planar T* 80mm f2.8 CFE (2000).
- FotodioX B60 Lens Hood for Select Hasselblad Standard Length CF Lenses.
- Hasselblad Extension Tube 56E (56mm) for 200 and 500 Series - MFR # 30 40656.
I acquired the photograph (8272 x 6200 pixels) with an ISO of 400, exposure time of 1/500 seconds, and aperture of f/11.0
Post-processing ...
Finder - Removed the CF card from the camera digital back and placed it in a Lexar 25-in-1 USB card reader. Then used Finder on my MacBook Air to download the raw image file (3FR extension) from the card.
Lightroom - Imported the 3FR image.
Lightroom - Used the Map module to add the location details to the EXIF header.
Lightroom - Made various small lighting and color adjustments to the image.
Lightroom - Saved the Develop module settings as preset 20161211-001.
Lightroom - Output the image as a JPEG image using the "Maximum" quality option (8272 x 6200 pixels).
[At this point, I intended to transfer the image to my iPad Mini and perform some re-touching in Photoshop Fix. However, this iOS app cannot handle images with this many pixels. It down-samples the image before it performs any action, robbing the image of some of its fine detail. Instead, I used apps on my 2014 MacBook Air 11" - i.e., Pixelmator and Photo RAW - which could retain the full complement of pixels.]
Pixelmator - Carried out some re-touching of distracting features on the righthand side of the image.
Pixelmator - Applied a square crop (i.e., aspect ratio of 1:1).
Lightroom - Output the image as a JPEG image using the 100% quality option (6200 x 6200 pixels).
ON1 Photo RAW 2017 - Added some dark vignette to the image. Output the image as a JPEG image using the 100% quality option (6200 x 6200 pixels).
PhotoSync - Copied the JPEG file to my iPad Mini for any final processing, review, enjoyment, and posting to social media.
Exif Editor - Copied the EXIF data from the Lightroom output image to the final image.
@MomentsForZen #MomentsForZen #MFZ #Hasselblad #501CM #CFV50c #Lightroom #Pixelmator #PhotoRAW #ON1 #ON1PhotoRAW #ExifEditor #Macro #Closeup #ExtensionTube #Flower #SouthernMagnolia #Magnolia #MagnoliaGrandiflora #White #Crimson #Spring #Stigma #Stamen #SeedCone #SeedPod
No relation to the upcoming movie of course. After doing so mostly Homeworld/Peter Elson inspired Microspace. I wanted to do an homage to Studio Nue and Kazutaka Miyatake in particular.
«The real sustains the same relation to the ideal that a stone does to a statue - or that paint does to a painting. Realism degrades and impoverishes» – Robert Green Ingersoll
View of Dora Riparia fountain. Turin, Italy. © Michele Marcolin, 2022. GR3.
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The Fountain of Dora Riparia River, together with that representing the river Po, is located in Piazza CLN, in the center of Turin.
Before 1935 it was known as Piazza delle Due Chiese. The current aspect is due to the restructuring of 1935 foreseen by Marcello Piacentini's project, in the middle of the fascist period. Two statues of the Duce were designed by Vittorio Emanuele III, plus two fountains placed on the back of the two churches. Only these last two sculptures were realized. During the German occupation in the Second World War, the square was sadly known for hosting the command of the German police, located at the National Hotel, currently redeveloped through an ambitious real estate operation. The name of the square was later dedicated to the National Liberation Committee, formed in Italy at the end of fascism.
Both the statues are set against the back of the churches of San Carlo and Santa Cristina, whose facade looks onto Piazza San Carlo. The construction dates back to 1936 and is contemporary with that of the CLN square. The choice was the result of a competition, open to all young artists of the time, which led to the examination of 56 sketches. In the end, the sculptor Umberto Baglioni [Scalea 1893 - Turin 1965] won, who chose to represent the two rivers in the form of human figures: a bearded man and a strikingly shapely woman, both resting on a marble base.
No relation to the upcoming movie of course. After doing so mostly Homeworld/Peter Elson inspired Microspace. I wanted to do an homage to Studio Nue and Kazutaka Miyatake in particular.
On a piece of machinery at an a quarry in North Wales. I thought it rather apt considering Iain's interest in quarries!
Cusco ( Quechua written Qusqu and pronounced qosqo) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley (Sacred Valley) of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cusco Province. The city has a population of 348,935 which is triple the figure of 20 years ago. Located on the eastern end of the Knot of Cusco, its altitude is around 3,300 m (10,800 ft). Cusco is the historic capital of the Inca Empire and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1983 by UNESCO. It is a major tourist destination and receives almost a million visitors a year. It is designated as the Historical Capital of Peru by the Constitution of Peru.
The Killke people occupied the region from 900 to 1200 A.D., prior to the arrival of the Incas in the 1200s. Archaeologists discovered, on March 13, 2008, the ruins of an ancient temple, roadway and irrigation systems at Sacsayhuaman, a famed fortress overlooking the Inca capital of Cuzco. Previous carbon-14 dating of Sacsayhuaman revealed that the Killke culture constructed the fortress in the 1100s.
In 2007, excavations uncovered another temple on the edge of the fortress, indicating religious as well as military use of the facility.
Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire (1200s-1532). Many believe that the city was planned to be shaped like a puma. The city had two sectors: the urin and hanan, which were further divided to each encompass two of the four provinces, Chinchasuyu (NW), Antisuyu (NE), Qontisuyu (SW) and Collasuyu (SE). A road led from each of these quarters to the corresponding quarter of the empire. Each local leader was required to build a house in the city and live part of the year in Cusco, but only in the quarter of Cusco that corresponded to the quarter of the empire in which he had territory. After Pachacuti, when an Inca died his title went to one son and his property was given to a corporation controlled by his other relatives (a process called split inheritance), so each title holder had to build a new house and add new lands to the empire, in order to own the land his family needed to maintain after his death.
According to Inca legend, the city was built by Sapa Inca Pachacuti, the man who transformed the Kingdom of Cusco from a sleepy city-state into the vast empire of Tahuantinsuyu. But archaeological evidence points to a slower, more organic growth of the city beginning before Pachacuti. There was however a city plan, and two rivers were channeled around the city. Archaeologists such as Larry Coben have suggested this city plan was replicated at other sites throughout the empire.
The city fell to the sphere of Huáscar in the division of the empire after the death of Huayna Capac in 1527. It was captured by the generals of Atahualpa in April 1532 in the Battle of Quipaipan, and nineteen months later by the Spaniards (battle of Cuzco).
The first Spaniards arrived in the city on November 15, 1533. Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro officially discovered Cusco on March 23, 1534, naming it the "Very noble and great city of Cusco". The many buildings constructed after the Spanish conquest are of Spanish influence with a mix of Inca architecture, including the Santa Clara and San Blas barrios. The Spanish undertook the construction of a new city on the foundations of the old Inca city, replacing temples with churches and palaces with mansions for the conquerors. During the colony, Cusco was very prosperous thanks to the agriculture, cattle raising, mining as well as the trade with Spain. This allowed the construction of many churches and convents, and even a cathedral, university and Archbishopric. Often, Spanish buildings were juxtaposed atop the massive stone walls built by the Inca.
A major earthquake in 1950 badly destroyed the Dominican Priory and Church of Santo Domingo, which were built on top of the impressive Coricancha (Temple of the Sun). The city's Inca architecture, however, withstood the earthquake. Many of the old Inca walls were thought to have been lost after the earthquake, but the granite walls of the Coricancha were exposed, as well as many walls throughout the city. While some wanted to restore the buildings to their colonial splendor, a contingent of Cusco citizens urged city officials to retain the exposed walls. Eventually they won out. Cusco was also hit by a major earthquake in 1650.
Peru declared its independence in 1821 (!!) and the city of Cusco maintained its importance within the administrative structure of the country. That’s a cool info for Greeks because Greece has the same year of independence… :-)
Cusco has also an international relation with Athens Greece, they are sister cities, haha :-)
Liberal Arts Student.
Дивная крупность надменный величие бесконечное пожар,
hedfan graddfeydd uchel fesur llafurus helaeth,
speedy display hollow winds wide,
nobilissimum sui nuntiare contendit sonantis meridiem porrecto,
felszínes művészi elméleti kifejezések útmutató,
farmaci antinaturalist giovani tradizioni dottorato obiettivi,
εξάσκηση πολλές εξελίξεις έκπληξη πρωτόγονη ορθολογισμό αναγνώρισε,
szép feltűnő illusztrált világ nagy kézműves festmények vér,
pilní galerie učitelé průměrný umění zastoupeny třídy plné,
vetenskapliga relationer siella föreningar utbytta,
zuvorkommend Studenten ausgesetzt Montage befindet Intensivierung staatlichen Außen Rhythmen,
sýna hættuleg nútíma liti framúrskarandi listir stuðningur tölur hvatt,
Shtrembërimet e shumë ndjenja të mëparshme mundësi kompleksitetit kontaktuar,
идеалист туршлага, гадаад хувийн тайван дөл илрүүлэх, сэтгэл бахархал нөлөөлдөг,
指向批判角度テクスチャ陶酔素晴らしい飛行機新!
Steve.D.Hammond.
www.birdwatchingkerkini.com/kerkini-lake/#
Lake Kerkini is situated in Northern Greece, about 20km from Greek-Bulgarian border. The lake and the surrounding wetlands are nestled between the Kerkini Mountains to the north and the Marvovouni Mountains to the south. The lake occupies an area of about 50 to 73 sq km, depending on water levels.www.kerkinilake.com
Kerkini Lake is an artificial reservoir. It was formed in 1932 by men’s technical intervention on the Strymon River, which is the greatest lake’s water provider. In addition, there is Kerkinitis river from Krousia Mountain that flows into Kerkini Lake. The lake was created on site that previously was an extensive marshland. As the time went by, the river substances were washed up, so the rising of the banks a new dam construction took place in 1982, which gave the lake its present look. Although the human intervention in the nature usually takes a harmful action against the natural development, Kerkini Lake is an atypical example where the human intervention had an opposite effect, since after the construction of the dam on the river the hydro-biosphere entirely changed. Today it has a reputation as one of the best places for birdwatching in Greece due to its position. It is located along the migratory flyway to the Agean Sea, the Black Sea, Balkan region and Hungarian steppes. This area is famous for its biodiversity and nowadays is one of the major Greece’s wetlands. It is considered a miracle of nature with thousands of birds, fish variety, more than ten amphibian species, nineteen reptile species, five snail species, hundreds of butterfly species along with riverside forest, variety of water lilies and a great diversity of insects which play an important element in the food chain and contribute to the biological diversity of the Kerkini Lake.
The hydro-biosphere of the Lake Kerkini is of great international importance – the water level of the lake is valuable as a hydro-biosphere for thousands of water fowls, variety of fish and other species and it has a great agricultural function alike.
The Kerkini lake area is also an important recreational area and nice vacation spot. Besides birdwatching, other available activities on the lake include hiking nearby mountains and forests, lake boating, cycling or horse riding.
Birdwatching on Kerkini Lake
Lake Kerkini is a real paradise for bird watchers. The lake hosts more than 300 sorts of birds, including 140 non-migrants species, including some endangered species and 170 species that migrate every year. At least 31 of bird species are protected by EEC’s Directive in relation to wild life and 76 of them are recorded in the National Red catalogue.
Non-migrating species of birds include Black Storks, Squacco Herons, Purple Herons, Spoonbills, Little Bitterns, and a variety of Warblers. There are also two endangered non-migrating species, the Pygmy Cormorant and the Dalmatian Pelican that can be observed here. In the nearby mountains, even more birds can be founded, including diversity of Eagles like White-tailed Eagles, Lesser Spotted Eagles, Golden Eagles, Blue Rock Thrush, Peregrine Falcons, Black Woodpeckers and Nutcrackers. Birdwatching tours regularly include walking tours around the lakeside as well as hiking into the hillside and lake boat rides.
There are numerous guided birdwatching tours in this region available and number of hotels nearby ideal for bird watchers’ accommodation, such as hotel Eroditos on a hill of the village Lithotopos, offering an exclusive panoramic view of the Kerkini Lake.
The Birdwatching Seasons
Almost every season of the year is good for birdwatching in this area, but you may prefer to visit Lake Keriki at certain times of the year, depending on what do you want to see. If you want to see migrating of the birds than the April is particularly good month for visiting the lake. On the other hand, if you are interested in birds breeding, than you should plan your visit for May and June. And if you would like to see different non-native birds that migrate to this area, you should plan a winter trip to the Lake Kerkini.
How to Get to Kerkini Lake
Lake Kerkini is positioned a little more than an hour’s drive from Thessalonika international airport, some 20 km from Bulgarian border and about 100 km from the international highway E75, which makes it easy accessible by car or by plane, if you are coming from abroad.
Birdwatching in Lake Kerkini
About Kerkini Lake
Lake Kerkini is located in Northern Greece, some 20km from Greek-Bulgarian border and it stretches on an area of approximately 50 to 73 square kilometers. Kerkini Lake is an artificial water reservoir fed by Strymon River, created in 1930s. Today, Kerkini Lake area is well-known among nature lovers for its biodiversity and it is one of the major wetlands in Greece of great biological importance. It is also considered the best birdwatching spot in the country. It is protected by the Ramsar Convention and it is a part of the “Narura 2000” network.
One of the most popular birding spots in Europe is Kerkini Lake region in Northern Greece. It is famous due to its position on a migratory way that birds follow to the Black Sea, Aegean Sea, Balkan region and Hungarian steppes. Lake and its surroundings has been popular over decades among birders from country and abroad because of its biodiversity with hundreds of bird species, variety of fish, diversity of snail species, more than 120 species of butterflies, insects and diverse flora in the lake area and nearby mountains as well. Lake Kerkini itself is very dynamic bird environment with thousands of migrating and non-migrating bird species. It usually takes two or three weeks to see all this area has to offer and if you are planning your birdwatching trip to Lake Kerkini, the best would be to set aside at least a week or two of your vacation for this. Furthermore, a vacation in this area wouldn’t be complete without visiting nearby mountains of Krousia and Marvovouni with breathtaking panoramic views, diverse flora and fauna and challenging paths for hiking, cycling or walking. At the end, because of Lake Kerkini’s relatively close proximity to the Aegean Coast, you shouldn’t miss going to the beaches if you come during summer season.
But the main reason why lots of people visit this area every year is recreational birding and enjoying in observing the spectacular diversity of breeding or wintering bird species. No wonder this lake is considered an authentic paradise for birdwatchers and photograph lovers alike. It is home to more than 10.000 birds and you can find in more than 300 bird species there, from which 140 are non-migrants species and 170 species that migrate every year. Non-migrating bird species include some endangered species like Pygmy Cormorant and the Dalmatian Pelican. Some 31 of bird species are protected by EEC’s Directive in relation to wild life and 76 of them are recorded in the National Red catalogue.
Kerkini Lake provides shelter to a large number of waterfowl, thousands of Night Herons, several hundred pairs of Squacco and Grey Herons, Purple Herons, few hundred pairs of Pygmy Cormorant, more than two thousand pairs of Cormorants, about one hundred pairs of Spoonbil, Glossy Ibies, hundreds of Dalmatian and white Pelicans, Black Storks, Ferruginous Ducks and many other species. If you go to nearby mountains, you can find Black Kite, penguline Tit, Sparrowhawk, Golden Oriole, Black-headed Bunting, Cirl Bunting, Red-Rumped Swallow, Woodchat Shrike, Masked Shrike, Lesser Grey Shrike, Olivaceous Warbler, Black-eared Wheatear, Semi-collared Flycatcher etc. Large numbers of waders and other raptors on passageway could also be observed early in spring.
You can enjoy birdwatching activity in Lake Kerkini during the whole year. If you come in Winter, you’ll have the opportunity to see a great number of birds that call this area home, such as Greater Flamingos, Dalmatian Pelicans, Greater Spotted Eagles, White-tailed Eagles, Ferruginous Duck, White-fronted Geese, Pygmy Cormorant, Cormorant, Black Kite, Pochard, Teal, Wigeon, Crested Grebe, Shoveler, Peregrine, Golden Eagle, Goshawk, Marsh Harrier, etc.
If you visit this region in early spring, you’ll be on time for observing the bird migration. Migration begins in early March, with the arrival of pioneering Garganey and Osprey. White Storks arrive towards the end of the month. Migration continues through April into beginning of May. Glossy Ibis are expected and thousands of both species of Pelican can be seen.
There are some great accommodation alternatives available nearby Kerkini Lake with excellent services offered to birders, to fully enjoy your birdwatching experience in Greece.
This is a gift just for you, and a kiss as an attachment ;)
Last night, dear Sepideh informed me of some interesting history about the Christmas, and the relation between Christmas and Yalda (the ancient Persian festival).
I just copy some paragraphs from the Wiki encyclopedia here:
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The festival was considered extremely important in pre-Islamic Iran and continues to be celebrated to this day, for a period of more than 6000 years.
Some historians believe that the festival spread to Europe through contacts between the Roman and Persian empires and was eventually replaced by Christmas; a theory that accounts for the celebration of Christmas on 25 December, rather than the later date of January 6 that is believed to be the correct date of birth of Christ by eastern orthodox church.
Yalda, a Syriac word (ܝܠܕܐ) imported into the Persian language by the Syriac Christians means birth (tavalod and meelaad are from the same origin) and generally refers to Christmas in the Syriac language. It is a relatively recent arrival and it is refereed to the "Shab e Cheleh Festival" a celebration of Winter Solstice on December 21. Forty days before the next major Persian festival "Jashn-e Sadeh" this night has been celebrated in countless cultures for thousands of years. The ancient Roman festivals of Saturnalia (God of Agriculture, Saturn) and Sol Invictus (Sun God) are among the best known in the Western world.
In most ancient cultures, including Persia, the start of the solar year has been marked to celebrate the victory of light over darkness and the renewal of the Sun. For instance, Egyptians, four thousand years ago celebrated the rebirth of the sun at this time of the year. They set the length of the festival at 12 days, to reflect the 12 divisions in their sun calendar. They decorated with greenery, using palms with 12 shoots as a symbol of the completed year, since a palm was thought to put forth a shoot each month.
The last day of the Persian month Azar is the longest night of the year, when the forces of Ahriman are assumed to be at the peak of their strength. While the next day, the first day of the month Dey known as khoram rooz or khore rooz (the day of sun) belongs to Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom. Since the days are getting longer and the nights shorter, this day marks the victory of Sun over the darkness. The occasion was celebrated in the festival of "Daygan" dedicated to Ahura Mazda, on the first day of the month Dey.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Added to flickr Explore (interestingness) page of 24 December 2006.
To view more of my images, Sutton Hoo, please click
"here" !
From deep in the achieves!
From the Achieves, reprocessed, using Photoshop CC 2020.
Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge, in the English county of Suffolk, is the site of two 6th- and early 7th-century cemeteries. One contained an undisturbed ship burial, including a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artefacts of outstanding art-historical and archaeological significance, now held in the British Museum in London. Sutton Hoo is of primary importance to early medieval historians because it sheds light on a period of English history that is on the margin between myth, legend, and historical documentation. Use of the site culminated at a time when Rædwald, the ruler of the East Angles, held senior power among the English people and played a dynamic if ambiguous part in the establishment of Christian rulership in England; it is generally thought most likely that he is the person buried in the ship. The site has been vital in understanding the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of East Anglia and the whole early Anglo-Saxon period. The ship-burial, probably dating from the early 7th century and excavated in 1939, is one of the most magnificent archaeological finds in England for its size and completeness, far-reaching connections, the quality and beauty of its contents, and the profound interest of the burial ritual itself. The initial excavation was privately sponsored by the landowner. When the significance of the find became apparent, national experts took over. Subsequent archaeological campaigns, particularly in the late 1960s and late 1980s, have explored the wider site and many other individual burials. The most significant artefacts from the ship-burial, displayed in the British Museum, are those found in the burial chamber, including a suite of metalwork dress fittings in gold and gems, a ceremonial helmet, shield and sword, a lyre, and many pieces of silver plate from Byzantium. The ship-burial has from the time of its discovery prompted comparisons with the world described in the heroic Old English poem Beowulf, which is set in southern Sweden. It is in that region, especially at Vendel, that close archaeological parallels to the ship-burial are found, both in its general form and in details of the military equipment contained in the burial. Although it is the ship-burial that commands the greatest attention from tourists, two separate cemeteries also have rich historical meaning because of their position in relation to the Deben estuary and the North Sea, and their relation to other sites in the immediate neighbourhood. Of the two grave fields found at Sutton Hoo, one (the "Sutton Hoo cemetery") had long been known to exist because it consists of a group of approximately 20 earthen burial mounds that rise slightly above the horizon of the hill-spur when viewed from the opposite bank. The other, called here the "new" burial ground, is situated on a second hill-spur close to the present Exhibition Hall, about 500 m upstream of the first. It was discovered and partially explored in 2000 during preliminary work for the construction of the hall. This also had burials under mounds, but was not known because these mounds had long since been flattened by agricultural activity. The site has a visitor's centre, with many original and replica artefacts and a reconstruction of the ship burial chamber, and the burial field can be toured in the summer months. There is evidence that Sutton Hoo was occupied during the Neolithic period, circa 3000 BCE, when woodland in the area was cleared by agriculturalists. They dug small pits that contained flint-tempered earthenware pots. Several pits were near to hollows where large trees had been uprooted: the Neolithic farmers may have associated the hollows with the pots. During the Bronze Age, when agricultural communities living in Britain were adopting the newly introduced technology of metalworking, timber-framed roundhouses were built at Sutton Hoo, with wattle and daub walling and thatched roofs. The best surviving example contained a ring of upright posts, up to 30 millimetres (1.2 in) in diameter, with one pair suggesting an entrance to the south-east. In the central hearth, a faience bead had been dropped. The farmers who dwelt in this house used decorated Beaker-style pottery, cultivated barley, oats, and wheat, and collected hazelnuts. They dug ditches that marked the surrounding grassland into sections, indicating land ownership. The acidic sandy soil eventually become leached and infertile, and it was likely that for this reason, the settlement was eventually abandoned, to be replaced in the Middle Bronze Age (1500-1000 BCE) by sheep or cattle, which were enclosed by wooden stakes. During the Iron Age, iron became the dominant form of metal used in the British Isles, replacing copper and bronze. In the Middle Iron Age (around 500 BCE), people living in the Sutton Hoo area grew crops again, dividing the land up into small enclosures now known as Celtic fields. The use of narrow trenches implies grape cultivation, whilst in other places, small pockets of dark soil indicate that big cabbages may have been grown. Such cultivation continued into the Romano-British period, from 43 to around 410. Life for the Britons remained unaffected by the arrival of the Romans. Several artefacts from this period, including a few fragments of pottery and a discarded fibula, have been found. As the peoples of Western Europe were encouraged by the Empire to maximise the use of land for growing crops, the area around Sutton Hoo suffered degradation and soil loss. It was eventually abandoned again and became overgrown.
MÁV-START Zrt.: the Intercity train 560 TOKAJ arrives at Kőbánya-Kispest station, serving the circle relation from Budapest-Keleti to Füzesabony, Miskolc, Nyíregyháza, Debrecen, Szolnok, Cegléd and Budapest-Nyugati.
It is hauled by electric locomotive 470 001, a Siemens ES 64 U2 (20789 / 2002) with EVN 91 55 0470 001-3 H-START.
This collaborative performance at the 37th Venice Biennale in 1976 was the firs ins a series of relation works that would form this portfolio with the same title. Abramovic and Ulay repeatedly ran toward one another, their naked bodies colliding at ever-increasing speed. Using their bodies to explore the potential and failings within the male-female dualism, they pushed physical and mental limits, their stamina often determining the performance’s length.
Commentary.
Farnham is a classic and dignified Market town in western Surrey.
There is evidence of settlement in this area, continuously,
through Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages,
Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Medieval to modern times.
It sits in a shallow valley, south of the Chalk Downs
linking the Hogs Back to the Hampshire Downs.
Springs emerged where Chalk meets Gravels or Gault Clay.
The southern part of the town rises on the Lower Greensand of The Weald.
The town has seen many economic ups and downs.
It thrived with the Wool Industry in early Medieval times,
but suffered a downturn when worsted became popular.
The wool of local sheep wasn’t suitable.
Nearby Waverley Abbey was built in 1128,
but faded to neglect by the time of Henry V111’s Dissolution of the Monasteries.
The town suffered badly in the mid-14th. Century
with a third of the population dying from the Black Death.
Following the eventual victory of Parliamentarians over Royalists,
Bishops were allowed, again, to reside in their Palace, adjacent to the Castle.
It became a successful Market Town by the 17th. Century,
particularly in relation to huge local wheat production.
The underlying Gault and Wealden Clay gave rise to a thriving, local Pottery industry.
The railway arrived in 1848 and eventually was connected to a line to London.
Wealthy merchants could then buy and sell through London markets.
During the 19th. and 20th. Centuries Farnham became a viable “Commuter” town.
Along, East, West and Castle Streets and The Borough many fine
Tudor, Georgian, Regency and Victorian buildings, still exist.
The Creative Arts are still very popular and Architects, Painters and Potters have benefitted from Art Schools and Colleges and Galleries.
Markets for food and the Arts still take place, regularly.
Yet, the town still has a good range of Supermarkets and Chain Stores, as well as a fine range of “Bespoke” shops for home goods, clothes and refreshments.
Farnham still is a fine Market Town, with history and architecture, to boot.
Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else. ~Buddha~
Just trying new things.
Taking advantage of some natural light. Sunny in Oregon today.
By total accident I lined the heel up with the edge of the chair perfectly. heh.
Really should have shot this again.
Random fact: These red shoes are my wedding shoes.
Yes, I'm aware that is odd. :) and no, I didn't wear the socks.
About three years ago I held my first gallery. It was a collection of my best work from my first 365 project of self portraiture. On the last day of the show not many people stopped by, though there was an older fellow who paid me a very kind compliment on my work and asked if he could buy the book I had printed.
I've never been much for art history, especially in relation to photography. I think it's dumb to quantify something so personal. As such I don't know about many famous photographers. Over time I've come to know a few and today I went to an exhibit of one in particular. It was a collection of his unreleased work. While I didn't get the chance to speak with him, I came to a moment of appreciation for something I had long held no care for.
Thank-you for the compliment and interest in my book Fred Herzog, I hope you thought as highly of my gallery then as I did of yours today.
I always thought these two looked related to each other.
But now, side by side and take away Colette and they don’t look as related as I imagined.
Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: γνωστικός gnostikos, "having knowledge", from γνῶσις gnōsis, knowledge) is a modern name for a variety of ancient religious ideas and systems, originating in Jewish Christian milieux in the first and second century AD. These systems believed that the material world is created by an emanation or 'works' of a lower god (demiurge), trapping the divine spark within the human body. This divine spark could be liberated by gnosis, spiritual knowledge acquired through direct experience. Some of the core teachings include the following:
All matter is evil, and the non-material, spirit-realm is good.
There is an unknowable God, who gave rise to many lesser spirit beings called Aeons.
The creator of the (material) universe is not the supreme god, but an inferior spirit (the Demiurge).
Gnosticism does not deal with "sin," only ignorance.
To achieve salvation, one needs gnosis (knowledge).
The Gnostic ideas and systems flourished in the Mediterranean world in the second century AD, in conjunction with and influenced by the early Christian movements and Middle Platonism. After the second century, a decline set in. In the Persian Empire, Gnosticism in the form of Manicheism spread as far as China, while Mandaeism is still alive in Iraq.
A major question in scholarly research is the qualification of Gnosticism, based on the study of its texts, as either an interreligious phenomenon or as an independent religion.
Gnosis refers to knowledge based on personal experience or perception. In a religious context, gnosis is mystical or esoteric knowledge based on direct participation with the divine. In most Gnostic systems, the sufficient cause of salvation is this "knowledge of" ("acquaintance with") the divine. It is an inward "knowing", comparable to that encouraged by Plotinus (neoplatonism), and differs from proto-orthodox Christian views.[1] Gnostics are "those who are oriented toward knowledge and understanding – or perception and learning – as a particular modality for living".
The usual meaning of gnostikos in Classical Greek texts is "learned" or "intellectual", such as used by Plato in the comparison of "practical" (praktikos) and "intellectual" (gnostikos). Plato's use of "learned" is fairly typical of Classical texts.
By the Hellenistic period, it began to also be associated with Greco-Roman mysteries, becoming synonymous with the Greek term musterion. The adjective is not used in the New Testament, but Clement of Alexandria[note 3] speaks of the "learned" (gnostikos) Christian in complimentary terms. The use of gnostikos in relation to heresy originates with interpreters of Irenaeus. Some scholars[note consider that Irenaeus sometimes uses gnostikos to simply mean "intellectual",[note 5] whereas his mention of "the intellectual sect" is a specific designation.
The term "Gnosticism" does not appear in ancient sources,[note 10] and was first coined in the 17th century by Henry More in a commentary on the seven letters of the Book of Revelation, where More used the term "Gnosticisme" to describe the heresy in Thyatira. The term Gnosticism was derived from the use of the Greek adjective gnostikos (Greek γνωστικός, "learned", "intellectual") by St. Irenaeus (c. 185 AD) to describe the school of Valentinus as he legomene gnostike haeresis "the heresy called Learned (gnostic)."
Origins
The earliest origins of Gnosticism are obscure and still disputed. The proto-orthodox Christian groups called Gnostics a heresy of Christianity,] but according to the modern scholars the theology's origin is closely related to Jewish sectarian milieus and early Christian sects. Scholars debate Gnosticism's origins as having roots in Neoplatonism and Buddhism, due to similarities in beliefs, but ultimately, its origins are currently unknown. As Christianity developed and became more popular, so did Gnosticism, with both proto-orthodox Christian and Gnostic Christian groups often existing in the same places. The Gnostic belief was widespread within Christianity until the proto-orthodox Christian communities expelled the group in the second and third centuries (C.E.). Gnosticism became the first group to be declared heretical.
Some scholars prefer to speak of "gnosis" when referring to first-century ideas that later developed into gnosticism, and to reserve the term "gnosticism" for the synthesis of these ideas into a coherent movement in the second century.No gnostic texts have been discovered that pre-date Christianity,and "pre-Christian Gnosticism as such is hardly attested in a way to settle the debate once and for all."
Jewish Christian origins
Contemporary scholarship largely agrees that Gnosticism has Jewish Christian origins, originating in the late first century AD in non rabbinical Jewish sects and early Christian sects.
Many heads of gnostic schools were identified as Jewish Christians by Church Fathers, and Hebrew words and names of God were applied in some gnostic systems. The cosmogonic speculations among Christian Gnostics had partial origins in Maaseh Bereshit and Maaseh Merkabah. This thesis is most notably put forward by Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) and Gilles Quispel (1916–2006). Scholem detected Jewish gnosis in the imagery of the merkavah, which can also be found in "Christian" Gnostic documents, for example the being "caught away" to the third heaven mentioned by Paul the Apostle. Quispel sees Gnosticism as an independent Jewish development, tracing its origins to Alexandrian Jews, to which group Valentinus was also connected.
Many of the Nag Hammadi texts make reference to Judaism, in some cases with a violent rejection of the Jewish God. Gershom Scholem once described Gnosticism as "the Greatest case of metaphysical anti-Semitism". Professor Steven Bayme said gnosticism would be better characterized as anti-Judaism. Recent research into the origins of Gnosticism shows a strong Jewish influence, particularly from Hekhalot literature.
Within early Christianity, the teachings of Paul and John may have been a starting point for Gnostic ideas, with a growing emphasis on the opposition between flesh and spirit, the value of charisma, and the disqualification of the Jewish law. The mortal body belonged to the world of inferior, worldly powers (the archons), and only the spirit or soul could be saved. The term gnostikos may have acquired a deeper significance here.
Alexandria was of central importance for the birth of Gnosticism. The Christian ecclesia (i. e. congregation, church) was of Jewish–Christian origin, but also attracted Greek members, and various strand of thought were available, such as "Judaic apocalypticism, speculation on divine wisdom, Greek philosophy, and Hellenistic mystery religions."
Regarding the angel Christology of some early Christians, Darrell Hannah notes:
[Some] early Christians understood the pre-incarnate Christ, ontologically, as an angel. This "true" angel Christology took many forms and may have appeared as early as the late First Century, if indeed this is the view opposed in the early chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Elchasaites, or at least Christians influenced by them, paired the male Christ with the female Holy Spirit, envisioning both as two gigantic angels. Some Valentinian Gnostics supposed that Christ took on an angelic nature and that he might be the Saviour of angels. The author of the Testament of Solomon held Christ to be a particularly effective "thwarting" angel in the exorcism of demons. The author of De Centesima and Epiphanius’ "Ebionites" held Christ to have been the highest and most important of the first created archangels, a view similar in many respects to Hermas’ equation of Christ with Michael. Finally, a possible exegetical tradition behind the Ascension of Isaiah and attested by Origen's Hebrew master, may witness to yet another angel Christology, as well as an angel Pneumatology.
The pseudepigraphical Christian text Ascension of Isaiah identifies Jesus with angel Christology:
[The Lord Christ is commissioned by the Father] And I heard the voice of the Most High, the father of my LORD as he said to my LORD Christ who will be called Jesus, ‘Go out and descend through all the heavens...
The Shepherd of Hermas is a Christian literary work considered as canonical scripture by some of the early Church fathers such as Irenaeus. Jesus is identified with angel Christology in parable 5, when the author mentions a Son of God, as a virtuous man filled with a Holy "pre-existent spirit".
Neoplatonic influences
See also: Platonic Academy, Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, and Neoplatonism and Christianity
In the 1880s Gnostic connections with neo-Platonism were proposed.Ugo Bianchi, who organised the Congress of Messina of 1966 on the origins of Gnosticism, also argued for Orphic and Platonic origins.Gnostics borrowed significant ideas and terms from Platonism, using Greek philosophical concepts throughout their text, including such concepts as hypostasis (reality, existence), ousia (essence, substance, being), and demiurge (creator God). Both Sethian Gnostics and Valentinian Gnostics seem to have been influenced by Plato, Middle Platonism, and Neo-Pythagoreanism academies or schools of thought. Both schools attempted "an effort towards conciliation, even affiliation" with late antique philosophy, and were rebuffed by some Neoplatonists, including Plotinus.
Persian origins or influences
Early research into the origins of Gnosticism proposed Persian origins or influences, spreading to Europe and incorporating Jewish elements. According to Wilhelm Bousset (1865–1920), Gnosticism was a form of Iranian and Mesopotamian syncretism,[29] and Richard August Reitzenstein (1861–1931) most famously situated the origins of Gnosticism in Persia.
Carsten Colpe (b. 1929) has analyzed and criticised the Iranian hypothesis of Reitzenstein, showing that many of his hypotheses are untenable. Nevertheless, Geo Widengren (1907–1996) argued for the origin of (Mandaean) Gnosticism in Mazdean (Zoroastrianism) Zurvanism, in conjunction with ideas from the Aramaic Mesopotamian world.
Buddhist parallels
In 1966, at the Congress of Median, Buddhologist Edward Conze noted phenomenological commonalities between Mahayana Buddhism and Gnosticism, in his paper Buddhism and Gnosis, following an early suggestion put forward by Isaac Jacob Schmidt. The influence of Buddhism in any sense on either the gnostikos Valentinus (c. 170) or the Nag Hammadi texts (3rd century) is not supported by modern scholarship, although Elaine Pagels (1979) called it a "possibility".
Characteristics
Cosmology
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The Syrian–Egyptian traditions postulate a remote, supreme Godhead, the Monad. From this highest divinity emanate lower divine beings, known as Aeons. The Demiurge, one of those Aeons, creates the physical world. Divine elements "fall" into the material realm, and are locked within human beings. This divine element returns to the divine realm when Gnosis, esoteric or intuitive knowledge of the divine element within, is obtained.
Dualism and monism
Gnostic systems postulate a dualism between God and the world, varying from the "radical dualist" systems of Manichaeism to the "mitigated dualism" of classic gnostic movements. Radical dualism, or absolute dualism, posits two co-equal divine forces, while in mitigated dualism one of the two principles is in some way inferior to the other. In qualified monism the second entity may be divine or semi-divine. Valentinian Gnosticism is a form of monism, expressed in terms previously used in a dualistic manner.
Moral and ritual practice
Gnostics tended toward asceticism, especially in their sexual and dietary practice. In other areas of morality, Gnostics were less rigorously ascetic, and took a more moderate approach to correct behaviour. In normative early Christianity the Church administered and prescribed the correct behaviour for Christians, while in Gnosticism it was the internalised motivation that was important. Ritualistic behaviour was not important unless it was based on a personal, internal motivation. Ptolemy's Epistle to Flora describes a general asceticism, based on the moral inclination of the individual.
Concepts
Monad
In many Gnostic systems, God is known as the Monad, the One. God is the high source of the pleroma, the region of light. The various emanations of God are called æons. According to Hippolytus, this view was inspired by the Pythagoreans, who called the first thing that came into existence the Monad, which begat the dyad, which begat the numbers, which begat the point, begetting lines, etc.
The Sethian cosmogony as most famously contained in the Apocryphon ("Secret book") of John describes an unknown God, very similar to the orthodox apophatic theology, but different from the orthodox teachings that this God is the creator of heaven and earth. Orthodox theologians often attempt to define God through a series of explicit positive statements: he is omniscient, omnipotent, and truly benevolent. The Sethian hidden transcendent God is, by contrast, defined through negative theology: he is immovable, invisible, intangible, ineffable; commonly, "he" is seen as being hermaphroditic, a potent symbol for being, as it were, "all-containing". In the Apocryphon of John, this god is good in that it bestows goodness. After the apophatic statements, the process of the Divine in action is used to describe the effect of such a god.
Pleroma
Pleroma (Greek πλήρωμα, "fullness") refers to the totality of God's powers. The heavenly pleroma is the center of divine life, a region of light "above" (the term is not to be understood spatially) our world, occupied by spiritual beings such as aeons (eternal beings) and sometimes archons. Jesus is interpreted as an intermediary aeon who was sent from the pleroma, with whose aid humanity can recover the lost knowledge of the divine origins of humanity. The term is thus a central element of Gnostic cosmology.
Pleroma is also used in the general Greek language, and is used by the Greek Orthodox church in this general form, since the word appears in the Epistle to the Colossians. Proponents of the view that Paul was actually a gnostic, such as Elaine Pagels, view the reference in Colossians as a term that has to be interpreted in a gnostic sense.
Emanation
The Supreme Light or Consciousness descends through a series of stages, gradations, worlds, or hypostases, becoming progressively more material and embodied. In time it will turn around to return to the One (epistrophe), retracing its steps through spiritual knowledge and contemplation.
Aeon
In many Gnostic systems, the aeons are the various emanations of the superior God or Monad. From this first being, also an æon, a series of different emanations occur, beginning in certain Gnostic texts with the hermaphroditic Barbelo, from which successive pairs of aeons emanate, often in male–female pairings called syzygies. The numbers of these pairings varied from text to text, though some identify their number as being thirty. The aeons as a totality constitute the pleroma, the "region of light". The lowest regions of the pleroma are closest to the darkness; that is, the physical world.
Two of the most commonly paired æons were Christ and Sophia (Greek: "Wisdom"); the latter refers to Christ as her "consort" in A Valentinian Exposition.
Sophia
In Gnostic tradition, the term Sophia (Σoφíα, Greek for "wisdom") refers to the final and lowest emanation of God. In most if not all versions of the gnostic myth, Sophia births the demiurge, who in turn brings about the creation of materiality. The positive or negative depiction of materiality thus resides a great deal on mythic depictions of Sophia's actions. She is occasionally referred to by the Hebrew equivalent of Achamoth (this is a feature of Ptolemy's version of the Valentinian gnostic myth). Jewish Gnosticism with a focus on Sophia was active by 90 AD.[citation needed]
Sophia, emanating without her partner, resulted in the production of the Demiurge (Greek: lit. "public builder"),[50] who is also referred to as Yaldabaoth and variations thereof in some Gnostic texts.[43] This creature is concealed outside the pleroma;[43] in isolation, and thinking itself alone, it creates materiality and a host of co-actors, referred to as archons. The demiurge is responsible for the creation of mankind; trapping elements of the pleroma stolen from Sophia inside human bodies.[43][51] In response, the Godhead emanates two savior aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit; Christ then embodies itself in the form of Jesus, in order to be able to teach man how to achieve gnosis, by which they may return to the pleroma.[52]
Demiurge[edit]
A lion-faced deity found on a Gnostic gem in Bernard de Montfaucon's L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures may be a depiction of Yaldabaoth, the Demiurge; however, cf. Mithraic Zervan Akarana[53]
Main article: Demiurge
The term demiurge derives from the Latinized form of the Greek term dēmiourgos, δημιουργός, literally "public or skilled worker".[note 20] This figure is also called "Yaldabaoth",[43] Samael (Aramaic: sæmʻa-ʼel, "blind god"), or "Saklas" (Syriac: sækla, "the foolish one"), who is sometimes ignorant of the superior god, and sometimes opposed to it; thus in the latter case he is correspondingly malevolent. Other names or identifications are Ahriman, El, Satan, and Yahweh.
The demiurge creates the physical universe and the physical aspect of humanity.[55] The demiurge typically creates a group of co-actors named archons who preside over the material realm and, in some cases, present obstacles to the soul seeking ascent from it.[43] The inferiority of the demiurge's creation may be compared to the technical inferiority of a work of art, painting, sculpture, etc. to the thing the art represents. In other cases it takes on a more ascetic tendency to view material existence negatively, which then becomes more extreme when materiality, including the human body, is perceived as evil and constrictive, a deliberate prison for its inhabitants.
Moral judgements of the demiurge vary from group to group within the broad category of Gnosticism, viewing materiality as being inherently evil, or as merely flawed and as good as its passive constituent matter allows.[56]
Archon[edit]
Main article: Archon (Gnosticism)
In late antiquity some variants of Gnosticism used the term archon to refer to several servants of the demiurge.[51] In this context they may be seen as having the roles of the angels and demons of the Old Testament.[citation needed]
According to Origen's Contra Celsum, a sect called the Ophites posited the existence of seven archons, beginning with Iadabaoth or Ialdabaoth, who created the six that follow: Iao, Sabaoth, Adonaios, Elaios, Astaphanos, and Horaios.[57] Similarly to the Mithraic Kronos and Vedic Narasimha, a form of Vishnu, Ialdabaoth had a head of a lion.[43][58][59]
Other concepts[edit]
Other Gnostic concepts are:[60]
sarkic – earthly, hidebound, ignorant, uninitiated. The lowest level of human thought; the fleshly, instinctive level of thinking.
hylic – lowest order of the three types of human. Unable to be saved since their thinking is entirely material, incapable of understanding the gnosis.
psychic – "soulful", partially initiated. Matter-dwelling spirits
pneumatic – "spiritual", fully initiated, immaterial souls escaping the doom of the material world via gnosis.
kenoma – the visible or manifest cosmos, "lower" than the pleroma
charisma – gift, or energy, bestowed by pneumatics through oral teaching and personal encounters
logos – the divine ordering principle of the cosmos; personified as Christ. See also Odic force.
hypostasis – literally "that which stands beneath" the inner reality, emanation (appearance) of God, known to psychics
ousia – essence of God, known to pneumatics. Specific individual things or being.
Jesus as Gnostic saviour[edit]
Jesus is identified by some Gnostics as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to bring gnōsis to the earth,[61][52] while others adamantly denied that the supreme being came in the flesh, claiming Jesus to be merely a human who attained divinity through gnosis and taught his disciples to do the same.[citation needed] Among the Mandaeans, Jesus was considered a mšiha kdaba or "false messiah" who perverted the teachings entrusted to him by John the Baptist.[62] Still other traditions identify Mani and Seth – third son of Adam and Eve – as salvific figures.
Development[edit]
Three periods can be discerned in the development of Gnosticism:[63]
Late first century and early second century: development of Gnostic ideas, contemporaneous with the writing of the New Testament;
mid-second century to early third century: high point of the classical Gnostic teachers and their systems, "who claimed that their systems represented the inner truth revealed by Jesus";[63]
end of second century to fourth century: reaction by the proto-orthodox church and condemnation as heresy, and subsequent decline.
During the first period, three types of tradition developed:[63]
Genesis was reinterpreted in Jewish milieus, viewing Jahweh as a jealous God who enslaved people; freedom was to be obtained from this jealous God;
A wisdom tradition developed, in which Jesus' sayings were interpreted as pointers to an esoteric wisdom, in which the soul could be divinized through identification with wisdom.[63][note 21] Some of Jesus' sayings may have been incorporated into the gospels to put a limit on this development. The conflicts described in 1 Corinthians may have been inspired by a clash between this wisdom tradition and Paul's gospel of crucifixion and arising;[63]
A mythical story developed about the descent of a heavenly creature to reveal the Divine world as the true home of human beings.[63] Jewish Christianity saw the Messiah, or Christ, as "an eternal aspect of God's hidden nature, his "spirit" and "truth", who revealed himself throughout sacred history".[25]
The movement spread in areas controlled by the Roman Empire and Arian Goths,[65] and the Persian Empire. It continued to develop in the Mediterranean and Middle East before and during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, but decline also set in during the third century, due to a growing aversion from the Catholic Church, and the economic and cultural deterioration of the Roman Empire.[66] Conversion to Islam, and the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229), greatly reduced the remaining number of Gnostics throughout the Middle Ages, though a few Mandaean communities still exist. Gnostic and pseudo-gnostic ideas became influential in some of the philosophies of various esoteric mystical movements of the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe and North America, including some that explicitly identify themselves as revivals or even continuations of earlier gnostic groups.
Relation with early Christianity[edit]
Dillon notes that Gnosticism raises questions about the development of early Christianity.[67]
Orthodoxy and heresy[edit]
See also: Diversity in early Christian theology
The Christian heresiologists, most notably Irenaeus, regarded Gnosticism as a Christian heresy. Modern scholarship notes that early Christianity was very diverse, and Christian orthodoxy only settled in the 4th century, when the Roman Empire declined and Gnosticism lost its influence.[68][66][69][67] Gnostics and proto-orthodox Christians shared some terminology. Initially, they were hard to distinguish from each other.[70]
According to Walter Bauer, "heresies" may well have been the original form of Christianity in many regions.[71] This theme was further developed by Elaine Pagels,[72] who argues that "the proto-orthodox church found itself in debates with gnostic Christians that helped them to stabilize their own beliefs."[67] According to Gilles Quispel, Catholicism arose in response to Gnosticism, establishing safeguards in the form of the monarchic episcopate, the creed, and the canon of holy books.[73]
Historical Jesus[edit]
See also: Jesus in comparative mythology and Christ myth theory
The Gnostic movements may contain information about the historical Jesus, since some texts preserve sayings which show similarities with canonical sayings.[74] Especially the Gospel of Thomas has a significant amount of parallel sayings.[74] Yet, a striking difference is that the canonical sayings center on the coming endtime, while the Thomas-sayings center on a kingdom of heaven that is already here, and not a future event.[75] According to Helmut Koester, this is because the Thomas-sayings are older, implying that in the earliest forms of Christianity Jesus was regarded as a wisdom-teacher.[75] An alternative hypothesis states that the Thomas authors wrote in the second century, changing existing sayings and eliminating the apocalyptic concerns.[75] According to April DeConick, such a change occurred when the endtime did not come, and the Thomasine tradition turned toward a "new theology of mysticism" and a "theological commitment to a fully-present kingdom of heaven here and now, where their church had attained Adam and Eve's divine status before the Fall."[75]
Johannine literature[edit]
The prologue of the Gospel of John describes the incarnated Logos, the light that came to earth, in the person of Jesus.[76] The Apocryphon of John contains a scheme of three descendants from the heavenly realm, the third one being Jesus, just as in the Gospel of John. The similarities probably point to a relationship between gnostic ideas and the Johannine community.[76] According to Raymond Brown, the Gospel of John shows "the development of certain gnostic ideas, especially Christ as heavenly revealer, the emphasis on light versus darkness, and anti-Jewish animus."[76] The Johannine material reveals debates about the redeemer myth.[63] The Johannine letters show that there were different interpretations of the gospel story, and the Johannine images may have contributed to second-century Gnostic ideas about Jesus as a redeemer who descended from heaven.[63] According to DeConick, the Gospel of John shows a "transitional system from early Christianity to gnostic beliefs in a God who transcends our world."[76] According to DeConick, John may show a bifurcation of the idea of the Jewish God into Jesus' Father in Heaven and the Jews' father, "the Father of the Devil" (most translations say "of [your] father the Devil"), which may have developed into the gnostic idea of the Monad and the Demiurge.[76]
Paul and Gnosticism[edit]
Tertullian calls Paul "the apostle of the heretics",[77] because Paul's writings were attractive to gnostics, and interpreted in a gnostic way, while Jewish Christians found him to stray from the Jewish roots of Christianity.[78] In I Corinthians Paul refers to some church members as "having knowledge" (Greek: τὸν ἔχοντα γνῶσιν, ton echonta gnosin).[79] James Dunn claims that in some cases, Paul affirmed views that were closer to gnosticism than to proto-orthodox Christianity.[80]
According to Clement of Alexandria, the disciples of Valentinus said that Valentinus was a student of a certain Theudas, who was a student of Paul,[80] and Elaine Pagels notes that Paul's epistles were interpreted by Valentinus in a gnostic way, and Paul could be considered a proto-gnostic as well as a proto-Catholic.[60] Many Nag Hammadi texts, including, for example, the Prayer of Paul and the Coptic Apocalypse of Paul, consider Paul to be "the great apostle".[80] The fact that he claimed to have received his gospel directly by revelation from God appealed to the gnostics, who claimed gnosis from the risen Christ.[81] The Naassenes, Cainites, and Valentinians referred to Paul's epistles.[82] Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy have expanded upon this idea of Paul as a gnostic teacher;[83] although their premise that Jesus was invented by early Christians based on an alleged Greco-Roman mystery cult has been dismissed by scholars.[84][note 22] However, his revelation was different from the gnostic revelations.[85]
Major movements[edit]
Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism[edit]
Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism includes Sethianism, Valentinianism, Basilideans, Thomasine traditions, and Serpent Gnostics, as well as a number of other minor groups and writers.[86] Hermeticism is also a western Gnostic tradition,[66] though it differs in some respects from these other groups.[87] The Syrian–Egyptian school derives much of its outlook from Platonist influences. It depicts creation in a series of emanations from a primal monadic source, finally resulting in the creation of the material universe. These schools tend to view evil in terms of matter that is markedly inferior to goodness and lacking spiritual insight and goodness rather than as an equal force.
Many of these movements used texts related to Christianity, with some identifying themselves as specifically Christian, though quite different from the Orthodox or Roman Catholic forms. Jesus and several of his apostles, such as Thomas the Apostle, claimed as the founder of the Thomasine form of Gnosticism, figure in many Gnostic texts. Mary Magdalene is respected as a Gnostic leader, and is considered superior to the twelve apostles by some gnostic texts, such as the Gospel of Mary. John the Evangelist is claimed as a Gnostic by some Gnostic interpreters,[88] as is even St. Paul.[60] Most of the literature from this category is known to us through the Nag Hammadi Library.
Sethite-Barbeloite[edit]
Main article: Sethianism
Sethianism was one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd to 3rd centuries, and the prototype of Gnosticism as condemned by Irenaeus.[89] Sethianism attributed its gnosis to Seth, third son of Adam and Eve and Norea, wife of Noah, who also plays a role in Mandeanism and Manicheanism. Their main text is the Apocryphon of John, which does not contain Christian elements,[89] and is an amalgam of two earlier myths.[90] Earlier texts such as Apocalypse of Adam show signs of being pre-Christian and focus on the Seth, third son of Adam and Eve.[91] Later Sethian texts continue to interact with Platonism. Sethian texts such as Zostrianos and Allogenes draw on the imagery of older Sethian texts, but utilize "a large fund of philosophical conceptuality derived from contemporary Platonism, (that is, late middle Platonism) with no traces of Christian content."[31][note 23]
According to John D. Turner, German and American scholarship views Sethianism as "a distinctly inner-Jewish, albeit syncretistic and heterodox, phenomenon", while British and French scholarship tends to see Sethianism as "a form of heterodox Christian speculation".[92] Roelof van den Broek notes that "Sethianism" may never have been a separate religious movement, and that the term refers rather to a set of mythological themes which occur in various texts.[93]
According to Smith, Sethianism may have begun as a pre-Christian tradition, possibly a syncretic cult that incorporated elements of Christianity and Platonism as it grew.[94] According to Temporini, Vogt, and Haase, early Sethians may be identical to or related to the Nazarenes (sect), the Ophites, or the sectarian group called heretics by Philo.[91]
According to Turner, Sethianism was influenced by Christianity and Middle Platonism, and originated in the second century as a fusion of a Jewish baptizing group of possibly priestly lineage, the so-called Barbeloites,[95] named after Barbelo, the first emanation of the Highest God, and a group of Biblical exegetes, the Sethites, the "seed of Seth".[96] At the end of the second century, Sethianism grew apart from the developing Christian orthodoxy, which rejected the docetian view of the Sethians on Christ.[97] In the early third century, Sethianism was fully rejected by Christian heresiologists, as Sethianism shifted toward the contemplative practices of Platonism while losing interest in their own origins.[98] In the late third century, Sethianism was attacked by neo-Platonists like Plotinus, and Sethianism became alienated from Platonism. In the early- to mid-fourth century, Sethianism fragmented into various sectarian Gnostic groups such as the Archontics, Audians, Borborites, and Phibionites, and perhaps Stratiotici, and Secundians.[99][31] Some of these groups existed into the Middle Ages.[99]
Samaritan Baptist sects[edit]
According to Magris, Samaritan Baptist sects were an offshoot of John the Baptist.[100] One offshoot was in turn headed by Dositheus, Simon Magus, and Menander. It was in this milieu that the idea emerged that the world was created by ignorant angels. Their baptismal ritual removed the consequences of sin, and led to a regeneration by which natural death, which was caused by these angels, was overcome.[100] The Samaritan leaders were viewed as "the embodiment of God's power, spirit, or wisdom, and as the redeemer and revealer of 'true knowledge'".[100]
The Simonians were centered on Simon Magus, the magician baptised by Philip and rebuked by Peter in Acts 8, who became in early Christianity the archetypal false teacher. The ascription by Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and others of a connection between schools in their time and the individual in Acts 8 may be as legendary as the stories attached to him in various apocryphal books. Justin Martyr identifies Menander of Antioch as Simon Magus' pupil. According to Hippolytus, Simonianism is an earlier form of the Valentinian doctrine.[101]
The Basilidians or Basilideans were founded by Basilides of Alexandria in the second century. Basilides claimed to have been taught his doctrines by Glaucus, a disciple of St. Peter, but could also have been a pupil of Menander.[102] Basilidianism survived until the end of the 4th century as Epiphanius knew of Basilidians living in the Nile Delta. It was, however, almost exclusively limited to Egypt, though according to Sulpicius Severus it seems to have found an entrance into Spain through a certain Mark from Memphis. St. Jerome states that the Priscillianists were infected with it.
Valentinianism[edit]
Main article: Valentinianism
Valentinianism was named after its founder Valentinus (c. 100 – 180), who was a candidate for bishop of Rome but started his own group when another was chosen.[103] Valentinianism flourished after the middle of the 2nd century. The school was popular, spreading to Northwest Africa and Egypt, and through to Asia Minor and Syria in the east,[104] and Valentinus is specifically named as gnostikos by Irenaeus. It was an intellectually vibrant tradition,[105] with an elaborate and philosophically "dense" form of Gnosticism. Valentinus' students elaborated on his teachings and materials, and several varieties of their central myth are known.
Valentinian Gnosticism may have been monistic rather than dualistic.[note 24] In the Valentinian myths, the creation of a flawed materiality is not due to any moral failing on the part of the Demiurge, but due to the fact that he is less perfect than the superior entities from which he emanated.[108] Valentinians treat physical reality with less contempt than other Gnostic groups, and conceive of materiality not as a separate substance from the divine, but as attributable to an error of perception which becomes symbolized mythopoetically as the act of material creation.[108]
The followers of Valentinius attempted to systematically decode the Epistles, claiming that most Christians made the mistake of reading the Epistles literally rather than allegorically. Valentinians understood the conflict between Jews and Gentiles in Romans to be a coded reference to the differences between Psychics (people who are partly spiritual but have not yet achieved separation from carnality) and Pneumatics (totally spiritual people). The Valentinians argued that such codes were intrinsic in gnosticism, secrecy being important to ensuring proper progression to true inner understanding.[note 25]
According to Bentley Layton "Classical Gnosticism" and "The School of Thomas" antedated and influenced the development of Valentinus, whom Layton called "the great [Gnostic] reformer" and "the focal point" of Gnostic development. While in Alexandria, where he was born, Valentinus probably would have had contact with the Gnostic teacher Basilides, and may have been influenced by him.[109] Simone Petrement, while arguing for a Christian origin of Gnosticism, places Valentinus after Basilides, but before the Sethians. According to Petrement, Valentinus represented a moderation of the anti-Judaism of the earlier Hellenized teachers; the demiurge, widely regarded as a mythological depiction of the Old Testament God of the Hebrews, is depicted as more ignorant than evil.[110]
Thomasine traditions[edit]
The Thomasine Traditions refers to a group of texts which are attributed to the apostle Thomas.[111][note 26] Karen L. King notes that "Thomasine Gnosticism" as a separate category is being criticised, and may "not stand the test of scholarly scrutiny".[112]
Marcion[edit]
Marcion was a Church leader from Sinope (present-day Turkey), who preached in Rome around 150 CE,[113] but was expelled and started his own congregation, which spread throughout the Mediterranean. He rejected the Old Testament, and followed a limited Christian canon, which included only a redacted version of Luke, and ten edited letters of Paul.[114] Some scholars do not consider him to be a gnostic,[115][note 27] but his teachings clearly resemble some Gnostic teachings.[113] He preached a radical difference between the God of the Old Testament, the Demiurge, the "evil creator of the material universe", and the highest God, the "loving, spiritual God who is the father of Jesus", who had sent Jesus to the earth to free mankind from the tyranny of the Jewish Law.[113][2] Like the Gnostics, Marcion argued that Jesus was essentially a divine spirit appearing to men in the shape of a human form, and not someone in a true physical body.[116] Marcion held that the heavenly Father (the father of Jesus Christ) was an utterly alien god; he had no part in making the world, nor any connection with it.[116]
Hermeticism[edit]
Hermeticism is closely related to Gnosticism, but its orientation is more positive.[66][87]
Other Gnostic groups[edit]
Serpent Gnostics. The Naassenes, Ophites and the Serpentarians gave prominence to snake symbolism, and snake handling played a role in their ceremonies.[113]
Cerinthus (c. 100), the founder of a heretical school with gnostic elements. Like a Gnostic, Cerinthus depicted Christ as a heavenly spirit separate from the man Jesus, and he cited the demiurge as creating the material world. Unlike the Gnostics, Cerinthus taught Christians to observe the Jewish law; his demiurge was holy, not lowly; and he taught the Second Coming. His gnosis was a secret teaching attributed to an apostle. Some scholars believe that the First Epistle of John was written as a response to Cerinthus.[117]
The Cainites are so-named since Hippolytus of Rome claims that they worshiped Cain, as well as Esau, Korah, and the Sodomites. There is little evidence concerning the nature of this group. Hippolytus claims that they believed that indulgence in sin was the key to salvation because since the body is evil, one must defile it through immoral activity (see libertinism). The name Cainite is used as the name of a religious movement, and not in the usual Biblical sense of people descended from Cain.
The Carpocratians, a libertine sect following only the Gospel according to the Hebrews
The school of Justin, which combined gnostic elements with the ancient Greek religion.
The Borborites, a libertine Gnostic sect, said to be descended from the Nicolaitans[118]
Persian Gnosticism[edit]
The Persian Schools, which appeared in the western Persian province of Babylonia (in particular, within the Sassanid province of Asuristan), and whose writings were originally produced in the Aramaic dialects spoken in Babylonia at the time, are representative of what is believed to be among the oldest of the Gnostic thought forms. These movements are considered by most to be religions in their own right, and are not emanations from Christianity or Judaism.
Manichaeism[edit]
Manicheanism priests writing at their desks, with panel inscription in Sogdian. Manuscript from Khocho, Tarim Basin.
Main article: Manichaeism
Manichaeism was founded by the Prophet Mani (216–276). Mani's father was a member of the Jewish-Christian sect of the Elcesaites, a subgroup of the Gnostic Ebionites. At ages 12 and 24, Mani had visionary experiences of a "heavenly twin" of his, calling him to leave his father's sect and preach the true message of Christ. In 240–41, Mani travelled to the Indo-Greek Kingdom of the Sakhas in modern-day Afghanistan, where he studied Hinduism and its various extant philosophies. Returning in 242, he joined the court of Shapur I, to whom he dedicated his only work written in Persian, known as the Shabuhragan. The original writings were written in Syriac Aramaic, in a unique Manichaean script.
Manichaeism conceives of two coexistent realms of light and darkness that become embroiled in conflict. Certain elements of the light became entrapped within darkness, and the purpose of material creation is to engage in the slow process of extraction of these individual elements. In the end the kingdom of light will prevail over darkness. Manicheanism inherits this dualistic mythology from Zurvanist Zoroastrianism,[119] in which the eternal spirit Ahura Mazda is opposed by his antithesis, Angra Mainyu. This dualistic teaching embodied an elaborate cosmological myth that included the defeat of a primal man by the powers of darkness that devoured and imprisoned the particles of light.[120]
According to Kurt Rudolph, the decline of Manichaeism that occurred in Persia in the 5th century was too late to prevent the spread of the movement into the east and the west.[121] In the west, the teachings of the school moved into Syria, Northern Arabia, Egypt and North Africa.[note 28] There is evidence for Manicheans in Rome and Dalmatia in the 4th century, and also in Gaul and Spain. From Syria it progressed still farther, into Palestine, Asia Minor and Armenia. The influence of Manicheanism was attacked by imperial elects and polemical writings, but the religion remained prevalent until the 6th century, and still exerted influence in the emergence of the Paulicians, Bogomils and Cathari in the Middle Ages, until it was ultimately stamped out by the Catholic Church.[121]
In the east, Rudolph relates, Manicheanism was able to bloom, because the religious monopoly position previously held by Christianity and Zoroastrianism had been broken by nascent Islam. In the early years of the Arab conquest, Manicheanism again found followers in Persia (mostly amongst educated circles), but flourished most in Central Asia, to which it had spread through Iran. Here, in 762, Manicheanism became the state religion of the Uyghur Empire.[121]
Mandaeanism[edit]
Main article: Mandaeanism
Mandaean house of worship in Nasiriya, Iraq
The Mandaeans are Semites and speak a dialect of Eastern Aramaic known as Mandaic. Their religion has been practised primarily around the lower Karun, Euphrates and Tigris and the rivers that surround the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, part of southern Iraq and Khuzestan Province in Iran. Mandaeanism is still practiced in small numbers, in parts of southern Iraq and the Iranian province of Khuzestan, and there are thought to be between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide.[124]
The name of the group derives from the term Mandā d-Heyyi, which roughly means "Knowledge of Life". Although the exact chronological origins of this movement are not known, John the Baptist eventually came to be a key figure in the religion, as an emphasis on baptism is part of their core beliefs. As with Manichaeism, despite certain ties with Christianity,[125] Mandaeans do not believe in Moses, Jesus, or Mohammed. Their beliefs and practices likewise have little overlap with the religions that manifested from those religious figures and the two should not be confused. Significant amounts of original Mandaean Scripture, written in Mandaean Aramaic, survive in the modern era. The primary source text is known as the Genzā Rabbā and has portions identified by some scholars as being copied as early as the 3rd century. There is also the Qolastā, or Canonical Book of Prayer and The Book of John the Baptist (sidra ḏ-iahia).
Middle Ages[edit]
After its demise in the Mediterranean world, Gnosticism lived on in the periphery of the Byzantine Empire, and resurfaced in the western world. The Paulicians, an Adoptionist group which flourished between 650 and 872 in Armenia and the Eastern Themes of the Byzantine Empire, were accused by orthodox medieval sources of being Gnostic and quasi Manichaean Christian. The Bogomils, emerged in Bulgaria between 927 and 970 and spread throughout Europe. It was as synthesis of Armenian Paulicianism and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church reform movement.
The Cathars (Cathari, Albigenses or Albigensians) were also accused by their enemies of the traits of Gnosticism; though whether or not the Cathari possessed direct historical influence from ancient Gnosticism is disputed. If their critics are reliable the basic conceptions of Gnostic cosmology are to be found in Cathar beliefs (most distinctly in their notion of a lesser, Satanic, creator god), though they did not apparently place any special relevance upon knowledge (gnosis) as an effective salvific force.[verification needed]
Islam[edit]
The message of the Islamic prophet Muhammad shows close similarities to many Gnostic ideas. The Quran, like Gnostic cosmology, makes a sharp distinction between this world and the afterlife. The notion of four rivers in heaven, as mentioned in the Quran, separating this world from the other , also appears frequently in Mandaean literature. God is commonly thought of as being beyond human comprehension. In some Islamic schools of thought, somehow identifiable with the Gnostic Monad.[126][127] However, according to Islam and unlike most Gnostic sects, not rejection of this world, but performing good deeds leads to the heaven. And according to the Islamic belief in strict Oneness of God, there was no room for a lower deity; such as the demiurge.[128] According to Islam, both good and evil come from one God, a position especially opposed by the Manichaeans. Ibn al-Muqaffa depicted the Islamic deity as a demonic entity who "fights with humans and boasts about His victories" and "sitting on a throne, from which He can descend". It would be impossible that both light and darkness were created from one source, since they were regarded as two different eternal principles.[129] Muslim theologists countered this accusation by the example of a repeating sinner, who says: "I laid, and I repent";[130] this would prove that good can also result out of evil.
Islam also integrated traces of an entity given authority over the lower world in some early writings: Iblis is regarded by some Sufis as the owner of this world, and humans must avoid the treasures of this world, since they would belong to him.[131] In the Isma'ili Shia work Umm al Kitab, Azazil's role resembles whose of the Gnostic demiurge.[132] Like the demiurge, he is endowed with the ability to create his own world and seeks to imprison humans in the material world, but here, his power is limited and depends on the higher God.[133] Such Gnostic anthropogenic can be found frequently among Isma'ili traditions.[134] However, Ismailism were often criticised as non-Islamic. Ghazali characterized them as a group who are outwardly Shias but were actually adherence of a dualistic and philosophical religion. Further traces of Gnostic ideas can be found in Sufi anthropogenic.[135] Like the gnostic conception of human beings imprisoned in matter, Sufi-traditions acknowledges the human soul is an accomplice of the material world and subject to bodily desires similar to the way archontic spheres envelop the pneuma.[136] The Ruh must therefore gain victory over the lower and material-bound psyche, to overcome his animal nature. A human being captured by his animal desires, mistakenly claims autonomy and independence from the "higher God", thus resembling the lower deity in classical gnostic traditions. However, since the goal is not to abandon the created world, but just to free oneself from ones own lower desires, it can be disputed whether this can still be Gnostic, but rather a completion of the message of Muhammad.[129] It seems that Gnostic ideas were an influential part of early Islamic development but later lost its influence. However the Gnostic light metaphorics and the idea of unity of existence still prevailed in later Islamic thought.[127]
Kabbalah[edit]
Gnostic ideas found a Jewish variation in the mystical study of Kabbalah. Many core Gnostic ideas reappear in Kabbalah, where they are used for dramatically reinterpreting earlier Jewish sources according to this new system.[137] The Kabbalists originated in 13th-century Provence,[note 29] which was at that time also the center of the Gnostic Cathars. While some scholars in the middle of the 20th century tried to assume an influence between the Cathar "gnostics" and the origins of the Kabbalah, this assumption has proved to be an incorrect generalization not substantiated by any original texts.[139] On the other hand, other scholars, such as Scholem, have postulated that there was originally a "Jewish gnosticism", which influenced the early origins of gnosticism.[140]
Kabbalah does not employ the terminology or labels of non-Jewish Gnosticism, but grounds the same or similar concepts in the language of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible).[141] The 13th-century Zohar ("Splendor"), a foundational text in Kabbalah, is written in the style of a Jewish Aramaic Midrash, clarifying the five books of the Torah with a new Kabbalistic system that uses completely Jewish terms.[142]
Modern times[edit]
Main article: Gnosticism in modern times
The Mandaeans are an ancient Gnostic sect that have survived to this day and are found today in Iraq.[143] Their namesake owes to their following John the Baptist and in that country, they have about five thousand followers.[143] A number of ecclesiastical bodies that think of themselves as Gnostic have set up or re-founded since World War II, including the Ecclesia Gnostica, Apostolic Johannite Church, Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, the Gnostic Church of France, the Thomasine Church, the Alexandrian Gnostic Church, the North American College of Gnostic Bishops,[144] and the Universal Gnosticism of Samael Aun Weor.[145]
A number of 19th-century thinkers such as Arthur Schopenhauer,[146] Albert Pike and Madame Blavatsky studied Gnostic thought extensively and were influenced by it, and even figures like Herman Melville and W. B. Yeats were more tangentially influenced.[147] Jules Doinel "re-established" a Gnostic church in France in 1890, which altered its form as it passed through various direct successors (Fabre des Essarts as Tau Synésius and Joanny Bricaud as Tau Jean II most notably), and, though small, is still active today.[148]
Early 20th-century thinkers who heavily studied and were influenced by Gnosticism include Carl Jung (who supported Gnosticism), Eric Voegelin (who opposed it), Jorge Luis Borges (who included it in many of his short stories), and Aleister Crowley, with figures such as Hermann Hesse being more moderately influenced. René Guénon founded the gnostic review, La Gnose in 1909, before moving to a more Perennialist position, and founding his Traditionalist School. Gnostic Thelemite organizations, such as Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica and Ordo Templi Orientis, trace themselves to Crowley's thought.
The discovery and translation of the Nag Hammadi library after 1945 has had a huge effect on Gnosticism since World War II. Intellectuals who were heavily influenced by Gnosticism in this period include Lawrence Durrell, Hans Jonas, Philip K. Dick and Harold Bloom, with Albert Camus and Allen Ginsberg being more moderately influenced.[147] Celia Green has written on Gnostic Christianity in relation to her own philosophy.[149]
Alfred North Whitehead was aware of the existence of the newly discovered Gnostic scrolls. Accordingly, Michel Weber has proposed a Gnostic interpretation of his late metaphysics.[150]
Sources[edit]
Heresiologists[edit]
Prior to the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library in 1945 Gnosticism was known primarily through the works of heresiologists, Church Fathers who opposed those movements. These writings had an antagonistic bias towards gnostic teachings, and were incomplete. Several heresiological writers, such as Hippolytus, made little effort to exactly record the nature of the sects they reported on, or transcribe their sacred texts. Reconstructions of incomplete Gnostic texts were attempted in modern times, but research on Gnosticism was coloured by the orthodox views of those heresiologists.
Justin Martyr (c. 100/114 – c. 162/168) wrote the First Apology, addressed to Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, which criticising Simon Magus, Menander and Marcion. Since this time, both Simon and Menander have been considered as 'proto-Gnostic'.[151] Irenaeus (died c. 202) wrote Against Heresies (c. 180–185), which identifies Simon Magus from Flavia Neapolis in Samaria as the inceptor of Gnosticism. From Samaria he charted an apparent spread of the teachings of Simon through the ancient "knowers" into the teachings of Valentinus and other, contemporary Gnostic sects.[note 30] Hippolytus (170–235) wrote the ten-volume Refutation Against all Heresies, of which eight have been unearthed. It also focuses on the connection between pre-Socratic (and therefore Pre-Incantation of Christ) ideas and the false beliefs of early gnostic heretical leaders. Thirty-three of the groups he reported on are considered Gnostic by modern scholars, including 'the foreigners' and 'the Seth people'. Hippolytus further presents individual teachers such as Simon, Valentinus, Secundus, Ptolemy, Heracleon, Marcus and Colorbasus. Tertullian (c. 155–230) from Carthage wrote Adversus Valentinianos ('Against the Valentinians'), c. 206, as well as five books around 207–208 chronicling and refuting the teachings of Marcion.
Gnostic texts[edit]
See also: Gnostic texts and Nag Hammadi library
Prior to the discovery at Nag Hammadi, a limited number of texts were available to students of Gnosticism. Reconstructions were attempted from the records of the heresiologists, but these were necessarily coloured by the motivation behind the source accounts.
The Nag Hammadi library [note 31] is a collection of Gnostic texts discovered in 1945 near Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt. Twelve leather-bound papyrus codices buried in a sealed jar were found by a local farmer named Muhammed al-Samman.[152] The writings in these codices comprised fifty-two mostly Gnostic treatises, but they also include three works belonging to the Corpus Hermeticum and a partial translation/alteration of Plato's Republic. These codices may have belonged to a nearby Pachomian monastery, and buried after Bishop Athanasius condemned the use of non-canonical books in his Festal Letter of 367.[153] Though the original language of composition was probably Greek, the various codices contained in the collection were written in Coptic. A 1st- or 2nd-century date of composition for the lost Greek originals has been proposed, though this is disputed; the manuscripts themselves date from the 3rd and 4th centuries. The Nag Hammadi texts demonstrated the fluidity of early Christian scripture and early Christianity itself.[note 32]
Academic studies[edit]
Development[edit]
Prior to the discovery of Nag Hammadi, the Gnostic movements were largely perceived through the lens of the early church heresiologists. Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1694–1755) proposed that Gnosticism developed on its own in Greece and Mesopotamia, spreading to the west and incorporating Jewish elements. According to Mosheim, Jewish thought took Gnostic elements and used them against Greek philosophy.[33] J. Horn and Ernest Anton Lewald proposed Persian and Zoroastrian origins, while Jacques Matter described Gnosticism as an intrusion of eastern cosmological and theosophical speculation into Christianity.[33]
In the 1880s Gnosticism was placed within Greek philosophy, especially neo-Platonism.[29] Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), who belonged to the School of the History of Dogma and proposed a Kirchengeschichtliches Ursprungsmodell, saw gnosticism as an internal development within the church under the influence of Greek philosophy.[29][155] According to Harnack, Gnosticism was the "acute Hellenization of Christianity."[29]
The Religionsgeschichtliche Schule ("history of religions school", 19th century) had a profound influence on the study of Gnosticism.[29] The Religionsgeschichtliche Schule saw Gnosticism as a pre-Christian phenomenon, and Christian gnosis as only one, and even marginal instance of this phenomenon.[29] According to Wilhelm Bousset (1865–1920), Gnosticism was a form of Iranian and Mesopotamian syncretism,[29] and Eduard Norden (1868–1941) also proposed pre-Christian origins,[29] while Richard August Reitzenstein (1861–1931), and Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976) also situated the origins of Gnosticism in Persia.[29] Hans Heinrich Schaeder (1896–1957) and Hans Leisegang saw Gnosticism as an amalgam of eastern thought in a Greek form.[29]
Hans Jonas (1903–1993) took an intermediate approach, using both the comparative approach of the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule and the existentialist hermeneutics of Bultmann. Jonas emphasized the duality between God and the world, and concluded that Gnosticism cannot be derived from Platonism.[19]
Contemporary scholarship largely agrees that Gnosticism has Jewish or Judeo-Christian origins;[19] this theses is most notably put forward by Gershom G. Scholem (1897–1982) and Gilles Quispel (1916–2006).[156]
The study of Gnosticism and of early Alexandrian Christianity received a strong impetus from the discovery of the Coptic Nag Hammadi Library in 1945.[157][158] A great number of translations have been published, and the works of Elaine Pagels, Professor of Religion at Princeton University, especially The Gnostic Gospels, which detailed the suppression of some of the writings found at Nag Hammadi by early bishops of the Christian church, has popularized Gnosticism in mainstream culture,[web 3][web 4] but also incited strong responses and condemnations from clergical writers.[159]
Definitions of Gnosticism[edit]
According to Matthew J. Dillon, six trends can be discerned in the definitions of Gnosticism:[160]
Typologies, "a catalogue of shared characteristics that are used to classify a group of objects together."[160]
Traditional approaches, viewing Gnosticism as a Christian heresy[161]
Phenomenological approaches, most notably Hans Jonas[162]
Restricting Gnosticism, "identifying which groups were explicitly called gnostics",[163] or which groups were clearly sectarian[163]
Deconstructing Gnosticism, abandoning the category of "Gnosticism"[164]
Psychology and cognitive science of religion, approaching Gnosticism as a psychological phenomena[165]
Typologies[edit]
The 1966 Messina conference on the origins of gnosis and Gnosticism proposed to designate
... a particular group of systems of the second century after Christ" as gnosticism, and to use gnosis to define a conception of knowledge that transcends the times, which was described as "knowledge of divine mysteries for an élite.[166]
This definition has now been abandoned.[160] It created a religion, "Gnosticism", from the "gnosis" which was a widespread element of ancient religions,[note 33] suggesting a homogeneous conception of gnosis by these Gnostic religions, which did not exist at the time.[167]
According to Dillon, the texts from Nag Hammadi made clear that this definition was limited, and that they are "better classified by movements (such as Valentinian), mythological similarity (Sethian), or similar tropes (presence of a Demiurge)."[160] Dillon further notes that the Messian-definition "also excluded pre-Christian Gnosticism and later developments, such as the Mandaeans and the Manichaeans."[160]
Hans Jonas discerned two main currents of Gnosticism, namely Syrian-Egyptian, and Persian, which includes Manicheanism and Mandaeanism.[19] Among the Syrian-Egyptian schools and the movements they spawned are a typically more Monist view. Persian Gnosticism possesses more dualist tendencies, reflecting a strong influence from the beliefs of the Persian Zurvanist Zoroastrians. Those of the medieval Cathars, Bogomils, and Carpocratians seem to include elements of both categories.
Gilles Quispel divided Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism further into Jewish Gnosticism (the Apocryphon of John)[89] and Christian Gnosis (Marcion, Basilides, Valentinus). This "Christian Gnosticism" was Christocentric, and influenced by Christian writings such as the Gospel of John and the Pauline epistles.[168] Other authors speak rather of "Gnostic Christians", noting that Gnostics were a prominent substream in the early church.[169]
Traditional approaches – Gnosticism as Christian heresy[edit]
The best known example of this approach is Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), who stated that "Gnosticism is the acute Hellenization of Christianity."[161] According to Dillon, "many scholars today continue in the vein of Harnack in reading gnosticism as a late and contaminated version of Christianity", notably Darrell Block, who criticises Elaine Pagels for her view that early Christianity was wildly diverse.[162]
Phenomenological approaches[edit]
Hans Jonas (1903–1993) t
This famous structure is located on Church, Court and Parliament Streets in the beautiful City of Hamilton. It is the Seat of Bermuda's Parliament, also called the House of Assembly, oldest British parliament (since 1612) in the New World. The building Houses Bermuda's 36 Members of Parliament in its 21-square miles land area. It is from this building that all Bermuda's laws are enacted. While Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory (similar in certain respects to the United States Virgin Islands), all Bermuda's laws are enacted here, by Bermudian legislators, not in London.
The building was erected in 1819, initially as a four-square Georgian structure, not long after Hamilton, instead of St. George's, became Bermuda's capital. It was deliberately placed then atop the highest ground in the city, not far from the Anglican Cathedral. In 1817, once the building was completed, the British authorities in Bermuda brought out from storage and placed in a prominent place in the building some rather valuable paintings with a unique history. They were paintings captured by British forces who had sailed from Bermuda in 1814 to attack and burn the US Presidential Mansion in Washington DC in relation for the burning by the Americans of the City of York (later, Toronto, in Canada). The latter, having had no further use for them, had put the paintings in a nearby warehouse. The US Presidential Mansion was so badly charred by the fire of the British flames that it became necessary, since then, to both whitewash it and rename it as The White House. When British naval forces, which had commenced the operation from Bermuda in 1814, returned to Bermuda from Washington, they brought with them these portraits of King George III, and his wife, Queen Charlotte. These portraits have hung here, ever since.
To coincide with the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887, it was embellished substantially on its southern ceremonial front, complete with towering arches, very possibly by the Scottish architect William Hay who designed the Anglican Cathedral not far away on Church Street. Bermuda's Westminster style Parliament, referred to locally as the House of Assembly, meets here, upstairs, while the Supreme Court meets on the ground floor. It has 35 elected and paid members for 38,000 registered voters in 21 square miles. (A further 11 are appointed, also paid politicians, in the Senate but for a far lower salary). The total number of Bermuda's legislators is 46, one for every 800 or so registered voters, 14 times the average ratio of legislators to voters in North America and Europe. There are long periods when the House is not in session. The Speaker of the House wears a formal wig and gown, in the British tradition. Visitors may attend in the public gallery.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
www.bermuda-online.org/historichouses.htm
www.google.com/search?q=sessions+house+hamilton+bermuda+h...
www.google.com/search?q=who+was+the+architect+of+the+sess...
bermudianheritagemuseum.com/2022/06/02/the-session-house/
www.bermuda4u.com/sights/sessions-house/
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The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is known for land speed records at the Bonneville Speedway. Access to the Flats is open to the public.
The Flats are about 12 miles (19 km) long and 5 miles (8 km) wide, with a crust almost 5 ft (1.5m) thick at the center and less than one inch (2.5 cm) towards the edges. It is estimated to hold 147 million tons of salt, approximately 90% of which is common table salt.
Geologist Grove Karl Gilbert named the area after Benjamin Bonneville, a U.S. Army officer who explored the Intermountain West in the 1830s. In 1907, Bill Rishel and two local businessmen tested the suitability of the salt for driving by taking a Pierce-Arrow onto its surface.
A railway line across the Flats was completed in 1910, marking the first permanent crossing. The first land speed record was set there in 1914 by Teddy Tetzlaff.
Entertainment filmed at the Flats include portions of Walking with Dinosaurs Special - The Ballad of Big Al, Knight Rider, Warlock, Independence Day (1996) and its sequel, SLC Punk, Cremaster 2 from Cremaster Cycle, The Brown Bunny, The World's Fastest Indian, Gerry, The Tree of Life, Top Gear and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Furthermore, the Pontiac Bonneville (former flagship sedan of the Pontiac motor division), the Triumph Bonneville motorcycle, and the Bonneville International media company are all named for the Flats.
The Bonneville Salt Flats hosts the annual US Flight Archery Championships. The goal of flight archery is to shoot arrows from bows at the greatest distance possible without regard to hitting a target, and so the vast flat plane of the flats serves as an ideal location to measure the linear distance traveled by arrows without geographic interference. Both the 1977 (archer Don Brown) and 1982 (archer Alan Webster) world records were set there; while the current world record, achieved in 1987 (archer Don Brown), was set at the salt flats near Smith Creek, Nevada.
The thickness of salt crust is a critical factor in racing use of the salt flats. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has undertaken multiple studies on the topic; while a 2007 study determined that there was little change in the crust's thickness from 1988 to 2003, more recent studies have shown a reduction in thickness, especially in the northwest area where racing occurs. The flats' overall area has contracted significantly over the past several decades. The cause or causes of this remain unclear, but many believe adjacent evaporative potash mining is the primary factor.
Collaboration between racing organizations, the potash mine, and the BLM led to a pilot program begun in 1998 to release excess brine onto the salt flats during winter. Plans to increase the volume of brine returned to the salt flats are hoped to halt loss of crust thickness, or possibly restore it where it has become too thin to sustain human use.
Motorcar racing has taken place at the salt flats since 1914. Racing takes place at part of the Bonneville Salt Flats known as the Bonneville Speedway. There are five major land speed events that take place at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Bonneville "Speed Week" takes place mid-August followed by "World of Speed" in September and the "World Finals" take place early October.
These three events welcome cars, trucks, and motorcycles. The "Bub Motorcycle Speed Trials" are for motorcycles only. World records are contested at the Mike Cook ShootOut in September. The Southern California Timing Association and the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association organizes and plans the multi-vehicle events, but all event promoters contribute to prepping and maintaining the salt. "Speed Week" events in August were canceled in 2015 and 2022, due to the poor condition of the salt in certain parts of the flats. The salt flats had been swamped by heavy rains earlier in the year, as usual, but this year the rains also triggered mudslides from surrounding mountains onto a section of the flats used for the land-speed racing courses.
Bonneville Speedway (also known as the Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track) is an area of the Bonneville Salt Flats northeast of Wendover, Utah, that is marked out for motor sports. It is particularly noted as the venue for numerous land speed records. The Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The salt flats were first used for motor sports in 1912, but did not become truly popular until the 1930s when Ab Jenkins and Sir Malcolm Campbell competed to set land speed records.
A reduction of available racing surface and salt thickness has led to the cancellation of events at Bonneville, such as Speed Week in 2014 and 2015. Available racing surface is much reduced with just 2.5 miles (4.0 km) available instead of the 9-mile (14 km) courses traditionally used for Speed Week.
Historically, the speedway was marked out by the Utah Department of Transportation at the start of each summer. Originally, two tracks were prepared; a 10-mile (16 km) long straightaway for speed trials and an oval or circular track for distance runs, which was typically between 10 and 12 miles (16 and 19 km) long depending on the condition of the salt surface.
Since at least the 1990s, track preparations have been the responsibility of the event organizers. Days or weeks in advance, the track preparers identify an area best suited for their track layouts and begin grading the tracks. Surveyors are brought in to survey the timing trap distances. A day before racing begins, the track markers are added.
Originally, the straightaway was marked with a broad black line down its center. This was eventually changed to lines down either side, as the center line wore out too quickly. As the costs for painting the lines has gone up, organizations have switched to flags and cones as track markers. The last event to use black lines was Speed Week, August 2009.
The number of tracks and the timed sections for each track are set according to what is most beneficial for each event. Large public meets such as Speed Week run as many as four tracks with several timed miles, usually starting with the second mile and running to the fifth mile. Smaller meets that typically only run world record attempts will utilize a single track, with one timed mile and one timed kilometer in the middle of the track. Additional marks and cones indicate the end of the track and the position of timing equipment.
The annual Speed Week was cancelled in both 2014 and 2015, as were many land-speed racing events, due to deteriorating track conditions. Heavy rains caused a layer of mud from surrounding mountains to flow onto the flats, covering approximately 6 mi (9.7 km) of the track. Although another section of the flats would normally be used, nearby salt mining operations had reduced the size of the alternative track.
The depth of the salt crust at Bonneville has also been decreasing, possibly leaching into a saltwater aquifer. Measured at as much at 3 ft (0.91 m) in the 1940s and 50s, it has been reduced to just 2 in (0.051 m) in 2015.
Though recent studies have been made (since 1960), the causes of this deterioration are not clear, although the evidence points toward both local climatic changes and salt mining. Some strategies were devised to revert the decreasing salt surface, such as pumping back salt, though this had no effect.
In August, the Southern California Timing Association and Bonneville Nationals Inc. organize Speed Week, the largest meet of the year, which attracts several hundred drivers who compete to set highest speed in a range of categories. Bonneville Speed Week has been taking place since 1949.
In late August, the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials are held.
In September each year is the World of Speed, (similar to Speed Week) organized by the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association. The USFRA also meet on the first Wednesday of each month throughout the summer.
In October, the Southern California Timing Association puts on World Finals, a scaled-down version of Speed Week. This event tends to have cooler weather and often drier salt that Speed Week the prior month. There are less spectators and it tends to draw serious racers, as this event is the last chance to break a land speed record and be in the SCTA record book for that year.
Each year, there are usually a few private meets that are not publicized scattered among the larger public meets.
Several motor-paced racing speed records have been attempted at Bonneville.
In 1985, American cyclist John Howard set a then world record of 244 km/h (152 mph).
On 15 October 1995, Dutch cyclist Fred Rompelberg achieved 268.831 km/h (167.044 mph), using a special bicycle behind a dragster with a large shield.
In 2016, Denise Mueller-Korenek claimed a women's bicycle land speed record at 147 mph (237 km/h). She was coached by Howard. It is not clear which authority was supervising the record attempt.
In 2018, Mueller-Korenek broke her own women's record and the men's record at a speed of 183.9 miles per hour (296.0 km/h).
In popular culture
In the 2003 film The Brown Bunny, Bud Clay races his motorcycle at the speedway.
In the 2005 film The World's Fastest Indian, Burt Munro and his highly modified Indian Scout motorcycle sets a world record.
In the 2015 series finale episode of Mad Men, Donald Draper drives a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS muscle car in the races at Bonneville Speedway.
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.
Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region's difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah's earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail. Following the Mexican–American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah's admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted in 1896 as the 45th.
People from Utah are known as Utahns. Slightly over half of all Utahns are Mormons, the vast majority of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where a majority of the population belongs to a single church. A 2023 paper challenged this perception (claiming only 42% of Utahns are Mormons) however most statistics still show a majority of Utah residents belong to the LDS church; estimates from the LDS church suggests 60.68% of Utah's population belongs to the church whilst some sources put the number as high as 68%. The paper replied that membership count done by the LDS Church is too high for several reasons. The LDS Church greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life, though since the 1990s the state has become more religiously diverse as well as secular.
Utah has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, multi-level marketing, and tourism. Utah has been one of the fastest growing states since 2000, with the 2020 U.S. census confirming the fastest population growth in the nation since 2010. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah ranks among the overall best states in metrics such as healthcare, governance, education, and infrastructure. It has the 12th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Utah have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Utah's water security and impacting the state's economy.
The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.
Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of humans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna died, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people, who sheltered in caves near the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.
The Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people. Fremont technologies include:
use of the bow and arrow while hunting,
building pithouse shelters,
growing maize and probably beans and squash,
building above ground granaries of adobe or stone,
creating and decorating low-fired pottery ware,
producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs and pictographs.
The ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems. They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals.
These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their existence. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.
In about 1200, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They may have originated in southern California and moved into the desert environment due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops. When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest. Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.
In the early 16th century, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southeast also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.
Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.
At the time of European expansion, beginning with Spanish explorers traveling from Mexico, five distinct native peoples occupied territory within the Utah area: the Northern Shoshone, the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute and the Navajo.
The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.
A group led by two Spanish Catholic priests—sometimes called the Domínguez–Escalante expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. All of what is now Utah was claimed by the Spanish Empire from the 1500s to 1821 as part of New Spain (later as the province Alta California); and subsequently claimed by Mexico from 1821 to 1848. However, Spain and Mexico had little permanent presence in, or control of, the region.
Fur trappers (also known as mountain men) including Jim Bridger, explored some regions of Utah in the early 19th century. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley. In 1846, a year before the arrival of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the ill-fated Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake valley late in the season, deciding not to stay the winter there but to continue forward to California, and beyond.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, the U.S. had already captured the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in the Mexican–American War and planned to keep them, but those territories, including the future state of Utah, officially became United States territory upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10, 1848.
Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers found no permanent settlement of Indians. Other areas along the Wasatch Range were occupied at the time of settlement by the Northwestern Shoshone and adjacent areas by other bands of Shoshone such as the Gosiute. The Northwestern Shoshone lived in the valleys on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake and in adjacent mountain valleys. Some years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley Mormons, who went on to colonize many other areas of what is now Utah, were petitioned by Indians for recompense for land taken. The response of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, was that the land belonged to "our Father in Heaven and we expect to plow and plant it." A 1945 Supreme Court decision found that the land had been treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone had been recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States.
Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches, and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.
Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present-day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central Utah.
The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and the eastern segments of southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, a senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals, and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present-day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.
Prior to establishment of the Oregon and California trails and Mormon settlement, Indians native to the Salt Lake Valley and adjacent areas lived by hunting buffalo and other game, but also gathered grass seed from the bountiful grass of the area as well as roots such as those of the Indian Camas. By the time of settlement, indeed before 1840, the buffalo were gone from the valley, but hunting by settlers and grazing of cattle severely impacted the Indians in the area, and as settlement expanded into nearby river valleys and oases, indigenous tribes experienced increasing difficulty in gathering sufficient food. Brigham Young's counsel was to feed the hungry tribes, and that was done, but it was often not enough. These tensions formed the background to the Bear River massacre committed by California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the Civil War. The site of the massacre is just inside Preston, Idaho, but was generally thought to be within Utah at the time.
Statehood was petitioned for in 1849-50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have been quite large, encompassing all of what is now Utah, and portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of industry and was derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon. The petition was rejected by Congress and Utah did not become a state until 1896, following the Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895.
In 1850, the Utah Territory was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) was designated the capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.
The first group of pioneers brought African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with this first group in 1847. The settlers also began to purchase Indian slaves in the well-established Indian slave trade, as well as enslaving Indian prisoners of war. In 1850, 26 slaves were counted in Salt Lake County. Slavery didn't become officially recognized until 1852, when the Act in Relation to Service and the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners were passed. Slavery was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.
Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the federal government intensified after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy became known. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be one of the major reasons Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.
After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed by some as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a possible rebellion spread, President James Buchanan sent troops on the Utah expedition to quell the growing unrest and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The expedition was also known as the Utah War.
As fear of invasion grew, Mormon settlers had convinced some Paiute Indians to aid in a Mormon-led attack on 120 immigrants from Arkansas under the guise of Indian aggression. The murder of these settlers became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. The Mormon leadership had adopted a defensive posture that led to a ban on the selling of grain to outsiders in preparation for an impending war. This chafed pioneers traveling through the region, who were unable to purchase badly needed supplies. A disagreement between some of the Arkansas pioneers and the Mormons in Cedar City led to the secret planning of the massacre by a few Mormon leaders in the area. Some scholars debate the involvement of Brigham Young. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.
Express riders had brought the news 1,000 miles from the Missouri River settlements to Salt Lake City within about two weeks of the army's beginning to march west. Fearing the worst as 2,500 troops (roughly 1/3rd of the army then) led by General Albert Sidney Johnston started west, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City and neighboring communities to prepare their homes for burning and evacuate southward to Utah Valley and southern Utah. Young also sent out a few units of the Nauvoo Legion (numbering roughly 8,000–10,000), to delay the army's advance. The majority he sent into the mountains to prepare defenses or south to prepare for a scorched earth retreat. Although some army wagon supply trains were captured and burned and herds of army horses and cattle run off no serious fighting occurred. Starting late and short on supplies, the United States Army camped during the bitter winter of 1857–58 near a burned out Fort Bridger in Wyoming. Through the negotiations between emissary Thomas L. Kane, Young, Cumming and Johnston, control of Utah territory was peacefully transferred to Cumming, who entered an eerily vacant Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858. By agreement with Young, Johnston established the army at Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.
Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, between Carson City, Nevada and Omaha, Nebraska completed in October 1861. Brigham Young, who had helped expedite construction, was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials. Soon after the telegraph line was completed, the Deseret Telegraph Company built the Deseret line connecting the settlements in the territory with Salt Lake City and, by extension, the rest of the United States.
Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory (and their fort auctioned off), leaving the territorial government in federal hands without army backing until General Patrick E. Connor arrived with the 3rd Regiment of California Volunteers in 1862. While in Utah, Connor and his troops soon became discontent with this assignment wanting to head to Virginia where the "real" fighting and glory was occurring. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his bored and often idle soldiers to go out and explore for mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and some miners began to come to the territory. Conner also solved the Shoshone Indian problem in Cache Valley Utah by luring the Shoshone into a midwinter confrontation on January 29, 1863. The armed conflict quickly turned into a rout, discipline among the soldiers broke down, and the Battle of Bear River is today usually referred to by historians as the Bear River Massacre. Between 200 and 400 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, as were 27 soldiers, with over 50 more soldiers wounded or suffering from frostbite.
Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk fighting federal and Utah local militia.
On May 10, 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.
Main article: Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century
During the 1870s and 1880s, federal laws were passed and federal marshals assigned to enforce the laws against polygamy. In the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church leadership dropped its approval of polygamy citing divine revelation. When Utah applied for statehood again in 1895, it was accepted. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.
The Mormon issue made the situation for women the topic of nationwide controversy. In 1870 the Utah Territory, controlled by Mormons, gave women the right to vote. However, in 1887, Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1867–96, eastern activists promoted women's suffrage in Utah as an experiment, and as a way to eliminate polygamy. They were Presbyterians and other Protestants convinced that Mormonism was a non-Christian cult that grossly mistreated women. The Mormons promoted woman suffrage to counter the negative image of downtrodden Mormon women. With the 1890 Manifesto clearing the way for statehood, in 1895 Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage. Congress admitted Utah as a state with that constitution in 1896.
Though less numerous than other intermountain states at the time, several lynching murders for alleged misdeeds occurred in Utah territory at the hand of vigilantes. Those documented include the following, with their ethnicity or national origin noted in parentheses if it was provided in the source:
William Torrington in Carson City (then a part of Utah territory), 1859
Thomas Coleman (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1866
3 unidentified men at Wahsatch, winter of 1868
A Black man in Uintah, 1869
Charles A. Benson in Logan, 1873
Ah Sing (Chinese man) in Corinne, 1874
Thomas Forrest in St. George, 1880
William Harvey (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1883
John Murphy in Park City, 1883
George Segal (Japanese man) in Ogden, 1884
Joseph Fisher in Eureka, 1886
Robert Marshall (Black man) in Castle Gate, 1925
Other lynchings in Utah territory include multiple instances of mass murder of Native American children, women, and men by White settlers including the Battle Creek massacre (1849), Provo River Massacre (1850), Nephi massacre (1853), and Circleville Massacre (1866).
Beginning in the early 20th century, with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was made easier.
Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.
During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time, and West Valley City is the state's 2nd most populous city. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.
In 2012, the State of Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act in an attempt to gain control over a substantial portion of federal land in the state from the federal government, based on language in the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. The State does not intend to use force or assert control by limiting access in an attempt to control the disputed lands, but does intend to use a multi-step process of education, negotiation, legislation, and if necessary, litigation as part of its multi-year effort to gain state or private control over the lands after 2014.
Utah families, like most Americans everywhere, did their utmost to assist in the war effort. Tires, meat, butter, sugar, fats, oils, coffee, shoes, boots, gasoline, canned fruits, vegetables, and soups were rationed on a national basis. The school day was shortened and bus routes were reduced to limit the number of resources used stateside and increase what could be sent to soldiers.
Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into progress. In April 1944, Geneva shipped its first order, which consisted of over 600 tons of steel plate. Geneva Steel also brought thousands of job opportunities to Utah. The positions were hard to fill as many of Utah's men were overseas fighting. Women began working, filling 25 percent of the jobs.
As a result of Utah's and Geneva Steels contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.
One of the sectors of the beachhead of Normandy Landings was codenamed Utah Beach, and the amphibious landings at the beach were undertaken by United States Army troops.
It is estimated that 1,450 soldiers from Utah were killed in the war.
''Historical monuments are the common heritage of mankind''
Rock Tombs;
Six rock tombs on the Dalyan river (4th - 2nd century BC), which are Dalyan's prime sight
The façades of the rock tombs resemble the fronts of Hellenistic temples with two Ionian pillars, a triangular pediment, an architrave with toothed friezes, and acroterions shaped like palm leaves.
The Kaunos city walls
The spectacular Kaunos city walls were erected during the reign of Mausolos in the 4th century BC. They are extraproportional in relation to the size of Kaunos and its population, presumably because the satrap had high expectations of the city's future as a marine and commercial port. The city walls start west of the inner port and run along the hills N and NW of the city, to the top of the steep cliff opposite Dalyan centre. There is a walking track along the wall, starting at the Çandır water station. The regularly-shaped rectangular blocks and the way the blocks have been positioned give a fine impression of Hellenistic building techniques. Parts of the wall are well-kept, other parts have been taken down and rebuilt.
UNESCO Tentativelist.
whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5906/
Ancient City of Kaunos
Turkey
Date of Submission: 15/04/2014
Criteria: (i)(ii)(iii)(iv)
Category: Cultural
Submitted by:
Permanent Delegation of Turkey to UNESCO
State, Province or Region:
City of Mugla, Mediterranean Region
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Property names are listed in the language in which they have been submitted by the State Party
Description
The property within boundaries of District of Koycegiz is located in the face of Dalyan City and on the right shores of Dalyan Stream (Calbis) which connect Koycegiz Lake to Mediterranean. It was the capital of the ‘Kaunos Region’ between the Caria and Lycia until the beginning of the 4th BC.
The existence of Kaunos had known by the scholars but its location was a mystery until English archaeologist Hoskyn discovered it in 1842. Swedish archaeologist P. Roos defined the independent state boundaries of Kaunos as follows: “Starting from the Fethiye Bay at the north and Ancient City of Krya at the north of the bay; extending till Tlos at the 35 km east of Fethiye, Idyma at Gokova Bay at the west and Çamkoy located in the west of Urla which is little forward to north.” In today’s context, the coastal area starting from the south plains of Mugla and extending till the mountains between Mugla and Antalya was under the sovereignty of Kaunos. Kaunos has kept this borders until the 4th century BC but then lost its statue of sovereign state after the Persian invasion. It was one of two cities resisting against Persian invasion (other is Xanthos) such that they paid high taxes to prevailing states many times in order to keep their independency as a port city.
Kaunos was mentioned as Ksibde in Lycian scripts, while as Kbid in the scripts of other surrounding cities. Life style and language of Kaunos people share similarities with Carian people except five letters in their alphabet are not seen in latter which makes Kaunos language is unique to them. Heredot reveals in this respect that “There is Carian influence in their language or their influence in Carian language. This is an issue which I couldn’t clarify.” In fact, epigraphic materials in Carian language are found mostly in Kaunos today. Kaunosian could not be understood until very recently just because Carian language was not decoded. However, by virtue of a stela written in Greek and Carian, it has been possible to unravel Carian language and a little of Kaunosian due to Greek language had already been known.
Kaunos was an important sea port city with two ports; one is in the south at the southeast of Küçük Kale (Small Castle) and the inner port at its northwest, the present Sülüklü Göl (the Lake of the Leeches). The southern port was used from the foundation of the city till roughly the end of the Hellenistic era, after which it became inaccessible due to its drying out. The latter was used till the late days of Kaunos, but due to the silting of the delta and the ports, Kaunos had by then lost its important function as a trade port and started becoming poor. After Caria had been captured by Turkish tribes and the serious malaria epidemic of the 15th century AD, Kaunos was completely abandoned.
The city was constructed on terraces; significant religious structures like Baselius Kaunios Temple, Apollon Sanctuary and Demeter Sacred Rocks on one side and Bath, Theatre and other structures including Palaestra on a large terrace which is called Upper City on the other. The monumental terrace on which the Upper City situated connects Baliklar Mountain with the Acropolis by extending the city into Mediterranean like a tongue and naturally creating a second harbour basin in the east.
In many places in the ancient city, it has been found stone cutlery and arrowheads from Palaeolithic era. The finding and remains in Kaunos reveal the prosperity of the city as a great power of its time and that it was a sovereign state which minted on its behalf. The coins printed in this region especially in the first half of the 5th century BC are of great importance since a winged figure is displayed on the front side while pyramidal formed monoliths on the back. Besides, letters of K and B found on the coins are important due to they are the first two letters of the first name of Kaunos, Kbid.
The oldest find at the Kaunos archaeological site is the neck of a Protogeometric amphora dating back to the 9th century BC, or even earlier. A statue found at the western gate of the city walls, pieces of imported Attic ceramics and the South – Southeast oriented city walls show habitation in the 6th century BC. Although none of the architectural finds at Kaunos itself dates back to earlier than the 4th century BC, history of Kaunos is believed much earlier than that.
Because of the paleogeographic formation of Dalyan Delta and the silting of the former Bay of Dalyan (from approx. 200 BC onwards), Kaunos is now located about 8 km from the coast.
When the year drew towards the end and closed with Christmas I started dating someone. We even lasted for the magical seven weeks. It ended this January. I made an island in Second Life with a grave on it. There our relation lies buried cried over by my blue stick man.
Perdu is French for hidden or lost. She lived in France.
Waterbuck
Ellipsen-Wasserbock
Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of 19,485 km2 (7,523 sq mi) in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa, and extends 360 km (220 mi) from north to south and 65 km (40 mi) from east to west. The administrative headquarters are in Skukuza. Areas of the park were first protected by the government of the South African Republic in 1898, and it became South Africa's first national park in 1926.
To the west and south of the Kruger National Park are the two South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In the north is Zimbabwe, and to the east is Mozambique. It is now part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a peace park that links Kruger National Park with the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique.
The park is part of the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere an area designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as an International Man and Biosphere Reserve (the "Biosphere").
The park has nine main gates allowing entrance to the different camps.
(Wikipedia)
The waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) is a large antelope found widely in sub-Saharan Africa. It is placed in the genus Kobus of the family Bovidae. It was first described by Irish naturalist William Ogilby in 1833. The thirteen subspecies are grouped under two varieties: the common or Ellisprymnus waterbuck and the Defassa waterbuck. The head-and-body length is typically between 177–235 cm (70–93 in) and the average height is between 120 and 136 cm (47 and 54 in). A sexually dimorphic antelope, males are taller as well as heavier than females. Males reach approximately 127 cm (50 in) at the shoulder, while females reach 119 cm (47 in). Males typically weigh 198–262 kg (437–578 lb) and females 161–214 kg (355–472 lb). The coat colour varies from brown to grey. The long, spiral horns, present only on males, curve backward, then forward and are 55–99 cm (22–39 in) long.
Waterbuck are rather sedentary in nature. A gregarious animal, the waterbuck may form herds consisting of six to 30 individuals. These groups are either nursery herds with females and their offspring or bachelor herds. Males start showing territorial behaviour from the age of five years, but are most dominant from the age of six to nine. The waterbuck cannot tolerate dehydration in hot weather, and thus inhabits areas close to sources of water. Predominantly a grazer, the waterbuck is mostly found on grassland. In equatorial regions, breeding takes place throughout the year, but births are at their peak in the rainy season. The gestational period lasts for seven to eight months, followed by the birth of a single calf.
Waterbuck inhabit scrub and savanna areas along rivers, lakes and valleys. Due to their requirement for grasslands as well as water, the waterbuck have a sparse ecotone distribution. The IUCN lists the waterbuck as being of Least Concern. More specifically, the common waterbuck is listed as of Least Concern while the defassa waterbuck is Near Threatened. The population trend for both the common and defassa waterbuck is downwards, especially that of the latter, with large populations being eliminated from certain habitats because of poaching and human disturbance.
The scientific name of the waterbuck is Kobus ellipsiprymnus. The waterbuck is one of the six species of the genus Kobus and belongs to the family Bovidae. It was first described by Irish naturalist William Ogilby in 1833. The generic name Kobus is a New Latin word, originating from an African name, koba. The specific name ellipsiprymnus refers to the white elliptical ring on the rump, from the Greek ellipes (ellipse) and prymnos (prumnos, hind part). The animal acquired the vernacular name "waterbuck" due to its heavy dependence on water as compared to other antelopes and its ability to enter into water for defence.
The type specimen of the waterbuck was collected by South African hunter-explorer Andrew Steedman in 1832. This specimen was named Antilope ellipsiprymnus by Ogilby in 1833. This species was transferred to the genus Kobus in 1840, becoming K. ellipsiprymnus. It is usually known as the common waterbuck. In 1835, German naturalist Eduard Rüppell collected another specimen, which differed from Steedman's specimen in having a prominent white ring on its rump. Considering it a separate species, Rüppell gave it the Amharic name "defassa" waterbuck and scientific name Antilope defassa. Modern taxonomists, however, consider the common waterbuck and the defassa waterbuck a single species, K. ellipsiprymnus, given the large number of instances of hybridisation between the two. Interbreeding between the two takes place in the Nairobi National Park owing to extensive overlapping of habitats.
Not many fossils of the waterbuck have been found. Fossils were scarce in the Cradle of Humankind, occurring only in a few pockets of the Swartkrans. On the basis of Valerius Geist's theories about the relation of social evolution and dispersal in ungulates during the Pleistocene the ancestral home of the waterbuck is considered to be the eastern coast of Africa - with the Horn of Africa to the north and the East African Rift Valley to the west.
The waterbuck is the largest amongst the six species of Kobus. It is a sexually dimorphic antelope, with the males nearly 7 percent taller than females and around 8 percent longer. The head-and-body length is typically between 177–235 cm (70–93 in) and the average height is between 120 and 136 cm (47 and 54 in).[10] Males reach approximately 127 cm (50 in) at the shoulder, while females reach 119 cm (47 in). The waterbuck is one of the heaviest antelopes. a newborn typically weighs 13.6 kg (30 lb), and growth in weight is faster in males than in females. Males typically weigh 198–262 kg (437–578 lb) and females 161–214 kg (355–472 lb). The tail is 22–45 cm (8.7–17.7 in) long.
The waterbuck is of a robust build. The shaggy coat is reddish brown to grey, and becomes progressively darker with age. Males are darker than females. Though apparently thick, the hair is sparse on the coat. The hair on the neck is, however, long and shaggy. When sexually excited, the skin of the waterbuck secretes a greasy substance with the odour of musk, giving it the name "greasy kob". The odor of this is so unpleasant that it repels predators. This secretion also assists in water-proofing the body when the animal dives into water. The facial features include a white muzzle and light eyebrows and lighter insides of the ears. There is a cream-coloured patch (called "bib") on the throat. Waterbuck are characterised by a long neck and short, strong and black legs. Females have two nipples. Preorbital glands, foot glands and inguinal glands are absent.
The common waterbuck and the defassa waterbuck are remarkably different in their physical appearances. Measurements indicate greater tail length in the latter, whereas the common waterbuck stand taller than the defassa waterbuck. However, the principal differentiation between the two types is the white ring of hair surrounding the tail on the rump, which is a hollow circle in the common waterbuck but covered with white hair in the defassa waterbuck.
The long, spiral horns curve backward, then forward. Found only on males, the horns range from 55 to 99 cm (22 to 39 in) in length. To some extent, the length of the horns is related to the bull's age. A rudimentary horn in the form of a bone lump may be found on the skulls of females.
Waterbuck are rather sedentary in nature, though some migration may occur with the onset of monsoon. A gregarious animal, the waterbuck may form herds consisting of six to 30 individuals. The various groups are the nursery herds, bachelor herds and territorial males. Herd size increases in summer, whereas groups fragment in the winter months, probably under the influence of food availability. As soon as young males start developing horns (at around seven to nine months of age), they are chased out of the herd by territorial bulls. These males then form bachelor herds and may roam in female home ranges. Females have home ranges stretching over 200–600 hectares (0.77–2.32 sq mi; 490–1,480 acres). A few females may form spinster herds. Though females are seldom aggressive, minor tension may arise in herds.
Males start showing territorial behaviour from the age of five years, but are most dominant from the age of six to nine. Territorial males hold territories 4–146 hectares (0.015–0.564 sq mi; 9.9–360.8 acres) in size. Males are inclined to remain settled in their territories, though over time they may leave inferior territories for more spacious ones. Marking of territories includes no elaborate rituals - dung and urine are occasionally dropped. After the age of ten years, males lose their territorial nature and replaced by a younger bull, following which they recede to a small and unprotected area. There is another social group, that of the satellite males, which are mature bulls as yet without their own territories, who exploit resources, particularly mating opportunities, even in the presence of the dominant bull. The territorial male may allow a few satellite males into his territory, and they may contribute to its defence. However, gradually they may deprive the actual owner of his territory and seize the area for themselves. In a study in the Lake Nakuru National Park, only 7 percent of the adult males held territories, and only half of the territorial males tolerated one or more satellite males.
Territorial males may use several kinds of display. In one type of display, the white patch on the throat and between the eyes is clearly revealed, and other displays can demonstrate the thickness of the neck. These activities frighten trespassers. Lowering of the head and the body depict submission before the territorial male, who stands erect. Fights, which may last up to thirty minutes, involve threat displays typical of bovids accompanied by snorting. Fights may even become so violent that one of the opponents meets its death due to severe abdominal or thoracic wounds. A silent animal, the waterbuck makes use of flehmen response for visual communication and alarm snorts for vocal communication. Waterbuck often enter water to escape from predators which include lions, leopards, cheetahs, African wild dogs and Nile crocodiles (leopards and spotted hyenas prey on juveniles). However, it has been observed that the waterbuck does not particularly like being in water. Waterbuck may run into cover when alarmed, and males often attack predators.
Waterbuck are susceptible to ulcers, lungworm infection and kidney stones. Other diseases from which these animals suffer are foot-and-mouth disease, sindbis fever, yellow fever, bluetongue, bovine virus diarrhoea, brucellosis and anthrax. The waterbuck is more resistant to rinderpest than are other antelopes. They are unaffected by tsetse flies but ticks may introduce parasitic protozoa such as Theileria parva, Anaplasma marginale and Baberia bigemina. 27 species of ixodid tick have been found on waterbuck - a healthy waterbuck may carry a total of over 4000 ticks in their larval or nymphal stages, the most common among them being Amblyomma cohaerens and Rhipicephalus tricuspis. Internal parasites found in waterbuck include tapeworms, liverflukes, stomachflukes and several helminths.
The waterbuck exhibits great dependence on water. It can not tolerate dehydration in hot weather, and thus inhabits areas close to sources of water. However, it has been observed that unlike the other members of its genus (such as the kob and puku), the waterbuck ranges farther into the woodlands while maintaining its proximity to water. With grasses constituting a substantial 70 to 95 percent of the diet, the waterbuck is predominantly a grazer frequenting grasslands. Reeds and rushes like Typha and Phragmites may also be preferred.A study found regular consumption of three grass species round the year: Panicum anabaptistum, Echinochloa stagnina and Andropogon gayanus. Hyparrhenia involucrata, Acroceras amplectens and Oryza barthii along with annual species were the main preference in the early rainy season, while long life grasses and forage from trees constituted three-fourths of the diet in the dry season.
Though the defassa waterbuck were found to have a much greater requirement for protein than the African buffalo and the Beisa oryx, the waterbuck was found to spend much less time on browsing (eating leaves, small shoots and fruits) in comparison to the other grazers. In the dry season about 32 percent of the 24-hour day was spent in browsing, whereas no time was spent on it during the wet season. The choice of grasses varies with location rather than availability; for instance, in western Uganda, while Sporobolus pyramidalis was favoured in some places, Themeda triandra was the main choice elsewhere. The common waterbuck and the defassa waterbuck in the same area may differ in their choices; it has been observed that while the former preferred Heteropogon contortus and Cynodon dactylon, the latter showed less preference for these grasses.
Waterbuck are slower than other antelopes in terms of the rate of maturity. While males become sexually mature at the age of six years, females reach maturity within two to three years. Females may conceive by the age of two-and-a-half years, and remain reproductive for another ten years. In equatorial regions, breeding takes place throughout the year, and births are at their peak in the rainy season. However, breeding is seasonal in the Sudan (south of Sahara), with the mating season lasting four months. The season extends for even longer periods in some areas of southern Africa. Oestrus lasts for a day or less.
Mating begins after the male confirms that the female is in oestrus, which he does by sniffing her vulva and urine. A resistive female would try to bite or even fight off an advancing male. The male exhibits flehmen, and often licks the neck of the female and rubs his face and the base of his horns against her back. There are several attempts at mounting before the actual copulation. The female shifts her tail to one side, while the male clasps her sides with his forelegs and rests on her back during copulation, which may occur as many as ten times.
The gestational period lasts for seven to eight months, followed by the birth of a single calf. Twins are rare. Pregnant females isolate themselves in thickets as parturition approaches. Newborn calves can stand on their feet within a half-hour of birth. The mother eats the afterbirth. She communicates with the calf by bleating or snorting. Calves are kept hidden from two to three weeks up to two months. At about three to four weeks, the calf begins following its mother, who signals it to do so by raising her tail. Though bereft of horns, mothers will fiercely defend their offspring from predators. Calves are weaned at eight months, following which time they join groups of calves of their own age. Young females remain with their mothers in nursery herds, or may also join bachelor herds. The waterbuck lives to 18 years in the wild and 30 years in captivity.
The waterbuck is native to southern and eastern Africa (including countries such as Angola, Botswana, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda) besides a few countries of western and northern Africa such as Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. Though formerly widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, its numbers have now decreased in most areas.
The common waterbuck is found east of the Eastern African Rift. Its southern range extends to the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve (KwaZulu Natal) and to central Namibia. By contrast, the defassa waterbuck inhabits western and central Africa. The defassa waterbuck occurs west of the Albertine Rift and ranges from Eritrea to Guinea Bissau in the southern Sahel, its most northerly point of distribution being in southern Mali. Its range also stretches east of the Congo basin through Zambia into Angola, while another branch extends to the Zaire River west of the Congo basin. While the common waterbuck is now extinct in Ethiopia, the defassa waterbuck has become extinct in Gambia.
Waterbuck inhabit scrub and savanna areas alongside rivers, lakes and valleys. Due to their requirement for grasslands as well as water, the waterbuck have a sparse distribution across ecotones (areas of interface between two different ecosystems). A study in the Ruwenzori Range showed that the mean density of waterbuck was 5.5 per square mile, and estimates in the Maasai Mara were as low as 1.3 per square mile. It has been observed that territorial size depends on the quality of the habitat, the age and health of the animal and the population density. The greater the age of the animal or the denser the populations, the smaller are the territories. In Queen Elizabeth National Park, females had home ranges 21–61 hectares (0.081–0.236 sq mi; 52–151 acres) in area whereas home ranges for bachelor males averaged between 24–38 hectares (0.093–0.147 sq mi; 59–94 acres). The oldest female (around 18 years old) had the smallest home range.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) lists the waterbuck as of least concern (LC). More specifically, the common waterbuck is listed as of Least Concern while the defassa waterbuck is near threatened (NT). The population trend for both the common and defassa waterbuck is decreasing, especially that of the latter, with large populations being eliminated from their habitats due to poaching and human settlement. Their own sedentary nature too is responsible for this to some extent. Numbers have fallen in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Murchison Falls National Park, Akagera National Park, Lake Nakuru National Park, and Comoé National Park. Population decrease in the Lake Nakuru National Park has been attributed to heavy metal poisoning. While cadmium and lead levels were dangerously high in the kidney and the liver, deficiencies of copper, calcium and phosphorus were noted.
Over 60 percent of the defassa waterbuck populations thrive in protected areas, most notably in Niokolo-Koba, Comoe, Mole, Bui, Pendjari, Manovo-Gounda St. Floris, Moukalaba-Doudou, Garamba, Virunga, Omo, Mago, Murchison Falls, Serengeti, and Katavi, Kafue and Queen Elizabeth National Parks, the national parks and hunting zones of North Province (Cameroon), Ugalla River Forest Reserve, Nazinga Game Ranch, Rukwa Valley, Awash Valley, Murule and Arly-Singou. The common waterbuck occurs in Tsavo, Tarangire, Mikumi, Kruger and Lake Nakuru National Parks, Laikipia, Kajiado, Luangwa Valley, Selous and Hluhluwe-Umfolozi game reserves and private lands in South Africa.
(Wikipedia)
Der Kruger-Nationalpark (deutsch häufig falsch Krüger-Nationalpark) ist das größte Wildschutzgebiet Südafrikas. Er liegt im Nordosten des Landes in der Landschaft des Lowveld auf dem Gebiet der Provinz Limpopo sowie des östlichen Abschnitts von Mpumalanga. Seine Fläche erstreckt sich vom Crocodile-River im Süden bis zum Limpopo, dem Grenzfluss zu Simbabwe, im Norden. Die Nord-Süd-Ausdehnung beträgt etwa 350 km, in Ost-West-Richtung ist der Park durchschnittlich 54 km breit und umfasst eine Fläche von rund 20.000 Quadratkilometern. Damit gehört er zu den größten Nationalparks in Afrika.
Das Schutzgebiet wurde am 26. März 1898 unter dem Präsidenten Paul Kruger als Sabie Game Reserve zum Schutz der Wildnis gegründet. 1926 erhielt das Gebiet den Status Nationalpark und wurde in seinen heutigen Namen umbenannt. Im Park leben 147 Säugetierarten inklusive der „Big Five“, außerdem etwa 507 Vogelarten und 114 Reptilienarten, 49 Fischarten und 34 Amphibienarten.
(Wikipedia)
Als Wasserbock werden zwei Arten afrikanischer Antilopen aus der Gattung der Wasserböcke (Kobus) bezeichnet. Man unterscheidet den Ellipsen-Wasserbock (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) und den Defassa-Wasserbock (Kobus defassa). Beide wurden ursprünglich in einer Art zusammengefasst und zur Unterscheidung von den anderen Arten der Gattung Kobus auch unter dem Namen Gemeiner Wasserbock geführt, heute gelten sie als eigenständig.
Der Ellipsen-Wasserbock (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) ist eine große, kräftige, bis zu 270 kg schwere Antilope mit zotteligem, graubraunem Fell und einem weißen Ring um den Schwanzansatz (die namengebende Ellipse). Auch das Gesicht ist teilweise weiß, und ein weißer Streifen zieht sich von der Kehle bis zum Ohrenansatz. Nur die männlichen Tiere tragen lange, stark geringelte, weit geschwungene und nach vorne gerichtete Hörner. Die Schulterhöhe beträgt 1,30 m.
Das Verbreitungsgebiet reicht von Südafrika und Nordost-Namibia über Botswana und Mosambik und die Savannen Ostafrikas bis nach Äthiopien und Somalia.
Diese Antilopenart ist an Dauergewässer gebunden, in deren Nähe sich Wälder oder offenes Grasgelände mit Dickicht und Schilf bewachsene Gebiete befinden. Junge Männchen bilden eigene Herden, Weibchen und Jungtiere leben in Gruppen von 5 bis 10 Tieren zusammen.
Die beiden Wasserbock-Arten sind weniger stark ans Wasser gebunden als andere Vertreter ihrer Gattung. Sie können sich durchaus vom Wasser entfernen und sind dann in der offenen Savanne oder in Wäldern zu finden. Die weiblichen Wasserböcke leben in Herden von etwa fünf, in seltenen Fällen bis zu siebzig Tieren. Ebenfalls Herden bilden junge Männchen. Dagegen werden ältere Männchen zu Einzelgängern, die ein Revier gegen Artgenossen verteidigen und jedes durchziehende Weibchen für sich beanspruchen.
Wasserböcke gehören zu den häufigsten Großsäugetieren Afrikas. Schätzungsweise gibt es etwa 95.000 Defassa-Wasserböcke und 105.000 Ellipsen-Wasserböcke, von denen mehr als die Hälfte in Schutzgebieten lebt. Beide Arten werden seitens der IUCN als gering gefährdet (near threatened) klassifiziert. Die Bestände außerhalb von Schutzgebieten sind durch Jagd und Habitatzerstörung rückläufig.
(Wikipedia)
Neutron stars, the ultra-dense cores left behind after massive stars collapse, contain the densest matter known in the Universe outside of a black hole. New results from Chandra and other X-ray telescopes have provided one of the most reliable determinations yet of the relation between the radius of a neutron star and its mass. These results constrain how nuclear matter – protons and neutrons, and their constituent quarks – interact under the extreme conditions found in neutron stars.
Three telescopes -- Chandra, ESA's XMM-Newton, and NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) -- were used to observe 8 different neutron stars, including one in 47 Tucanae, a globular cluster located about 15,000 light years away in the outskirts of the Milky Way. The image shown here was constructed from a long Chandra observation of 47 Tucanae. Lower-energy X-rays are red, X-rays with intermediate energies are green, and the highest-energy X-rays are shown in blue.
In the image, the double, or binary, star system labeled as X7 contains a neutron star slowly pulling gas away from a companion star with a mass much lower than the Sun. In 2006, researchers used observations of the amount of X-rays from X7 at different energies together with theoretical models to determine a relationship between the mass and the radius of the neutron star. A similar procedure was used for Chandra observations of a neutron star in another globular cluster, NGC 6397, and for two other neutron stars in clusters observed by ESA’s XMM-Newton.
Four other neutron stars were observed with RXTE to undergo bursts of X-rays that cause the atmosphere of the neutron star to expand. By following the cooling of the star, its surface area can be calculated. Then, by folding in independent estimates of the distance to the neutron star, scientists were able to gather more information on the relationships between the masses and radii of these neutron stars.
Because the mass and radius of a neutron star is directly related to interactions between the particles in the interior of the star, the latest results give scientists new information about the inner workings of neutron stars.
The researchers used a wide range of different models for the structure of these collapsed objects and determined that the radius of a neutron star with a mass that is 1.4 times the mass of the Sun is between 10.4 and 12.9 km (6.5 to 8.0 miles). They also estimated the density at the center of a neutron star was about 8 times that of nuclear matter found in Earth-like conditions. This translates into a pressure that is over ten trillion trillion times the pressure required for diamonds to form inside the Earth.
The results apply whether the entire set of bursting sources, or the most extreme of the other sources, are removed from the sample. Previous studies have used smaller samples of neutron stars or have not accounted for as many uncertainties in using the models.
The new values for the neutron star's structure should hold true even if matter composed of free quarks exists in the core of the star. Quarks are fundamental particles that combine to form protons and neutrons and are not usually found in isolation. It has been postulated that free quarks may exist inside the centers of neutron stars, but no firm evidence for this has ever been found.
The researchers also made an estimate of the distances between neutrons and protons in atomic nuclei here on earth. A larger neutron star radius naturally implies that, on average, neutrons and protons in a heavy nucleus are farther apart. Their estimate is being compared with values from terrestrial experiments.
The neutron star observations also provided new information about the so-called "symmetry energy" for nuclear matter, which is the energy cost required to create a system with a different number of protons than neutrons. The symmetry energy is important for neutron stars because they contain almost ten times as many neutrons as protons. It is also important for heavy atoms on Earth, like Uranium, because they often have more neutrons than protons. The results show that the symmetry energy does not change much with density.
These results will be published in a paper in the March 1st, 2013 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The authors are Andrew Steiner, from the Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington, James Lattimer from Stony Brook University in New York and Edward Brown from Michigan State University.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/47tuc/
Image credit: NASA/CXC/Michigan State/A.Steiner et al
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
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