View allAll Photos Tagged conserver

The conserved steel truss railway bridge spanning Upper Bukit Timah Road and a track of the rail (1932 - 2011).

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

 

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is an American national park that conserves an area of large sand dunes up to 750 feet (230 m) tall[5] on the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley, and an adjacent national preserve in the Sangre de Cristo Range, in south-central Colorado, United States.[6] The park was originally designated Great Sand Dunes National Monument on March 17, 1932, by President Herbert Hoover. The original boundaries protected an area of 35,528 acres (55.5 sq mi; 143.8 km2).[2] A boundary change and redesignation as a national park and preserve was authorized on November 22, 2000, and then established on September 24, 2004.[3] The park encompasses 107,342 acres (167.7 sq mi; 434.4 km2) while the preserve protects an additional 41,686 acres (65.1 sq mi; 168.7 km2) for a total of 149,028 acres (232.9 sq mi; 603.1 km2).[1] The recreational visitor total was 527,546 in 2019.[4]

 

The park contains the tallest sand dunes in North America.[7] The dunes cover an area of about 30 sq mi (78 km2) and are estimated to contain over 1.2 cubic miles (5 billion cubic metres) of sand.[8] Sediments from the surrounding mountains filled the valley over geologic time periods. After lakes within the valley receded, exposed sand was blown by the predominant southwest winds toward the Sangre de Cristos, eventually forming the dunefield over an estimated tens of thousands of years.[9] The four primary components of the Great Sand Dunes system are the mountain watershed, the dunefield, the sand sheet, and the sabkha.[8] Ecosystems within the mountain watershed include alpine tundra, subalpine forests, montane woodlands, and riparian zones.[10]

 

Evidence of human habitation in the San Luis Valley dates back about 11,000 years. The first historic peoples to inhabit the area were the Southern Ute Tribe; Apaches and Navajo also have cultural connections in the area. In the late 17th century, Diego de Vargas, a Spanish governor of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, became the first European on record to enter the San Luis Valley. Juan Bautista de Anza, Zebulon Pike, John C. Frémont, and John Gunnison all travelled through and explored parts of the region in the 18th and 19th centuries. The explorers were soon followed by settlers who ranched, farmed and mined in the valley starting in the late 19th century. The park was first established as a national monument in 1932 to protect it from gold mining and the potential of a concrete manufacturing business.[11]

 

Visitors must walk across the wide and shallow Medano Creek to reach the dunes in spring and summer. The creek typically has a peak flow from late May to early June. From July to April, it is usually no more than a few inches deep, if there is any water at all.[12] Hiking is permitted throughout the dunes with the warning that the sand surface temperature may reach 150 °F (66 °C) in summer.[13] Sandboarding and sandsledding are popular activities, both done on specially designed equipment that can be rented just outside the park entrance or in Alamosa.[14] Visitors with street-legal four-wheel drive vehicles may continue past the end of the park's main road to Medano Pass on 22 miles (35 km) of unpaved road, crossing the stream bed of Medano Creek nine times and traversing 4 miles (6.4 km) of deep sand.[15] Hunting is permitted in the preserve in the autumn, but prohibited within national park boundaries at all times.[16] The preserve encompasses nearly all of the mountainous areas north and east of the dunefield, up to the ridgeline of the Sangre de Cristos.[6]

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sand_Dunes_National_Park_and_...

Comme vous le voyez, je suis sortie de cette exposition éblouïe,et en compagnie de Touthankamon qui ne m'a pas quitté depuis. Peut être que la fin de ce "compte rendu" me permettra de le laisser partir dans son "en-Deça" (comprenez au-Delà.

NEW JERSEY 2017 BALD EAGLE PROJECT REPORT

 

ANOTHER PRODUCTIVE YEAR FOR NJ’S EAGLES

by Larissa Smith, CWF Wildlife Biologist

 

The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ in partnership with the NJ Endangered and Nongame Species Program has released the 2017 NJ Bald Eagle Project Report. In 2017, 178 eagle nests were monitored during the nesting season. Of these nests 153 were active (with eggs) and 25 were territorial or housekeeping pairs. One hundred and ninety young were fledged.

 

In 2017 the number of active nests was three more than in 2016, but the number young fledged decreased by 27 from a record high of 216 fledged in 2016. The productivity rate this season of 1.25 young/active nest is still above the required range of 0.0 to 1.1 for population maintenance. Productivity could be lower this season for many reasons including weather, predation and disturbance to the nesting area. In 2017 nest monitors reported several instances of “intruder” eagles at nests which did disrupt the nesting attempts of several pairs. One of these “eagle dramas” unfolded at the Duke Farms eagle cam watched by millions of people. An intruder female attempted to replace the current female. This harassment interrupted the pairs bonding and copulation and no eggs were laid.

 

This year’s report includes a section on Resightings of banded eagles. Resightings of NJ (green) banded eagles have increased over the years, as well as eagles seen in NJ that were banded in other states. These resightings are important, as they help us to understand eagle movements during the years between fledging and settling into a territory, as well as adult birds at a nest site.

 

For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/2017/12/06/new-jersey-201...

 

New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2017 may be downloaded here: www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/eglrpt17.pdf

Save the Earth, One Shower at a Time

 

There are various ways you can do to conserve water and energy when you take a shower:

 

1. use a low-flow showerhead (preferably one that is 2.2 gallons per minute or less)

2. take shorter showers

3. turn off the water when you are soaping up

 

For additional shower tips, click here

• Cette photo est un bel exemple de composition en couleur sélective , une technique où seule une teinte, ici le rouge, est conservée dans une image en noir et blanc pour attirer l'œil et renforcer le sens.

• On voit une jeune femme assise sur des rochers au bord de la mer , absorbée par son téléphone, probablement en train d'écouter de la musique (les écouteurs visibles le retirent). Tout est en nuances de gris, sauf son sac rouge éclatant , qui devient immédiatement le cœur visuel de la photo.

• Le rouge agit ici comme point focal , créant un contraste fort avec la sobriété du reste de l'image. Cette couleur, souvent associée à la passion, à la vitalité ou à l'énergie, vient rompre la mélancolie du décor maritime et gris. On peut y voir une opposition symbolique entre le monde intérieur vivant de la jeune femme (le sac rouge) et l'environnement extérieur calme et neutre .

• La composition est bien équilibrée : la ligne d'horizon est haute, ce qui laisse une grande place aux rochers et à la figure humaine.

• Le regard concentré de la jeune femme et sa posture fermée (génoux répondus, mains autour du téléphone) traduisent une intériorité méditative , voire un isolement volontaire.

• L'usage du noir et blanc amplifie la sensation de solitude ou de contemplation, renforcée par la mer calme à l'arrière-plan .

• Je joue ici sur la dualité entre modernité et nature , introspection et connexion numérique. Le rouge attire le spectateur vers ce lien intime entre la personne et son monde intérieur, tandis que le reste de la scène demeure intemporelle, presque hors du temps.

La CLASS66246 ayant conservée son marquage EWSI sur les faces frontales, est vue en tête d'un train d'automobiles ne transportant que des Toyota Yaris, reliant Valenciennes à Calais-Féthun. La rame prendra ensuite direction du Royaume-Uni, via le tunnel sous la Manche. Le voici au passage à Les Attaques, et proche de son terminus septentrionale français...

Une des villes anciennes les mieux conservées de la région. Patrimoine Mondial de l'UNESCO.

Fondée par les Grecs, conquise par Alexandre le Grand puis par les Romains et occupée par les Byzantins. Elle a connu son apogée au II ème siècle mais a commencé à décliner avec les invasions Arabes.

Perge possédait 2 voies à Portiques : le Cardo Nord-Sud et le Décumanus Est-Ouest. Elles datent du II ème siècle (Empereur Hadrien).

Le Cardo mesure 480 m de long sur 22 m de large. Il était séparé au milieu par un canal (2 m de large sur 0,80 à 1,20 m de profondeur) qui était alimenté par une source qui se trouvait au pied de l'Acropole.

Au premier plan, le canal avec des passages pour les piétons.

L'original de ce tableau est conservé au musée du Prado à Madrid.

 

You should know that it is not the original works that are exhibited at the Jheronimus Bosch Art Center but high quality photos in the original size of the work framed optimally. You can manipulate the triptychs.

In 2016, there was a big exhibition that had a lot of success with the original works at the Noordbrabants museum which adjoins the Stedelijk museum, but you could hardly get close and the cameras were forbidden.

 

The original of this painting is kept in the museum of Prado in Madrid.

 

Il faut savoir que ce ne sont pas les oeuvres originales qui sont exposées au Jheronimus Bosch Art Center mais bien des photos de grande qualité au format original de l'oeuvre encadrées de façon optimale. Vous pouvez manipuler les triptyques.

En 2016, il y a eu une grande exposition qui a eu énormément de succès avec les oeuvres originales au Noordbrabants museum qui jouxte le Stedelijk museum, mais vous pouviez à peine approcher et les appareils photos étaient interdits.

  

NEW JERSEYâS BALD EAGLE POPULATION CONTINUES TO SOAR

January 14th, 2016

 

CONSERVE WILDLIFE FOUNDATION OF NEW JERSEY RELEASES RESULTS OF 2015 STATE BALD EAGLE REPORT

 

by Lindsay McNamara, Communications Manager

 

Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey today released the 2015 Bald Eagle Report, highlighting the number of nesting pairs, active nests and nest productivity for the raptors throughout New Jersey with data collected by New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Division of Fish and Wildlife biologists, CWF biologists and committed volunteers.

 

âWith 161 pairs of bald eagles this past year â up from just a single nest in the early 1980âs â the dramatic ongoing recovery of bald eagles across the northeast continues to inspire so many of us,â said David Wheeler, Conserve Wildlife Foundation Executive Director. âThe thrill of seeing a bald eagle fly across the sky is unparalleled. This report captures how these eagles are continuing their All-American return.â

 

The report notes that thirteen new eagle pairs were found this season, nine in the south, two in Central Jersey and two in Northern New Jersey.

 

For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/2016/01/14/new-jerseys-ba...

Bruno Vansina Quartet @ La Conserve Leuven

 

3MAY2018

 

Cyrille Obermüller Double bass

Kobe Proesmans Percussion

Bruno Vansina Alt Sax

Teun Verbruggen Drums

  

Photography: © Patrick Van Vlerken 2018

You can read more about this pair of American Bald Eagles at Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/2017/11/20/w34-a-ny-bande...

 

SPOTLIGHT ON THE BALD EAGLE’S ALL-AMERICAN COMEBACK IN NEW JERSEY

 

by Lindsay McNamara, Communications Manager

June 20th 2016

 

In 1985 — just 31 years ago — a single bald eagle nest remained in the state of New Jersey. In 2015, CWF and partners monitored 161 nests throughout the Garden State. Just this year (as of June 20, 2016), over 50 young eagles have already fledged from their nests! What sparked this All-American comeback of the United States’ National Bird?

 

DDT use was banned in the United States in 1972. That ban combined with restoration efforts by biologists within the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) resulted in 25 bald eagle pairs by 2000.

 

In 2017 the number of New Jersey active bald eagle pairs was 170.

 

For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/tag/new-jersey-bald-eagle...

  

New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2016

 

New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2016 may be downloaded here: docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYX...

 

For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/tag/new-jersey-bald-eagle...

Une magnifique sortie nature dans un écosystème de paramo incroyable avec des plantes géantes d'Espeletia uribei (famille Asteraceae) grâce á Conserva con ciencia et Karol Pulido qui nous a guidé á Choachi dans le département de Cundinamarca, Magique Colombie ! C'est nécessaire d'aller avec la guide pour aider á conserver l'endroit. Bientôt plus de photos...

 

A marvelous nature walk in a paramo ecosystem with incredible gigantic plants of Espeletia uribei (family Asteraceae) thanks to Conserva con ciencia and Karol Pulido who guided us in Choachi in Cundinamarca department. Magical Colombia ! Necessary to go with the guide to help conserve this place. More pics soon...

 

Una magnífica salida en la naturaleza en un ecosistema de páramo increíble con plantas gigantes de "Frailejones" (Espeletia uribei, familia Asteraceae) gracias a Conserva con ciencia y Karol Pulido quien nos a guiado en Choachi en el département de Cundinamarca, Magica Colombia ! Es necesario ir con la guía para ayudar a conservar el lugar. Mas fotos pronto...

Nord-du-Québec, QC, Canada

 

``Promenons-nous dans les bois’’

 

[FR] Longtemps vilipendé, voire diabolisé, par l'Occident pendant des siècles, le loup conserve son statut d'indésirable ou de créature sanguinaire dans l'imaginaire populaire. Cette crainte, enracinée dès l'enfance à travers les comptines, chansons et récits dépeignant le loup comme une terrible bête sanguinaire, persiste chez la majorité des gens et se transmet à travers les époques et les générations.

Je suis témoin direct de cet endoctrinement, ma fille de 3 ans étant bombardée de toutes parts par ces histoires de loups malicieux. Elle n'hésite pas à utiliser le loup comme antagoniste lors de ses jeux et scénarios imaginaires. Ce sont ces mêmes histoire de loups qui l’empêchent de dormir la nuit et ce, malgré un papa qui s’obstine à essayer de partager avec elle son appréciation de ces magnifiques bêtes.

Pourtant, en Amérique du Nord, seulement deux attaques fatales de loups sauvages (non enragés) ont eu lieu au cours du siècle dernier, et l'une de ces deux attaques était le résultat de l'habituation des loups aux humains. En comparaison, toujours en Amérique du Nord, une soixantaine de décès ont été attribués à des attaques d'ours noirs sauvages depuis le début des années 1900, avec environ 85% de ces attaques survenues après 1960. Étonnamment, l'ours noir ne suscite pas autant de crainte et de haine, malgré un bilan bien plus élevé en termes de victimes humaines.

  

‘’Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?’’

 

[EN] Long vilified, even demonized, by the West for centuries, the wolf maintains its status as an undesirable or bloodthirsty creature in popular imagination. This fear, ingrained from childhood through nursery rhymes, songs, and narratives depicting the wolf as a dreadful bloodthirsty beast, persists among the majority of people and is passed down through eras and generations.

I am a direct witness to this indoctrination, as my 3-year-old daughter is bombarded from all sides by these tales of mischievous wolves. She doesn't hesitate to cast the wolf as an antagonist in her play and imaginary scenarios. It is these same wolf stories that prevent her from sleeping at night, despite a father persistently trying to share his appreciation for these magnificent creatures with her.

Yet, in North America, only two fatal attacks by wild wolves (not rabid) occurred in the last century, and one of these two attacks resulted from wolves becoming habituated to humans. In comparison, still in North America, around sixty deaths have been attributed to wild black bear attacks since the early 1900s, with approximately 85% of these attacks occurring after 1960. Surprisingly, the black bear does not evoke as much fear and hatred, despite a much higher toll in terms of human victims.

 

All Rights Reserved ©André Bhérer

 

Conserve Energy Cat Nap my big yellow fellow enjoying a nap on one of his favorite blankets, shot in North Carolina.

Once broken ribs of a huge petrified Temnodontosaurus trigonodon, 200 - 175 000 000 years old...

This building conserves most of the decorative elements of Tulum. It has two levels, of which the lower level is comprised of two temples, one within the other, where the decoration is concentrated. The façade of the inner temple is decorated with mural paintings, while that of the outer temple boasts stucco figures in bas-relief, including masks in the corners, sculptures in three niches in the façade – the central one is a representation of the descending god – and human figures intertwined in the frieze. The temple of the upper level is very simple as its decoration consists of red-colored hand prints.

Conserved ruins of a late 13th Century castle on a hill in a long and tight valley. The builders formerly colonized western Bohemia, and when they secured eastern Bohemia, they built new castles which they named after those in the West, there is also another Litice Castle (almost non-existent today). This castle mas a major strongpoint in the area for the next centuries, besieged and damaged in 1421, rebuilt and extended after 1450. It lost importance in the 16th Century, only the most basic personal maintained it, it´s seen as half demolished on a 1657 illustration, and last repairs were made in 1681. The northern palace was saved when it got a new roof in 1776, but the southern palace was left to it´s faith. Conservations of the remaining buildings and walls were done between 1890 and 1935, the preserved remains show that it was indeed a well built and durable fortress. The ruin was closed for some years due bad statics in the 1980´s, and reopened only after basic stabilization, a palace wall partially collapsed in 2015 and the castle still needs rescue efforts.

La plaza de San Pablo es una de las plazas más emblemáticas de la ciudad de Valladolid (Castilla y León, España).

Fue construida extramuros de la primitiva ‘cerca vieja’ o interior que delimitaba el casco urbano de Valladolid en el siglo X, época en la que se encontraba situada junto a la ‘puerta de Cabezón’, en el extremo norte de la ciudad. Durante sus más de diez siglos de existencia, ha sido uno de los principales puntos neurálgicos de la ciudad, con una notable impronta clerical durante la Edad Media, palaciega durante el Renacimiento y el Barroco, transformada en espacio cultural y turístico en los siglos XX y XXI.

En nuestros días es uno de los principales espacios urbanos de la ciudad de Valladolid, compartiendo protagonismo con la plaza Mayor, la plaza de Zorrilla y la plaza de España. Su adaptación a las necesidades cambiantes de cada época, ha propiciado que en la actualidad conserve uno de los principales conjuntos de edificios históricos de la ciudad, entre los que destacan la iglesia de San Pablo, el palacio Real y el palacio de Pimentel, los llamados sitios reales en siglos pasados. Junto a ellos, existen otros inmuebles notables como son el palacio de Justicia, el instituto Zorrilla o el colegio El Salvador. En uno de los laterales de la zona centro de la plaza se encuentra situada la estatua del monarca Felipe II, nacido en la ciudad de Valladolid, y frente a la iglesia, precediendo al atrio de su fachada principal, un crucero procedente de la iglesia de Santiago.

Además, en la plaza confluyen numerosas calles, consecuencia del papel central que esta plaza desempeñó durante siglos en la vida de la ciudad. Entre ellas destacan las de Cadenas de San Gregorio (donde se encuentra el Museo Nacional de Escultura) y la de las Angustias, junto con otras que facilitaban el acceso, como la de Felipe II, del León, San Quirce, de Esteban García Chico o la de Cardenal Torquemada (donde se encuentra el antiguo hospital Río Hortega).

La iglesia conventual de San Pablo es uno de los edificios históricos más importantes de Valladolid y también de los más representativos debido a su espectacular fachada gótica. Se encuentra anexa al Colegio de San Gregorio y próxima al resto de sedes del Museo Nacional de Escultura.

Entre 1445 y 1468, fue el cardenal Fray Juan de Torquemada, tío del inquisidor general Tomás de Torquemada, quien sufragó las obras para la construcción de la iglesia definitiva gracias a las bulas papales. En 1601, con el traslado de la capital del Imperio a Valladolid (véase: Capitalidad de Valladolid), el duque de Lerma, valido de Felipe III, se convirtió en su patrono; costeó la reforma de su fachada principal y dotó al convento de numerosas obras de arte. Finalmente, entre 1613 y 1616, se efectuaron reformas en estilo herreriano de algunas capillas de la nave y el coro bajo la dirección de Diego de Praves.

En la iglesia de San Pablo fueron bautizados los reyes Felipe II y Felipe IV. En la actualidad, el Convento acoge el Instituto Superior de Filosofía de Valladolid, adscrito a la Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca.

El Palacio de Pimentel, actual sede de la Diputación de Valladolid, fue construido en el siglo XV. Uno de sus atractivos es su famosa ventana plateresca, de comienzos del siglo XVI, que se encuentra en la esquina. Fue el lugar de nacimiento de Felipe II.

El palacio consta de dos alturas en el cuerpo principal y tres en el torreón. Los materiales utilizados son el ladrillo excepto en el remate de las esquinas, la portada y el zócalo, que fueron realizados en piedra. A partir de 1985 el palacio ss sometió a una profunda restauración según proyecto del arquitecto Ángel Ríos.

Desde la inauguración de la Sala de Exposiciones, tras la restauración del palacio en 1990, con una extensión aproximada de 260 metros cuadrados, ha desarrollado una línea expositiva en la que se conjuga la difusión de artistas locales con los de otras comunidades.

 

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_de_San_Pablo_(Valladolid)

 

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iglesia_de_San_Pablo_(Valladolid)

 

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palacio_de_Pimentel

 

The Plaza de San Pablo is one of the most emblematic squares in the city of Valladolid (Castilla y León, Spain).

It was built outside the primitive ‘old fence’ or interior that delimited the urban area of Valladolid in the 10th century, at which time it was located next to the ‘Cabezón gate’, at the north end of the city. During its more than ten centuries of existence, it has been one of the main nerve centers of the city, with a notable clerical imprint during the Middle Ages, palatial during the Renaissance and the Baroque, transformed into a cultural and tourist space in the 20th and XXI.1

Today it is one of the main urban spaces in the city of Valladolid, sharing the limelight with Plaza Mayor, Plaza de Zorrilla and Plaza de España. Its adaptation to the changing needs of each era, has led to the fact that it currently conserves one of the main groups of historical buildings in the city, among which the Church of San Pablo, the Royal Palace and the Palace of Pimentel stand out, the so-called royal sites in past centuries. Along with them, there are other notable buildings such as the Palace of Justice, the Zorrilla Institute or the El Salvador School. On one of the sides of the central area of the square is the statue of the monarch Felipe II, born in the city of Valladolid, and in front of the church, preceding the atrium of its main facade, a transept from the church of Santiago.

In addition, numerous streets converge in the plaza, a consequence of the central role that this plaza played for centuries in the life of the city. Among them are those of Cadenas de San Gregorio (where the National Sculpture Museum is located) and that of Las Angustias, along with others that facilitated access, such as that of Felipe II, León, San Quirce, Esteban García Chico or that of Cardenal Torquemada (where the old Río Hortega hospital is located).

The convent church of San Pablo is one of the most important historical buildings in Valladolid and also one of the most representative due to its spectacular Gothic façade. It is attached to the Colegio de San Gregorio and close to the rest of the headquarters of the National Sculpture Museum.

Between 1445 and 1468, it was Cardinal Fray Juan de Torquemada, uncle of the inquisitor general Tomás de Torquemada, who paid for the construction of the definitive church thanks to the papal bulls. In 1601, with the transfer of the capital of the Empire to Valladolid (see: Capital of Valladolid), the Duke of Lerma, valid for Felipe III, became his patron; It paid for the reform of its main facade and endowed the convent with numerous works of art. Finally, between 1613 and 1616, reforms were carried out in the Herrerian style of some chapels in the nave and the choir under the direction of Diego de Praves.

In the church of San Pablo the kings Felipe II and Felipe IV were baptized. Currently, the Convent houses the Valladolid Higher Institute of Philosophy, attached to the Pontifical University of Salamanca.

The Pimentel Palace, current seat of the Valladolid Provincial Council, was built in the 15th century. One of its attractions is its famous Plateresque window, from the early 16th century, which is located in the corner. It was the birthplace of Felipe II.

The palace consists of two heights in the main body and three in the keep. The materials used are brick except for the corner cap, the cover and the plinth, which were made of stone. From 1985 the ss palace underwent a deep restoration according to the project of the architect Ángel Ríos.

Since the inauguration of the Exhibition Hall, after the restoration of the palace in 1990, with an approximate extension of 260 square meters, it has developed an exhibition line that combines the diffusion of local artists with those of other communities.

 

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arquitectura_de_Valladolid

 

Rome - La Louve capitoline ou Louve du Capitole est une sculpture en bronze des XIIe et XIIIe siècles de notre ère, conservée au palais des Conservateurs (Musée du Capitole). Elle est un symbole associé à la légende de Romulus et Remus et à la fondation de Rome.

Le décor crée pour Louis XVI (boiseries, cheminées et tableaux au dessus des portes à été conservé, mais fut enrichi par l'empereur par les peintures en grisaille d'or du peintre Moench

 

ENGLISH :

The bedroom of the emperor. This room and the following are built under Louis XVI along the François 1er gallery. Napoleon made of this piece, former "poxder cabinet" (the place for the toilet of the king), his bedroom. The decor created for Louis XVI (paneling, fireplaces and paintings above the doors was kept, but was enriched by the Emperor by paintins of gold grisaille from the painter Moench

Nature is awesome and beautiful. We should protect natural environment and conserve resources. I have an idea to build "Dream Tree House" using with nature elements (tree,plants,cloud,rainbow...) and LEGO MOVIE 2 characters. Build the Tree House dreamy as neutral, rural scenery and peaceful. You can find details (piano,bookshelf,TV,kitchen,swing,elevator) to fullfil in the Tree House for fun.

  

I build this creation to support HKLUG LEGO MOVIE 2 Competition.

Everything is Awesome!!

  

Builder : Alanboar Cheung

Size : 50cm (L) x 50cm(W) x 50cm(H)

Pieces : 3000 pcs

  

More details :

lego.alanstudio.hk/moc-LegoMovie2TreeHouse.htm

The Greenwood Tree: Well- conserved

 

'Local Observer' writes:

 

‘There is something harmonious about the costume that is displayed. All around the fields lie marked, in regular rows, green shoots stretching out over the rich brown soil. The pale tree stands quietly by.

 

So the costume, like nature itself, reflects these colors, and time after time it is renewed in the same manner. There is no sudden change as the season repeats. Hence local rural society turns slowly from year to year.( Image owned by the account holder)

 

A well-dressed lady shows the simply patterned skirt which may well have been repaired. Renewing such a costume can best be done locally, as the picture reminds local viewers. In the post office window it fits well, discreetly advertising a sewing service of great vintage, a single retired lady earning a small amount for her troubles, but always in demand from mature clients in the locality who know and trust her.

 

She will kindly visit and stay with ladies who are in discomfort. For such services, the costumed lady will gladly pose for a picture to advertise the retired lady’s services. In such ways the costumes of the village are conserved from year to to year, like the surrounding greenwood trees.’

NEW JERSEY 2017 BALD EAGLE PROJECT REPORT

 

ANOTHER PRODUCTIVE YEAR FOR NJ’S EAGLES

by Larissa Smith, CWF Wildlife Biologist

 

The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ in partnership with the NJ Endangered and Nongame Species Program has released the 2017 NJ Bald Eagle Project Report. In 2017, 178 eagle nests were monitored during the nesting season. Of these nests 153 were active (with eggs) and 25 were territorial or housekeeping pairs. One hundred and ninety young were fledged.

 

In 2017 the number of active nests was three more than in 2016, but the number young fledged decreased by 27 from a record high of 216 fledged in 2016. The productivity rate this season of 1.25 young/active nest is still above the required range of 0.0 to 1.1 for population maintenance. Productivity could be lower this season for many reasons including weather, predation and disturbance to the nesting area. In 2017 nest monitors reported several instances of “intruder” eagles at nests which did disrupt the nesting attempts of several pairs. One of these “eagle dramas” unfolded at the Duke Farms eagle cam watched by millions of people. An intruder female attempted to replace the current female. This harassment interrupted the pairs bonding and copulation and no eggs were laid.

 

This year’s report includes a section on Resightings of banded eagles. Resightings of NJ (green) banded eagles have increased over the years, as well as eagles seen in NJ that were banded in other states. These resightings are important, as they help us to understand eagle movements during the years between fledging and settling into a territory, as well as adult birds at a nest site.

 

For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/2017/12/06/new-jersey-201...

 

New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2017 may be downloaded here: www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/eglrpt17.pdf

Statue de Reine

Granit noir H : 1,5 m

Trouvée à Canope en 2001 par l'équipe de Franck Goddio (IEASM)

(3ème siècle av. J.-C., époque ptolémaïque)

Statue conservée au Musée des antiquités de la Bibliotheca Alexandrina - IEASM en Egypte

Statue figurant dans l'exposition "Osiris, mystères engloutis d'Egypte" à l'IMA, (commissaire Franck Goddio)

 

Le cartel de l'exposition indique que le noeud joignant les extrémités du châle pourrait identifier Isis, incarnée par Arsinoe II, prenant elle-même l'aspect d'Aphrodite.

 

Ptolémée II (-309 / -246) qui était le frère et l'époux d'Arsinoé II, en avait imposé le culte.

 

Franck Goddio voit dans cette statue, sortie de l'eau, l'ancêtre de la Vénus de Botticelli.

  

Site de l'exposition à l'Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA)

www.imarabe.org/exposition/osiris-mysteres-engloutis-d-eg...

 

A l'Institut du Monde Arabe jusqu'au 31 janvier 2016, la nouvelle exposition de Franck Goddio, qui explore depuis près de 25 ans, les rades d'Alexandrie et d'Aboukir, est centrée sur les mystères d'Osiris, culte pratiqué dans l'Egypte antique dans les villes de Canope et de Thônis-Héracléion, aujourd'hui englouties dans la rade d'Aboukir.

 

Il y expose les objets découverts par son équipe d'archéologues sous-marins au coté d'objets du musée gréco-romain d'Alexandrie et du musée égyptien du Caire.

 

Cette exposition fait suite à l'exposition sur le même thème qui s'est tenue au Grand Palais fin 2006-début 2007 mais qui traitait également des recherches de l'équipe de Franck Goddio sur les palais engloutis dans la rade d'Alexandrie.

 

Les résultats des fouilles dirigées par Franck Goddio sont particulièrement remarquables et font de cette exposition une des plus attractives de cette fin d'année 2015 à Paris.

  

Photos de la rencontre de l'auteur avec Franck Goddio en 2003 sur le site de fouilles sous-marines en rade d'Aboukir, au moment de la présentation à la Bibliothèque d'Alexandrie de l'exposition sur l'archéologie sous-marine organisée par les ministères français de la culture et des affaires étrangères en collaboration avec la Fondation Maison des sciences de l'Homme (Jean-Luc Lory).

jpadalbera.free.fr/alexandrie_web/f_goddio/index.htm

 

Diversité tropical illimitée á admirer, respecter, valoriser et conserver. Joli coléoptere (charançon) aux élitres iridescentes, de la famille Curculionidae (sous-famille Entiminae, peut-être de la tribu Eustylini selon Daniel Mesa), dans une forêt de brouillard du département du Valle del Cauca, Colombie.

 

Unlimited tropical biodiversity to admire, respect, value and conserve. Nice Coleoptera (weevil) from the Curculionidae family (Entiminae sub family, maybe from the Eustylini tribe says Daniel Mesa), with iridescent elytra in a cloud forest of Valle del Cauca department, Colombia.

 

Diversidad tropical sin limite por admirar, respetar, valorar y conservar. Coleoptera (gorgojo) muy bonito de la familia Curculionidae (sub familia Entiminae, quizás de la tribu Eustylini dice Daniel Mesa), con elitros iridiscentes en un bosque de niebla del departamento del Valle del Cauca, Colombia.

Preview new gallery "CONSERVE"

By legamidilego.com

Borgund Stave Church (Norwegian: Borgund stavkyrkje) is a former parish church of the Church of Norway in Lærdal Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It was built around the year 1200 as the village church of Borgund, and belonged to Lærdal parish (part of the Sogn prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin) until 1868, when its religious functions were transferred to a "new" Borgund Church, which was built nearby. The old church was restored, conserved and turned into a museum. It is funded and run by the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments, and is classified as a triple-nave stave church of the Sogn-type. Its grounds contain Norway's sole surviving stave-built free-standing bell tower.

 

Borgund Stave Church was built sometime between 1180 and 1250 AD with later additions and restorations. Its walls are formed by vertical wooden boards, or staves, hence the name "stave church." The four corner posts are connected to one another by ground sills, resting on a stone foundation. The intervening staves rise from the ground sills; each is tongued and grooved, to interlock with its neighbours and form a sturdy wall. The exterior timber surfaces are darkened by protective layers of tar, distilled from pine.

 

Borgund is built on a basilica plan, with reduced side aisles, and an added chancel and apse. It has a raised central nave demarcated on four sides by an arcade. An ambulatory runs around this platform and into the chancel and apse, both added in the 14th century. An additional ambulatory, in the form of a porch, runs around the exterior of the building, sheltered under the overhanging shingled roof. The floor plan of this church resembles that of a central plan, double-shelled Greek cross with an apse attached to one end in place of the fourth arm. The entries to the church are in the three shorter arms of the cross.

 

Structurally, the building has been described as a "cube within a cube", each independent of the other. The inner "cube" is formed by continuous columns that rise from ground level to support the roof. The top of the arcade is formed by arched buttresses, knee jointed to the columns. Above the arcade, the columns are linked by cross-shaped, diagonal trusses, commonly dubbed "Saint Andrew's crosses"; these carry arched supports that offer the visual equivalent of a "second storey". While not a functional gallery, this is reminiscent of contemporary second story galleries of large stone churches elsewhere in Europe. Smaller beams running between these upper supporting columns help clamp everything firmly together. The weight of the roof is thus supported by buttresses and columns, preventing downward and outward movement of the stave walls.

 

The roof beams are supported by steeply angled scissor trusses that form an "X" shape with a narrow top span and a broader bottom span, tied by a bottom truss to prevent collapse. Additional support is given by a truss that cuts across the "X", below the crossing point but above the bottom truss. The roof is steeply pitched, boarded horizontally and clad with shingles. The original outer roof would have been weatherproofed with boards laid lengthwise, rather than shingles. In later years wooden shingles became more common. Scissor beam roof construction is typical of most stave churches.

 

Borgund has tiered, overhanging roofs, topped at their intersection by a shingle-roofed tower or steeple. On each of its four gables is a stylised "dragon" head, swooping from the carved roof ridge crests, Hohler remarks their similarity to the carved dragon heads found on the prows of Norse ships. Similar gable heads appear on small bronze church-shaped reliquaries common in Norway and Europe in this period. Borgund's current dragon heads are possible 18th century replacements; similar, original dragon heads remain on older structures, such as Lom Stave Church and nearby Urnes Stave Church. Borgund is one of the only stave churches to have preserved its crested ridge caps. They are carved with openwork vine and entangled plant designs.

 

The four outer dragon heads are perhaps the most distinctive of all non-Christian symbols adorning Borgund Stave Church. Their function is uncertain, and disputed; if pagan, they are recruited to the Christian cause in the battle between Good and Evil. They may have been intended to keep away evil spirits thought to threaten the church building; to ward off evil, rather than represent it,

 

On the lower side panel of the steeple are four carved circular cutouts. The carvings are weather-beaten, tarred and difficult to decipher, and there is disagreement about what they symbolize. Some[who?] believe they represent the four evangelists, symbolised by an eagle, an ox, a lion and a man. Hauglid describes the carvings as "dragons that extend their heads over to the neighboring field's dragon and bite into it", and points out their similarity to carvings at Høre Stave Church.

 

The church's west portal (the nave's main entrance), is surrounded by a larger carving of dragons biting each other in the neck and tail. At the bottom of the half-columns that flank the front entrance, two dragon heads spew vine stalks that wind upwards and are braided into the dragons above. The carving shares similarities with the west portal of Ål Stave Church, which also has kites[clarification needed] in a band braiding pattern, and follows the usual composition[clarification needed] in the Sogn-Valdres portals, a larger group of portals with very clear similarities. Bugge writes that Christian authority may have come to terms with such pagan and "wild scenes" in the church building because the rift could be interpreted as a struggle between good and evil; in Christian medieval art, the dragon was often used as a symbol of the devil himself but Bugge believes that the carvings were protective, like the dragon heads on the church roof.

 

The church interior is dark, as not much daylight enters the building. Some of the few sources of natural light are narrow circular windows along the roof, examples of daylighting. It was supposed that the narrow apertures would prevent the entry of evil spirits. Three entrances are heavily adorned with foliage and snakes, and are only wide enough for one person to enter, supposedly preventing the entry of evil spirits alongside the churchgoers. The portals were originally painted green, red, black, and white.

 

Most of the internal fittings have been removed. There is little in the building, apart from the row of benches that are installed along the wall inside the church in the ambulatory outside of the arcade and raised platform, a soapstone font, an altar (with 17th-century altarpiece), a 16th-century lectern, and a 16th-century cupboard for storing altar vessels. After the Reformation, when the church was converted for Protestant worship, pews, a pulpit and other standard church furnishings were included, however these have been removed since the building has come under the protection of the Fortidsminneforeningen (The Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments).

 

The interior structure of the church is characterized by the twelve free-standing columns that support the nave's elevated central space. On the long side of the church there is a double interval between the second and third pillars, but with a half pillar resting on the lower bracing beam (the pier) which runs in between. The double interval provides free access from the south portal to the church's central compartment, which would otherwise have been obstructed by the middle bar. The tops of the poles are finished with grotesque, carved human and animal masks. The tie-bars are secured with braces in the form of St. Andrew's crosses with a sun - shaped center and carved leaf shapes along the arms. The crosses reappear in less ornate form as braces along the church walls. On the north and south sides of the nave, a total of eight windows let in small amounts of light, and at the top of the nave's west gable is a window of more recent date - probably from pre-Reformation times. On the south wall of the nave, the inauguration crosses are still on the inside of the wall. The interior choir walls and west portal have engraved figures and runes, some of which date to the Middle Ages. One, among the commonest of runic graffiti, reads "Ave Maria". An inscription by Þórir (Thor), written "in the evening at St. Olav's Mass" blames the pagan Norns for his problems; perhaps a residue of ancient beliefs, as these female beings were thought to rule the personal destinies of all in Norse mythology and the Poetic Edda.

 

The medieval interior of the stave church is almost untouched, save for its restorations and repairs, though the medieval crucifix was removed after the Reformation. The original wooden floor and the benches that run along the walls of the nave are largely intact, together with a medieval stone altar and a box-shaped baptismal font in soapstone. The pulpit is from the period 1550–1570 and the altarpiece dates from 1654, while the frame around the tablet is dated to 1620. The painting on the altarpiece shows the crucifixion in the centre, flanked by the Virgin Mary on the left and John the Baptist on the right. In the tympanum field, a white dove hovers on a blue background. Below the painting is an inscription with golden letters on a black background. A sacrament from the period 1550–1570 in the same style as the pulpit is also preserved. A restoration of the building was carried out in the early 1870s, led by the architect Christian Christie, who removed benches, a second-floor gallery with seating, a ceiling over the chancel, and various windows including two large windows on the north and south sides. As the goal was to return the church to pre-Reformation condition, all post-Reformation interior paintwork was also removed.

 

Images from the 1990s show deer antlers hung on the lower, east-facing pillars. A local story claims that this is all that remains of a whole stuffed reindeer, shot when it tried to enter during a Mass. A travelogue from 1668 claims that a reindeer was shot during a sermon "when it marched like a wizard in front of the other animal carcasses"

 

To the south of the church is a free-standing stave-work bell tower that covers remnants of the mediaeval foundry used to cast the church bell. It was probably built in the mid-13th century. It is Norway's only remaining free-standing stave-work bell tower.It was given a new door around the year 1700 but this was removed and not replaced at some time between the 1920s and 1940s, leaving the foundry pit was exposed. To preserve the interior, new walls were built as cladding on the outside of the stave walls in the 1990s. One of the medieval bells is on display in the new Borgund church.

 

Management

In 1868 the building was abandoned as a church but was turned into a museum; this saved it from the commonplace demolition of stave churches in that period. A new Borgund Church was built in 1868 a short distance south of the old church. The old church has not been formally used for religious purposes since that year. Borgund Stave Church was bought by the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments in 1877. The first guidebook in English for the stave church was published in 1898. From 2001, the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage has funded a program to research, restore, conserve and maintain stave churches.

 

Legacy

The church served as an example for the reconstruction of the Fantoft Stave Church in Fana, Bergen, in 1883 and for its rebuilding in 1997. The Gustav Adolf Stave Church in Hahnenklee, Germany, built in 1908, is modeled on the Borgund church. Four replicas exist in the United States, one at Chapel in the Hills, Rapid City, South Dakota, another in Lyme, Connecticut, the third on Washington Island, Wisconsin, and the fourth in Minot, North Dakota at the Scandinavian Heritage Park.

 

Borgund is a former municipality in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. It was located in the southeastern part of the traditional district of Sogn. The 635-square-kilometre (245 sq mi) municipality existed from 1864 until its dissolution in 1964. It encompassed an area in the eastern part of the present-day Lærdal Municipality. The administrative center of Borgund was the village of Steinklepp, just northeast of the village of Borgund. Steinklepp was the site of a store, a bank, and a school. The historical Filefjell Kongevegen road passes through the Borgund area.

 

Location

The former municipality of Borgund was situated near the southeastern end of the Sognefjorden, along the Lærdalselvi river. The lower parts of the municipality were farms such as Sjurhaugen and Nedrehegg. They were at an elevation of about 270 m (890 ft) above sea level. Høgeloft, on the border with the neighboring municipality of Hemsedal, is a mountain in the Filefjell range and it was the highest point in Borgund at 1,920 m (6,300 ft) above sea level. The lakes Eldrevatnet, Juklevatnet, and Øljusjøen were also located near the border with Hemsedal.

 

History

Borgund was established as a municipality in 1864 when it was separated from the municipality of Lærdal. Initially it had a population of 963. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the municipality of Borgund (population: 492) was merged with the Muggeteigen area (population: 11) of the neighboring Årdal Municipality and all of Lærdal Municipality (population: 1,755) were all merged to form a new, larger municipality of Lærdal

 

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway , is a Nordic , European country and an independent state in the west of the Scandinavian Peninsula . Geographically speaking, the country is long and narrow, and on the elongated coast towards the North Atlantic are Norway's well-known fjords . The Kingdom of Norway includes the main country (the mainland with adjacent islands within the baseline ), Jan Mayen and Svalbard . With these two Arctic areas, Norway covers a land area of ​​385,000 km² and has a population of approximately 5.5 million (2023). Mainland Norway borders Sweden in the east , Finland and Russia in the northeast .

 

Norway is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy , where Harald V has been king and head of state since 1991 , and Jonas Gahr Støre ( Ap ) has been prime minister since 2021 . Norway is a unitary state , with two administrative levels below the state: counties and municipalities . The Sami part of the population has, through the Sami Parliament and the Finnmark Act , to a certain extent self-government and influence over traditionally Sami areas. Although Norway has rejected membership of the European Union through two referendums , through the EEA Agreement Norway has close ties with the Union, and through NATO with the United States . Norway is a significant contributor to the United Nations (UN), and has participated with soldiers in several foreign operations mandated by the UN. Norway is among the states that have participated from the founding of the UN , NATO , the Council of Europe , the OSCE and the Nordic Council , and in addition to these is a member of the EEA , the World Trade Organization , the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and is part of the Schengen area .

 

Norway is rich in many natural resources such as oil , gas , minerals , timber , seafood , fresh water and hydropower . Since the beginning of the 20th century, these natural conditions have given the country the opportunity for an increase in wealth that few other countries can now enjoy, and Norwegians have the second highest average income in the world, measured in GDP per capita, as of 2022. The petroleum industry accounts for around 14% of Norway's gross domestic product as of 2018. Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and gas per capita outside the Middle East. However, the number of employees linked to this industry fell from approx. 232,000 in 2013 to 207,000 in 2015.

 

In Norway, these natural resources have been managed for socially beneficial purposes. The country maintains a welfare model in line with the other Nordic countries. Important service areas such as health and higher education are state-funded, and the country has an extensive welfare system for its citizens. Public expenditure in 2018 is approx. 50% of GDP, and the majority of these expenses are related to education, healthcare, social security and welfare. Since 2001 and until 2021, when the country took second place, the UN has ranked Norway as the world's best country to live in . From 2010, Norway is also ranked at the top of the EIU's democracy index . Norway ranks third on the UN's World Happiness Report for the years 2016–2018, behind Finland and Denmark , a report published in March 2019.

 

The majority of the population is Nordic. In the last couple of years, immigration has accounted for more than half of population growth. The five largest minority groups are Norwegian-Poles , Lithuanians , Norwegian-Swedes , Norwegian-Syrians including Syrian Kurds and Norwegian-Pakistani .

 

Norway's national day is 17 May, on this day in 1814 the Norwegian Constitution was dated and signed by the presidency of the National Assembly at Eidsvoll . It is stipulated in the law of 26 April 1947 that 17 May are national public holidays. The Sami national day is 6 February. "Yes, we love this country" is Norway's national anthem, the song was written in 1859 by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910).

 

Norway's history of human settlement goes back at least 10,000 years, to the Late Paleolithic , the first period of the Stone Age . Archaeological finds of settlements along the entire Norwegian coast have so far been dated back to 10,400 before present (BP), the oldest find is today considered to be a settlement at Pauler in Brunlanes , Vestfold .

For a period these settlements were considered to be the remains of settlers from Doggerland , an area which today lies beneath the North Sea , but which was once a land bridge connecting today's British Isles with Danish Jutland . But the archaeologists who study the initial phase of the settlement in what is today Norway reckon that the first people who came here followed the coast along what is today Bohuslân. That they arrived in some form of boat is absolutely certain, and there is much evidence that they could easily move over large distances.

 

Since the last Ice Age, there has been continuous settlement in Norway. It cannot be ruled out that people lived in Norway during the interglacial period , but no trace of such a population or settlement has been found.

 

The Stone Age lasted a long time; half of the time that our country has been populated. There are no written accounts of what life was like back then. The knowledge we have has been painstakingly collected through investigations of places where people have stayed and left behind objects that we can understand have been processed by human hands. This field of knowledge is called archaeology . The archaeologists interpret their findings and the history of the surrounding landscape. In our country, the uplift after the Ice Age is fundamental. The history of the settlements at Pauler is no more than fifteen years old.

 

The Fosna culture settled parts of Norway sometime between 10,000–8,000 BC. (see Stone Age in Norway ). The dating of rock carvings is set to Neolithic times (in Norway between 4000 BC to 1700 BC) and show activities typical of hunters and gatherers .

 

Agriculture with livestock and arable farming was introduced in the Neolithic. Swad farming where the farmers move when the field does not produce the expected yield.

 

More permanent and persistent farm settlements developed in the Bronze Age (1700 BC to 500 BC) and the Iron Age . The earliest runes have been found on an arrowhead dated to around 200 BC. Many more inscriptions are dated to around 800, and a number of petty kingdoms developed during these centuries. In prehistoric times, there were no fixed national borders in the Nordic countries and Norway did not exist as a state. The population in Norway probably fell to year 0.

 

Events in this time period, the centuries before the year 1000, are glimpsed in written sources. Although the sagas were written down in the 13th century, many hundreds of years later, they provide a glimpse into what was already a distant past. The story of the fimbul winter gives us a historical picture of something that happened and which in our time, with the help of dendrochronology , can be interpreted as a natural disaster in the year 536, created by a volcanic eruption in El Salvador .

 

In the period between 800 and 1066 there was a significant expansion and it is referred to as the Viking Age . During this period, Norwegians, as Swedes and Danes also did, traveled abroad in longships with sails as explorers, traders, settlers and as Vikings (raiders and pirates ). By the middle of the 11th century, the Norwegian kingship had been firmly established, building its right as descendants of Harald Hårfagre and then as heirs of Olav the Holy . The Norwegian kings, and their subjects, now professed Christianity . In the time around Håkon Håkonsson , in the time after the civil war , there was a small renaissance in Norway with extensive literary activity and diplomatic activity with Europe. The black dew came to Norway in 1349 and killed around half of the population. The entire state apparatus and Norway then entered a period of decline.

 

Between 1396 and 1536, Norway was part of the Kalmar Union , and from 1536 until 1814 Norway had been reduced to a tributary part of Denmark , named as the Personal Union of Denmark-Norway . This staff union entered into an alliance with Napoléon Bonaparte with a war that brought bad times and famine in 1812 . In 1814, Denmark-Norway lost the Anglophone Wars , part of the Napoleonic Wars , and the Danish king was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden in the Treaty of Kiel on 14 January of that year. After a Norwegian attempt at independence, Norway was forced into a loose union with Sweden, but where Norway was allowed to create its own constitution, the Constitution of 1814 . In this period, Norwegian, romantic national feeling flourished, and the Norwegians tried to develop and establish their own national self-worth. The union with Sweden was broken in 1905 after it had been threatened with war, and Norway became an independent kingdom with its own monarch, Haakon VII .

 

Norway remained neutral during the First World War , and at the outbreak of the Second World War, Norway again declared itself neutral, but was invaded by National Socialist Germany on 9 April 1940 .

 

Norway became a member of the Western defense alliance NATO in 1949 . Two attempts to join the EU were voted down in referendums by small margins in 1972 and 1994 . Norway has been a close ally of the United States in the post-war period. Large discoveries of oil and natural gas in the North Sea at the end of the 1960s led to tremendous economic growth in the country, which is still ongoing. Traditional industries such as fishing are also part of Norway's economy.

 

Stone Age (before 1700 BC)

When most of the ice disappeared, vegetation spread over the landscape and due to a warm climate around 2000-3000 BC. the forest grew much taller than in modern times. Land uplift after the ice age led to a number of fjords becoming lakes and dry land. The first people probably came from the south along the coast of the Kattegat and overland into Finnmark from the east. The first people probably lived by gathering, hunting and trapping. A good number of Stone Age settlements have been found which show that such hunting and trapping people stayed for a long time in the same place or returned to the same place regularly. Large amounts of gnawed bones show that they lived on, among other things, reindeer, elk, small game and fish.

 

Flintstone was imported from Denmark and apart from small natural deposits along the southern coast, all flintstone in Norway is transported by people. At Espevær, greenstone was quarried for tools in the Stone Age, and greenstone tools from Espevær have been found over large parts of Western Norway. Around 2000-3000 BC the usual farm animals such as cows and sheep were introduced to Norway. Livestock probably meant a fundamental change in society in that part of the people had to be permanent residents or live a semi-nomadic life. Livestock farming may also have led to conflict with hunters.

 

The oldest traces of people in what is today Norway have been found at Pauler , a farm in Brunlanes in Larvik municipality in Vestfold . In 2007 and 2008, the farm has given its name to a number of Stone Age settlements that have been excavated and examined by archaeologists from the Cultural History Museum at UiO. The investigations have been carried out in connection with the new route for the E18 motorway west of Farris. The oldest settlement, located more than 127 m above sea level, is dated to be about 10,400 years old (uncalibrated, more than 11,000 years in real calendar years). From here, the ice sheet was perhaps visible when people settled here. This locality has been named Pauler I, and is today considered to be the oldest confirmed human traces in Norway to date. The place is in the mountains above the Pauler tunnel on the E18 between Larvik and Porsgrunn . The pioneer settlement is a term archaeologists have adopted for the oldest settlement. The archaeologists have speculated about where they came from, the first people in what is today Norway. It has been suggested that they could come by boat or perhaps across the ice from Doggerland or the North Sea, but there is now a large consensus that they came north along what is today the Bohuslän coast. The Fosna culture , the Komsa culture and the Nøstvet culture are the traditional terms for hunting cultures from the Stone Age. One thing is certain - getting to the water was something they mastered, the first people in our country. Therefore, within a short time they were able to use our entire long coast.

 

In the New Stone Age (4000 BC–1700 BC) there is a theory that a new people immigrated to the country, the so-called Stone Ax People . Rock carvings from this period show motifs from hunting and fishing , which were still important industries. From this period, a megalithic tomb has been found in Østfold .

It is uncertain whether there were organized societies or state-like associations in the Stone Age in Norway. Findings from settlements indicate that many lived together and that this was probably more than one family so that it was a slightly larger, organized herd.

 

Finnmark

In prehistoric times, animal husbandry and agriculture were of little economic importance in Finnmark. Livelihoods in Finnmark were mainly based on fish, gathering, hunting and trapping, and eventually domestic reindeer herding became widespread in the Middle Ages. Archaeological finds from the Stone Age have been referred to as the Komsa culture and comprise around 5,000 years of settlement. Finnmark probably got its first settlement around 8000 BC. It is believed that the coastal areas became ice-free 11,000 years BC and the fjord areas around 9,000 years BC. after which willows, grass, heather, birch and pine came into being. Finnmarksvidda was covered by pine forest around 6000 BC. After the Ice Age, the land rose around 80 meters in the inner fjord areas (Alta, Tana, Varanger). Due to ice melting in the polar region, the sea rose in the period 6400–3800 BC. and in areas with little land elevation, some settlements from the first part of the Stone Age were flooded. On Sørøya, the net sea level rise was 12 to 14 meters and many residential areas were flooded.

 

According to Bjørnar Olsen , there are many indications of a connection between the oldest settlement in Western Norway (the " Fosnakulturen ") and that in Finnmark, but it is uncertain in which direction the settlement took place. In the earliest part of the Stone Age, settlement in Finnmark was probably concentrated in the coastal areas, and these only reflected a lifestyle with great mobility and no permanent dwellings. The inner regions, such as Pasvik, were probably used seasonally. The archaeologically proven settlements from the Stone Age in inner Finnmark and Troms are linked to lakes and large watercourses. The oldest petroglyphs in Alta are usually dated to 4200 BC, that is, the Neolithic . Bjørnar Olsen believes that the oldest can be up to 2,000 years older than this.

 

From around 4000 BC a slow deforestation of Finnmark began and around 1800 BC the vegetation distribution was roughly the same as in modern times. The change in vegetation may have increased the distance between the reindeer's summer and winter grazing. The uplift continued slowly from around 4000 BC. at the same time as sea level rise stopped.

 

According to Gutorm Gjessing, the settlement in Finnmark and large parts of northern Norway in the Neolithic was semi-nomadic with movement between four seasonal settlements (following the pattern of life in Sami siida in historical times): On the outer coast in summer (fishing and seal catching) and inland in winter (hunting for reindeer, elk and bear). Povl Simonsen believed instead that the winter residence was in the inner fjord area in a village-like sod house settlement. Bjørnar Olsen believes that at the end of the Stone Age there was a relatively settled population along the coast, while inland there was less settlement and a more mobile lifestyle.

 

Bronze Age (1700 BC–500 BC)

Bronze was used for tools in Norway from around 1500 BC. Bronze is a mixture of tin and copper , and these metals were introduced because they were not mined in the country at the time. Bronze is believed to have been a relatively expensive material. The Bronze Age in Norway can be divided into two phases:

 

Early Bronze Age (1700–1100 BC)

Younger Bronze Age (1100–500 BC)

For the prehistoric (unwritten) era, there is limited knowledge about social conditions and possible state formations. From the Bronze Age, there are large burial mounds of stone piles along the coast of Vestfold and Agder, among others. It is likely that only chieftains or other great men could erect such grave monuments and there was probably some form of organized society linked to these. In the Bronze Age, society was more organized and stratified than in the Stone Age. Then a rich class of chieftains emerged who had close connections with southern Scandinavia. The settlements became more permanent and people adopted horses and ard . They acquired bronze status symbols, lived in longhouses and people were buried in large burial mounds . Petroglyphs from the Bronze Age indicate that humans practiced solar cultivation.

 

Finnmark

In the last millennium BC the climate became cooler and the pine forest disappears from the coast; pine forests, for example, were only found in the innermost part of the Altafjord, while the outer coast was almost treeless. Around the year 0, the limit for birch forest was south of Kirkenes. Animals with forest habitats (elk, bear and beaver) disappeared and the reindeer probably established their annual migration routes sometime at that time. In the period 1800–900 BC there were significantly more settlements in and utilization of the hinterland was particularly noticeable on Finnmarksvidda. From around 1800 BC until year 0 there was a significant increase in contact between Finnmark and areas in the east including Karelia (where metals were produced including copper) and central and eastern Russia. The youngest petroglyphs in Alta show far more boats than the earlier phases and the boats are reminiscent of types depicted in petroglyphs in southern Scandinavia. It is unclear what influence southern Scandinavian societies had as far north as Alta before the year 0. Many of the cultural features that are considered typical Sami in modern times were created or consolidated in the last millennium BC, this applies, among other things, to the custom of burying in brick chambers in stone urns. The Mortensnes burial ground may have been used for 2000 years until around 1600 AD.

 

Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 1050 AD)

 

The Einangsteinen is one of the oldest Norwegian runestones; it is from the 4th century

 

Simultaneous production of Vikings

Around 500 years BC the researchers reckon that the Bronze Age will be replaced by the Iron Age as iron takes over as the most important material for weapons and tools. Bronze, wood and stone were still used. Iron was cheaper than bronze, easier to work than flint , and could be used for many purposes; iron probably became common property. Iron could, among other things, be used to make solid and sharp axes which made it much easier to fell trees. In the Iron Age, gold and silver were also used partly for decoration and partly as means of payment. It is unknown which language was used in Norway before our era. From around the year 0 until around the year 800, everyone in Scandinavia (except the Sami) spoke Old Norse , a North Germanic language. Subsequently, several different languages ​​developed in this area that were only partially mutually intelligible. The Iron Age is divided into several periods:

 

Early Iron Age

Pre-Roman Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 0)

Roman Iron Age (c. 0–c. AD 400)

Migration period (approx. 400–600). In the migration period (approx. 400–600), new peoples came to Norway, and ruins of fortress buildings etc. are interpreted as signs that there has been talk of a violent invasion.

Younger Iron Age

Merovingian period (500–800)

 

The Viking Age (793–1066)

Norwegian Vikings go on plundering expeditions and trade voyages around the coastal countries of Western Europe . Large groups of Norwegians emigrate to the British Isles , Iceland and Greenland . Harald Hårfagre starts a unification process of Norway late in the 8th century , which was completed by Harald Hardråde in the 1060s . The country was Christianized under the kings Olav Tryggvason , fell in the battle of Svolder ( 1000 ) and Olav Haraldsson (the saint), fell in the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 .

 

Sources of prehistoric times

Shrinking glaciers in the high mountains, including in Jotunheimen and Breheimen , have from around the year 2000 uncovered objects from the Viking Age and earlier. These are objects of organic material that have been preserved by the ice and that elsewhere in nature are broken down in a few months. The finds are getting older as the melting makes the archaeologists go deeper into the ice. About half of all archaeological discoveries on glaciers in the world are made in Oppland . In 2013, a 3,400-year-old shoe and a robe from the year 300 were found. Finds at Lomseggen in Lom published in 2020 revealed, among other things, well-preserved horseshoes used on a mountain pass. Many hundreds of items include preserved clothing, knives, whisks, mittens, leather shoes, wooden chests and horse equipment. A piece of cloth dated to the year 1000 has preserved its original colour. In 2014, a wooden ski from around the year 700 was found in Reinheimen . The ski is 172 cm long and 14 cm wide, with preserved binding of leather and wicker.

 

Pytheas from Massalia is the oldest known account of what was probably the coast of Norway, perhaps somewhere on the coast of Møre. Pytheas visited Britannia around 325 BC. and traveled further north to a country by the "Ice Sea". Pytheas described the short summer night and the midnight sun farther north. He wrote, among other things, that people there made a drink from grain and honey. Caesar wrote in his work about the Gallic campaign about the Germanic tribe Haruders. Other Roman sources around the year 0 mention the land of the Cimbri (Jutland) and the Cimbri headlands ( Skagen ) and that the sources stated that Cimbri and Charyds lived in this area. Some of these peoples may have immigrated to Norway and there become known as hordes (as in Hordaland). Sources from the Mediterranean area referred to the islands of Scandia, Scandinavia and Thule ("the outermost of all islands"). The Roman historian Tacitus wrote around the year 100 a work about Germania and mentioned the people of Scandia, the Sviones. Ptolemy wrote around the year 150 that the Kharudes (Hordes) lived further north than all the Cimbri, in the north lived the Finnoi (Finns or Sami) and in the south the Gutai (Goths). The Nordic countries and Norway were outside the Roman Empire , which dominated Europe at the time. The Gothic-born historian Jordanes wrote in the 5th century about 13 tribes or people groups in Norway, including raumaricii (probably Romerike ), ragnaricii ( Ranrike ) and finni or skretefinni (skrid finner or ski finner, i.e. Sami) as well as a number of unclear groups. Prokopios wrote at the same time about Thule north of the land of the Danes and Slavs, Thule was ten times as big as Britannia and the largest of all the islands. In Thule, the sun was up 40 days straight in the summer. After the migration period , southern Europeans' accounts of northern Europe became fuller and more reliable.

 

Settlement in prehistoric times

Norway has around 50,000 farms with their own names. Farm names have persisted for a long time, over 1000 years, perhaps as much as 2000 years. The name researchers have arranged different types of farm names chronologically, which provides a basis for determining when the place was used by people or received a permanent settlement. Uncompounded landscape names such as Haug, Eid, Vik and Berg are believed to be the oldest. Archaeological traces indicate that some areas have been inhabited earlier than assumed from the farm name. Burial mounds also indicate permanent settlement. For example, the burial ground at Svartelva in Løten was used from around the year 0 to the year 1000 when Christianity took over. The first farmers probably used large areas for inland and outland, and new farms were probably established based on some "mother farms". Names such as By (or Bø) show that it is an old place of residence. From the older Iron Age, names with -heim (a common Germanic word meaning place of residence) and -stad tell of settlement, while -vin and -land tell of the use of the place. Farm names in -heim are often found as -um , -eim or -em as in Lerum and Seim, there are often large farms in the center of the village. New farm names with -city and -country were also established in the Viking Age . The first farmers probably used the best areas. The largest burial grounds, the oldest archaeological finds and the oldest farm names are found where the arable land is richest and most spacious.

 

It is unclear whether the settlement expansion in Roman times, migrations and the Iron Age is due to immigration or internal development and population growth. Among other things, it is difficult to demonstrate where in Europe the immigrants have come from. The permanent residents had both fields (where grain was grown) and livestock that grazed in the open fields, but it is uncertain which of these was more important. Population growth from around the year 200 led to more utilization of open land, for example in the form of settlements in the mountains. During the migration period, it also seems that in parts of the country it became common to have cluster gardens or a form of village settlement.

 

Norwegian expansion northwards

From around the year 200, there was a certain migration by sea from Rogaland and Hordaland to Nordland and Sør-Troms. Those who moved settled down as a settled Iron Age population and became dominant over the original population which may have been Sami . The immigrant Norwegians, Bumen , farmed with livestock that were fed inside in the winter as well as some grain cultivation and fishing. The northern border of the Norwegians' settlement was originally at the Toppsundet near Harstad and around the year 500 there was a Norwegian settlement to Malangsgapet. That was as far north as it was possible to grow grain at the time. Malangen was considered the border between Hålogaland and Finnmork until around 1400 . Further into the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, there was immigration and settlement of Norwegian speakers along the coast north of Malangen. Around the year 800, Norwegians lived along the entire outer coast to Vannøy . The Norwegians partly copied Sami livelihoods such as whaling, fur hunting and reindeer husbandry. It was probably this area between Malangen and Vannøy that was Ottar from the Hålogaland area. In the Viking Age, there were also some Norwegian settlements further north and east. East of the North Cape are the scattered archaeological finds of Norwegian settlement in the Viking Age. There are Norwegian names for fjords and islands from the Viking Age, including fjord names with "-anger". Around the year 1050, there were Norwegian settlements on the outer coast of Western Finnmark. Traders and tax collectors traveled even further.

 

North of Malangen there were Norse farming settlements in the Iron Age. Malangen was considered Finnmark's western border until 1300. There are some archaeological traces of Norse activity around the coast from Tromsø to Kirkenes in the Viking Age. Around Tromsø, the research indicates a Norse/Sami mixed culture on the coast.

 

From the year 1100 and the next 200–300 years, there are no traces of Norwegian settlement north and east of Tromsø. It is uncertain whether this is due to depopulation, whether it is because the Norwegians further north were not Christianized or because there were no churches north of Lenvik or Tromsø . Norwegian settlement in the far north appears from sources from the 14th century. In the Hanseatic period , the settlement was developed into large areas specialized in commercial fishing, while earlier (in the Viking Age) there had been farms with a combination of fishing and agriculture. In 1307 , a fortress and the first church east of Tromsø were built in Vardø . Vardø became a small Norwegian town, while Vadsø remained Sami. Norwegian settlements and churches appeared along the outermost coast in the Middle Ages. After the Reformation, perhaps as a result of a decline in fish stocks or fish prices, there were Norwegian settlements in the inner fjord areas such as Lebesby in Laksefjord. Some fishing villages at the far end of the coast were abandoned for good. In the interior of Finnmark, there was no national border for a long time and Kautokeino and Karasjok were joint Norwegian-Swedish areas with strong Swedish influence. The border with Finland was established in 1751 and with Russia in 1826.

 

On a Swedish map from 1626, Norway's border is indicated at Malangen, while Sweden with this map showed a desire to control the Sami area which had been a common area.

 

The term Northern Norway only came into use at the end of the 19th century and administratively the area was referred to as Tromsø Diocese when Tromsø became a bishopric in 1840. There had been different designations previously: Hålogaland originally included only Helgeland and when Norse settlement spread north in the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, Hålogaland was used for the area north approximately to Malangen , while Finnmark or "Finnmarken", "the land of the Sami", lay outside. The term Northern Norway was coined at a cafe table in Kristiania in 1884 by members of the Nordlændingernes Forening and was first commonly used in the interwar period as it eventually supplanted "Hålogaland".

 

State formation

The battle in Hafrsfjord in the year 872 has long been regarded as the day when Norway became a kingdom. The year of the battle is uncertain (may have been 10-20 years later). The whole of Norway was not united in that battle: the process had begun earlier and continued a couple of hundred years later. This means that the geographical area became subject to a political authority and became a political unit. The geographical area was perceived as an area as it is known, among other things, from Ottar from Hålogaland's account for King Alfred of Wessex around the year 880. Ottar described "the land of the Norwegians" as very long and narrow, and it was narrowest in the far north. East of the wasteland in the south lay Sveoland and in the north lay Kvenaland in the east. When Ottar sailed south along the land from his home ( Malangen ) to Skiringssal, he always had Norway ("Nordveg") on his port side and the British Isles on his starboard side. The journey took a good month. Ottar perceived "Nordveg" as a geographical unit, but did not imply that it was a political unit. Ottar separated Norwegians from Swedes and Danes. It is unclear why Ottar perceived the population spread over such a large area as a whole. It is unclear whether Norway as a geographical term or Norwegians as the name of a ethnic group is the oldest. The Norwegians had a common language which in the centuries before Ottar did not differ much from the language of Denmark and Sweden.

 

According to Sverre Steen, it is unlikely that Harald Hårfagre was able to control this entire area as one kingdom. The saga of Harald was written 300 years later and at his death Norway was several smaller kingdoms. Harald probably controlled a larger area than anyone before him and at most Harald's kingdom probably included the coast from Trøndelag to Agder and Vestfold as well as parts of Viken . There were probably several smaller kingdoms of varying extent before Harald and some of these are reflected in traditional landscape names such as Ranrike and Ringerike . Landscape names of "-land" (Rogaland) and "-mark" (Hedmark) as well as names such as Agder and Sogn may have been political units before Harald.

 

According to Sverre Steen, the national assembly was completed at the earliest at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 and the introduction of Christianity was probably a significant factor in the establishment of Norway as a state. Håkon I the good Adalsteinsfostre introduced the leasehold system where the "coastal land" (as far as the salmon went up the rivers) was divided into ship raiders who were to provide a longship with soldiers and supplies. The leidange was probably introduced as a defense against the Danes. The border with the Danes was traditionally at the Göta älv and several times before and after Harald Hårfagre the Danes had control over central parts of Norway.

 

Christianity was known and existed in Norway before Olav Haraldson's time. The spread occurred both from the south (today's Denmark and northern Germany) and from the west (England and Ireland). Ansgar of Bremen , called the "Apostle of the North", worked in Sweden, but he was never in Norway and probably had little influence in the country. Viking expeditions brought the Norwegians of that time into contact with Christian countries and some were baptized in England, Ireland and northern France. Olav Tryggvason and Olav Haraldson were Vikings who returned home. The first Christians in Norway were also linked to pre-Christian local religion, among other things, by mixing Christian symbols with symbols of Odin and other figures from Norse religion.

 

According to Sverre Steen, the introduction of Christianity in Norway should not be perceived as a nationwide revival. At Mostratinget, Christian law was introduced as law in the country and later incorporated into the laws of the individual jurisdictions. Christianity primarily involved new forms in social life, among other things exposure and images of gods were prohibited, it was forbidden to "put out" unwanted infants (to let them die), and it was forbidden to have multiple wives. The church became a nationwide institution with a special group of officials tasked with protecting the church and consolidating the new religion. According to Sverre Steen, Christianity and the church in the Middle Ages should therefore be considered together, and these became a new unifying factor in the country. The church and Christianity linked Norway to Roman Catholic Europe with Church Latin as the common language, the same time reckoning as the rest of Europe and the church in Norway was arranged much like the churches in Denmark, Sweden and England. Norway received papal approval in 1070 and became its own church province in 1152 with Archbishop Nidaros .

 

With Christianity, the country got three social powers: the peasants (organized through the things), the king with his officials and the church with the clergy. The things are the oldest institution: At allthings all armed men had the right to attend (in part an obligation to attend) and at lagthings met emissaries from an area (that is, the lagthings were representative assemblies). The Thing both ruled in conflicts and established laws. The laws were memorized by the participants and written down around the year 1000 or later in the Gulationsloven , Frostatingsloven , Eidsivatingsloven and Borgartingsloven . The person who had been successful at the hearing had to see to the implementation of the judgment themselves.

 

Early Middle Ages (1050s–1184)

The early Middle Ages is considered in Norwegian history to be the period between the end of the Viking Age around 1050 and the coronation of King Sverre in 1184 . The beginning of the period can be dated differently, from around the year 1000 when the Christianization of the country took place and up to 1100 when the Viking Age was over from an archaeological point of view. From 1035 to 1130 it was a time of (relative) internal peace in Norway, even several of the kings attempted campaigns abroad, including in 1066 and 1103 .

 

During this period, the church's organization was built up. This led to a gradual change in religious customs. Religion went from being a domestic matter to being regulated by common European Christian law and the royal power gained increased power and influence. Slavery (" servitude ") was gradually abolished. The population grew rapidly during this period, as the thousands of farm names ending in -rud show.

 

The urbanization of Norway is a historical process that has slowly but surely changed Norway from the early Viking Age to today, from a country based on agriculture and sea salvage, to increasingly trade and industry. As early as the ninth century, the country got its first urban community, and in the eleventh century we got the first permanent cities.

 

In the 1130s, civil war broke out . This was due to a power struggle and that anyone who claimed to be the king's son could claim the right to the throne. The disputes escalated into extensive year-round warfare when Sverre Sigurdsson started a rebellion against the church's and the landmen's candidate for the throne , Magnus Erlingsson .

 

Emergence of cities

The oldest Norwegian cities probably emerged from the end of the 9th century. Oslo, Bergen and Nidaros became episcopal seats, which stimulated urban development there, and the king built churches in Borg , Konghelle and Tønsberg. Hamar and Stavanger became new episcopal seats and are referred to in the late 12th century as towns together with the trading places Veøy in Romsdal and Kaupanger in Sogn. In the late Middle Ages, Borgund (on Sunnmøre), Veøy (in Romsdalsfjorden) and Vågan (in Lofoten) were referred to as small trading places. Urbanization in Norway occurred in few places compared to the neighboring countries, only 14 places appear as cities before 1350. Stavanger became a bishopric around 1120–1130, but it is unclear whether the place was already a city then. The fertile Jæren and outer Ryfylke were probably relatively densely populated at that time. A particularly large concentration of Irish artefacts from the Viking Age has been found in Stavanger and Nord-Jæren.

 

It has been difficult to estimate the population in the Norwegian medieval cities, but it is considered certain that the cities grew rapidly in the Middle Ages. Oscar Albert Johnsen estimated the city's population before the Black Death at 20,000, of which 7,000 in Bergen, 3,000 in Nidaros, 2,000 in Oslo and 1,500 in Tunsberg. Based on archaeological research, Lunden estimates that Oslo had around 1,500 inhabitants in 250 households in the year 1300. Bergen was built up more densely and, with the concentration of exports there, became Norway's largest city in a special position for several hundred years. Knut Helle suggests a city population of 20,000 at most in the High Middle Ages, of which almost half in Bergen.

 

The Bjarkøyretten regulated the conditions in cities (especially Bergen and Nidaros) and in trading places, and for Nidaros had many of the same provisions as the Frostating Act . Magnus Lagabøte's city law replaced the bjarkøretten and from 1276 regulated the settlement in Bergen and with corresponding laws also drawn up for Oslo, Nidaros and Tunsberg. The city law applied within the city's roof area . The City Act determined that the city's public streets consisted of wide commons (perpendicular to the shoreline) and ran parallel to the shoreline, similarly in Nidaros and Oslo. The roads were small streets of up to 3 cubits (1.4 metres) and linked to the individual property. From the Middle Ages, the Norwegian cities were usually surrounded by wooden fences. The urban development largely consisted of low wooden houses which stood in contrast to the relatively numerous and dominant churches and monasteries built in stone.

 

The City Act and supplementary provisions often determined where in the city different goods could be traded, in Bergen, for example, cattle and sheep could only be traded on the Square, and fish only on the Square or directly from the boats at the quayside. In Nidaros, the blacksmiths were required to stay away from the densely populated areas due to the risk of fire, while the tanners had to stay away from the settlements due to the strong smell. The City Act also attempted to regulate the influx of people into the city (among other things to prevent begging in the streets) and had provisions on fire protection. In Oslo, from the 13th century or earlier, it was common to have apartment buildings consisting of single buildings on a couple of floors around a courtyard with access from the street through a gate room. Oslo's medieval apartment buildings were home to one to four households. In the urban farms, livestock could be kept, including pigs and cows, while pastures and fields were found in the city's rooftops . In the apartment buildings there could be several outbuildings such as warehouses, barns and stables. Archaeological excavations show that much of the buildings in medieval Oslo, Trondheim and Tønsberg resembled the oblong farms that have been preserved at Bryggen in Bergen . The land boundaries in Oslo appear to have persisted for many hundreds of years, in Bergen right from the Middle Ages to modern times.

 

High Middle Ages (1184–1319)

After civil wars in the 12th century, the country had a relative heyday in the 13th century. Iceland and Greenland came under the royal authority in 1262 , and the Norwegian Empire reached its greatest extent under Håkon IV Håkonsson . The last king of Haraldsätten, Håkon V Magnusson , died sonless in 1319 . Until the 17th century, Norway stretched all the way down to the mouth of Göta älv , which was then Norway's border with Sweden and Denmark.

 

Just before the Black Death around 1350, there were between 65,000 and 85,000 farms in the country, and there had been a strong growth in the number of farms from 1050, especially in Eastern Norway. In the High Middle Ages, the church or ecclesiastical institutions controlled 40% of the land in Norway, while the aristocracy owned around 20% and the king owned 7%. The church and monasteries received land through gifts from the king and nobles, or through inheritance and gifts from ordinary farmers.

 

Settlement and demography in the Middle Ages

Before the Black Death, there were more and more farms in Norway due to farm division and clearing. The settlement spread to more marginal agricultural areas higher inland and further north. Eastern Norway had the largest areas to take off and had the most population growth towards the High Middle Ages. Along the coast north of Stad, settlement probably increased in line with the extent of fishing. The Icelandic Rimbegla tells around the year 1200 that the border between Finnmark (the land of the Sami) and resident Norwegians in the interior was at Malangen , while the border all the way out on the coast was at Kvaløya . From the end of the High Middle Ages, there were more Norwegians along the coast of Finnmark and Nord-Troms. In the inner forest and mountain tracts along the current border between Norway and Sweden, the Sami exploited the resources all the way down to Hedmark.

 

There are no censuses or other records of population and settlement in the Middle Ages. At the time of the Reformation, the population was below 200,000 and only in 1650 was the population at the same level as before the Black Death. When Christianity was introduced after the year 1000, the population was around 200,000. After the Black Death, many farms and settlements were abandoned and deserted, in the most marginal agricultural areas up to 80% of the farms were abandoned. Places such as Skien, Veøy and Borgund (Ålesund) went out of use as trading towns. By the year 1300, the population was somewhere between 300,000 and 560,000 depending on the calculation method. Common methods start from detailed information about farms in each village and compare this with the situation in 1660 when there are good headcounts. From 1300 to 1660, there was a change in the economic base so that the coastal villages received a larger share of the population. The inland areas of Eastern Norway had a relatively larger population in the High Middle Ages than after the Reformation. Kåre Lunden concludes that the population in the year 1300 was close to 500,000, of which 15,000 lived in cities. Lunden believes that the population in 1660 was still slightly lower than the peak before the Black Death and points out that farm settlement in 1660 did not reach the same extent as in the High Middle Ages. In 1660, the population in Troms and Finnmark was 6,000 and 3,000 respectively (2% of the total population), in 1300 these areas had an even smaller share of the country's population and in Finnmark there were hardly any Norwegian-speaking inhabitants. In the High Middle Ages, the climate was more favorable for grain cultivation in the north. Based on the number of farms, the population increased 162% from 1000 to 1300, in Northern and Western Europe as a whole the growth was 200% in the same period.

 

Late Middle Ages (1319–1537)

Due to repeated plague epidemics, the population was roughly halved and the least productive of the country's farms were laid waste. It took several hundred years before the population again reached the level before 1349 . However, those who survived the epidemics gained more financial resources by sharing. Tax revenues for the state almost collapsed, and a large part of the noble families died out or sank into peasant status due to the fall in national debt . The Hanseatic League took over trade and shipping and dominated fish exports. The Archbishop of Nidaros was the country's most powerful man economically and politically, as the royal dynasty married into the Swedish in 1319 and died out in 1387 . Eventually, Copenhagen became the political center of the kingdom and Bergen the commercial center, while Trondheim remained the religious center.

 

From Reformation to Autocracy (1537–1660)

In 1537 , the Reformation was carried out in Norway. With that, almost half of the country's property was confiscated by the royal power at the stroke of a pen. The large seizure increased the king's income and was able, among other things, to expand his military power and consolidated his power in the kingdom. From roughly the time of the Reformation and in the following centuries, the state increased its power and importance in people's lives. Until around 1620, the state administration was fairly simple and unspecialised: in Copenhagen, the central administration mainly consisted of a chancellery and an interest chamber ; and sheriffs ruled the civil (including bailiffs and sheriffs) and the military in their district, the sheriffs collected taxes and oversaw business. The accounts were not clear and without summaries. The clergy, which had great power as a separate organization, was appointed by the state church after the Reformation, administered from Copenhagen. In this period, Norway was ruled by (mainly) Danish noble sheriffs, who acted as intermediaries between the peasants and the Oldenborg king in the field of justice, tax and customs collection.

 

From 1620, the state apparatus went through major changes where specialization of functions was a main issue. The sheriff's tasks were divided between several, more specialized officials - the sheriffs retained the formal authority over these, who in practice were under the national administration in Copenhagen. Among other things, a separate military officer corps was established, a separate customs office was established and separate treasurers for taxes and fees were appointed. The Overbergamtet, the central governing body for overseeing mining operations in Norway, was established in 1654 with an office in Christiania and this agency was to oversee the mining chiefs in the Nordenfjeld and Sønnenfjeld areas (the mines at Kongsberg and Røros were established in the previous decades). The formal transition from county government to official government with fixed-paid county officials took place after 1660, but the real changes had taken place from around 1620. The increased specialization and transition to official government meant that experts, not amateurs, were in charge of each area, and this civil service meant, according to Sverre Steen that the dictatorship was not a personal dictatorship.

 

From 1570 until 1721, the Oldenborg dynasty was in repeated wars with the Vasa dynasty in Sweden. The financing of these wars led to a severe increase in taxation which caused great distress.

 

Politically-geographically, the Oldenborg kings had to cede to Sweden the Norwegian provinces of Jemtland , Herjedalen , Idre and Särna , as well as Båhuslen . As part of the financing of the wars, the state apparatus was expanded. Royal power began to assert itself to a greater extent in the administration of justice. Until this period, cases of violence and defamation had been treated as civil cases between citizens. The level of punishment was greatly increased. During this period, at least 307 people were also executed for witchcraft in Norway. Culturally, the country was marked by the fact that the written language became Danish because of the Bible translation and the University of Copenhagen's educational monopoly.

 

From the 16th century, business became more marked by production for sale and not just own consumption. In the past, it was particularly the fisheries that had produced such a large surplus of goods that it was sold to markets far away, the dried fish trade via Bergen is known from around the year 1100. In the 16th century, the yield from the fisheries multiplied, especially due to the introduction of herring in Western Norway and in Trøndelag and because new tools made fishing for herring and skre more efficient. Line fishing and cod nets that were introduced in the 17th century were controversial because the small fishermen believed it favored citizens in the cities.

 

Forestry and the timber trade became an important business, particularly because of the boom saw which made it possible to saw all kinds of tables and planks for sale abroad. The demand for timber increased at the same time in Europe, Norway had plenty of forests and in the 17th century timber became the country's most important export product. There were hundreds of sawmills in the country and the largest had the feel of factories . In 1680, the king regulated the timber trade by allowing exports only from privileged sawmills and in a certain quantity.

 

From the 1520s, some silver was mined in Telemark. When the peasants chased the German miners whereupon the king executed five peasants and demanded compensation from the other rebellious peasants. The background for the harsh treatment was that the king wanted to assert his authority over the extraction of precious metals. The search for metals led to the silver works at Kongsberg after 1624, copper in the mountain villages between Trøndelag and Eastern Norway, and iron, among other things, in Agder and lower Telemark. The financial gain of the quarries at that time is unclear because there are no reliable accounts. Kongsberg ma

Carcassonne est une commune française, préfecture du département de l'Aude dans la région Languedoc-Roussillon.

La ville est connue pour la Cité de Carcassonne, un ensemble architectural médiéval restauré par Viollet-le-Duc au XIXe siècle et inscrit au patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO depuis 1997

Le site était déjà habité au Néolithique et a livré des objets notamment une hache en néphrite, qui a appartenu au XIXe siècle au minéralogiste Alexis Damour, conservée au Muséum de Toulouse.

Carcassonne était très tôt l'emplacement d'un site protohistorique très actif situé près du fleuve Atax (l'Aude). C'est la première apparition connue du toponyme Carcasso. Pline l'Ancien cite ce nom21 au premier siècle avant J.-C. mais il semble que le terme existait déjà au VIe siècle av. J.-C..

«Dans l'intérieur des terres, colonies : Arles de la sixième légion, Béziers de la septième, Orange de la seconde ; dans le territoire des Cavares, Valence, des Allobroges Vienne ; villes latines : Aix des Salluviens, Avignon des Cavares, Apta Julia des Vulgientes, Alébécé des Reies Apollinaires, Alba des Helves, Augusta des Tricastins, Anatilia, Aeria, Bormanni, Comacina, Cabellio, Carcasum des Volces Tectosages, Cessero, Carpentoracte des Mémines, Ies Caenicendes, les Cambolectres, surnommés Atlantiques, Forum Voconii, Glanum Livii»23

Le site originel de Carcassonne se trouvait sur le plateau où passe l'actuelle autoroute A61. Il s'est ensuite déplacé au VIe siècle vers l'emplacement actuel de la cité de Carcassonne sans raison connue. À la fin du IIe siècle av. J.-C., le lieu est déjà un oppidum avec des fossés et héberge des habitations gauloises. En 118 av. J.-C., les Romains s’emparent du lieu occupé par les Volques Tectosages et fortifient l’oppidum.

Ensuite les Wisigoths s’emparent de l’oppidum au Ve siècle, puis les Sarrasins au VIIIe siècle qui resteront environ trente ans avant d'être chassés par les Francs. Ces derniers laisseront le nom de Karkashuna. D'autres noms apparaissent comme Carcasona ou Carcassione25. Après l’éclatement de l'Empire Carolingien, l’époque féodale s’instaure avec à la tête de la ville la famille Trencavel qui va y régner en dynastie du XIe siècle au XIIIe siècle. Carcassonne prospère et prend une place stratégique très importante dans le Languedoc.

La ville de Carcassonne entretient la légende selon laquelle le nom de la ville de Carcassonne daterait du début du IXe siècle. Au moment des faits, la ville aurait été sarrasine. Charlemagne aurait fait le siège, mais la maîtresse des lieux, dame Carcas, aurait fort résisté. Les deux armées seraient devenues affamées. Tandis qu'il n'aurait resté qu'une mesure de blé et un petit cochon dans la cité, la dame Carcas aurait eu l'idée de démoraliser ses adversaires.

Le porcelet aurait été engraissé, puis projeté par dessus les remparts. Pensant que la ville avait encore beaucoup de nourriture, Charlemagne aurait fait lever le siège. À ce moment, dame Carcas aurait fait sonner les trompettes et, Charlemagne revenant sur ses pas, la dame Carcas lui aurait proposé la paix. D'où l'expression « Carcas sonne ».

Historiquement, la reconquête des terres du Languedoc par Charlemagne remonte à son père, Pépin le Bref, au milieu du VIIIe siècle.

Le catharisme atteint Carcassonne qui aura beaucoup d'adeptes dans ses murs. Les cathares étant protégés par le vicomte Raimond-Roger Trencavel, la ville devient terre d’hérésie aux yeux du pape. En conséquence, elle subira de plein fouet les feux de la croisade bientôt dirigée par Simon de Montfort après la chute de la ville(auparavant c'était Arnaud Amaury légat du pape qui dirigeait la croisade). C'est ainsi qu'au mois d'août 1209, l'armée des Croisés met le siège devant Carcassonne. Les deux bourgs tombent rapidement, ils sont brûlés et détruits. L'enceinte de la Cité va résister à l'assaillant. C'est la sécheresse et la soif qui feront capituler le vicomte de Carcassonne au bout de deux semaines de siège,en effet Trencavel ne prit aucune disposition pour défendre l'accès aux points d'eau situés en dehors de l'enceinte croyant que les assiégés seraient secourus rapidement. Il sera aussitôt jeté en prison où il mourra très vite26. Dès la prise de la Cité les terres des Trencavel sont attribuées à un des Barons du nord, le célèbre Simon de Montfort. Son fils donnera ses terres au roi de France, qui les intégrera au domaine royal en 122427.

Ce dernier événement est majeur dans l'histoire de Carcassonne. Après la tentative de révolte des Carcassonnais menée par le fils du vicomte Trencavel en 1240, Saint Louis chasse la population de la ville, et l'autorise à s'établir sur l'autre rive du fleuve : c'est la création d’une ville nouvelle. Une bastide est alors créée en contrebas de la Cité de Carcassonne. Carcassonne devient alors une ville bicéphale où une concurrence acharnée a lieu économiquement et socialement entre Cité et Bastide. Progressivement, la Bastide Saint-Louis va prospérer économiquement au point de surpasser la Cité qui perd au fur et à mesure tous ses pouvoirs et son rayonnement politique.

La ville basse est dotée d'un consulat en 1248. Six consuls gouvernent la ville aidés par des notables. Au XIVe siècle, la ville est le premier centre de production textile du royaume, dont la matière première utilisée est la laine. Elle provient des élevages de la Montagne Noire et des Corbières. Les productions étaient exportées vers les grands comptoirs européens comme Constantinople ou Alexandrie29.

En 1348, la ville est touchée par la peste comme le reste du pays et l'épidémie est récurrente jusqu'au siècle suivant. À cette même période, la guerre de Cent Ans provoque de nombreux dégâts. Le prince Noir dévasta par le feu la ville basse en 1355 en épargnant la cité de Carcassonne30. Un siège aurait été trop long et l'aurait ralenti dans son entreprise de pillage. La bastide fut reconstruite (mais seulement la moitié de la bastide) et fortifiée en 1359. L'industrie du drap reprend et se développe.

Un texte fort ancien nous est parvenu qui nous dépeint les origines situées aux XIVe et XVe siècles, d'une famille consulaire de marchands, bourgeois de Carcassonne, puissants hommes d'affaires de la Cité31. Aussi mérite-t-il d'être reproduit ici :

Il s'agit d'un mémoire historique rédigé par un notaire royal (très probablement) resté anonyme, vers l'an 1620 sur l'histoire et les origines antiques de la Maison Dax ou (de Dax)32 [qui est aussi celle d'Axat, d'Artigues, de Leuc, de La Serpent et de Cessales], en la ville de Carcassonne, dont deux aux moins de ses membres tous les deux marchands et bourgeois de Carcassonne puissants hommes d'affaires de la ville33, furent consuls de La Cité : Rolland Dax en 1433, 1437 et 1443, et son fils aîné, Arnaud l'Ancien en 1452, 1458, 1465, 1472, anobli et créé chevalier conjointement avec son frère cadet Arnaud le Jeune, par lettres patentes du roi Charles VII le 1er juillet 1457. Il regorge de précieux éléments, fournissant notamment des précisions sur d'anciennes maisons d'habitation situées dans Carcassonne à la fin du Moyen Âge et sur les familles marchandes et bourgeoises de cette époque reculée35. Il précise que les Dax possédaient au XVe siècle et sans doute dès au moins le XIVe siècle, outre plusieurs maisons dans Carcassonne notamment une grande demeure encore connue plusieurs siècles plus tard comme « La maison de Leuc, où ilz estoint fort bien logez » dit le mémoire, une sépulture particulière familiale au sein de l'église Saint-Vincent de Carcassonne (en la chapelle connue à l'époque sous le nom de Saint-Laurent), où furent enterrés les parents de Rolland tout comme lui-même, son épouse et ses deux fils Arnaud l'Ancien et Arnaud le Jeune, ainsi probablement que les épouses de ceux-ci.

Le mémoire est anonyme. Il ne nous a pas été possible de découvrir le nom de l’auteur. Mais tout porte à croire que ce travail émane d’un notaire ou de quelqu’un qui avait à sa disposition de nombreuses minutes notariales. Ce manuscrit contient 98 pages. Il mesure 350 millimètres sur 235. Il est recouvert en parchemin. A. CROS-MAYREVIEILLE

Quoique la ville de Carcassonne ne connût pas le roi Louis XI (1423-1461-1483), ce dernier n'hésita pas à confirmer ses privilèges et défendre la ville en mars 1462 (1461 v. st.)

À partir de cette période, la ville basse connaît une croissance supérieure à celle de la cité qui perd son rôle militaire. En 1531, le protestantisme fait son apparition, mais les calvinistes sont chassés de la ville basse qui se fortifie de plus belle. C'est une base pour les catholiques qui partent en guerre contre les villages protestants de la région : Limoux, Bram… De plus des rivalités apparaissent entre la cité et la ville basse provoquant des destructions de la ville basse. Au début des années 1560, les protestants de la ville sont massacrés. Charles IX passe dans la ville lors de son tour de France royal (1564-1566), accompagné de la Cour et des Grands du royaume : son frère le duc d’Anjou, Henri de Navarre, les cardinaux de Bourbon et de Lorraine.

Petit à petit la Cité perd de son importance avec le transfert de nombreuses institutions à la ville basse croissante. La richesse due au commerce drapier permet d'embellir la ville. La manufacture de draps des Saptes fut créée, ou plutôt relancée, en 1667 par Colbert pour développer ce qu'avait créé les frères Saptes, venus de Tuchan, qui s'installèrent au XVIe siècle près de Conques, puis Carcassonne, où ils concentrèrent en un même lieu toutes les opérations nécessaires à la fabrication des tissus, ce qui valut une grande prospérité à la famille, dont la troisième génération abandonna la fabrique pour la magistrature.

Des hôtels luxueux sont construits, l'eau est amenée jusqu'à la ville, le pavage et l'éclairage des rues rendent la ville plus moderne. Les vieux remparts et portes de la ville basse sont démolis au XVIIIe siècle, le portail des Jacobins est construit à cette époque. Malheureusement, de nombreux problèmes causent la perte de cette mono-industrie. Sous la Restauration, l'activité est mécanisée et les salaires sont tirés vers le bas. La viticulture rentre en concurrence et la misère gagne la cité de Carcassonne et ses derniers tisserands.

À la Révolution française, la ville est peu engagée et l'industrie drapière est concurrencée par les Anglais provoquant des baisses de salaires importantes. Le 29 janvier 1790, le département de l'Aude est créé et Carcassonne en devient le chef-lieu40. Elle devient aussi chef-lieu de district. Mais les prix de la nourriture augmentent, la famine et le mécontentement populaire se font sentir.

Carcassonne absorbe Carcassonne-Cité entre 1795 et 1800

Au XIXe siècle, un changement dans les mentalités intervient et une prise de conscience pour les monuments historiques s'annonce, on veut restaurer et valoriser le patrimoine français. La Cité, complètement ruinée et miséreuse va recevoir le soutien d’érudits Audois et Carcassonnais tel Jean-Pierre Cros-Mayrevieille soutenu par Prosper Mérimée, Inspecteur des monuments historiques. Les premiers travaux de restauration portent sur la Basilique Saint-Nazaire-et-Saint-Celse.

De nombreuses expropriations ont ensuite lieu, supprimant la totalité de l’habitat construit dans les lices et excluant une partie de la population de la Cité. Un demi-siècle de travaux aura lieu pour restituer toute la grandeur du XIIIe siècle au plus grand ensemble de fortification du Moyen Âge d’Occident. L’architecte Viollet-le-Duc, spécialiste des restaurations en France, portera ce chantier avec réussite mais déclenchera parfois une certaine polémique sur ses choix de restaurations et sur ses initiatives personnelles assez particulières. Il n'en demeure que la Cité de Carcassonne est globalement très bien restaurée, la restauration portant sur seulement 30 % du bâti (crénelages, toitures).

En 1907, les vignerons Carcassonnais participent à la révolte des vignerons pour dénoncer les problèmes qui affectent la viticulture du Languedoc. La fraude récurrente de certains producteurs, la surproduction, le mildiou et la concurrence provoquent leur colère et demande à l'État, qui dans un premier temps ne réagit pas, de mettre en place une réglementation sur les productions viticoles. Carcassonne rejoint en septembre 2007 la Confédération générale de vignerons du Midi (CGV), la première union syndicale

En 1944, la cité de Carcassonne est occupée par les troupes allemandes qui utilisent le château comtal comme une réserve de munitions et d'explosifs. Les habitants sont expulsés de la cité. Joë Bousquet, commandeur de la Légion d'honneur, s'indigne de cette occupation et demande par lettre au préfet la libération de la cité considérée par tous les pays comme une œuvre d'art qu'il faut respecter et laisser libre.

En avril 1996, Rémy Cazals organise le colloque de Carcassonne sur la Première Guerre mondiale qui permettra de publier Traces de 14-18 et de faire avancer l'historiographie de la Première Guerre mondiale.

En 1997, la Cité de Carcassonne atteint la consécration en obtenant son classement sur la liste des sites au patrimoine mondial de l'humanité par l’UNESCO et la ville basse de Carcassonne « La Bastide Saint-Louis » est classée secteur sauvegardé. Aujourd’hui, plus de trois millions de touristes en font un des lieux les plus visités d’Europe.

Le 6 novembre 2003 eut lieu à Carcassonne dans l'hôtel de la Cité le 16e sommet franco-espagnol45 en présence de José Maria Aznar, chef du gouvernement espagnol, de Jacques Chirac, président de la République et de 13 ministres des deux pays46.

Le 29 juin 2008 pendant les journées « portes ouvertes » à Carcassonne du 3e régiment de parachutistes d'infanterie de marine (3e RPIMa) suite à une erreur d'approvisionnement de tir (balles réelles au lieu de balles à blanc) un accident provoque des blessures graves sur 17 personnes parmi le public. Cette affaire devenue nationale après la visite sur place du président de la République, Nicolas Sarkozy, accompagné de son ministre de la Défense, entraîna la démission du chef d'état-major des armées

   

WWF-Pakistan is working on another project, Vulture Safe Zone, in Nagar Parkar, Sindh, to conserve the white-backed vultures in the wild. To mobilize local communities for conservation of the species, Parkar Foundation, a community based organization has been established in Nagar Parkar. The Vulture Safe Zone stretches over an area of 100 km and serves as a protected area for the species. Furthermore free livestock vaccinations, livestock de-worming camps and information on better animal husbandry practices are provided to communities to protect vultures from further population losses.

 

The President of Parkar Foundation, Moti, stresses to conserve the remaining White-backed vultures in the wild, especially in Nagar Parkar, Sindh, which is the last stronghold of the species. Therefore Parkar Foundation is sensitizing communities for the conservation of White-backed vultures.

 

Meanwhile, a survey carried out by WWF-Pakistan in June 2014 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) recorded 68 Egyptian vultures in an area of 835 km. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species also lists the Egyptian vulture as endangered which clearly shows that they face threats to their survival. The study revealed a different behavior of this vulture species as they were observed feeding on garbage. Uzma Khan, Director Biodiversity, WWF-Pakistan, explained that due to scarcity of carcass in the area, vultures are seen feeding on garbage for survival.

 

Vultures can travel great distances in search of food, which was observed when the Peregrine Fund attached solar powered GPS units to a few white-backed vultures in 2003. One of the vultures travelled a distance of up to 300 km, revealing the great distances these vultures can travel.

 

To mitigate the effects of Diclofenac, an alternate drug Meloxicam is being promoted among local communities and veterinarians, which is not harmful for vultures. Moreover, through sensitization seminars and workshops, communities are being educated about the damaging use of the Diclofenac so that its usage can finally be stopped.

 

No doubt vultures in Pakistan face serious threats but they can be dealt with, if the government pays due attention to the issue. Through government funding, captive breeding aviaries can be increased and Diclofenac sodium, which is still used in rural areas can be banned completely. People are still unaware of the role vultures play in the ecosystem and if they are sensitized, it can yield positive results.

 

Z.B.Mirza also confirmed that after decline in vulture population, dead animals are now being sold to the poultry industry so that carcasses can be processed in chicken feed. Oil is also extracted from the intestines of dead animals as well as calcium from bones. Such unhygienic content can result in serious diseases, he added. Sadly, humans have taken over the role of vultures in the ecosystem which is not our purpose in the first place.

 

Even though vultures look ugly it does not mean that they should perish. They hold immense importance in the ecosystem which cannot be ignored. Losing this wildlife to extinction is a tragedy which shouldn’t happen at any cost.

 

Allah Almighty created every species for a special purpose which no other can perform, as we must let them do their job. The young generation might not know much about vultures as they have not seen the species but they need to be told that vultures stand on the brink of extinction only due to our mistakes. The time to act is now, before it gets too late

 

Pentacon Six TL

Carl Zeiss Jena 80 mm 2.8 Biometar

Kodak Portra 400

Epson Perfection V500

 

silbhe.tumblr.com/

Conserve School bog near Land O Lakes, WI

Several items of industrial archaeological interest have been conserved in the public relam area at the new Isle of Man Steam Packet Sea Terminal at Waterloo River Entrance, Liverpool.

 

This is hydraulically powered capstan which has had the covers of its operating mechanism removed to allow the operating mechanism to be viewed.

 

Mersey Docks had a hydraulic power system operating in the docklands which was used for capstans, hoists and lock gates amongst other things.

 

For more photographs of the new Liverpool Sea Terminal please click here: www.jhluxton.com/Ports-Docks-and-Harbours/Isle-of-Man-Ste...

A new poll conducted by @vanaqua shows that 76% of Canadians say we’re not doing enough to conserve & protect our oceans. What can you do? Choose @ocean_wise sustainable seafood, join a @shorelinecleanup, just to name a few. As we move forward together toward a sustainable future we would like to hear your ideas — what do you do to keep a healthy balance with our natural world? Share with us the ways you reduce waste, keep our oceans debris free, and live a “green” life, using the hashtag ‪#‎vanaqua60‬. Let’s talk sustainability and keep the conversation alive!

You can read more about this pair of American Bald Eagles at Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/2017/11/20/w34-a-ny-bande...

 

SPOTLIGHT ON THE BALD EAGLE’S ALL-AMERICAN COMEBACK IN NEW JERSEY

 

by Lindsay McNamara, Communications Manager

June 20th 2016

 

In 1985 — just 31 years ago — a single bald eagle nest remained in the state of New Jersey. In 2015, CWF and partners monitored 161 nests throughout the Garden State. Just this year (as of June 20, 2016), over 50 young eagles have already fledged from their nests! What sparked this All-American comeback of the United States’ National Bird?

 

DDT use was banned in the United States in 1972. That ban combined with restoration efforts by biologists within the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) resulted in 25 bald eagle pairs by 2000.

 

In 2017 the number of New Jersey active bald eagle pairs was 170.

 

For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/tag/new-jersey-bald-eagle...

  

New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2016

 

New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2016 may be downloaded here: docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYX...

 

For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/tag/new-jersey-bald-eagle...

On néglige souvent des êtres vivants auxquel on devrait faire plus attention. Il n'y pas que les plantes á grande fleurs, impressionantes ou avec un potentiel ornemental, qui méritent d'être étudiées et conservées. Ce Microchilus sp. á petites fleurs a attiré mon regard avec sa couleur bronze originale. In situ dans le département du Valle del Cauca dans la Colombie méga diversifiée.

 

We often overlook living beings worth paying attention to. Not just big, impressive plants and flowers or with an ornamental potential, deserve being studied and conserved. This small flowered Microchilus sp. caught my eye with its original bronzy color. In situ in Valle del Cauca department in the mega diverse Colombia.

 

Se neglige a menudo seres vivos para cuales deberíamos de poner más atención. No solamente las plantas con flores grandes, impresionantes o con un potencial ornamental, merecen ser estudiadas y conservadas. Este Microchilus sp. con flores pequeñas atrajó mi mirada con su color bronze original.. In situ en el departamento del Valle del Cauca en la mega diversificada Colombia.

paper from various history books, wax, yarn and found objects. read about it here: ines-seidel.de/2014/02/beruhrungsempfindlich/?lang=en

 

drei aufbewahrte Geschichten -

Papier aus verschiedenen Geschichtsbüchern, Wachs, Garn und Fundstücke

Mehr dazu im Blog: ines-seidel.de/2014/02/beruhrungsempfindlich/

This is a bit different from my usual photos but just thought I'd include it for fun.

 

I ran across this at a shop in Laguna Hills, California that specializes in British foods. Rhubarb with ginger is a flavor that I've never seen nor tasted before. But because I also like strawberry-rhubarb pie, I decided to give it a try.

 

It's delicious! Is this a common flavor variety in the UK? I've seen ginger preserves before in other British grocery stores but not rhubarb with ginger.

 

I like the moderate tartness imparted by the rhubarb, the sharp taste of ginger and of course the sweetness from the sugar mixed in.

 

When I finish this jar I'll look for it again, perhaps online because it would be a 6+ hour drive to the store where I bought this!

"Do these feathers make me look fat?"

 

NEW JERSEY 2017 BALD EAGLE PROJECT REPORT

 

ANOTHER PRODUCTIVE YEAR FOR NJ’S EAGLES

by Larissa Smith, CWF Wildlife Biologist

 

The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ in partnership with the NJ Endangered and Nongame Species Program has released the 2017 NJ Bald Eagle Project Report. In 2017, 178 eagle nests were monitored during the nesting season. Of these nests 153 were active (with eggs) and 25 were territorial or housekeeping pairs. One hundred and ninety young were fledged.

 

In 2017 the number of active nests was three more than in 2016, but the number young fledged decreased by 27 from a record high of 216 fledged in 2016. The productivity rate this season of 1.25 young/active nest is still above the required range of 0.0 to 1.1 for population maintenance. Productivity could be lower this season for many reasons including weather, predation and disturbance to the nesting area. In 2017 nest monitors reported several instances of “intruder” eagles at nests which did disrupt the nesting attempts of several pairs. One of these “eagle dramas” unfolded at the Duke Farms eagle cam watched by millions of people. An intruder female attempted to replace the current female. This harassment interrupted the pairs bonding and copulation and no eggs were laid.

 

This year’s report includes a section on Resightings of banded eagles. Resightings of NJ (green) banded eagles have increased over the years, as well as eagles seen in NJ that were banded in other states. These resightings are important, as they help us to understand eagle movements during the years between fledging and settling into a territory, as well as adult birds at a nest site.

 

For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/2017/12/06/new-jersey-201...

 

New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report | 2017 may be downloaded here: www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/eglrpt17.pdf

The Musée des Augustins de Toulouse is a fine arts museum in Toulouse, France which conserves a collection of sculpture and paintings from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. The paintings are from throughout France, the sculptures representing Occitan culture of the region with a particularly rich assemblage of Romanesque sculpture. The building in which the museum is sited was built in 1309 in the Gothic style and prior to the French Revolution housed Toulouse's Augustinian convent. The convent was secularized in 1793 and first opened to the public as a museum on 27 August 1795 by decree of the French Convention, very shortly after the opening of the Louvre, making it one of the oldest museums in France after the Louvre and the Musée des Beaux Arts in Besançon. It at first housed the Muséum Provisoire du Midi de la République and the école des Beaux-Arts. The Musée des Augustins de Toulouse was one of fifteen museums founded in provincial centres, by a decree of 13 Fructidor year IX (31 August 1801), which was promulgated by the minister of the interior, Jean-Antoine Chaptal (Arrêté Chaptal du 14 fructidor an IX). At the start of the 19th century several medieval buildings (notably the refectory) were demolished and in their place Viollet-le-Duc and his pupil Darcy put up new exhibition galleries, accessed by a Gothic Revival monumental stair offering an interplay of richly complicated vaulting systems. The works continued from 1873 to 1901, when the museum reopened. In effect, Toulouse commissioned Urbain Vitry to ensure remove all the convent's religious characteristics. The archaeologist Alexandre Du Mège occupied the cloister and rebuilt it to be able to house the medieval collections gathered from Toulouse's destroyed religious buildings such as the basilique Saint-Sernin. Today the cloister houses a reconstructed medieval garden. The building was classed as a Monument historique in 1840. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_des_Augustins

 

1 2 ••• 7 8 10 12 13 ••• 79 80