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Title: WPA Federal Music Project presents four evening programs devoted to chamber music, lieder, and piano soli of Ludwig van Beethoven
Creator(s): Bock, Vera, artist
Related Names:
Federal Music Project (U.S.) , sponsor
Date Created/Published: [New York] : Federal Art Project, [between 1936 and 1941]
Medium: 1 print on board (poster) : silkscreen, color.
Summary: Poster for Federal Music Project presentation of chamber music, songs, and piano solos by Beethoven at the Greenwich House Music School, 46 Barrow Street, New York City.
Reproduction Number: LC-USZC2-5365 (color film copy slide)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: POS - WPA - NY .B635, no. 2 (B size) [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Notes:
Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress).
Subjects:
Beethoven, Ludwig van,--1770-1827.
Concerts--New York (State)--New York--1930-1950.
Format:
Concert posters--1930-1950.
Screen prints--Color--1930-1950.
Collections:
Posters: WPA Posters
Bookmark This Record:
www.loc.gov/pictures/item/98516406/
View the MARC Record for this item.
Rights assessment is your responsibility.
Devoted to the Slavic Revival and conveys the essence of the myth-making efforts of the 19th century.
Fleet Air Arm Museum
The museum is devoted to the history of British naval aviation.
It has an extensive collection of military and civilian aircraft, aero engines, models of aircraft and Royal Navy ships (especially aircraft carriers), and paintings and drawings related to naval aviation.
It is located on RNAS Yeovilton airfield, and the museum has viewing areas where visitors can watch military aircraft (especially helicopters) taking off and landing.
Hall 3
Carrier
Instead of a traditional museum hall, the whole hall has been converted into a mock-up of the fleet carrier HMS Ark Royal as it would have appeared in the 1970s.
The entrance to this hall is by a simulated helicopter ride.
The hall itself is a simulation of a section of the flight deck of the fleet carrier HMS Ark Royal and aircraft are displayed as if they are on the deck.
Two large screens show the takeoff and landing of aircraft such as Blackburn Buccaneers and F4 Phantoms.
There is also a series of rooms simulating the carrier's island.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_Air_Arm_Museum
De Havilland DH-100 Sea Vampire F1
LZ551/C
Marine Flghter
Gifted spinner, stoic warrior, devoted son, gentle father, enthusiastic photographer, demanding team-mate, committed friend - Anil Kumble is a man of many interesting parts. It is hard not to admire such a man, though my first impressions of him were of awe and confusion.
It was during the days when we both played Under-19 cricket. I was yet to gain a reputation and he, a few years older, already owned one. He was gathering wickets by the bucketful and was occasionally labelled the "next Chandra", while I was the nervous wicketkeeper wondering how the hell I was going to keep to Anil on matting wickets.Fortunately, I was not totally embarrassed.
Initial trepidation was also accompanied by bewilderment. With his thick glasses and grim demeanour, he appeared a fellow who might be more comfortable in the first row of a classroom rather than spinning a ball on a cricket field. Of course, Anil eventually proved himself in both areas: he has a degree in engineering and a PhD in legspin bowling.
Anil is not a flippant man, and it is reflected in his cricket. The game brings him pleasure but it is never taken lightly. I read once that as a boy he only went out to play cricket after finishing his school homework. As a cricketer he is the same, for he never goes to play until he has done his cricketing homework. Batsmen are analysed, his own bowling is scrutinised, plans are made. There is something wonderfully thorough, organised and disciplined about his approach, which makes him a powerful role model.
Anil is now regarded as a master of his craft, especially since he broke Kapil's record of 434 wickets, but his greatness arrives from his ability to always see himself as a student. He is always learning, and through the years he has consistently made small improvements, extending his range and polishing his repertoire. When he first arrived in the team his googly was not as evolved as it is now. He has also developed a flipper that is delivered at different speeds. He didn't bowl round the wicket as often in the early days. but now he's comfortable from both sides.
People have often doubted Anil but he himself never has. People have said that he did not turn the ball sufficiently, that he was comparatively ineffective abroad, but he always believed he had the tools to succeed. His performances in Australia and Pakistan over the past 13 months have vindicated his belief in himself.
For me, he has been more than a team-mate; he has been a wise friend. I knew I could count on him, and that he was honest enough to not tell me what I wanted to hear. When I struggled in the one-day game, for instance, he insisted I was good enough, but gently suggested that I needed to polish my skills, whether it was rotating the strike or converting starts.
Anil works hard for the team, and not just with ball in hand. When he was recovering from his shoulder injury, he didn't stay at home; he came to the Indian camp and assisted Bhajji and the other spinners. When the player contracts had to be decided on, he took the trouble to sift through and understand the issues. Never does he shy away from responsibility. He has stood up to be counted, and courted controversy if required.
Anil is tough and I like that about him. He is the essential 100-per-cent cricketer, every day, every over, every ball, bringing great energy to the contest, facing every challenge with his jaw sternly set - or even broken for that matter!
His attitude makes him a dream to captain. When I led against New Zealand in 2003 at Mohali and we lost the toss and had to bowl first on a flat wicket, not once did Anil complain. Occasionally a bowler, faced with an unresponsive wicket, might give up mentally, but not Anil; never did he say, "Rahul, give me a break." He just bowled on and on. He does not know what giving up means.
Breaking Kapil's record was an important moment for it allowed people a chance to recognise and reflect on what a magnificent bowler Anil has been. His stamp on the Indian game is now indelible.
He is still hungry, still committed, still gifted, still a man who finds great strength from his family. If I had to pick a change in him, it would be that he is a little mellower than he once was (except, of course, when it comes to batsmen). Part of the reason is his young family, and after the Kolkata Test against South Africa, in which he equalled Kapil's record, he brought his baby son into the dressing room. His often grave face was now curled into a radiant smile. It was the look of a contented man, and it was good to see.
This article was first published in the January 2005 issue of Wisden Asia Cricket magazine
I have a set devoted to Park Hill:
www.flickr.com/photos/shefftim/sets/72157642537014264/
Park Hill is a large disused council built social housing estate in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It was built in the late 1950s. It was closed in 1998 following a period of steep decline and a reputation for crime, drugs & social problems. It now is largely depopulated, though its nursery school is still open.
The estate is structurally sound & has Grade II listed building status for its modernist style, influenced by the architect Le Corbusier. Part of the estate is currently being renovated by developer Urban Splash.
More on Park Hill’s history:
www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/architecture/9551327/Mult...
NARMADA PARIKRAMA
The Narmada also called the Rewa, is a river in central India and the fifth longest river in the Indian subcontinent. It is the third longest river that flows entirely within India, after the Godavari and the Krishna. It is also known as "Life Line of Madhya Pradesh" for its huge contribution to the state of Madhya Pradesh in many ways. It forms the traditional boundary between North India and South India and flows westwards over a length of 1,312 km (815.2 mi) before draining through theGulf of Khambhat into the Arabian Sea, 30 km (18.6 mi) west of Bharuch city of Gujarat. It is one of only three major rivers in peninsular India that run from east to west (longest west flowing river), along with the Tapti River and the Mahi River. It is the one of the rivers in India that flows in a rift valley, flowing west between the Satpura and Vindhya ranges. The other rivers which flows through rift valley include Damodar River in Chota Nagpur Plateau and Tapti. The Tapti River and Mahi River also flow through rift valleys, but between different ranges. It flows through the states of Madhya Pradesh(1,077 km (669.2 mi)), and Maharashtra, (74 km (46.0 mi))– (35 km (21.7 mi)) then along the border between Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (39 km (24.2 mi) and the border between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and in Gujarat (161 km (100.0 mi)).
The Periplus Maris Erythraei (c. 80 AD) calls it the Nammadus, and theBritish Raj called it the Nerbudda or Narbada. Narmadā is a Sanskrit word meaning "the Giver of Pleasure".
To Hindus the Narmada is one of the five holy rivers of India; the other four beingGanges, Yamuna, Godavari and Kaveri. It is believed that a dip in any of these five rivers washes one's sins away. According to a legend, the river Ganges, polluted by millions of people bathing in it, assumes the form of a black cow and comes to the Narmada to bathe and cleanse itself in its holy waters. Legends also claim that the Narmada River is older than the river Ganges.
The river was mentioned by Ptolemy in the second century AD as Namade and by the author of the Periplus. The Ramayana, the Mahabharat, and thePuranas refer to it frequently. The Rewa Khand of Vayu Purana and the Rewa Khand of Skanda Purana are entirely devoted to the story of the birth and the importance of the river, and hence Narmada is also called the Rewa.
There are many fables about the origin of the Narmada. According to one of them, once Lord Shiva, the Destroyer of the Universe, meditated so hard that he started perspiring. Shiva's sweat accumulated in a tank and started flowing in the form of a river – the Narmada. Another legend has it that two teardrops that fell from the eyes of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, yielded two rivers – the Narmada and the Son.
Legends also say that for Lord Shiva, the Hindu God, the river is especially sacred on account of its origin, and it is often called Shankari, i.e., daughter of Shankar (Lord Shiva). All the pebbles rolling on its bed are said to take the shape of his emblem with the saying, "Narmada Ke Kanker utte Sankar" (a popular saying in the Hindi belt of India), which means that 'pebble stones of Narmada get a personified form of Shiva'. These lingam shaped stones (cryptocrytalline quartz), calledBanalinga also called (Banashivalingas) are much sought after for daily worship by the Hindus. The Brihadeeswara Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, constructed by Rajaraja Chola, has one of the biggest Banalingas. Adi Shankara met his guru Govinda Bhagavatpada on the banks of the river Narmada.
Narmada is also said to have been in love with the Sonbhadra, another river flowing on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. According to the Puranas, the Narmada is also called the Rewa, from its leaping motion (from the root 'rev') through its rocky bed.
Important religious places and Ghats along the course of the river, starting from its origin at Narmadakhund at Amarkantakhill, are a) the Amarkantak (in Sanskrit: Neck of Shiva) or Teertharaj (the King of Pilgrimages), b) Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, and Mahadeo temples, Nemawar Siddeshwar Mandir in the middle reach of the river – all named after Shiva, c) Chausath Yogini (sixty four yoginis) temple, d) Chaubis Avatar temple, e) Bhojpur Shiva temple and Bhrigu Rishi temple in Bharuch. The Narmada River is also worshipped as mother goddess by Narmadeeya Brahmins.
The importance of the Narmada River as sacred is testified by the fact that the pilgrims perform a holy pilgrimage of aparikrama or circumambulation of the river.[17] The Narmada Parikrama, as it is called, is considered to be a meritorious act that a pilgrim can undertake. Many sadhus and pilgrims walk on foot from the Arabian Sea at Bharuch in Gujarat, along the river, to the source in Maikal Mountains (Amarkantak hills) in Madhya Pradesh and back along the opposite bank of the river. It is a 2,600-kilometre (1,600 mi) walk.[18] Important towns of interest in the valley are Jabalpur, Barwani, Hoshangabad, Harda, Narmada Nagar, Omkareshwar, Dewas (Nemavar, Kity, Pipri), Mandla and Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh, andRajpipla and Bharuch in Gujarat. Some places of historical interest are Joga Ka Quilla, Chhatri of Baji Rao Peshwa andBhimbetka, and among the falls are the Dugdhdhara, Dhardi falls, Bheraghat, Dhuandhara, Kapiladhara and Sahastradhara. By Kailash Mansarovar Foundation Swami Bikash Giri www.sumeruparvat.com , www.naturalitem.com
NARMADA PARIKRAMA
The Narmada also called the Rewa, is a river in central India and the fifth longest river in the Indian subcontinent. It is the third longest river that flows entirely within India, after the Godavari and the Krishna. It is also known as "Life Line of Madhya Pradesh" for its huge contribution to the state of Madhya Pradesh in many ways. It forms the traditional boundary between North India and South India and flows westwards over a length of 1,312 km (815.2 mi) before draining through theGulf of Khambhat into the Arabian Sea, 30 km (18.6 mi) west of Bharuch city of Gujarat. It is one of only three major rivers in peninsular India that run from east to west (longest west flowing river), along with the Tapti River and the Mahi River. It is the one of the rivers in India that flows in a rift valley, flowing west between the Satpura and Vindhya ranges. The other rivers which flows through rift valley include Damodar River in Chota Nagpur Plateau and Tapti. The Tapti River and Mahi River also flow through rift valleys, but between different ranges. It flows through the states of Madhya Pradesh(1,077 km (669.2 mi)), and Maharashtra, (74 km (46.0 mi))– (35 km (21.7 mi)) then along the border between Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (39 km (24.2 mi) and the border between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and in Gujarat (161 km (100.0 mi)).
The Periplus Maris Erythraei (c. 80 AD) calls it the Nammadus, and theBritish Raj called it the Nerbudda or Narbada. Narmadā is a Sanskrit word meaning "the Giver of Pleasure".
To Hindus the Narmada is one of the five holy rivers of India; the other four beingGanges, Yamuna, Godavari and Kaveri. It is believed that a dip in any of these five rivers washes one's sins away. According to a legend, the river Ganges, polluted by millions of people bathing in it, assumes the form of a black cow and comes to the Narmada to bathe and cleanse itself in its holy waters. Legends also claim that the Narmada River is older than the river Ganges.
The river was mentioned by Ptolemy in the second century AD as Namade and by the author of the Periplus. The Ramayana, the Mahabharat, and thePuranas refer to it frequently. The Rewa Khand of Vayu Purana and the Rewa Khand of Skanda Purana are entirely devoted to the story of the birth and the importance of the river, and hence Narmada is also called the Rewa.
There are many fables about the origin of the Narmada. According to one of them, once Lord Shiva, the Destroyer of the Universe, meditated so hard that he started perspiring. Shiva's sweat accumulated in a tank and started flowing in the form of a river – the Narmada. Another legend has it that two teardrops that fell from the eyes of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, yielded two rivers – the Narmada and the Son.
Legends also say that for Lord Shiva, the Hindu God, the river is especially sacred on account of its origin, and it is often called Shankari, i.e., daughter of Shankar (Lord Shiva). All the pebbles rolling on its bed are said to take the shape of his emblem with the saying, "Narmada Ke Kanker utte Sankar" (a popular saying in the Hindi belt of India), which means that 'pebble stones of Narmada get a personified form of Shiva'. These lingam shaped stones (cryptocrytalline quartz), calledBanalinga also called (Banashivalingas) are much sought after for daily worship by the Hindus. The Brihadeeswara Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, constructed by Rajaraja Chola, has one of the biggest Banalingas. Adi Shankara met his guru Govinda Bhagavatpada on the banks of the river Narmada.
Narmada is also said to have been in love with the Sonbhadra, another river flowing on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. According to the Puranas, the Narmada is also called the Rewa, from its leaping motion (from the root 'rev') through its rocky bed.
Important religious places and Ghats along the course of the river, starting from its origin at Narmadakhund at Amarkantakhill, are a) the Amarkantak (in Sanskrit: Neck of Shiva) or Teertharaj (the King of Pilgrimages), b) Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, and Mahadeo temples, Nemawar Siddeshwar Mandir in the middle reach of the river – all named after Shiva, c) Chausath Yogini (sixty four yoginis) temple, d) Chaubis Avatar temple, e) Bhojpur Shiva temple and Bhrigu Rishi temple in Bharuch. The Narmada River is also worshipped as mother goddess by Narmadeeya Brahmins.
The importance of the Narmada River as sacred is testified by the fact that the pilgrims perform a holy pilgrimage of aparikrama or circumambulation of the river.[17] The Narmada Parikrama, as it is called, is considered to be a meritorious act that a pilgrim can undertake. Many sadhus and pilgrims walk on foot from the Arabian Sea at Bharuch in Gujarat, along the river, to the source in Maikal Mountains (Amarkantak hills) in Madhya Pradesh and back along the opposite bank of the river. It is a 2,600-kilometre (1,600 mi) walk.[18] Important towns of interest in the valley are Jabalpur, Barwani, Hoshangabad, Harda, Narmada Nagar, Omkareshwar, Dewas (Nemavar, Kity, Pipri), Mandla and Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh, andRajpipla and Bharuch in Gujarat. Some places of historical interest are Joga Ka Quilla, Chhatri of Baji Rao Peshwa andBhimbetka, and among the falls are the Dugdhdhara, Dhardi falls, Bheraghat, Dhuandhara, Kapiladhara and Sahastradhara. By Kailash Mansarovar Foundation Swami Bikash Giri www.sumeruparvat.com , www.naturalitem.com
NARMADA PARIKRAMA
The Narmada also called the Rewa, is a river in central India and the fifth longest river in the Indian subcontinent. It is the third longest river that flows entirely within India, after the Godavari and the Krishna. It is also known as "Life Line of Madhya Pradesh" for its huge contribution to the state of Madhya Pradesh in many ways. It forms the traditional boundary between North India and South India and flows westwards over a length of 1,312 km (815.2 mi) before draining through theGulf of Khambhat into the Arabian Sea, 30 km (18.6 mi) west of Bharuch city of Gujarat. It is one of only three major rivers in peninsular India that run from east to west (longest west flowing river), along with the Tapti River and the Mahi River. It is the one of the rivers in India that flows in a rift valley, flowing west between the Satpura and Vindhya ranges. The other rivers which flows through rift valley include Damodar River in Chota Nagpur Plateau and Tapti. The Tapti River and Mahi River also flow through rift valleys, but between different ranges. It flows through the states of Madhya Pradesh(1,077 km (669.2 mi)), and Maharashtra, (74 km (46.0 mi))– (35 km (21.7 mi)) then along the border between Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (39 km (24.2 mi) and the border between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and in Gujarat (161 km (100.0 mi)).
The Periplus Maris Erythraei (c. 80 AD) calls it the Nammadus, and theBritish Raj called it the Nerbudda or Narbada. Narmadā is a Sanskrit word meaning "the Giver of Pleasure".
To Hindus the Narmada is one of the five holy rivers of India; the other four beingGanges, Yamuna, Godavari and Kaveri. It is believed that a dip in any of these five rivers washes one's sins away. According to a legend, the river Ganges, polluted by millions of people bathing in it, assumes the form of a black cow and comes to the Narmada to bathe and cleanse itself in its holy waters. Legends also claim that the Narmada River is older than the river Ganges.
The river was mentioned by Ptolemy in the second century AD as Namade and by the author of the Periplus. The Ramayana, the Mahabharat, and thePuranas refer to it frequently. The Rewa Khand of Vayu Purana and the Rewa Khand of Skanda Purana are entirely devoted to the story of the birth and the importance of the river, and hence Narmada is also called the Rewa.
There are many fables about the origin of the Narmada. According to one of them, once Lord Shiva, the Destroyer of the Universe, meditated so hard that he started perspiring. Shiva's sweat accumulated in a tank and started flowing in the form of a river – the Narmada. Another legend has it that two teardrops that fell from the eyes of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, yielded two rivers – the Narmada and the Son.
Legends also say that for Lord Shiva, the Hindu God, the river is especially sacred on account of its origin, and it is often called Shankari, i.e., daughter of Shankar (Lord Shiva). All the pebbles rolling on its bed are said to take the shape of his emblem with the saying, "Narmada Ke Kanker utte Sankar" (a popular saying in the Hindi belt of India), which means that 'pebble stones of Narmada get a personified form of Shiva'. These lingam shaped stones (cryptocrytalline quartz), calledBanalinga also called (Banashivalingas) are much sought after for daily worship by the Hindus. The Brihadeeswara Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, constructed by Rajaraja Chola, has one of the biggest Banalingas. Adi Shankara met his guru Govinda Bhagavatpada on the banks of the river Narmada.
Narmada is also said to have been in love with the Sonbhadra, another river flowing on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. According to the Puranas, the Narmada is also called the Rewa, from its leaping motion (from the root 'rev') through its rocky bed.
Important religious places and Ghats along the course of the river, starting from its origin at Narmadakhund at Amarkantakhill, are a) the Amarkantak (in Sanskrit: Neck of Shiva) or Teertharaj (the King of Pilgrimages), b) Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, and Mahadeo temples, Nemawar Siddeshwar Mandir in the middle reach of the river – all named after Shiva, c) Chausath Yogini (sixty four yoginis) temple, d) Chaubis Avatar temple, e) Bhojpur Shiva temple and Bhrigu Rishi temple in Bharuch. The Narmada River is also worshipped as mother goddess by Narmadeeya Brahmins.
The importance of the Narmada River as sacred is testified by the fact that the pilgrims perform a holy pilgrimage of aparikrama or circumambulation of the river.[17] The Narmada Parikrama, as it is called, is considered to be a meritorious act that a pilgrim can undertake. Many sadhus and pilgrims walk on foot from the Arabian Sea at Bharuch in Gujarat, along the river, to the source in Maikal Mountains (Amarkantak hills) in Madhya Pradesh and back along the opposite bank of the river. It is a 2,600-kilometre (1,600 mi) walk.[18] Important towns of interest in the valley are Jabalpur, Barwani, Hoshangabad, Harda, Narmada Nagar, Omkareshwar, Dewas (Nemavar, Kity, Pipri), Mandla and Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh, andRajpipla and Bharuch in Gujarat. Some places of historical interest are Joga Ka Quilla, Chhatri of Baji Rao Peshwa andBhimbetka, and among the falls are the Dugdhdhara, Dhardi falls, Bheraghat, Dhuandhara, Kapiladhara and Sahastradhara. By Kailash Mansarovar Foundation Swami Bikash Giri www.sumeruparvat.com , www.naturalitem.com
NARMADA PARIKRAMA
The Narmada also called the Rewa, is a river in central India and the fifth longest river in the Indian subcontinent. It is the third longest river that flows entirely within India, after the Godavari and the Krishna. It is also known as "Life Line of Madhya Pradesh" for its huge contribution to the state of Madhya Pradesh in many ways. It forms the traditional boundary between North India and South India and flows westwards over a length of 1,312 km (815.2 mi) before draining through theGulf of Khambhat into the Arabian Sea, 30 km (18.6 mi) west of Bharuch city of Gujarat. It is one of only three major rivers in peninsular India that run from east to west (longest west flowing river), along with the Tapti River and the Mahi River. It is the one of the rivers in India that flows in a rift valley, flowing west between the Satpura and Vindhya ranges. The other rivers which flows through rift valley include Damodar River in Chota Nagpur Plateau and Tapti. The Tapti River and Mahi River also flow through rift valleys, but between different ranges. It flows through the states of Madhya Pradesh(1,077 km (669.2 mi)), and Maharashtra, (74 km (46.0 mi))– (35 km (21.7 mi)) then along the border between Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (39 km (24.2 mi) and the border between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and in Gujarat (161 km (100.0 mi)).
The Periplus Maris Erythraei (c. 80 AD) calls it the Nammadus, and theBritish Raj called it the Nerbudda or Narbada. Narmadā is a Sanskrit word meaning "the Giver of Pleasure".
To Hindus the Narmada is one of the five holy rivers of India; the other four beingGanges, Yamuna, Godavari and Kaveri. It is believed that a dip in any of these five rivers washes one's sins away. According to a legend, the river Ganges, polluted by millions of people bathing in it, assumes the form of a black cow and comes to the Narmada to bathe and cleanse itself in its holy waters. Legends also claim that the Narmada River is older than the river Ganges.
The river was mentioned by Ptolemy in the second century AD as Namade and by the author of the Periplus. The Ramayana, the Mahabharat, and thePuranas refer to it frequently. The Rewa Khand of Vayu Purana and the Rewa Khand of Skanda Purana are entirely devoted to the story of the birth and the importance of the river, and hence Narmada is also called the Rewa.
There are many fables about the origin of the Narmada. According to one of them, once Lord Shiva, the Destroyer of the Universe, meditated so hard that he started perspiring. Shiva's sweat accumulated in a tank and started flowing in the form of a river – the Narmada. Another legend has it that two teardrops that fell from the eyes of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, yielded two rivers – the Narmada and the Son.
Legends also say that for Lord Shiva, the Hindu God, the river is especially sacred on account of its origin, and it is often called Shankari, i.e., daughter of Shankar (Lord Shiva). All the pebbles rolling on its bed are said to take the shape of his emblem with the saying, "Narmada Ke Kanker utte Sankar" (a popular saying in the Hindi belt of India), which means that 'pebble stones of Narmada get a personified form of Shiva'. These lingam shaped stones (cryptocrytalline quartz), calledBanalinga also called (Banashivalingas) are much sought after for daily worship by the Hindus. The Brihadeeswara Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, constructed by Rajaraja Chola, has one of the biggest Banalingas. Adi Shankara met his guru Govinda Bhagavatpada on the banks of the river Narmada.
Narmada is also said to have been in love with the Sonbhadra, another river flowing on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. According to the Puranas, the Narmada is also called the Rewa, from its leaping motion (from the root 'rev') through its rocky bed.
Important religious places and Ghats along the course of the river, starting from its origin at Narmadakhund at Amarkantakhill, are a) the Amarkantak (in Sanskrit: Neck of Shiva) or Teertharaj (the King of Pilgrimages), b) Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, and Mahadeo temples, Nemawar Siddeshwar Mandir in the middle reach of the river – all named after Shiva, c) Chausath Yogini (sixty four yoginis) temple, d) Chaubis Avatar temple, e) Bhojpur Shiva temple and Bhrigu Rishi temple in Bharuch. The Narmada River is also worshipped as mother goddess by Narmadeeya Brahmins.
The importance of the Narmada River as sacred is testified by the fact that the pilgrims perform a holy pilgrimage of aparikrama or circumambulation of the river.[17] The Narmada Parikrama, as it is called, is considered to be a meritorious act that a pilgrim can undertake. Many sadhus and pilgrims walk on foot from the Arabian Sea at Bharuch in Gujarat, along the river, to the source in Maikal Mountains (Amarkantak hills) in Madhya Pradesh and back along the opposite bank of the river. It is a 2,600-kilometre (1,600 mi) walk.[18] Important towns of interest in the valley are Jabalpur, Barwani, Hoshangabad, Harda, Narmada Nagar, Omkareshwar, Dewas (Nemavar, Kity, Pipri), Mandla and Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh, andRajpipla and Bharuch in Gujarat. Some places of historical interest are Joga Ka Quilla, Chhatri of Baji Rao Peshwa andBhimbetka, and among the falls are the Dugdhdhara, Dhardi falls, Bheraghat, Dhuandhara, Kapiladhara and Sahastradhara. By Kailash Mansarovar Foundation Swami Bikash Giri www.sumeruparvat.com , www.naturalitem.com
jetBlue Airways - Airbus A320-232 - N588JB (c/n 2215) - Hopelessly Devoted to Blue
jetBlue Airways - Airbus A320-232 - N586JB (c/n 2160) - I [Heart] Blue York (Blueflight Special)
N586JB wearing jetBlue's "I ♥ Blue York" special livery. N586JB formerly wore the name "Blueflight Special."
Dance in NCK (Nowohuckie Centrum Kultury), devoted to the remembrance of Professor Janina Strzembosz. Kraków-Nowa Huta, Poland
A few devoted pataphysicians spent their Sunday afternoon preparing the Pataphysical Slot Machine exhibit for our open studio and soirée at the Figurine Ranch:
• We spread out a beautiful persian rug on loan from Dr. Skidz;
• We added black muslin behind the slot machine to make the art pop;
• Dr. Heatshrink performed last minute electronic sugery to bring a few boxes back to life;
• Dr. Canard hot glued a few parts that had fallen out of place;
• Drs. Figurine and Fabio set up the lights and sounds, then called it a day.
Vive la ‘Pataphysique!
View more 'Pataphysical photos: www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157623637793277
Learn more about Pataphysical Studios: pataphysics.us/
This summer Kunsthal Rotterdam dedicates an exhibition to the internationally renowned contemporary artist Antony Gormley, the first one devoted to the sculptor in the Netherlands. The exhibition marks the purchase of the art work entitled Another Time II, which will be permanently positioned at the park side of the Kunsthal. During the exhibition, the sculpture is part of a spectacular installation entitled Event Horizon, which will be spread over fifteen buildings, silhouetted against the skyline of Rotterdam. In the monumental daylight hall of the building by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, Gormley stages two of his prominent installations, Allotment II (1996) and Critical Mass II (1995), together weighing as much as 100 tons, which have been transported to the Kunsthal by special flatbed trailers.
YOMUNATRI Photo Made By Kailash Mansarovar Foundation , Swami Bikash Giri , www.sumeruparvat.com , www.naturalitem.com
Yamunotri (Hindi: यमुनोत्री) is the source of the Yamuna River and the seat of the Goddess Yamuna in Hinduism. It is situated at an altitude of 3,293 metres (10,804 ft) in the Garhwal Himalayas and located approximately 30 kilometers (19 mi) North of Uttarkashi, the headquarters of the Uttarkashi district in the Garhwal Division of Uttarakhand, India. It is one of the four sites in India's Chhota Char Dham pilgrimage. The sacred shrine of Yamunotri, source of the river Yamuna, is the westernmost shrine in the Garhwal Himalayas, perched atop a flank of Bandar Poonch Parvat. The chief attraction at Yamunotri is the temple devoted to the Goddess Yamuna and the holy thermal springs at Janki Chatti (7 km. Away).
The actual source, a frozen lake of ice and glacier (Champasar Glacier) located on the Kalind Mountain at a height of 4,421 m above sea level, about 1 km further up, is not frequented generally as it is not accessible; hence the shrine has been located on the foot of the hill. The approach is extremely difficult and pilgrims therefore offer puja at the temple itself.
The temple of Yamuna, on the left bank of the Yamuna, was constructed by Maharaja Pratap Shah of Tehri Garhwal. The deity is made of black marble. The Yamuna, like the Ganges, has been elevated to the status of a divine mother for the Hindus and has been held responsible for nurturing and developing the Indian civilization.
Close to the temple are hot water springs gushing out from the mountain cavities. Surya Kund is the most important kund. Near the Surya Kund there is a shila called Divya Shila, which is worshipped before puja is offered to the deity. Devotees prepare rice and potatoes, tied in muslin cloth, to offer at the shrine by dipping them in these hot water springs. Rice so cooked is taken back home as prasadam. The pujaris of Yamunotri come from the village of Kharsali near Janki Chatti. They are the administrators of the sacred place and perform religious rites. They are well-versed in the Shastras.
According to the legend ancient, sage Asit Muni had his hermitage here. All his life, he bathed daily both in the Ganges and the Yamuna. Unable to go to Gangotri during his old age, a stream of the Ganges appeared opposite Yamunotri for him.
The temple and the place opens every year on the auspicious day of the Akshaya Tritya, which generally falls during the last week of April, or the first week of May. The temple always closes on the sacred day of Diwali in mid-October - first week of November, with a brief ceremony. The temple staff return to their villages and for the rest of the time the valley is gripped in no-man silence and covered with a white sheet of snow. With the melting of the snow next summer, the temple re-opens.
The daughter of the Sun god, Surya and consciousness, Sangya the birthplace of the Yamuna is the Champasar Glacier (4,421 m) just below the Banderpoonch Mountain. The mountain adjacent to the river source is dedicated to her father, and is called Kalind Parvat, Kalind being another name of Surya. Yamuna is known for her frivolousness, a trait that she developed because, according to a common story, Yamuna's mother could never make eye contact with her dazzling husband.
Yamunotri Temple is situated in the western region of Garhwal Himalayas at an altitude of 3,235 metres (10,614 ft) near the river source.[3] The original temple was built by Maharani Guleria of Jaipur in the 19th century. The current temple is of recent origin as earlier constructions have been destroyed by weather and the elements. There seems to be a confusion as to who built the temple of Yamunotri. However according to sources, the temple was originally constructed by Maharaja Pratap Shah of Tehri Garhwal.
Meeting Hilary Duff in NYC for the first stop on her devoted book tour! First time meeting hilary, she's so sweet :)
#Saiva #samaya #kuravar #Naalva (the four great #saints - #Nayanmars of #Saiva #path) - #Sri #Appar, #Sundarar, #Sambandar and #Manickavasagar. Each of them #devoted themselves in their own way on the methods of prescribed by #Saiva principles - #Sarya, #Kriya, #Yoga and #`Gnana. All of these #saints are #sculpted using #`brass resembling the actuals one available in temples. Performing #pooja and #worshipping #Lord #Shiva through their hymns brings the #bliss of #Lord #Shiva. These four #statues are perfect in all aspects.
Design: Made in heavy #shining #brass.
#Brass is well known for its grasping capacity. It grasps the divine spirit upto 30%, when compared to other metals. The #spiritual #vibrations are #attracted #towards these #shining #idols easily.
Dimensions: 4 inches (H) x 1.5 inches (W) x 1.5 inches (depth)
Weight of set: 620 gms
Quantity: 4 pcs
Importance of #Idol #worship: #Idols are not the idle fancies of #sculptors, but #shining channels through which the heart of the #devotee is attracted to and #flows #towards #God. Though the image is worshipped, the #devotee feels the presence of the #Lord in it and pours out his #devotion unto it. Regular worship, #Puja and other modes of demonstrating our inner feeling of recognition of #Divinity in the #idol unveils the #Divinity latent in it. This is truly a wonder and a #miracle. The picture comes to life. The #idol speaks. It will answer your questions and solve your problems. The #God in you has the power to awaken the latent Divinity in the idol. The lives of #Mirabai, #Sant #Tukaram, #Shri #Ramakrishna #Paramhansa and #Shri #Yogananda are a few instances to prove the point. They proved #beyond doubt that idol worship has its own brighter side and through simple faith and intense #devotion one can realize #God through it.
Idols are the "finite representation of the Infinite". As per #Vishnu #Samhita (ch 29, v 55-7), persuasively endorses the use of imagery (#idols) and puts it: "Without a form how can #God be mediated upon? If (He is) without any form, where will the mind fix itself? When there is nothing for the mind to attach itself to, it will slip away from #meditation or will glide into a state of slumber. Therefore the wise will meditate on some form, remembering, however, that the form is a superimposition and not a #reality."
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I have a set devoted to Park Hill:
www.flickr.com/photos/shefftim/sets/72157642537014264/
Park Hill is a large disused council built social housing estate in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It was built in the late 1950s. It was closed in 1998 following a period of steep decline and a reputation for crime, drugs & social problems. It now is largely depopulated, though its nursery school is still open.
The estate is structurally sound & has Grade II listed building status for its modernist style, influenced by the architect Le Corbusier. Part of the estate is currently being renovated by developer Urban Splash.
More on Park Hill’s history:
www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/architecture/9551327/Mult...
My beautiful, talented friend--a devoted wife and mother--who passed away on 1/31/19. I don't know what else to say.
The derserted mandir stands obscure amongst clusters of houses and flows of people who do not come inside to worship the gods that it is devoted to.
Nobodys knows much about it. The only information I read online indicates that it may be built at the order of Maharaja Gulab Singh, a powerful Keshmiri king who expanded his rule into Chiniot after the 2nd Anglo-Sikh War.
It now houses a school.
My heartful and sincere thanks goes to Maan Usman an excellent photographer, without whom my Chiniot visit would have been aborted, and Bhai Riaz, security guard of Government Institute of Commerce, Chiniot, a friend of Maan Usman, who kindly led us to all these wonderful places in a strange city Chiniot.
So far as I know, Lahoris are good at eating and enjoying life. So here's my suggestion to all Lahoris: Go visit Chiniot; It's a wonderful place much worthy of a one-day trip!
For Chiniot:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiniot
NARMADA PARIKRAMA
The Narmada also called the Rewa, is a river in central India and the fifth longest river in the Indian subcontinent. It is the third longest river that flows entirely within India, after the Godavari and the Krishna. It is also known as "Life Line of Madhya Pradesh" for its huge contribution to the state of Madhya Pradesh in many ways. It forms the traditional boundary between North India and South India and flows westwards over a length of 1,312 km (815.2 mi) before draining through theGulf of Khambhat into the Arabian Sea, 30 km (18.6 mi) west of Bharuch city of Gujarat. It is one of only three major rivers in peninsular India that run from east to west (longest west flowing river), along with the Tapti River and the Mahi River. It is the one of the rivers in India that flows in a rift valley, flowing west between the Satpura and Vindhya ranges. The other rivers which flows through rift valley include Damodar River in Chota Nagpur Plateau and Tapti. The Tapti River and Mahi River also flow through rift valleys, but between different ranges. It flows through the states of Madhya Pradesh(1,077 km (669.2 mi)), and Maharashtra, (74 km (46.0 mi))– (35 km (21.7 mi)) then along the border between Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (39 km (24.2 mi) and the border between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and in Gujarat (161 km (100.0 mi)).
The Periplus Maris Erythraei (c. 80 AD) calls it the Nammadus, and theBritish Raj called it the Nerbudda or Narbada. Narmadā is a Sanskrit word meaning "the Giver of Pleasure".
To Hindus the Narmada is one of the five holy rivers of India; the other four beingGanges, Yamuna, Godavari and Kaveri. It is believed that a dip in any of these five rivers washes one's sins away. According to a legend, the river Ganges, polluted by millions of people bathing in it, assumes the form of a black cow and comes to the Narmada to bathe and cleanse itself in its holy waters. Legends also claim that the Narmada River is older than the river Ganges.
The river was mentioned by Ptolemy in the second century AD as Namade and by the author of the Periplus. The Ramayana, the Mahabharat, and thePuranas refer to it frequently. The Rewa Khand of Vayu Purana and the Rewa Khand of Skanda Purana are entirely devoted to the story of the birth and the importance of the river, and hence Narmada is also called the Rewa.
There are many fables about the origin of the Narmada. According to one of them, once Lord Shiva, the Destroyer of the Universe, meditated so hard that he started perspiring. Shiva's sweat accumulated in a tank and started flowing in the form of a river – the Narmada. Another legend has it that two teardrops that fell from the eyes of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, yielded two rivers – the Narmada and the Son.
Legends also say that for Lord Shiva, the Hindu God, the river is especially sacred on account of its origin, and it is often called Shankari, i.e., daughter of Shankar (Lord Shiva). All the pebbles rolling on its bed are said to take the shape of his emblem with the saying, "Narmada Ke Kanker utte Sankar" (a popular saying in the Hindi belt of India), which means that 'pebble stones of Narmada get a personified form of Shiva'. These lingam shaped stones (cryptocrytalline quartz), calledBanalinga also called (Banashivalingas) are much sought after for daily worship by the Hindus. The Brihadeeswara Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, constructed by Rajaraja Chola, has one of the biggest Banalingas. Adi Shankara met his guru Govinda Bhagavatpada on the banks of the river Narmada.
Narmada is also said to have been in love with the Sonbhadra, another river flowing on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. According to the Puranas, the Narmada is also called the Rewa, from its leaping motion (from the root 'rev') through its rocky bed.
Important religious places and Ghats along the course of the river, starting from its origin at Narmadakhund at Amarkantakhill, are a) the Amarkantak (in Sanskrit: Neck of Shiva) or Teertharaj (the King of Pilgrimages), b) Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, and Mahadeo temples, Nemawar Siddeshwar Mandir in the middle reach of the river – all named after Shiva, c) Chausath Yogini (sixty four yoginis) temple, d) Chaubis Avatar temple, e) Bhojpur Shiva temple and Bhrigu Rishi temple in Bharuch. The Narmada River is also worshipped as mother goddess by Narmadeeya Brahmins.
The importance of the Narmada River as sacred is testified by the fact that the pilgrims perform a holy pilgrimage of aparikrama or circumambulation of the river.[17] The Narmada Parikrama, as it is called, is considered to be a meritorious act that a pilgrim can undertake. Many sadhus and pilgrims walk on foot from the Arabian Sea at Bharuch in Gujarat, along the river, to the source in Maikal Mountains (Amarkantak hills) in Madhya Pradesh and back along the opposite bank of the river. It is a 2,600-kilometre (1,600 mi) walk.[18] Important towns of interest in the valley are Jabalpur, Barwani, Hoshangabad, Harda, Narmada Nagar, Omkareshwar, Dewas (Nemavar, Kity, Pipri), Mandla and Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh, andRajpipla and Bharuch in Gujarat. Some places of historical interest are Joga Ka Quilla, Chhatri of Baji Rao Peshwa andBhimbetka, and among the falls are the Dugdhdhara, Dhardi falls, Bheraghat, Dhuandhara, Kapiladhara and Sahastradhara. By Kailash Mansarovar Foundation Swami Bikash Giri www.sumeruparvat.com , www.naturalitem.com
NARMADA PARIKRAMA
The Narmada also called the Rewa, is a river in central India and the fifth longest river in the Indian subcontinent. It is the third longest river that flows entirely within India, after the Godavari and the Krishna. It is also known as "Life Line of Madhya Pradesh" for its huge contribution to the state of Madhya Pradesh in many ways. It forms the traditional boundary between North India and South India and flows westwards over a length of 1,312 km (815.2 mi) before draining through theGulf of Khambhat into the Arabian Sea, 30 km (18.6 mi) west of Bharuch city of Gujarat. It is one of only three major rivers in peninsular India that run from east to west (longest west flowing river), along with the Tapti River and the Mahi River. It is the one of the rivers in India that flows in a rift valley, flowing west between the Satpura and Vindhya ranges. The other rivers which flows through rift valley include Damodar River in Chota Nagpur Plateau and Tapti. The Tapti River and Mahi River also flow through rift valleys, but between different ranges. It flows through the states of Madhya Pradesh(1,077 km (669.2 mi)), and Maharashtra, (74 km (46.0 mi))– (35 km (21.7 mi)) then along the border between Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (39 km (24.2 mi) and the border between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and in Gujarat (161 km (100.0 mi)).
The Periplus Maris Erythraei (c. 80 AD) calls it the Nammadus, and theBritish Raj called it the Nerbudda or Narbada. Narmadā is a Sanskrit word meaning "the Giver of Pleasure".
To Hindus the Narmada is one of the five holy rivers of India; the other four beingGanges, Yamuna, Godavari and Kaveri. It is believed that a dip in any of these five rivers washes one's sins away. According to a legend, the river Ganges, polluted by millions of people bathing in it, assumes the form of a black cow and comes to the Narmada to bathe and cleanse itself in its holy waters. Legends also claim that the Narmada River is older than the river Ganges.
The river was mentioned by Ptolemy in the second century AD as Namade and by the author of the Periplus. The Ramayana, the Mahabharat, and thePuranas refer to it frequently. The Rewa Khand of Vayu Purana and the Rewa Khand of Skanda Purana are entirely devoted to the story of the birth and the importance of the river, and hence Narmada is also called the Rewa.
There are many fables about the origin of the Narmada. According to one of them, once Lord Shiva, the Destroyer of the Universe, meditated so hard that he started perspiring. Shiva's sweat accumulated in a tank and started flowing in the form of a river – the Narmada. Another legend has it that two teardrops that fell from the eyes of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, yielded two rivers – the Narmada and the Son.
Legends also say that for Lord Shiva, the Hindu God, the river is especially sacred on account of its origin, and it is often called Shankari, i.e., daughter of Shankar (Lord Shiva). All the pebbles rolling on its bed are said to take the shape of his emblem with the saying, "Narmada Ke Kanker utte Sankar" (a popular saying in the Hindi belt of India), which means that 'pebble stones of Narmada get a personified form of Shiva'. These lingam shaped stones (cryptocrytalline quartz), calledBanalinga also called (Banashivalingas) are much sought after for daily worship by the Hindus. The Brihadeeswara Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, constructed by Rajaraja Chola, has one of the biggest Banalingas. Adi Shankara met his guru Govinda Bhagavatpada on the banks of the river Narmada.
Narmada is also said to have been in love with the Sonbhadra, another river flowing on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. According to the Puranas, the Narmada is also called the Rewa, from its leaping motion (from the root 'rev') through its rocky bed.
Important religious places and Ghats along the course of the river, starting from its origin at Narmadakhund at Amarkantakhill, are a) the Amarkantak (in Sanskrit: Neck of Shiva) or Teertharaj (the King of Pilgrimages), b) Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, and Mahadeo temples, Nemawar Siddeshwar Mandir in the middle reach of the river – all named after Shiva, c) Chausath Yogini (sixty four yoginis) temple, d) Chaubis Avatar temple, e) Bhojpur Shiva temple and Bhrigu Rishi temple in Bharuch. The Narmada River is also worshipped as mother goddess by Narmadeeya Brahmins.
The importance of the Narmada River as sacred is testified by the fact that the pilgrims perform a holy pilgrimage of aparikrama or circumambulation of the river.[17] The Narmada Parikrama, as it is called, is considered to be a meritorious act that a pilgrim can undertake. Many sadhus and pilgrims walk on foot from the Arabian Sea at Bharuch in Gujarat, along the river, to the source in Maikal Mountains (Amarkantak hills) in Madhya Pradesh and back along the opposite bank of the river. It is a 2,600-kilometre (1,600 mi) walk.[18] Important towns of interest in the valley are Jabalpur, Barwani, Hoshangabad, Harda, Narmada Nagar, Omkareshwar, Dewas (Nemavar, Kity, Pipri), Mandla and Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh, andRajpipla and Bharuch in Gujarat. Some places of historical interest are Joga Ka Quilla, Chhatri of Baji Rao Peshwa andBhimbetka, and among the falls are the Dugdhdhara, Dhardi falls, Bheraghat, Dhuandhara, Kapiladhara and Sahastradhara. By Kailash Mansarovar Foundation Swami Bikash Giri www.sumeruparvat.com , www.naturalitem.com
NARMADA PARIKRAMA
The Narmada also called the Rewa, is a river in central India and the fifth longest river in the Indian subcontinent. It is the third longest river that flows entirely within India, after the Godavari and the Krishna. It is also known as "Life Line of Madhya Pradesh" for its huge contribution to the state of Madhya Pradesh in many ways. It forms the traditional boundary between North India and South India and flows westwards over a length of 1,312 km (815.2 mi) before draining through theGulf of Khambhat into the Arabian Sea, 30 km (18.6 mi) west of Bharuch city of Gujarat. It is one of only three major rivers in peninsular India that run from east to west (longest west flowing river), along with the Tapti River and the Mahi River. It is the one of the rivers in India that flows in a rift valley, flowing west between the Satpura and Vindhya ranges. The other rivers which flows through rift valley include Damodar River in Chota Nagpur Plateau and Tapti. The Tapti River and Mahi River also flow through rift valleys, but between different ranges. It flows through the states of Madhya Pradesh(1,077 km (669.2 mi)), and Maharashtra, (74 km (46.0 mi))– (35 km (21.7 mi)) then along the border between Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (39 km (24.2 mi) and the border between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and in Gujarat (161 km (100.0 mi)).
The Periplus Maris Erythraei (c. 80 AD) calls it the Nammadus, and theBritish Raj called it the Nerbudda or Narbada. Narmadā is a Sanskrit word meaning "the Giver of Pleasure".
To Hindus the Narmada is one of the five holy rivers of India; the other four beingGanges, Yamuna, Godavari and Kaveri. It is believed that a dip in any of these five rivers washes one's sins away. According to a legend, the river Ganges, polluted by millions of people bathing in it, assumes the form of a black cow and comes to the Narmada to bathe and cleanse itself in its holy waters. Legends also claim that the Narmada River is older than the river Ganges.
The river was mentioned by Ptolemy in the second century AD as Namade and by the author of the Periplus. The Ramayana, the Mahabharat, and thePuranas refer to it frequently. The Rewa Khand of Vayu Purana and the Rewa Khand of Skanda Purana are entirely devoted to the story of the birth and the importance of the river, and hence Narmada is also called the Rewa.
There are many fables about the origin of the Narmada. According to one of them, once Lord Shiva, the Destroyer of the Universe, meditated so hard that he started perspiring. Shiva's sweat accumulated in a tank and started flowing in the form of a river – the Narmada. Another legend has it that two teardrops that fell from the eyes of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, yielded two rivers – the Narmada and the Son.
Legends also say that for Lord Shiva, the Hindu God, the river is especially sacred on account of its origin, and it is often called Shankari, i.e., daughter of Shankar (Lord Shiva). All the pebbles rolling on its bed are said to take the shape of his emblem with the saying, "Narmada Ke Kanker utte Sankar" (a popular saying in the Hindi belt of India), which means that 'pebble stones of Narmada get a personified form of Shiva'. These lingam shaped stones (cryptocrytalline quartz), calledBanalinga also called (Banashivalingas) are much sought after for daily worship by the Hindus. The Brihadeeswara Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, constructed by Rajaraja Chola, has one of the biggest Banalingas. Adi Shankara met his guru Govinda Bhagavatpada on the banks of the river Narmada.
Narmada is also said to have been in love with the Sonbhadra, another river flowing on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. According to the Puranas, the Narmada is also called the Rewa, from its leaping motion (from the root 'rev') through its rocky bed.
Important religious places and Ghats along the course of the river, starting from its origin at Narmadakhund at Amarkantakhill, are a) the Amarkantak (in Sanskrit: Neck of Shiva) or Teertharaj (the King of Pilgrimages), b) Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, and Mahadeo temples, Nemawar Siddeshwar Mandir in the middle reach of the river – all named after Shiva, c) Chausath Yogini (sixty four yoginis) temple, d) Chaubis Avatar temple, e) Bhojpur Shiva temple and Bhrigu Rishi temple in Bharuch. The Narmada River is also worshipped as mother goddess by Narmadeeya Brahmins.
The importance of the Narmada River as sacred is testified by the fact that the pilgrims perform a holy pilgrimage of aparikrama or circumambulation of the river.[17] The Narmada Parikrama, as it is called, is considered to be a meritorious act that a pilgrim can undertake. Many sadhus and pilgrims walk on foot from the Arabian Sea at Bharuch in Gujarat, along the river, to the source in Maikal Mountains (Amarkantak hills) in Madhya Pradesh and back along the opposite bank of the river. It is a 2,600-kilometre (1,600 mi) walk.[18] Important towns of interest in the valley are Jabalpur, Barwani, Hoshangabad, Harda, Narmada Nagar, Omkareshwar, Dewas (Nemavar, Kity, Pipri), Mandla and Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh, andRajpipla and Bharuch in Gujarat. Some places of historical interest are Joga Ka Quilla, Chhatri of Baji Rao Peshwa andBhimbetka, and among the falls are the Dugdhdhara, Dhardi falls, Bheraghat, Dhuandhara, Kapiladhara and Sahastradhara. By Kailash Mansarovar Foundation Swami Bikash Giri www.sumeruparvat.com , www.naturalitem.com
NARMADA PARIKRAMA
The Narmada also called the Rewa, is a river in central India and the fifth longest river in the Indian subcontinent. It is the third longest river that flows entirely within India, after the Godavari and the Krishna. It is also known as "Life Line of Madhya Pradesh" for its huge contribution to the state of Madhya Pradesh in many ways. It forms the traditional boundary between North India and South India and flows westwards over a length of 1,312 km (815.2 mi) before draining through theGulf of Khambhat into the Arabian Sea, 30 km (18.6 mi) west of Bharuch city of Gujarat. It is one of only three major rivers in peninsular India that run from east to west (longest west flowing river), along with the Tapti River and the Mahi River. It is the one of the rivers in India that flows in a rift valley, flowing west between the Satpura and Vindhya ranges. The other rivers which flows through rift valley include Damodar River in Chota Nagpur Plateau and Tapti. The Tapti River and Mahi River also flow through rift valleys, but between different ranges. It flows through the states of Madhya Pradesh(1,077 km (669.2 mi)), and Maharashtra, (74 km (46.0 mi))– (35 km (21.7 mi)) then along the border between Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (39 km (24.2 mi) and the border between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and in Gujarat (161 km (100.0 mi)).
The Periplus Maris Erythraei (c. 80 AD) calls it the Nammadus, and theBritish Raj called it the Nerbudda or Narbada. Narmadā is a Sanskrit word meaning "the Giver of Pleasure".
To Hindus the Narmada is one of the five holy rivers of India; the other four beingGanges, Yamuna, Godavari and Kaveri. It is believed that a dip in any of these five rivers washes one's sins away. According to a legend, the river Ganges, polluted by millions of people bathing in it, assumes the form of a black cow and comes to the Narmada to bathe and cleanse itself in its holy waters. Legends also claim that the Narmada River is older than the river Ganges.
The river was mentioned by Ptolemy in the second century AD as Namade and by the author of the Periplus. The Ramayana, the Mahabharat, and thePuranas refer to it frequently. The Rewa Khand of Vayu Purana and the Rewa Khand of Skanda Purana are entirely devoted to the story of the birth and the importance of the river, and hence Narmada is also called the Rewa.
There are many fables about the origin of the Narmada. According to one of them, once Lord Shiva, the Destroyer of the Universe, meditated so hard that he started perspiring. Shiva's sweat accumulated in a tank and started flowing in the form of a river – the Narmada. Another legend has it that two teardrops that fell from the eyes of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, yielded two rivers – the Narmada and the Son.
Legends also say that for Lord Shiva, the Hindu God, the river is especially sacred on account of its origin, and it is often called Shankari, i.e., daughter of Shankar (Lord Shiva). All the pebbles rolling on its bed are said to take the shape of his emblem with the saying, "Narmada Ke Kanker utte Sankar" (a popular saying in the Hindi belt of India), which means that 'pebble stones of Narmada get a personified form of Shiva'. These lingam shaped stones (cryptocrytalline quartz), calledBanalinga also called (Banashivalingas) are much sought after for daily worship by the Hindus. The Brihadeeswara Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, constructed by Rajaraja Chola, has one of the biggest Banalingas. Adi Shankara met his guru Govinda Bhagavatpada on the banks of the river Narmada.
Narmada is also said to have been in love with the Sonbhadra, another river flowing on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. According to the Puranas, the Narmada is also called the Rewa, from its leaping motion (from the root 'rev') through its rocky bed.
Important religious places and Ghats along the course of the river, starting from its origin at Narmadakhund at Amarkantakhill, are a) the Amarkantak (in Sanskrit: Neck of Shiva) or Teertharaj (the King of Pilgrimages), b) Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, and Mahadeo temples, Nemawar Siddeshwar Mandir in the middle reach of the river – all named after Shiva, c) Chausath Yogini (sixty four yoginis) temple, d) Chaubis Avatar temple, e) Bhojpur Shiva temple and Bhrigu Rishi temple in Bharuch. The Narmada River is also worshipped as mother goddess by Narmadeeya Brahmins.
The importance of the Narmada River as sacred is testified by the fact that the pilgrims perform a holy pilgrimage of aparikrama or circumambulation of the river.[17] The Narmada Parikrama, as it is called, is considered to be a meritorious act that a pilgrim can undertake. Many sadhus and pilgrims walk on foot from the Arabian Sea at Bharuch in Gujarat, along the river, to the source in Maikal Mountains (Amarkantak hills) in Madhya Pradesh and back along the opposite bank of the river. It is a 2,600-kilometre (1,600 mi) walk.[18] Important towns of interest in the valley are Jabalpur, Barwani, Hoshangabad, Harda, Narmada Nagar, Omkareshwar, Dewas (Nemavar, Kity, Pipri), Mandla and Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh, andRajpipla and Bharuch in Gujarat. Some places of historical interest are Joga Ka Quilla, Chhatri of Baji Rao Peshwa andBhimbetka, and among the falls are the Dugdhdhara, Dhardi falls, Bheraghat, Dhuandhara, Kapiladhara and Sahastradhara. By Kailash Mansarovar Foundation Swami Bikash Giri www.sumeruparvat.com , www.naturalitem.com
This advert tucked inside the January 1960 Meccano Magazine contrasts with all the rest that are devoted to childhood leisures and pleasures. My own destiny with the dreaded 11-Plus exam was to come one year later. The anticipation of it was already casting a shadow over my life.
Being aspirational middle-class parents, they were most determined that I should pass that exam and get to grammar school. The trouble was, my primary school performance to date made that prospect most uncertain.
Rather than resorting to a crammer’s correspondence course, my mother sought advice from the school teacher father of one of my friends, and bought a vast number of IQ test books. I had to stay indoors for large swathes of the school holidays having to crack those tests, while the rest of my friends played outside. I also had to practise improving my handwriting, as one of my primary school teachers had been obsessional on the issue.
I did pass the 11-Plus when the day came, but turning me into a junior swot came at some cost to my nascent social skills.
Meeting Hilary Duff in NYC for the first stop on her devoted book tour! First time meeting hilary, she's so sweet :)
I devoted this weekend to organizing my files and deleting photos that I will not use. This is one I found.
The Latvian Museum of Photography is the only museum in Riga devoted to photography. The museum is a division of the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation and is open for visitors since 1993. It is situated in an old merchant building from the 16th century, and in the exhibition halls the renovated colorful wall paintings and the historic parquet flooring ornament can be seen. The building is located near the Riga Film Museum and the Latvian Sport Museum on Alksnaju street in one of the oldest building areas of Riga dated from year 1500.
The author of the permanent exposition “Development of Photography in Latvia. 1839 – 1940” is the historian Peteris Korsaks who has worked for many years in the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation and the Latvian Museum of Photography. The exhibition is installed in the halls on the second floor, but the temporary expositions are exhibited on the third floor. In the museum exhibitions of Latvian and foreign photographers and scientific conferences are organized, as well as the museum's stored collections are exhibited on a regular basis. An authentic painted background used in the photo studio of photographer Martins Luste in Mazsalaca in the beginning of the 20th century can also be viewed in the museum. In addition to the exposition and other exhibitions, the museum experts offer tours, lectures and consultations.
The mission of the Latvian Museum of Photography is to study the development of photography in the territory of Latvia from its very beginning till nowadays. The main goal of the museum is to search for and to preserve photographic assets (photo negatives, copies, photo equipment, albums etc.), to supplement the collection with original works and other significant exhibits, to document the development of photography in Latvia, to make the information available to public and to promote incorporation of photography in current cultural events.
"The bench of the devoted....view taken at the opera." Honoré Daumier, 1852. #honoredaumier #cantorartscenter
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Inscription devoted to Venus , Museum of Lepcis Magna, Libya.
Num(ini)
Veneris Ad-
quisitricis
Aug(ustae) sacrum
Iucundus
Aug(usti) n(ostri) uer-
na uegtigalis (sic)
IIII p(ublicorum) A(fricae) uil(icus)
Lepcis mag(nae)
terrestris
d(e) s(uo) p(osuit).
Translation (from IRT 315a)
Sacred to the divine power of Venus the Acquirer, Augusta; Jucundus, home-born slave of our Augustus, in charge of the collection of the four public revenues of Africa for land-borne goods, set this up at his own expense.
Friday was devoted to exhibitors, conversations, and performances for Native Americans living in Michigan. Anishinabe Culture Day is followed Saturday with the many immigrant heritages in and around the city of Grand Rapids, many of which are showcased in the permanent exhibit on the 3rd floor, Newcomers, adjacent to the permanent exhibit, "People of this Place" about Native Americans then and now.
This video clip pans from south to north on the main floor atrium, flanked on the Grand River side by towering walls of glass. Other tables fit into the hallways of the two floors above, as well. A wide range of performing ensembles are scheduled from morning to afternoon in the upstairs theater, including a couple of intervals in which virtual (compact video overviews) tours of both the Native American and the Immigrant heritage permanent exhibits are presented. One of the notable census facts given during the movies is that 1 in 10 residents were born outside the USA. Middle-sized cities have enough economic opportunities without being overwhelmingly big to attract all kinds of non-native born people, whether that is foreign student, worker, refugee resettlement, or family members tied to earlier immigrants who settle in the city.
The mixture of people in face masks and those without can be seen to some extent. In the past week the city's regional hospital admissions for Covid on top of the normal influx of patients has led to nearly full capacity as Kent County and surrounding jurisdictions see rises in community transmission rates of the airborne virus on water droplets among the unvaccinated, chiefly, and to a far lesser extent for "breakthrough infections" among those receiving one of the vaccines earlier in 2021.
Press L for lightbox, black background viewing.
REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS
GENTIANA SEPTEMFIDA Var. LAGODECHIANA
Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
Visit : www.refordgardens.com
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
© Copyright
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chipuni submitted: I visited the Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba, Spain, and the Capilla de Epifania o Santos Reyes had this beautiful chapel devoted to the Three Kings. I don’t have the year, but other chapels were decorated in the 1500s. (The Catedral de Córdoba website has no information about this small chapel.)
This picture devoted to her owner Pomme&Rosa :D
well Her owner is away to University! as a freshman there are many thing to set up right now... so Yummy is with me to be taken care :P
I hope she's not so lonely and missing her mommy too much although she have the twins to play with :3
anyhoo i will try to upload Yummy's activity as much as i can!! don't worry Pompom
today concept is Country girl :D
Harry Strong GRIFFIN
Beloved husband of
E. GRIFFIN
Died May 2nd 1927
Aged 50
AT REST
After having given
26 years of devoted labour
In Samoa for the Samoans
Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Rev 14.13.
Area 2 Block M Lot No 80A
Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 102, 3 May 1927, Page 11
The many friends of Mr. Harry Strong Griffin, formerly master-printer of the famous Malua Printing Works of the London Missionary Society, Western Samoa, and, since the institution of civil government, Secretary of Native Affairs, Samoa Administration, will regret to hear that he died at Auckland last night. The late Mr. Griffin came to New Zealand in charge of the party of faipule (members, of the Native Parliament), who visited the Dominion as guests of the New Zealand Government about two years ago; and he came up again with the three Samoan chiefs who were appointed as a delegation to present a loyal address, on behalf of their people, to Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York. Mr. Griffin was then, in a serious state of health, and, although encouraging reports as to his condition has since been received, a telegram was received from Auckland to-day announcing his death. The late Mr. Griffin's loss will be sincerely mourned by the whole of the Native people of Samoa, to whom he was a wise and sympathetic guide and lifelong friend, and his death will also be deeply regretted by tho Administrator and the officials of tho Samoan Public Service, of which he was, a most able and distinguished member. Messages of sympathy have been sent to his widow by the Hon. W. Nosworthy (Minister of External Affairs), Sir Maui Pomare (Minister of the Cook Islands), and the staff of the Department of External Affairs.[3]
Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 102, 3 May 1927, Page 9
OBITUARY.
MR. H. S. GRIFFIN. The death occurred at his residence, Challinor Street, St. Helier's Bay, of Mr. Harry Strong Griffin, who was secretary for Native Affairs at Western Samoa. Mr. Griffin was born in New Zealand and lived for some time at Napier. He went to Apia many years ago in connection with the work of the London Missionary Society, to take charge of the printing work. Some years later, Mr. Griffin severed his connection with the L.M.S. to take service under the Government. As secretary for Native Affairs, Mr. Griffin possessed the full confidence of the Samoans and was also greatly respected by the European residents. Failing health compelled Mr. Griffin to come to Auckland to recuperate. His death took place somewhat unexpectedly while his medical attendant was in the room. Mrs. Griffin survives her husband. [1]
Wife was Evyleen Lillian Constance GRIFFIN nee ARMSTRONG whom he married 1907. She died circa 1955 aged 83 years[2]
New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13479, 2 July 1907, Page 1
GRIFFIN-ARMSTRONG On June 12 at St Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Napier, Evyleen Constance, daughter of the late Captain Armstrong of Auckland, and grandniece of the late General Sir George BELL, K.C.M.G., to Harry of London Missionary Society, Samoa.[4]
Wrote an introduction for the book O le Tusi FAALUPEGA o Samoa when a supervisor of the Malua Printing Press which published the book. “This book represents an important collection and moment in Samoa’s history, where indigenous Samoans collated the oratorical recollection of titles in written form. This was the first of its kind, as previous publications of fa’alupega were published through the work of foreigners.”
Te Papa has a copy, more information here
collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/1094507
Te Papa also wrote a blog post on it:
blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2013/05/29/a-collection-of-faalupega-...
SOURCES:
[1]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[2]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
and
NZ Department of Internal Affairs historic BDM indexes: Marriage registration 1907/2598
NZ Department of Internal Affairs historic BDM indexes: Death registration 1955/24632
[3]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[4]
“[M]y whole soul is devoted to building this church here” wrote Pugin to the Earl of Shrewsbury.
St Augustine’s Church is the ‘ideal Church’ of Augustus Welby Pugin (1812-1852) who constructed it between 1845-1852 next to his home ‘the Grange’ according to his ‘true principles of Christian architecture’. He described it as ‘my own child’ and it was to be ‘a revival of the old Kentish churches stone & flint’, with a chantry chapel ‘that may be the burial place of my family’.
It stands as symbol of the Catholic revival of the 19th century which Pugin’s own life and conversion in 1835 epitomises. The church is also an integral part of Pugin’s own Gothic revival which inspired the nation at large. It was being constructed at the same time that Pugin was designing the new Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.
Pugin moved to St Augustine’s in 1843 specifically ‘close to the spot where blessed Austin landed’. His building of the church therefore stands as a monument to the arrival of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England recalling the landing of St Augustine in 597AD. Pugin was keen to show that Catholicism and Gothic were part of the DNA of English identity and the church emphasises and celebrates the English saints in a particular way.
Pugin spared nothing in building this church and he would only use the finest material and workmen. He wrote to his son Edward, ‘I am giving you the best architectural lessons I can; watch the church’. The church provided Mass for local Catholics and visitors before a parish was formed. Ramsgate’s first post-reformation Catholic school was run from the site. At his death he gifted the Church to the Catholic community, for he always intended it to be “a Parochial church” (Pugin’s Letters).
The church’s exterior is stone covered with traditional hardy flint to withstand the weather. Its interior is also lined with Whitby stone forging a link with the great seaside church of St Hilda. There is exquisite decoration with stone and wood carvings throughout, unique statues, stained glass and ornate tiles. Pugin’s team for the church included other well knownassociates George Myers for construction, John Hardman Powell for the metalwork and especially stained glass and Herbert Minton for the tiles. Pugin died in 1852 before completing the project but the work was continued until 1893 and involved Edward Pugin (1834-75) and Peter Paul Pugin (1851-1904) and many of the original associates and their families.
St Augustine’s was consecrated in 1884 and Grade-1 listed only in 1988. From 1856 until 2010 the church was run by the Benedictine monks of St Augustine’s Abbey (which was constructed opposite by Edward Pugin). In 2010 the Benedictine Monks withdrew from the Church and it came under the jurisdiction of the Parish of SS Ethelbert and Gertrude, Ramsgate and Minster. In February 2011 after a sizeable grant from English Heritage, the church’s future was assured. It serves as a functioning local church of the Ramsgate and Minster Catholic parish and since March 1st 2012 as an official shrine of St Augustine for pilgrimage. It remains for all a monument of serious historical importance and site of great architectural, artistic and culture significance for the wider public.
Nikolaus Copernicus (born February 19 , 1473 in Thorn ; † May 24, 1543 in Frauenburg ; actually Niklas Koppernigk , Latinized Nicolaus Cop [ p ] ernicus , posthumously Polonized Mikołaj Kopernik ) was a canon of the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia in Prussia as well as an astronomer and doctor also devoted himself to mathematics and cartography .
In his main work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium from 1543, he describes a heliocentric world view , according to which the earth is a planet, rotates on its own axis and also moves around the sun like the other planets. The reception of the work led to the upheaval that is referred to as the “ Copernican turn ” and in historical science represents one of the turning points that mark the transition from the Middle Ages to modern times . In addition, in the work he interprets for the first time the slow shift of the vernal equinox as a result of a change in the orientation of the earth's axis .
Nikolaus Copernicus was the son of Niklas Koppernigk , a wealthy copper dealer and alderman in Thorn, and his wife Barbara Watzenrode. The Koppernigk family belonged to the German-speaking citizens of the Hanseatic city of Thorn in Kulmerland , the oldest city in Prussia , which broke away from the Teutonic Order state in association with the Prussian Confederation in the Thirteen Years' War and joined the King of Poland in 1467 as part of the autonomous Royal Prussia had subordinated to the patron. Copernicus' father had moved to Thorn between 1454 and 1458 from Kraków , where he had worked as a copper merchant. The mother's family was also wealthy. She originally came from Wazygenrode . In 1370 she came to Thorn, where Copernicus' grandfather Lukas Watzenrode (the elder) worked as a lay judge from 1440 and later as lay judge.
For a long time, the house at St. Annengasse 15/17 was considered the birthplace of Copernicus, which is why it was given the name “Copernicus House” and the entire street was renamed “Kopernika”. However, even before Copernicus was born, his parents had also purchased houses on the ring road around the town hall in the city center, where the most respected citizens lived. It is now assumed that the family had moved into their newly acquired semi-detached house on the ring in 1468 (today Rynek Staromiejski No. 36) , in the second half of which the Watzenrodes had lived for a long time, so Copernicus was probably more likely there was born.
The Koppernigk family was elected to the Third Order of St. Dominic accepted. When his father died in 1483, Nicholas was ten years old. His mother's brother, Lucas Watzenrode , Prince-Bishop of Warmia since 1489 , took care of the education of the four orphans after their parents' death . The older brother Andreas, like Nicholas, also became canon in Frauenburg, but fell ill with leprosy around 1508 , was later excluded and died around 1518, probably in Italy . The older sister Barbara Koppernigk became abbess in the monastery of Kulm , the younger Katharina married Barthel Gertner, a Krakow merchant.
Training
Copernicus was initially educated at the St. John's School in Thorn. In the years 1488 to 1491 he attended a secondary school. While some Copernicus researchers would like to see this school in Leslau ( Włocławek ), [6] there are numerous reasons for visiting the particular of the brothers' life together in Kulm (Chełmno), in particular the close connection of the Koppernigk and Watzenrode families to this neighboring town of Thorn , where several of Copernicus' female relatives lived in the Cistercian monastery, including Copernicus' step-aunt Katharina and later his sister Barbara as abbesses. Lukas Watzenrode was also particularly drawn to Kulm, so much so that in 1488 he even requested at the Polish Reichstag in Petrikau that the Kulm Cathedral Chapter, of which he was a member at the time, be moved from Kulmsee ( Chełmża ) to Kulm.
From 1491 to 1494, Copernicus attended the University of Kraków with his brother Andreas , where he studied the Seven Liberal Arts . He was a student of Albert de Brudzewo , among others , but did not obtain a degree there. During this time he also met the Silesian scholar Laurentius Corvinus , who later worked in Thorn.
In 1495 Copernicus was appointed canon of the Warmian Cathedral School in Frauenburg . His uncle Watzenrode sent him to the University of Bologna , where he began studying both laws in the winter semester of 1496/1497, but did not yet acquire an academic degree in it, and, as only became known after the middle of the 19th century, in the Matricula Nobilissimi Germanorum Collegii and Annales Clarissimae Nacionis Germanorum of the Natio Germanica Bononiae with the entry Dominus Nicolaus Kopperlingk de Thorn - IX grosseti is mentioned. In Bologna, Copernicus studied not only Greek with Urceus Codrus, but also astronomy and learned about newer theories on the movement of the planets with Domenico Maria da Novara . There he acquired the title of Master of Arts . [ Novara introduced him to the world of Neoplatonism , for which the sun was of particular importance as a material image of God or the One .
In 1500 Copernicus left Bologna and spent some time in Rome on the occasion of the Holy Year before returning to Frauenburg in Warmia in 1501 . He requested permission to extend his study stay in Italy and began studying medicine at the University of Padua that same year . At the same time, he continued his law studies. During this time, Copernicus was given the office of scholastic of the Breslau Kreuzkirche , which he did not exercise personally, but held until shortly before his death. Copernicus and his brother Andreas, who had also received a study permit, also stayed temporarily with the Curia in Rome as representatives of the Frauenburg Cathedral Chapter.
Copernicus received his doctorate in canon law ( Doctor iuris canonici ) from the University of Ferrara on May 31, 1503 . He did not obtain an academic degree in medicine.
In 1503 he returned to Warmia and began working as a secretary and doctor for his uncle Lucas Watzenrode, the Prince-Bishop of Warmia. Copernicus became a doctor and, through his uncle, got a job in the Warmian Cathedral Chapter in Frauenburg , in hoc remotissimo angulo terræ (“in the furthest corner of the world”), as he described the location of his workplace in the preface to the Pope in his main work . Watzenrode planned to have his nephew also become prince-bishop.
As an administrator, Copernicus had to regulate government affairs. In the negotiations over the reform of the Prussian coinage system, he worked out the position of the Prussian cities. He published a letter about this that was still seen as groundbreaking for monetary theory centuries later. In 1504 Copernicus took part in the Prussian state parliaments in Marienburg and Elbing , and in 1506 he spoke at the Prussian assembly of estates in Marienburg. As an administrator, he wrote the Locationes mansorum desertorum ( The Distribution of Abandoned Farms ) from 1516 to 1521.
Despite the difficult situation in Prussia, where cities and people fought for and against the Catholic government, Watzenrode, as prince-bishop and sovereign, and his nephew Copernicus were able to preserve Warmia's independence from the order and self-government powers from the Polish crown. Copernicus was elected chancellor of the Warmian Cathedral Chapter in 1510, 1519, 1525 and 1528. In 1510, Copernicus' first official act as chancellor was to travel to Allenstein , together with the later Prince-Bishop Fabian von Lossainen . The following year he attended the wedding of Sigismund I as his uncle's representative . After the death of the previous Bishop of Warmia , Mauritius Ferber, Copernicus was proposed as bishop by Tiedemann Giese in 1537, but was defeated by Johannes Dantiscus von Höfen .
In the military conflicts between the Teutonic Order and Poland, Copernicus, like his uncle, represented the side of the Prussian Confederation , which was allied with Poland against the Teutonic Order. After the destruction of Frauenburg by troops of Albert I of Brandenburg-Ansbach in 1520 in the so-called Equestrian War , Copernicus moved his residence to Allenstein . There he organized the defense of the city against the knights. Copernicus returned to Frauenburg in 1521. He became part of a royal Polish embassy to the Grand Master of the Order and Commissioner of Warmia for the restitution of properties belonging to the Polish Crown. From King Sigismund of Poland he obtained the release of places in Warmia that were occupied by (friendly) Polish troops. However, it was not possible to release locations occupied by Teutonic Knights troops.
Copernicus was still practicing as a doctor in his 69th year when Duke Albrecht wrote to him on April 6, 1541, asking him to assist the sick Georg von Kunheim the Elder , governor of Tapiau . Copernicus used either Latin or German for his correspondence until his old age.
Works
Astronomical research
Own observations
Copernicus worked as an observing astronomer, although with tools that were quite primitive compared to the possibilities of his time. It is not known exactly what type of instruments he had; The only thing that seems safe is the use of a three-rod . Only 63 of his own observations are known, of which he only used a small part for his main work . The accuracy he aimed for was 10 minutes of arc , which he sometimes missed considerably, while Tycho Brahe achieved the accuracy of half a minute of arc a short time later.
In Frauenburg, Copernicus also struggled with nature: “Because of the vapors” of the Vistula to the west , he was never able to observe the innermost planet Mercury or even determine its location. He therefore borrowed corresponding observations from contemporaries, such as the Franconian astronomer Johannes Schöner . His main work was largely based on the ancient data available to him.
History of origin About the changes in the heavenly circles
→ Main article : De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
In his unpublished Commentariolus , Copernicus put forward his theory of the revolution of the planets around the sun and the apparent movement of the fixed stars caused by the rotation of the Earth. Shortly before his death in 1543, he published his work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium , in which he explained the precession of the vernal equinox by a slow movement of the earth 's axis. When describing the orbits of planets, Copernicus used superpositions of uniform circular motions with a center near the sun. All of Copernicus' predecessors followed Hipparchus' view , who assumed that the cause of the precession was a slow rotation of the fixed star sphere. Copernicus' friends, in particular Bishop Tiedemann Giese and Cardinal Nikolaus von Schönberg , as well as Johannes Dantiscus von Höfen , tried to persuade Copernicus to publish his astronomical works. Cardinal Schönberg offered to cover the costs of printing the book. He hesitated for a long time, possibly because his partially inaccurate calculations of the planetary orbits, based on Aristotle 's idea - the circle as an ideal, harmonious, perfect mathematical structure - could not be supported by observations; There was therefore a risk of rejection by the scientific or ecclesiastical establishment. The British historian Hugh Kearney, on the other hand, suspects, citing Copernicus' student Georg Joachim Rheticus , that he refrained from publishing it due to his Neo-Platonic background, because in the Neo-Pythagorean - esoteric tradition of this school of thought, these important truths are only allowed to be presented to people with mathematical training, not but make it accessible to the masses.
With Rheticus' help, the Narratio prima was printed in advance by Rhode in Danzig in 1540 . Shortly before Copernicus' death in 1543, Pope Paul III was printed by Johannes Petreius in Nuremberg . dedicated to the main work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ( On the revolutions of the heavenly circles ). Copernicus was not the first scientist at the turn of the modern era to consider a heliocentric system. Before him, this idea was discussed by Nicholas of Cusa , who, however, lacked the means for mathematical elaboration, and by Regiomontanus , whose early death brought his work to a premature end. Copernicus built on the works of these two scientists.
The reformer Andreas Osiander had also added a foreword on his own initiative and anonymously, in which the new world view was presented as a mere calculation aid, as a mathematical aid to simplify the calculation of the planetary orbits. In doing so, he had falsified Copernicus' statements and made them contradictory. In fact, the Prussian tables newly created by Erasmus Reinhold using Copernicus' model were easier to calculate than the older Alfonsine tables .
Aftermath
In particular, Copernicus' heliocentric cosmic model was passed over or ignored by the majority after it became known, both among Catholics and Protestants . [It was only approved by some Neoplatonists. Contrary to popular belief, the propagation of the heliocentric worldview during his lifetime was by no means seen as heresy, but at best as a fantasy. After all, the geocentric system, anchored by the then scientifically undisputed reference figures Ptolemy and Aristotle, seemed to be much more in line with common sense than a moving earth: when moving, you should feel a wind, and falling objects have an oblique path ; The opponents of Copernicus argued that the fixed stars should also carry out an apparent circular movement over the course of the year, in accordance with Ptolemy 's teaching , but this could not subsequently be confirmed with astronomical observations, for example by Tycho Brahe .
The new mathematical calculations of planetary movements, which Copernicus had created together with the heliocentric cosmic model, were widely received and applied, because with them many hoped that they would finally be able to create precise ephemerides for specific astronomical and astrological purposes. However, the ephemerides based on Copernicus' planetary orbit calculations, such as the Prutenian tables , also showed clearly recognizable deviations from the actually observed planetary positions over the years and decades, as was the case with the inaccurate Alfonsine tables , which had been used for centuries based on the Ptolemaic planetary orbit calculations. Another hindering effect was that Copernicus still needed the ancient epicycle theory and had stuck to the ancient sphere or spherical shell model, but Tycho Brahe's astronomical observations of a comet passing through the supposed sphere of Venus in the 1570s had no effect whatsoever provided clues to the existence of the 'sphere', which has been thought of as 'solid' since ancient times. Brahe himself did not recognize Copernicus' heliocentric cosmic model. It was Johannes Kepler who first abandoned the model of circular spheres that had been traditional since antiquity with the elliptical planetary orbits, which he described in his three laws , and created the correct mathematical calculation bases that are still valid today. With the law of gravitation , Isaac Newton ultimately provided the physical justification of Kepler's laws, on which the heliocentric worldview is based. However, empirical proof was only achieved by James Bradley in 1728 with the discovery of the aberration of light as a result of its finite speed and the movement of the earth, and in 1838 by Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel with a fixed star parallax calculated for the first time from celestial observations .
A rejection specifically of the central position of the sun in Copernicus came from the Protestant side, among others. by Melanchthon . In 1549, in his work Initia doctrinae physicae , he claimed that Copernicus' teaching was merely a renewal or repetition of the heliocentric theory of the ancient astronomer Aristarchus of Samos , which Archimedes described in his so-called "sand calculation". In fact, the Opera Archimedis (Works of Archimedes) were only published for the first time in 1544, a year after the death of Copernicus. During his lifetime, only Aristarchus's only extant writing, On the Size and Distances of the Sun and the Moon , was known, which Aristarchus wrote from a geocentric perspective. The heliocentric system described by Copernicus in the Commentariolus cannot therefore be based on Aristarchus. Therefore, in an effort to prove that he was not the only one who viewed the Ptolemaic worldview as incorrect, Copernicus could only always refer to the teachings of Philolaus , Eudoxus of Cnidus and Heracleides of Pontus . Nevertheless, the error of judgment crept into the history of science from the Aristararchic suggestion of Copernicus. However , from a passage deleted by Copernicus himself in his handwritten manuscript of De revolutionibus at the end of the 11th chapter of the first book, it emerges that, alongside Hiketas , Philolaus, Ekphantos , the Pythagoreans and Herakleides, he also considered Aristarchus of Samos, at least by name knew one of those ancient astronomers who assumed that the earth had some kind of proper motion, for example according to the then available writings of Aetius , Vitruvius and Plutarch (e.g. De facie in orbe lunae , c. 6, 922 F - 923 A).
Martin Luther is credited with making a critical statement in the Table Speeches of 1539, i.e. before the publication of Copernicus' main work, about Copernicus's central thesis, according to which Copernicus was a fool and the heliocentric worldview of the Bible contradicted, since the Old Testament says, In the fight against the Amorites, Joshua ordered the moon and sun to stand still Jos 10:12-13 LUT . The term “fool” does not appear in one of Anton Lauterbach’s notes, but only in Johannes Aurifaber’s adaptation . Like Werner Elert, the physicist and science historian Andreas Kleinert describes it as a “palpable historical lie” to assume that Luther inhibited the spread of the new world view with this statement in a small group. As he can prove, it was only in the 19th century during the Kulturkampf that two Catholic historians made Luther an opponent of the Copernican world system. Since only this one statement by Luther is known, it seems reasonable to conclude that the reformer was not at all interested in this topic.
Economics and coinage
In the Teutonic Order state there was a uniform and relatively well-regulated currency . With its decline beginning in the 15th century , all of the coin lords who now existed ( Grand Masters , Kings of Poland , West Prussian Association of Cities ) continually made their coins lighter. Copernicus dealt with coinage from 1517 and was the first to formulate the quantity theory of money, according to which inflation arises from an increase in the money supply.
He regularly took part in meetings to develop a new coinage regulation in an advisory capacity. In his coin memorials , Copernicus, as a theoretically trained thinker, went back to the terminology to clarify practical problems and found the dual function of money, being at the same time a measure of prices and a means of circulation. Even before Thomas Gresham, he formulated what later became known as Gresham's law , according to which bad money with a low precious metal content displaces good money with a high precious metal content. The matter was decided provisionally by the Polish King Sigismund I in his coin regulations of 1528 and without taking Copernicus' findings into account. In addition to his power as supreme sovereign, the king had the advantage that his position was roughly between that of the estates and that of the duke in Prussia. The Prussian cities retained their previous rights to strike their own coins. The comparable coin values of royal and ducal Prussian, Polish and Lithuanian currencies created the largest currency area in Europe at the time.
The bread price regulations designed by Copernicus were part of his administrative work. The order is characterized by mathematical considerations that were atypical for the time. Copernicus establishes a functional connection that leads to a hyperbola that could not be described analytically in the 16th century. In it he dedicates himself to a problem that probably has Roman origins and is known in practical mathematics as the penny bread.
Ignaz Jastrow estimates that Copernicus' economic writings are simply the most important monetary theoretical achievement of the 16th century . Copernicus was the most important economic thinker after Aristotle and before the bourgeois classical era of economic theory . He was the first to break through the natural economic barriers that had been placed on economic thinking at the end of the Middle Ages by describing the rise and fall of the monetary value explained without contradictions, thereby recognizing and acknowledging the laws of this movement and consequently treating it as a fact that could only be interpreted economically.
cartography
In 1526, Copernicus worked with Bernard Wapowski on the map of the unified state of the Kingdom of Poland - Grand Duchy of Lithuania , and in 1529 he also made a map of the Duchy of Prussia . Georg Joachim Rheticus , until then a university professor in Wittenberg , came to Frauenburg for three years in 1539 to study with Copernicus.
Commemoration
Each of the 16 canons in Frauenburg was assigned one of the 16 column altars in the nave. The question of which Copernicus' altar was has not yet been fully resolved.
In 1866, the Copernicus researcher Leopold Prowe decided on the seventh column altar in the right row, firstly because the canons were usually buried at their altar and in the immediate vicinity of this altar was the Copernicus epitaph of the Warmian bishop Martin Cromer , which was named after him Decision was placed on the cathedral wall near Copernicus' grave, secondly because this altar is the fourteenth altar if you start the count with the cathedral provost's altar and then continue counting alternately from left to right. Prowe saw this as a connection to the Fourteenth Numerical Canon, which Copernicus held.
In 1942, Hans Schmauch published a resolution of the Frauenburg Cathedral Chapter of January 11, 1480, through which the altars were reassigned to the canons when they returned to Frauenburg after a twenty-five-year absence (due to war). It was stipulated that the canons always have to take over the altar of their predecessor. The possibility of an altar option was only granted in the event that the predecessor's altar could no longer be determined or "if individual altars had become vacant as a result of the election of their previous owners as prelates [provost, dean, custodian or cantor]". [49] Since the fourth pillar altar in the right row was assigned to Copernicus' predecessor in the fourteenth numerical canonical book, Johannes Zanau, Schmauch concluded that his successor Nikolaus Copernicus took over this altar after Zanau's death in accordance with the statutes. Schmauch saw this conclusion as secured by the fact that later successors of Copernicus also held this altar in the fourteenth numerical canonical record between 1562 and 1639. However, no documentary evidence has yet been found regarding Copernicus himself and his immediate successor Johannes Loitze.
Eugen Brachvogel replied to Schmauch's conclusion in an article of the same year that when a prelate was promoted, a canon always gave up an altar in order to take over his prelature altar. The canon who took over the vacated altar also released an old altar, which in turn could be taken over by another canon, so that a change of prelature resulted in, or at least could have resulted in, several changes of altar. Brachvogel therefore admitted the possibility that Copernicus could have occupied the sixth or seventh columned altar in the right row in the year of his death - as Prowe suspected - and was therefore buried there.
Since there were no changes in prelature between 1480, when Johannes Zanau, Copernicus' predecessor, was assigned the fourth columned altar in the right row, and 1495, when Copernicus was appointed canon, it can be assumed that Copernicus took over its altar. However, in the following 48 years up to Copernicus's death, at least 16 changes of prelature took place, with certainly even more subsequent altar changes. It cannot therefore be viewed as certain that Copernicus still occupied the same altar in the year of his death that he was assigned when he took office. On the other hand, this cannot be ruled out either.
Two canons employed at the same time as Copernicus at Frauenburg Cathedral, Georg Donner and Leonhardt Niederhoff, who handled Copernicus' estate, were later also buried in Frauenburg Cathedral.
The four tombs in Frauenburg Cathedral
Text of the original epitaph by Martin Cromer , 1581
Copernicus epitaph by Bishop Cromer (1581)
In the 16th century, the Frauenburg canons were usually buried near their altar in the floor of the cathedral, although a grave slab with an inscription was only made in exceptional cases, if the deceased left the funds for it in his will or his relatives arranged for it. Copernicus' grave initially received no epitaph. However, his book De revolutionibus, published in 1543 , prompted scholars and admirers to visit his grave in Frauenburg Cathedral decades after his death. In 1580, the reigning Bishop of Warmia and historian Martin Cromer wrote to his cathedral chapter:
“Since Nicolaus Copernicus was an adornment not only of his church during his lifetime, but also of the whole of Prussia, his homeland, and still is now, after death, I consider it inappropriate that he should be honored after his departure “There is no need for a tombstone or monument, which, I have heard, is sometimes requested by learned guests and visitors from abroad.”
In 1581, Cromer had an epitaph in memory of Copernicus placed on the outer wall of the cathedral near the seventh columned altar in the right row. Since the visitors did not complain that the grave could no longer be precisely located, but only that a memorial plaque was missing, the location of the grave was obviously still known precisely at that time. This is also supported by the fact that Cromer in no way gave the order to find the exact location in the cathedral. Rather, he gave the clear written order to put the epitaph “on the wall near his grave” (parieti ad sepulcrum eius affigi) . The one in 1551, d. H. Cromer, who came to Frauenburg as canon only eight years after Copernicus' death, also had ample opportunity to speak to living witnesses of Copernicus's burial from among the canons. How important this epitaph was to Cromer can be seen from the fact that he wrote its inscription himself and also assumed the entire cost of its production and installation.
It can therefore be considered certain that Copernicus was buried in the cathedral floor in front of the outer wall near the seventh column altar in the right row. However, it cannot necessarily be concluded from this that Copernicus also held the seventh pillar altar. Burial at the altar was common at the time, but exceptions occurred, as did the change of altars in the event of a prelate's promotion. Cromer also writes in his letter not ad altare , but ad sepulcrum .
In the following centuries, church interest in appreciating Copernicus waned after some passages from his main work De revolutionibus were included in the index of banned books in 1616 . So in the 18th century, the Cromer epitaph had to give way when, in 1746, a wall monument was added to commemorate Szembek after his death in the same place, a few meters east of the entrance to a side chapel built fourteen years earlier by the Warmian bishop Christoph Andreas Johann Szembek became. According to documentary evidence, Cromer's Copernicus epitaph should be reinstalled in the immediate vicinity. However, this plan was ultimately not carried out and the epitaph was lost.
Copernicus epitaph with picture (1735)
Presumably as a replacement for the lost Cromer epitaph, in 1735 the Warmian Cathedral Chapter had an epitaph in honor of Copernicus attached to the second column on the left (Michaelis Altar) with the inscription carved in marble:
“Nicolaus Copernicus of Thorn, the former canon of this cathedral in Warmia, the very famous astronomer, whose name and fame filled both circles [terrestrial and celestial]. The prelates, canons and the entire Warmia chapter erected this monument as a sign of their brotherly love and appreciation.”
Bust of Copernicus (1973)
In the 20th century, the cathedral chapter had a bust of Copernicus attached to the seventh column on the right (Bartholomew Altar) with the inscription:
“The warmland cathedral chapter pays homage to Nicholas Copernicus on the 500th anniversary of his birth.”
In 2004, the local historian Jerzy Sikorski took up Hans Schmauch's assumption that the grave, if it still existed, must be near today's Holy Cross Altar (fourth altar column on the right). At the suggestion of the responsible bishop, a team led by the Polish archaeologist Jerzy Gassowski began research. In the summer of 2005, it discovered the remains of 13 graves, some of which were severely damaged, near the altar, one of which contained the remains and skull of a 60 to 70 year old man. In November 2005, a reconstruction of the face was created based on the skull.
A DNA analysis should follow for identification. A search for living relatives of Copernicus in the maternal line was unsuccessful, as only one of his sisters had descendants and their maternal descendants could only be traced back to the 18th century. Nine hairs were found in a book that was once owned by Copernicus and then found in the library of Uppsala University as spoils of war during the Polish-Swedish Wars of the 17th century (Calendarium Romanum Magnum). Usable genetic material was obtained from four hairs. They belonged to three different people. On November 20, 2008 , Polish archaeologist Jerzy Gassowski and Swedish DNA expert Marie Allen announced that DNA analysis of two hairs from the book and a tooth from the skull found showed that both were highly likely to be the Astronomers can be assigned. However, DNA analysis also revealed that the skull belonged to a person with light (blue or gray) eye color, which differs from all historical color portraits of Copernicus, which always depict him with dark brown eyes and dark hair. [57] At a Copernicus conference in Krakow in 2010, genetic analysis was discussed by several scientists.
The remains were ceremoniously reburied as those of Copernicus in Frauenburg Cathedral on May 22, 2010. [59] On the fourth pillar on the right is the inscription:
“† Nicolaus Coppernicus · natus 02/19/1473 Thoruniae · defunctus 05/21/1543 Frauenburgi · astronomus · heliocentrismi artifex · canonicus warmiensis“
Monuments
In 1807 , one of the first Copernicus busts was made by Johann Gottfried Schadow on behalf of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, which is exhibited in the Walhalla, which opened in 1842 , which led to Polish protest .
One of the first complete Copernicus monuments was created by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen in 1822 and executed by the Warsaw bell founder Jan Gregoire in 1833, with the base inscriptions in Polish and Latin proclaiming that the (Polish) compatriots had erected the monument as thanks to the fatherland . After the Warsaw Uprising, the monument was torn down by the German occupiers in October 1944 and taken to the Neisse area in Upper Silesia to be melted down , but this never happened again. After the war, the monument was rebuilt on July 22, 1945.
The hometown of Thorn, which belonged to Prussia from 1793 to 1807 and from 1815 to 1920, had been trying to get a monument since the end of the 18th century, especially since the Prussian royal family had promised support. A committee was formed for this purpose and erected a monument created by Friedrich Tieck in 1853 . The Monument Committee gave rise to the Coppernicus Association for Science and Art in Thorn , which in the following decades researched the history of the city and its most famous son, which led, among other things, to the German translation of his main work and to Prowe's biography. Prowe also demanded that Copernicus should not be viewed as a Pole but as a German. Prowe summarized the memory of Copernicus among posterity up to around the middle of the 19th century in an essay.
A Copernicus exhibition (with a Foucault pendulum ) and a monument are located on the cathedral hill in Frauenburg. Under an epitaph there is a plate with a stylized bronze palm branch with the Polish inscription “For Nicholas Copernicus on the first anniversary of the recovery of Warmia - May 1946. The Government of the Republic of Poland”. In addition, to mark the 500th anniversary of Copernicus's birth in 1973, a monument was erected at the foot of the cathedral hill in Frauenburg. In the Castle of Allenstein ( Olsztyn ) there are exhibits about Copernicus and original manuscripts on calculations to justify the Copernican worldview in a special section. A bronze sculpture depicting Copernicus is placed in front of the entrance to the castle.
Various Copernicus Streets were named after him.
Honors
The heliocentric worldview is often referred to as the “Copernican worldview.” The chemical element Copernicium , the star Copernicus , the lunar crater Copernicus and the asteroid (1322) Coppernicus were named after Copernicus, as were the university founded in Toruń in 1945 and the multimedia science center Centrum Nauki Kopernik , which opened in Warsaw in autumn 2010 .
To mark his 500th birthday, numerous commemorative events took place in Poland, the two German states and around the world. To this day, Copernicus is claimed by the German and Polish sides for their own nation, sometimes at the highest political level: on June 12, 2003, the Polish Senate , the second chamber of the Polish parliament, passed a declaration in memory of the great Pole Mikołaj Copernicus.
On the occasion of its 500th birthday, the Nuremberg Planetarium was renamed the Nicolaus Copernicus Planetarium in 1973 . Wroclaw Airport has borne his name since December 6, 2005 . On February 19, 2010, his 537th birthday, the web portal Nicolaus Copernicus Thorunensis, maintained by scientists from the University of Thorn, was activated.
A plant genus Copernicia Mart is named after Copernicus . ex Endl. from the palm family (Arecaceae).
May 24th is his memorial day in the calendar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America .
In 2010, the chemical element with atomic number 112 was named Copernicium after him .
The Lakshmi Narayan temples complex, devoted to the Vaishnavite sect, includes the main Lakshmi Narayan temple, built in the 10th century by Raja Sahil Verman. It has been built to suit the local climatic conditions with wooden chatries and has a shikara, and a sanctum sanctorum (Garbhagriha), with an antarala and a mantapa. A metallic image of Garuda, the vahana (mount) of Vishnu is installed on the dwajastamba pillar at the main gate of the temple. In 1678, Raja Chhatra Singh adorned the temple roof with gold plated pinnacles, as a riposte to Auranagzeb, who had ordered demolition of this temple.
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Chamba (Hindi: चम्बा) is an ancient town in the Chamba district in the state of Himachal Pradesh, in northern India. According to the 2001 Indian census, Chamba has a population of 20,312 people. Located at an altitude of 996 metres above mean sea level, the town is situated on the banks of the Ravi River (a major tributary of the Trans-Himalayan Indus River), at its confluence with the Sal River.
Though historical records date the history of the Chamba region to the Kolian tribes in the 2nd century BC, the area was formally ruled by the Maru dynasty, starting with the Raju Maru from around 500 AD, ruling from the ancient capital of Bharmour, which is located 75 kilometres from the town of Chamba. In 920, Raja Sahil Varman (or Raja Sahil Verma) shifted the capital of the kingdom to Chamba, following the specific request of his daughter Champavati (Chamba was named after her). From the time of Raju Maru, 67 Rajas of this dynasty have ruled over Chamba until it finally merged with the Indian Union in April 1948, although Chamba was under British suzerainty from 1846 to this time.
The town has numerous temples and palaces, and hosts two popular jatras (fairs), the "Suhi Mata Mela" and the "Minjar Mela", which last for several days and involve music and dancing. Chamba is also well noted for its arts and crafts, particularly its Pahari paintings, which originated in the Hill Kingdoms of North India between the 17th and 19th century and its handicrafts and textiles.
HISTORY
Chamba has an ancient history, which is inseparable from that of the surrounding district of Chamba. The earliest rulers were Kolian tribes. In the 2nd century BC the Khasas and Audumbaras were in power in the region. In the 4th century AD during the Gupta period, the Thakurs and Ranas ruled. From the 7th century, the Gurjara Pratiharas or the Rajput dynasty came into power.
The recorded history of the Rajput rulers is traced to an eminent individual named Maru who is said to have moved to northwest India from Kalpagrama, around 500 AD. He founded his capital in the Budhal river valley at a place called Brahmaputra, which later became known as Bharmour or Bhramaur, which is situated 75 kilometres to the east of the present day Chamba town. For three hundred years, kings of Rajput Dynasty ruled from their capital in Bharmour.
However, in 920, Raja Sahil Varman (or Raja Sahila Verma), King of Bharmour, shifted his capital from Bharmour to a more centrally located plateau in the lower Ravi valley, and named the city Champavati, after his daughter. There is some variation in the story to how exactly this transition came about in the historical records of Chamba. One version tells how Varman, who, after being childless for a significant period, was blessed with ten sons and a daughter, named "Champavati". It was Champavati who urged her father to build a new capital town in the valley. However, obstacles stood in the way to relocating his capital, given that the king had previously granted the land in the modern Chamba vicinity to the Kanwan Brahmins. A solution was found in the form of offering a gift of eight copper coins called chaklis on the occasion of every marriage that took place in the Brahmin family, if they would agree to surrender their land to pave the way for the new capital. With the land thus obtained, the new capital was built and named as Champa after Chamapavati, the King’s daughter, which, over the years, was simply shortened to "Chamba'.
A variation of this origin of Chamba is that it originated as a hermitage which Champavati, a devout Hindu, used to frequent. The king, being suspicious of his daughter's fidelity, one day investigated and followed her to the hermitage, but surprisingly he found neither his daughter nor the hermit there. Suddenly he was said to have heard a voice which informed him that his suspicions were ill founded, admonishing him and informing him that his daughter had been taken away from him permanently as a punishment of his lack of trust in her morals. The King, fully chastened, sought redemption for his sin by expanding the hermitage into a temple, named in his daughter’s honour and built a city around the temple. Today this temple, called the Champavati Temple, belongs to the Royal family and the King’s daughter is venerated as a goddess. Every year, since 935, the Minjar festival or fair has been held. It lasts for 21 days, coinciding with the first day of Baisakhi.
Since Raja Sahil Varman, the dynasty ruled without successful invasion for around a millennium, until the British gained power. The isolation of the town and its rugged hilly terrain is believed to have been a contributing factor to this unusual state of security. Later, Mughal emperors Akbar and Aurangzeb did attempt to annex Chamba but were unsuccessful in subjugating this territory into their kingdoms. Raja Prithvi Singh (1641-1664 AD), who was on amiable terms with Emperor Shahjahan was instrumental in introducing the court life styles of the Mughals.
Many progressive reforms and developments were made in Chamba under the British. In 1863, the first Post office was established in Chamba and a daily mail service and a primary school. In December, 1866, a hospital was opened by Doctor Elmslie of the Kashmir Medical Mission. In the late 1860s two new roads to Dalhousie via Kolri and Khajiar were built. Gopal Singh, who ruled from 1870 to 1873, after abdicating, was responsible for building the grand Jandarighat Palace as his summer residence.
After India becoming an independent nation in August 1947, the princely state of Chamba finally merged with India on April 15, 1948 along with the other princedoms of Mandi-Suket State, Sirmour State and all of those in the Shimla hills.
Buildings in Chamba were traditionally constructed using local materials. Buildings were made out of dry stone masonry, with the walls and floors of the older houses plastered with a concoction of clay and cow-dung. Thick wooden beams were used to support the walls, paying attention to durability and to withstand earthquakes, and wooden cantilever construction was often used to support the verandas. The staircases and doors were made from wood, with the doors often decorated in religious reliefs and flanked by two lamps to light it at night. Before the arrival of the British, who introduced slate roofs to Chamba, roofs were covered with planks, coated in clay. Few of these houses remiain today, although a number still have wood-clay roofs in villages in the suburbs.
The old heritage monuments, which are palaces and temples are located in the old town (east of the Chaugans), on the lower slopes of Shah Madar hill. They were built in the lower valley where the two rivers and steep thickly forested hillsides provided a strong defense. Located here is the 10th century Champavati Temple, said to have marked the birth of the town, the Lakshmi Narayan group of temples (built from 10th-19th century), the 10th century Sita Ram Temple, Bansi Gopal temple, Kharura Mohalla and Hari Rai temple, the 11th century Sui Mata Temple and Chamunda Devi Temple, and the Akhand Chandi palace, overlooking the Chaugan, which has since been converted into a college. Additions were made to the palace in the form of the Zenana Mahal and the Rang Mahal in the 18th century. The temples built in Chamba demonstrate a strong Kashmiri influence with their stone temple architecture and temple iconography. Given their age however, only their unicellular layout with fluted pillars has been retained.
WIKIPEDIA
Pond bottom
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After a four-month hiatus I have resumed my kite aerial photography in the South Bay. The short days of winter were devoted to work on my book about the South Bay and a variety of little, barking tasks. So it was great to be out in the open again in the late afternoons of spring.
My return was occasioned by a desire to photograph the recently breached Salt Pond A17 before nesting season put it off limits until September. I had not previously paid much attention to A17, which lies just south of Coyote Creek across from the abandoned hamlet of Drawbridge. The pond was returned to tidal flow last October and it is through A17 that water is provided to (former) Salt Pond A16. This latter pond has recently had a rather extensive makeover with a substantial inlet control station with fish screen, new islands and shallows created for avian habitat, and a new siphon to provide water for the New Chicago Marsh. Given that A17 was now filled by the tides twice a day folks were interested in how natural sediment, a precious commodity in the South Bay, was accumulating.
My first trip to A17 was ill timed regarding the tides so I captured a few shots of the filled pond, which looked very much like any other pond filled with bay water, and then took some shots of the new flow control facility. I returned a week later to catch A17 at low tide. Here I expected, and found, a pond bottom acquiring the natural colors and textures of natural bay flows – the patina of a thin biofilm here and there and the muted green grays of sediment. What I did not anticipate was a lively and fairly widespread scattering of small, bright pools of red, orange, and pink water. These must be stable pockets of highly saline water supporting populations of halophiles. It is a real surprise (if I am reading it correctly) to find that these little communities are remaining coherent through cycles of tidal inundation, testimony to the density of the concentrated brine and/or the gentleness of the tides. In any event it made for much more lively photographs than I imagined.
Mirza Muzaffar Ahmad - known mostly as MM to his friends and admirers - died in a hospital in suburban Washington on July 22. He had been unwell for several months not because of any disease. He was just weighed down by age and by his concern for Pakistan, a country he dearly loved and to the service of which he devoted his entire and extremely productive life.
MM was born on February 28, 1913, in Qadian, India. He was educated first at Government College, Lahore, and later in Britain's London and Oxford Universities. He joined the Indian Civil Service - the ICS - in 1939. By recruiting Indians to the ICS, the British aimed to "Indianize" the administrative structure that was regarded as the "steel frame" in their rule of India. This process of "Indianization" was disrupted by the Second World War. When it resumed after the war was over it took a different form since the ICS was opened to the personnel of other services.
The ICS was dissolved in 1947 when the British left India. Its members were invited to opt for service in one of the two successor states - to serve either in India, a predominantly Hindu country, or to go to Pakistan, a country carved out specifically for the Muslim citizens of British India. Eighty one ICS officers, including MM Ahmad, opted for service in Pakistan. Those who chose to come to Pakistan formed the core of a new central service initially called the Pakistan Administrative Service. Later, the PAS was rechristened as the Civil Service of Pakistan, the CSP.
Most of this contingent of highly able and trained civil servants who opted for service in Pakistan were to play important roles in establishing the state of Pakistan. Most of them went to Karachi, the country's first capital. MM chose instead to go to Lahore, the capital of the part of Punjab that was attached to Pakistan. Among the positions MM held in Lahore was that of secretary of finance. Later, he went to Islamabad, Pakistan's second capital, where he served in a number of senior positions, including secretary of commerce, secretary of finance, and deputy chairman of the Planning Commission. When General Yahya Khan deposed President Ayub Khan and placed Pakistan under martial law, MM was appointed adviser to the new president and given the rank of a federal minister.
MM served in that capacity until the outbreak of the civil war between East and West Pakistan. He went to Washington soon after that fateful event and joined the World Bank's board as executive director responsible for Pakistan and a number of other Muslim countries. Pakistan lost its seat on the Bank's board when Bangladesh became independent and decided to join the constituency led by India. MM stayed on in Washington and was elected deputy executive secretary of the joint ministerial committee of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, better known as the Development Committee. He retired from that position in 1984.
I got to know MM Ahmad well over the years. Although I was 21 years his junior in the CSP, I had the opportunity to work with him on several occasions. The first time I came in close contact with him was in 1969 when the martial law government of General Yahya Khan decided to undo the "One Unit" of West Pakistan. This was a momentous decision, the full import of which was not recognized by the military government.
The creation of the "One Unit" of West Pakistan was a part of the delicate balance between political forces that dominated Pakistan after the country achieved independence. The task of constitution-making had been made difficult by the leaders of West Pakistan - especially those who belonged to Punjab - who were not prepared to accept any arrangement on the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments that would make East Pakistan the dominant force in the country's political structure. That would have happened had the provinces of Pakistan been allowed representation in the national legislature on the basis of population. In that case East Pakistan, with more people than all the provinces and states of West Pakistan combined, would have gained the majority of seats in the national parliament.
This situation was not acceptable to Punjab. A compromise was reached on the basis of what came to be called the "parity formula" according to which the country was to have two federating units, East Pakistan and West Pakistan. Each unit was to have equal representation in the national legislature. This led to the creation of the One Unit of West Pakistan in 1956. In 1958, Pakistan promulgated its first constitution.
The parity formula survived the demise of the constitution of 1956 and the establishment of a new political structure under the constitution of 1962. However, the highly centralized political structure under the military government created a number of problems. President Ayub Khan totally dominated the federal government and Governors Amir Muhammad Khan of Kalabagh and Abdul Monem Khan ruled West and East Pakistan respectively with an equal amount of authority. Concentration of so much power in three pairs of hands did not sit well with the people. In East Pakistan resentment built up against Islamabad's domination and the smaller provinces of West Pakistan were alienated by the highly authoritarian rule of Nawab of Kalabgh. On coming to power, Yahya Khan responded to these concerns by scrapping the "parity" arrangement between East and West Pakistan and by dissolving the West Pakistan One Unit.
The difficult task of dismantling the One Unit was entrusted to a committee of officials headed by MM Ahmad. MM represented Punjab while Ghulam Ishaq Khan represented the Frontier Province, A.G.N. Kazi, Sindh and Yusuf Achkzai Balochitsn. The committee's secretariat had four officials: Zahur Azhar, Dr. Humayun Khan, Dr. Tariq Siddiqui and myself. The committee's task was a complex one. It had not only to dismantle the One Unit arrangement but also to create four new provinces by merging the old princely states with the directly administered areas.
MM Ahmad was equal to the task. For several weeks with patience, dignity and intelligence - three distinguishing traits of his personality - he guided the 'One Unit dissolution committee', towards resolving all outstanding issues in time set by the Yahya government. The committee's plan went into effect on July 1, 1970, when West Pakistan "One Unit" was dissolved and all power was transferred to the provinces of Balochistan, the North-west Frontier Province, Punjab and Sindh.
My second close association with MM occurred during the same period when he was entrusted with the delicate task of getting the governments of East and West Pakistan to accept the macroeconomic framework developed by the Planning Commission for the Fourth Five-Year Plan. The plan was to run for the period between 1970 and 1975. By the time the Planning Commission revealed its approach, the citizens of East Pakistan had been convinced that the remarkable economic performance of the western wing of the country was sustained by the resources garnered from their province. They wanted this bias to be corrected during the five years of the Fourth Plan.
Two panels of economists were set up, one chaired by Dr Pervez Hasan, West Pakistan's Chief Economist, and the other by Professor Nurul Islam, a Bengali economist, to resolve the differences between the two provinces. Not surprisingly, the two panels arrived at different conclusions. Hasan's panel did not reject the view that public sector expenditure had played a role in the rapid economic growth of the western province. However, it also emphasized the decisive part played by the private sector. The Bengali economists argued that much of West Pakistan's better performance was the result of large public sector investments which had been financed by external capital flows which the central government had largely directed towards that province.
Once again, MM Ahmad stepped into the breach to resolve the dispute between the two groups of experts and the two provinces they represented. As the economic adviser to Governor Nur Khan of West Pakistan, I attended several meetings chaired by MM to develop a consensus between the two provinces of the country. He laboured hard to arrive at an agreement but did not succeed as the political temperature was constantly rising. In the fall of 1970, East Pakistan's coastal areas were hit by a devastating cyclone that left a million people dead. The tardy response of the central government to this great human tragedy further soured relations between the two provinces. The rest, as they say, is history.
My closest association with MM occurred when, in 1981, I was made responsible for representing the World Bank on the secretariat of the Development Committee. MM at that point was the deputy executive secretary of the committee. The committee, straddling between the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, was charged by its members to improve understanding on a number of important issues between the governments of the developed and developing parts of the world. The beginning of the decade of the eighties saw many developing countries faced with difficult times. Much of Latin America was ravaged by the problem of debt incurred to sustain imports while the price of oil increased four-fold. World trade, recognized as an important source of growth for the developing world, was doing little for the commodity exporters of the developing world.
Official development assistance, once promised to increase steadily and significantly, had stagnated. The Development Committee's agenda was getting long with difficult subjects being added constantly to it. MM played an extremely important role in helping the governments to understand that they had to work together to bring about sustained growth all over the world.
It soon became clear to us - to MM and myself - that we needed a strong developing country person to chair the committee and guide its deliberations. We turned to Ghulam Ishaq Khan who was at that time finance minister of Pakistan. Ishaq and MM were good friends and it was because of that friendship that the former agreed to contest the election of the chairmanship of the Development Committee. MM was instrumental in getting all the governments represented on the committee to agree to Ishaq Khan's candidature. The Pakistani finance minister was elected by a unanimous vote. Helped by MM, Ishaq performed impressively in that position, winning the respect of both developed and developing countries. He was re-elected for a second term and continued in that position even after he left the finance ministry and became chairman of the Senate in Pakistan.
MM gave all he had to Pakistan.
“[M]y whole soul is devoted to building this church here” wrote Pugin to the Earl of Shrewsbury.
St Augustine’s Church is the ‘ideal Church’ of Augustus Welby Pugin (1812-1852) who constructed it between 1845-1852 next to his home ‘the Grange’ according to his ‘true principles of Christian architecture’. He described it as ‘my own child’ and it was to be ‘a revival of the old Kentish churches stone & flint’, with a chantry chapel ‘that may be the burial place of my family’.
It stands as symbol of the Catholic revival of the 19th century which Pugin’s own life and conversion in 1835 epitomises. The church is also an integral part of Pugin’s own Gothic revival which inspired the nation at large. It was being constructed at the same time that Pugin was designing the new Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.
Pugin moved to St Augustine’s in 1843 specifically ‘close to the spot where blessed Austin landed’. His building of the church therefore stands as a monument to the arrival of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England recalling the landing of St Augustine in 597AD. Pugin was keen to show that Catholicism and Gothic were part of the DNA of English identity and the church emphasises and celebrates the English saints in a particular way.
Pugin spared nothing in building this church and he would only use the finest material and workmen. He wrote to his son Edward, ‘I am giving you the best architectural lessons I can; watch the church’. The church provided Mass for local Catholics and visitors before a parish was formed. Ramsgate’s first post-reformation Catholic school was run from the site. At his death he gifted the Church to the Catholic community, for he always intended it to be “a Parochial church” (Pugin’s Letters).
The church’s exterior is stone covered with traditional hardy flint to withstand the weather. Its interior is also lined with Whitby stone forging a link with the great seaside church of St Hilda. There is exquisite decoration with stone and wood carvings throughout, unique statues, stained glass and ornate tiles. Pugin’s team for the church included other well knownassociates George Myers for construction, John Hardman Powell for the metalwork and especially stained glass and Herbert Minton for the tiles. Pugin died in 1852 before completing the project but the work was continued until 1893 and involved Edward Pugin (1834-75) and Peter Paul Pugin (1851-1904) and many of the original associates and their families.
St Augustine’s was consecrated in 1884 and Grade-1 listed only in 1988. From 1856 until 2010 the church was run by the Benedictine monks of St Augustine’s Abbey (which was constructed opposite by Edward Pugin). In 2010 the Benedictine Monks withdrew from the Church and it came under the jurisdiction of the Parish of SS Ethelbert and Gertrude, Ramsgate and Minster. In February 2011 after a sizeable grant from English Heritage, the church’s future was assured. It serves as a functioning local church of the Ramsgate and Minster Catholic parish and since March 1st 2012 as an official shrine of St Augustine for pilgrimage. It remains for all a monument of serious historical importance and site of great architectural, artistic and culture significance for the wider public.
Sacred to the memory of
Sister Elizabeth COMMON
Devoted servant for 21 years
Of the
Methodist Missionary Society
In the Solomon Islands
Died 12 March 1946
Faithful unto death.
WESLEY DIVISION E Row 3, Plot 1
Elizabeth was aged 51 at her death [1]
Portrait in comments section below.
Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #15(3) 1957
“Sister Elizabeth COMMON went to the Mission district in 1923 and served at the head station Roviana. Sister had trained both as a Deaconess and as a maternity nurse and was the first to go out as a Plunket nurse. With the decision to appoint a missionary sister to the northern pioneer circuit of Bougainville-Buka, in 1928, Sister Elizabeth was transferred there and with the exception of a few months, spent eighteen years at Buka. On 1941, just prior to the invasion by the Japanese, she was evacuate to New Zealand. Though she desired to return as soon as possible, ill health intervened, and she was called to higher service in 1945. She bequeathed her savings to the mission and the Elizabeth Common Memorial Hospital stands today as her gift, a fitting memorial to a life of loving service.”[2]
Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 251, 23 October 1930, Page 8
MISSIONARY FAREWELLED
The Auckland Methodist Women's" Auxiliary yesterday farewelled Sister Elizabeth Common, who has been on furlough from the mission field in the Western Solomons since January. On behalf of the members of the auxiliary, Mrs. Stevens farewelled Sister Common, and Miss Edna Mather presented her with a bouquet of Iceland poppies. In an interesting manner Sister Common outlined the route of her return journey, introducing vivid reminiscent and scenic touches. Pianoforte solos were played by Miss Clarkson, and vocal solos were sung by Mesdames Wentworth and E. R. Warburton. Sister Common leaves Auckland on Friday by the Marama.[4]
Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22250, 15 November 1937, Page 5
A special meeting of the Willowby Circuit Women’s Missionary Auxiliary was held at the parsonage, to give members an opportunity of meeting Sister Elizabeth Common, pioneer missionary sister on the island of Choisuel, Solomon Islands. A talk on the work being done among the women and children was given by Sister Common.[3]
Elizabeth Jane COMMON 1889-1946
1920Deaconess House for special training (Missionary Sister)
1921St Helen’s Hospital
1922Karitane Hospital and further course at St Helen’s
1923Appointed to the Solomon Island District as a nurse
1923-28Roviana Circuit (Kokenggelo)
1928-42Bougainville-Buka (Skotolan)
1942Evacuated by the Government
1946Died suddenly on the eve of her return to the Solomons
Born8 April 1889 at Oamaru
Circuit of candidature: Enfield, Oamaru
Died12 March 1946 at Auckland
Tribute:Minutes of Conference: 1947
Sister Vivian ADKINS and Sister Elizabeth were pioneer Sisters on Bougainville.
Sister Elizabeth was the first qualified Plunket Nurse to serve in the Solomon Islands.
www.methodist.org.nz/files/docs/wesley%20historical/48%20...
Elizabeth is also mentioned in this newsletter a couple of times. Control F and search for COMMON when link open
www.methodist.org.nz/files/docs/wesley%20historical/28(3,4)part%202%20a%20family%20affair%20.pdf
SOURCES:
[1]
waitakere.govt.nz/cnlser/cm/cemeterysearch/cemeterydetail...
[2]
www.methodist.org.nz/files/docs/wesley%20historical/15(4)%20deaconess%20house%20.pdf
[3]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[4]
Sacred to the memory of
Sister Elizabeth COMMON
Devoted servant for 21 years
Of the
Methodist Missionary Society
In the Solomon Islands
Died 12 March 1946
Faithful unto death.
WESLEY DIVISION E Row 3, Plot 1
Elizabeth was aged 51 at her death [1]
Portrait in comments section below:
Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #15(3) 1957
“Sister Elizabeth COMMON went to the Mission district in 1923 and served at the head station Roviana. Sister had trained both as a Deaconess and as a maternity nurse and was the first to go out as a Plunket nurse. With the decision to appoint a missionary sister to the northern pioneer circuit of Bougainville-Buka, in 1928, Sister Elizabeth was transferred there and with the exception of a few months, spent eighteen years at Buka. On 1941, just prior to the invasion by the Japanese, she was evacuate to New Zealand. Though she desired to return as soon as possible, ill health intervened, and she was called to higher service in 1945. She bequeathed her savings to the mission and the Elizabeth Common Memorial Hospital stands today as her gift, a fitting memorial to a life of loving service.”[2]
Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 251, 23 October 1930, Page 8
MISSIONARY FAREWELLED
The Auckland Methodist Women's" Auxiliary yesterday farewelled Sister Elizabeth Common, who has been on furlough from the mission field in the Western Solomons since January. On behalf of the members of the auxiliary, Mrs. Stevens farewelled Sister Common, and Miss Edna Mather presented her with a bouquet of Iceland poppies. In an interesting manner Sister Common outlined the route of her return journey, introducing vivid reminiscent and scenic touches. Pianoforte solos were played by Miss Clarkson, and vocal solos were sung by Mesdames Wentworth and E. R. Warburton. Sister Common leaves Auckland on Friday by the Marama.[4]
Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22250, 15 November 1937, Page 5
A special meeting of the Willowby Circuit Women’s Missionary Auxiliary was held at the parsonage, to give members an opportunity of meeting Sister Elizabeth Common, pioneer missionary sister on the island of Choisuel, Solomon Islands. A talk on the work being done among the women and children was given by Sister Common.[3]
Elizabeth Jane COMMON 1889-1946
1920Deaconess House for special training (Missionary Sister)
1921St Helen’s Hospital
1922Karitane Hospital and further course at St Helen’s
1923Appointed to the Solomon Island District as a nurse
1923-28Roviana Circuit (Kokenggelo)
1928-42Bougainville-Buka (Skotolan)
1942Evacuated by the Government
1946Died suddenly on the eve of her return to the Solomons
Born8 April 1889 at Oamaru
Circuit of candidature: Enfield, Oamaru
Died12 March 1946 at Auckland
Tribute:Minutes of Conference: 1947
Sister Vivian ADKINS and Sister Elizabeth were pioneer Sisters on Bougainville.
Sister Elizabeth was the first qualified Plunket Nurse to serve in the Solomon Islands.
www.methodist.org.nz/files/docs/wesley%20historical/48%20...
Elizabeth is also mentioned in this newsletter a couple of times. Control F and search for COMMON when link open
www.methodist.org.nz/files/docs/wesley%20historical/28(3,4)part%202%20a%20family%20affair%20.pdf
SOURCES:
[1]
waitakere.govt.nz/cnlser/cm/cemeterysearch/cemeterydetail...
[2]
www.methodist.org.nz/files/docs/wesley%20historical/15(4)%20deaconess%20house%20.pdf
[3]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[4]
TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.
Info: www.ted.com/
Devoted to women who rule their fields with originality and determination, "The New Royals" portfolio in the October 2014 issue featured a cast of tough cookies, ranging from the actress Angelica Houston to the comedienne Joan Rivers, who passed away shortly after the shoot. To properly capture these powerhouses, W enlisted photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, who have long celebrated strong women; the result was a series of elegant, soulful portraits, such as this cover of model-of-the-moment Cara Delevingne. Styled in mod fashion by W's Edward Enninful and seated in a girlish pose, the image is a nod to Richard Avedon's iconic portraiture from the '60s.
Magnis is the location of the Magnis is the location of the Roman Army Museum run by the Vindolanda Trust. Like the museum at Vindolanda, the Roman Army Museum was modernised and reopened in 2011. The museum illustrates frontier life on the northern edge of the Roman Empire. The museum displays genuine Roman artifacts including weapons and tools; life-size replicas; a 3D film showing Hadrian's Wall past and present, and a large timeline of Hadrian's Wall. There is a gallery devoted to the emperor Hadrian himself. A large gallery describes daily life in the Roman army as seen through the eyes of a team of eight auxiliary soldiers, complete with a film showing their activities. Notable exhibits include a rare surviving helmet crest. run by the Vindolanda Trust. Like the museum at Vindolanda, the Roman Army Museum was modernised and reopened in 2011. The museum illustrates frontier life on the northern edge of the Roman Empire. The museum displays genuine Roman artifacts including weapons and tools; life-size replicas; a 3D film showing Hadrian's Wall past and present, and a large timeline of Hadrian's Wall. There is a gallery devoted to the emperor Hadrian himself. A large gallery describes daily life in the Roman army as seen through the eyes of a team of eight auxiliary soldiers, complete with a film showing their activities. Notable exhibits include a rare surviving helmet crest.
Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of Britannia after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410.
Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC as part of his Gallic Wars. According to Caesar, the Britons had been overrun or culturally assimilated by the Belgae during the British Iron Age and had been aiding Caesar's enemies. The Belgae were the only Celtic tribe to cross the sea into Britain, for to all other Celtic tribes this land was unknown. He received tribute, installed the friendly king Mandubracius over the Trinovantes, and returned to Gaul. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34, 27, and 25 BC. In 40 AD, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel on the continent, only to have them gather seashells (musculi) according to Suetonius, perhaps as a symbolic gesture to proclaim Caligula's victory over the sea. Three years later, Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain and restore the exiled king Verica over the Atrebates. The Romans defeated the Catuvellauni, and then organized their conquests as the province of Britain. By 47 AD, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way. Control over Wales was delayed by reverses and the effects of Boudica's uprising, but the Romans expanded steadily northward.
The conquest of Britain continued under command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola (77–84), who expanded the Roman Empire as far as Caledonia. In mid-84 AD, Agricola faced the armies of the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Battle casualties were estimated by Tacitus to be upwards of 10,000 on the Caledonian side and about 360 on the Roman side. The bloodbath at Mons Graupius concluded the forty-year conquest of Britain, a period that possibly saw between 100,000 and 250,000 Britons killed. In the context of pre-industrial warfare and of a total population of Britain of c. 2 million, these are very high figures.
Under the 2nd-century emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, two walls were built to defend the Roman province from the Caledonians, whose realms in the Scottish Highlands were never controlled. Around 197 AD, the Severan Reforms divided Britain into two provinces: Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. During the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicarius, who administered the Diocese of the Britains. A fifth province, Valentia, is attested in the later 4th century. For much of the later period of the Roman occupation, Britannia was subject to barbarian invasions and often came under the control of imperial usurpers and imperial pretenders. The final Roman withdrawal from Britain occurred around 410; the native kingdoms are considered to have formed Sub-Roman Britain after that.
Following the conquest of the Britons, a distinctive Romano-British culture emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, and architecture. The Roman goddess Britannia became the female personification of Britain. After the initial invasions, Roman historians generally only mention Britain in passing. Thus, most present knowledge derives from archaeological investigations and occasional epigraphic evidence lauding the Britannic achievements of an emperor. Roman citizens settled in Britain from many parts of the Empire.
History
Britain was known to the Classical world. The Greeks, the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians traded for Cornish tin in the 4th century BC. The Greeks referred to the Cassiterides, or "tin islands", and placed them near the west coast of Europe. The Carthaginian sailor Himilco is said to have visited the island in the 6th or 5th century BC and the Greek explorer Pytheas in the 4th. It was regarded as a place of mystery, with some writers refusing to believe it existed.
The first direct Roman contact was when Julius Caesar undertook two expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, as part of his conquest of Gaul, believing the Britons were helping the Gallic resistance. The first expedition was more a reconnaissance than a full invasion and gained a foothold on the coast of Kent but was unable to advance further because of storm damage to the ships and a lack of cavalry. Despite the military failure, it was a political success, with the Roman Senate declaring a 20-day public holiday in Rome to honour the unprecedented achievement of obtaining hostages from Britain and defeating Belgic tribes on returning to the continent.
The second invasion involved a substantially larger force and Caesar coerced or invited many of the native Celtic tribes to pay tribute and give hostages in return for peace. A friendly local king, Mandubracius, was installed, and his rival, Cassivellaunus, was brought to terms. Hostages were taken, but historians disagree over whether any tribute was paid after Caesar returned to Gaul.
Caesar conquered no territory and left no troops behind, but he established clients and brought Britain into Rome's sphere of influence. Augustus planned invasions in 34, 27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, and the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustus's reign, claimed that taxes on trade brought in more annual revenue than any conquest could. Archaeology shows that there was an increase in imported luxury goods in southeastern Britain. Strabo also mentions British kings who sent embassies to Augustus, and Augustus's own Res Gestae refers to two British kings he received as refugees. When some of Tiberius's ships were carried to Britain in a storm during his campaigns in Germany in 16 AD, they came back with tales of monsters.
Rome appears to have encouraged a balance of power in southern Britain, supporting two powerful kingdoms: the Catuvellauni, ruled by the descendants of Tasciovanus, and the Atrebates, ruled by the descendants of Commius. This policy was followed until 39 or 40 AD, when Caligula received an exiled member of the Catuvellaunian dynasty and planned an invasion of Britain that collapsed in farcical circumstances before it left Gaul. When Claudius successfully invaded in 43 AD, it was in aid of another fugitive British ruler, Verica of the Atrebates.
Roman invasion
The invasion force in 43 AD was led by Aulus Plautius,[26] but it is unclear how many legions were sent. The Legio II Augusta, commanded by future emperor Vespasian, was the only one directly attested to have taken part. The Legio IX Hispana, the XIV Gemina (later styled Martia Victrix) and the XX (later styled Valeria Victrix) are known to have served during the Boudican Revolt of 60/61, and were probably there since the initial invasion. This is not certain because the Roman army was flexible, with units being moved around whenever necessary. The IX Hispana may have been permanently stationed, with records showing it at Eboracum (York) in 71 and on a building inscription there dated 108, before being destroyed in the east of the Empire, possibly during the Bar Kokhba revolt.
The invasion was delayed by a troop mutiny until an imperial freedman persuaded them to overcome their fear of crossing the Ocean and campaigning beyond the limits of the known world. They sailed in three divisions, and probably landed at Richborough in Kent; at least part of the force may have landed near Fishbourne, West Sussex.
The Catuvellauni and their allies were defeated in two battles: the first, assuming a Richborough landing, on the river Medway, the second on the river Thames. One of their leaders, Togodumnus, was killed, but his brother Caratacus survived to continue resistance elsewhere. Plautius halted at the Thames and sent for Claudius, who arrived with reinforcements, including artillery and elephants, for the final march to the Catuvellaunian capital, Camulodunum (Colchester). Vespasian subdued the southwest, Cogidubnus was set up as a friendly king of several territories, and treaties were made with tribes outside direct Roman control.
Establishment of Roman rule
After capturing the south of the island, the Romans turned their attention to what is now Wales. The Silures, Ordovices and Deceangli remained implacably opposed to the invaders and for the first few decades were the focus of Roman military attention, despite occasional minor revolts among Roman allies like the Brigantes and the Iceni. The Silures were led by Caratacus, and he carried out an effective guerrilla campaign against Governor Publius Ostorius Scapula. Finally, in 51, Ostorius lured Caratacus into a set-piece battle and defeated him. The British leader sought refuge among the Brigantes, but their queen, Cartimandua, proved her loyalty by surrendering him to the Romans. He was brought as a captive to Rome, where a dignified speech he made during Claudius's triumph persuaded the emperor to spare his life. The Silures were still not pacified, and Cartimandua's ex-husband Venutius replaced Caratacus as the most prominent leader of British resistance.
On Nero's accession, Roman Britain extended as far north as Lindum. Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the conqueror of Mauretania (modern day Algeria and Morocco), then became governor of Britain, and in 60 and 61 he moved against Mona (Anglesey) to settle accounts with Druidism once and for all. Paulinus led his army across the Menai Strait and massacred the Druids and burnt their sacred groves.
While Paulinus was campaigning in Mona, the southeast of Britain rose in revolt under the leadership of Boudica. She was the widow of the recently deceased king of the Iceni, Prasutagus. The Roman historian Tacitus reports that Prasutagus had left a will leaving half his kingdom to Nero in the hope that the remainder would be left untouched. He was wrong. When his will was enforced, Rome[clarification needed] responded by violently seizing the tribe's lands in full. Boudica protested. In consequence, Rome[clarification needed] punished her and her daughters by flogging and rape. In response, the Iceni, joined by the Trinovantes, destroyed the Roman colony at Camulodunum (Colchester) and routed the part of the IXth Legion that was sent to relieve it. Paulinus rode to London (then called Londinium), the rebels' next target, but concluded it could not be defended. Abandoned, it was destroyed, as was Verulamium (St. Albans). Between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed in the three cities. But Paulinus regrouped with two of the three legions still available to him, chose a battlefield, and, despite being outnumbered by more than twenty to one, defeated the rebels in the Battle of Watling Street. Boudica died not long afterwards, by self-administered poison or by illness. During this time, the Emperor Nero considered withdrawing Roman forces from Britain altogether.
There was further turmoil in 69, the "Year of the Four Emperors". As civil war raged in Rome, weak governors were unable to control the legions in Britain, and Venutius of the Brigantes seized his chance. The Romans had previously defended Cartimandua against him, but this time were unable to do so. Cartimandua was evacuated, and Venutius was left in control of the north of the country. After Vespasian secured the empire, his first two appointments as governor, Quintus Petillius Cerialis and Sextus Julius Frontinus, took on the task of subduing the Brigantes and Silures respectively.[38] Frontinus extended Roman rule to all of South Wales, and initiated exploitation of the mineral resources, such as the gold mines at Dolaucothi.
In the following years, the Romans conquered more of the island, increasing the size of Roman Britain. Governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola, father-in-law to the historian Tacitus, conquered the Ordovices in 78. With the XX Valeria Victrix legion, Agricola defeated the Caledonians in 84 at the Battle of Mons Graupius, in north-east Scotland. This was the high-water mark of Roman territory in Britain: shortly after his victory, Agricola was recalled from Britain back to Rome, and the Romans initially retired to a more defensible line along the Forth–Clyde isthmus, freeing soldiers badly needed along other frontiers.
For much of the history of Roman Britain, a large number of soldiers were garrisoned on the island. This required that the emperor station a trusted senior man as governor of the province. As a result, many future emperors served as governors or legates in this province, including Vespasian, Pertinax, and Gordian I.
Roman military organisation in the north
In 84 AD
In 84 AD
In 155 AD
In 155 AD
Hadrian's Wall, and Antonine Wall
There is no historical source describing the decades that followed Agricola's recall. Even the name of his replacement is unknown. Archaeology has shown that some Roman forts south of the Forth–Clyde isthmus were rebuilt and enlarged; others appear to have been abandoned. By 87 the frontier had been consolidated on the Stanegate. Roman coins and pottery have been found circulating at native settlement sites in the Scottish Lowlands in the years before 100, indicating growing Romanisation. Some of the most important sources for this era are the writing tablets from the fort at Vindolanda in Northumberland, mostly dating to 90–110. These tablets provide evidence for the operation of a Roman fort at the edge of the Roman Empire, where officers' wives maintained polite society while merchants, hauliers and military personnel kept the fort operational and supplied.
Around 105 there appears to have been a serious setback at the hands of the tribes of the Picts: several Roman forts were destroyed by fire, with human remains and damaged armour at Trimontium (at modern Newstead, in SE Scotland) indicating hostilities at least at that site.[citation needed] There is also circumstantial evidence that auxiliary reinforcements were sent from Germany, and an unnamed British war of the period is mentioned on the gravestone of a tribune of Cyrene. Trajan's Dacian Wars may have led to troop reductions in the area or even total withdrawal followed by slighting of the forts by the Picts rather than an unrecorded military defeat. The Romans were also in the habit of destroying their own forts during an orderly withdrawal, in order to deny resources to an enemy. In either case, the frontier probably moved south to the line of the Stanegate at the Solway–Tyne isthmus around this time.
A new crisis occurred at the beginning of Hadrian's reign): a rising in the north which was suppressed by Quintus Pompeius Falco. When Hadrian reached Britannia on his famous tour of the Roman provinces around 120, he directed an extensive defensive wall, known to posterity as Hadrian's Wall, to be built close to the line of the Stanegate frontier. Hadrian appointed Aulus Platorius Nepos as governor to undertake this work who brought the Legio VI Victrix legion with him from Germania Inferior. This replaced the famous Legio IX Hispana, whose disappearance has been much discussed. Archaeology indicates considerable political instability in Scotland during the first half of the 2nd century, and the shifting frontier at this time should be seen in this context.
In the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161) the Hadrianic border was briefly extended north to the Forth–Clyde isthmus, where the Antonine Wall was built around 142 following the military reoccupation of the Scottish lowlands by a new governor, Quintus Lollius Urbicus.
The first Antonine occupation of Scotland ended as a result of a further crisis in 155–157, when the Brigantes revolted. With limited options to despatch reinforcements, the Romans moved their troops south, and this rising was suppressed by Governor Gnaeus Julius Verus. Within a year the Antonine Wall was recaptured, but by 163 or 164 it was abandoned. The second occupation was probably connected with Antoninus's undertakings to protect the Votadini or his pride in enlarging the empire, since the retreat to the Hadrianic frontier occurred not long after his death when a more objective strategic assessment of the benefits of the Antonine Wall could be made. The Romans did not entirely withdraw from Scotland at this time: the large fort at Newstead was maintained along with seven smaller outposts until at least 180.
During the twenty-year period following the reversion of the frontier to Hadrian's Wall in 163/4, Rome was concerned with continental issues, primarily problems in the Danubian provinces. Increasing numbers of hoards of buried coins in Britain at this time indicate that peace was not entirely achieved. Sufficient Roman silver has been found in Scotland to suggest more than ordinary trade, and it is likely that the Romans were reinforcing treaty agreements by paying tribute to their implacable enemies, the Picts.
In 175, a large force of Sarmatian cavalry, consisting of 5,500 men, arrived in Britannia, probably to reinforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings. In 180, Hadrian's Wall was breached by the Picts and the commanding officer or governor was killed there in what Cassius Dio described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus. Ulpius Marcellus was sent as replacement governor and by 184 he had won a new peace, only to be faced with a mutiny from his own troops. Unhappy with Marcellus's strictness, they tried to elect a legate named Priscus as usurper governor; he refused, but Marcellus was lucky to leave the province alive. The Roman army in Britannia continued its insubordination: they sent a delegation of 1,500 to Rome to demand the execution of Tigidius Perennis, a Praetorian prefect who they felt had earlier wronged them by posting lowly equites to legate ranks in Britannia. Commodus met the party outside Rome and agreed to have Perennis killed, but this only made them feel more secure in their mutiny.
The future emperor Pertinax (lived 126–193) was sent to Britannia to quell the mutiny and was initially successful in regaining control, but a riot broke out among the troops. Pertinax was attacked and left for dead, and asked to be recalled to Rome, where he briefly succeeded Commodus as emperor in 192.
3rd century
The death of Commodus put into motion a series of events which eventually led to civil war. Following the short reign of Pertinax, several rivals for the emperorship emerged, including Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. The latter was the new governor of Britannia, and had seemingly won the natives over after their earlier rebellions; he also controlled three legions, making him a potentially significant claimant. His sometime rival Severus promised him the title of Caesar in return for Albinus's support against Pescennius Niger in the east. Once Niger was neutralised, Severus turned on his ally in Britannia; it is likely that Albinus saw he would be the next target and was already preparing for war.
Albinus crossed to Gaul in 195, where the provinces were also sympathetic to him, and set up at Lugdunum. Severus arrived in February 196, and the ensuing battle was decisive. Albinus came close to victory, but Severus's reinforcements won the day, and the British governor committed suicide. Severus soon purged Albinus's sympathisers and perhaps confiscated large tracts of land in Britain as punishment. Albinus had demonstrated the major problem posed by Roman Britain. In order to maintain security, the province required the presence of three legions, but command of these forces provided an ideal power base for ambitious rivals. Deploying those legions elsewhere would strip the island of its garrison, leaving the province defenceless against uprisings by the native Celtic tribes and against invasion by the Picts and Scots.
The traditional view is that northern Britain descended into anarchy during Albinus's absence. Cassius Dio records that the new Governor, Virius Lupus, was obliged to buy peace from a fractious northern tribe known as the Maeatae. The succession of militarily distinguished governors who were subsequently appointed suggests that enemies of Rome were posing a difficult challenge, and Lucius Alfenus Senecio's report to Rome in 207 describes barbarians "rebelling, over-running the land, taking loot and creating destruction". In order to rebel, of course, one must be a subject – the Maeatae clearly did not consider themselves such. Senecio requested either reinforcements or an Imperial expedition, and Severus chose the latter, despite being 62 years old. Archaeological evidence shows that Senecio had been rebuilding the defences of Hadrian's Wall and the forts beyond it, and Severus's arrival in Britain prompted the enemy tribes to sue for peace immediately. The emperor had not come all that way to leave without a victory, and it is likely that he wished to provide his teenage sons Caracalla and Geta with first-hand experience of controlling a hostile barbarian land.
Northern campaigns, 208–211
An invasion of Caledonia led by Severus and probably numbering around 20,000 troops moved north in 208 or 209, crossing the Wall and passing through eastern Scotland on a route similar to that used by Agricola. Harried by punishing guerrilla raids by the northern tribes and slowed by an unforgiving terrain, Severus was unable to meet the Caledonians on a battlefield. The emperor's forces pushed north as far as the River Tay, but little appears to have been achieved by the invasion, as peace treaties were signed with the Caledonians. By 210 Severus had returned to York, and the frontier had once again become Hadrian's Wall. He assumed the title Britannicus but the title meant little with regard to the unconquered north, which clearly remained outside the authority of the Empire. Almost immediately, another northern tribe, the Maeatae, went to war. Caracalla left with a punitive expedition, but by the following year his ailing father had died and he and his brother left the province to press their claim to the throne.
As one of his last acts, Severus tried to solve the problem of powerful and rebellious governors in Britain by dividing the province into Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. This kept the potential for rebellion in check for almost a century. Historical sources provide little information on the following decades, a period known as the Long Peace. Even so, the number of buried hoards found from this period rises, suggesting continuing unrest. A string of forts were built along the coast of southern Britain to control piracy; and over the following hundred years they increased in number, becoming the Saxon Shore Forts.
During the middle of the 3rd century, the Roman Empire was convulsed by barbarian invasions, rebellions and new imperial pretenders. Britannia apparently avoided these troubles, but increasing inflation had its economic effect. In 259 a so-called Gallic Empire was established when Postumus rebelled against Gallienus. Britannia was part of this until 274 when Aurelian reunited the empire.
Around the year 280, a half-British officer named Bonosus was in command of the Roman's Rhenish fleet when the Germans managed to burn it at anchor. To avoid punishment, he proclaimed himself emperor at Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) but was crushed by Marcus Aurelius Probus. Soon afterwards, an unnamed governor of one of the British provinces also attempted an uprising. Probus put it down by sending irregular troops of Vandals and Burgundians across the Channel.
The Carausian Revolt led to a short-lived Britannic Empire from 286 to 296. Carausius was a Menapian naval commander of the Britannic fleet; he revolted upon learning of a death sentence ordered by the emperor Maximian on charges of having abetted Frankish and Saxon pirates and having embezzled recovered treasure. He consolidated control over all the provinces of Britain and some of northern Gaul while Maximian dealt with other uprisings. An invasion in 288 failed to unseat him and an uneasy peace ensued, with Carausius issuing coins and inviting official recognition. In 293, the junior emperor Constantius Chlorus launched a second offensive, besieging the rebel port of Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) by land and sea. After it fell, Constantius attacked Carausius's other Gallic holdings and Frankish allies and Carausius was usurped by his treasurer, Allectus. Julius Asclepiodotus landed an invasion fleet near Southampton and defeated Allectus in a land battle.
Diocletian's reforms
As part of Diocletian's reforms, the provinces of Roman Britain were organized as a diocese governed by a vicarius under a praetorian prefect who, from 318 to 331, was Junius Bassus who was based at Augusta Treverorum (Trier).
The vicarius was based at Londinium as the principal city of the diocese. Londinium and Eboracum continued as provincial capitals and the territory was divided up into smaller provinces for administrative efficiency.
Civilian and military authority of a province was no longer exercised by one official and the governor was stripped of military command which was handed over to the Dux Britanniarum by 314. The governor of a province assumed more financial duties (the procurators of the Treasury ministry were slowly phased out in the first three decades of the 4th century). The Dux was commander of the troops of the Northern Region, primarily along Hadrian's Wall and his responsibilities included protection of the frontier. He had significant autonomy due in part to the distance from his superiors.
The tasks of the vicarius were to control and coordinate the activities of governors; monitor but not interfere with the daily functioning of the Treasury and Crown Estates, which had their own administrative infrastructure; and act as the regional quartermaster-general of the armed forces. In short, as the sole civilian official with superior authority, he had general oversight of the administration, as well as direct control, while not absolute, over governors who were part of the prefecture; the other two fiscal departments were not.
The early-4th-century Verona List, the late-4th-century work of Sextus Rufus, and the early-5th-century List of Offices and work of Polemius Silvius all list four provinces by some variation of the names Britannia I, Britannia II, Maxima Caesariensis, and Flavia Caesariensis; all of these seem to have initially been directed by a governor (praeses) of equestrian rank. The 5th-century sources list a fifth province named Valentia and give its governor and Maxima's a consular rank. Ammianus mentions Valentia as well, describing its creation by Count Theodosius in 369 after the quelling of the Great Conspiracy. Ammianus considered it a re-creation of a formerly lost province, leading some to think there had been an earlier fifth province under another name (may be the enigmatic "Vespasiana"), and leading others to place Valentia beyond Hadrian's Wall, in the territory abandoned south of the Antonine Wall.
Reconstructions of the provinces and provincial capitals during this period partially rely on ecclesiastical records. On the assumption that the early bishoprics mimicked the imperial hierarchy, scholars use the list of bishops for the 314 Council of Arles. The list is patently corrupt: the British delegation is given as including a Bishop "Eborius" of Eboracum and two bishops "from Londinium" (one de civitate Londinensi and the other de civitate colonia Londinensium). The error is variously emended: Bishop Ussher proposed Colonia, Selden Col. or Colon. Camalodun., and Spelman Colonia Cameloduni (all various names of Colchester); Gale and Bingham offered colonia Lindi and Henry Colonia Lindum (both Lincoln); and Bishop Stillingfleet and Francis Thackeray read it as a scribal error of Civ. Col. Londin. for an original Civ. Col. Leg. II (Caerleon). On the basis of the Verona List, the priest and deacon who accompanied the bishops in some manuscripts are ascribed to the fourth province.
In the 12th century, Gerald of Wales described the supposedly metropolitan sees of the early British church established by the legendary SS Fagan and "Duvian". He placed Britannia Prima in Wales and western England with its capital at "Urbs Legionum" (Caerleon); Britannia Secunda in Kent and southern England with its capital at "Dorobernia" (Canterbury); Flavia in Mercia and central England with its capital at "Lundonia" (London); "Maximia" in northern England with its capital at Eboracum (York); and Valentia in "Albania which is now Scotland" with its capital at St Andrews. Modern scholars generally dispute the last: some place Valentia at or beyond Hadrian's Wall but St Andrews is beyond even the Antonine Wall and Gerald seems to have simply been supporting the antiquity of its church for political reasons.
A common modern reconstruction places the consular province of Maxima at Londinium, on the basis of its status as the seat of the diocesan vicarius; places Prima in the west according to Gerald's traditional account but moves its capital to Corinium of the Dobunni (Cirencester) on the basis of an artifact recovered there referring to Lucius Septimius, a provincial rector; places Flavia north of Maxima, with its capital placed at Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to match one emendation of the bishops list from Arles;[d] and places Secunda in the north with its capital at Eboracum (York). Valentia is placed variously in northern Wales around Deva (Chester); beside Hadrian's Wall around Luguvalium (Carlisle); and between the walls along Dere Street.
4th century
Emperor Constantius returned to Britain in 306, despite his poor health, with an army aiming to invade northern Britain, the provincial defences having been rebuilt in the preceding years. Little is known of his campaigns with scant archaeological evidence, but fragmentary historical sources suggest he reached the far north of Britain and won a major battle in early summer before returning south. His son Constantine (later Constantine the Great) spent a year in northern Britain at his father's side, campaigning against the Picts beyond Hadrian's Wall in the summer and autumn. Constantius died in York in July 306 with his son at his side. Constantine then successfully used Britain as the starting point of his march to the imperial throne, unlike the earlier usurper, Albinus.
In the middle of the century, the province was loyal for a few years to the usurper Magnentius, who succeeded Constans following the latter's death. After the defeat and death of Magnentius in the Battle of Mons Seleucus in 353, Constantius II dispatched his chief imperial notary Paulus Catena to Britain to hunt down Magnentius's supporters. The investigation deteriorated into a witch-hunt, which forced the vicarius Flavius Martinus to intervene. When Paulus retaliated by accusing Martinus of treason, the vicarius attacked Paulus with a sword, with the aim of assassinating him, but in the end he committed suicide.
As the 4th century progressed, there were increasing attacks from the Saxons in the east and the Scoti (Irish) in the west. A series of forts had been built, starting around 280, to defend the coasts, but these preparations were not enough when, in 367, a general assault of Saxons, Picts, Scoti and Attacotti, combined with apparent dissension in the garrison on Hadrian's Wall, left Roman Britain prostrate. The invaders overwhelmed the entire western and northern regions of Britannia and the cities were sacked. This crisis, sometimes called the Barbarian Conspiracy or the Great Conspiracy, was settled by Count Theodosius from 368 with a string of military and civil reforms. Theodosius crossed from Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer) and marched on Londinium where he began to deal with the invaders and made his base.[ An amnesty was promised to deserters which enabled Theodosius to regarrison abandoned forts. By the end of the year Hadrian's Wall was retaken and order returned. Considerable reorganization was undertaken in Britain, including the creation of a new province named Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north. A new Dux Britanniarum was appointed, Dulcitius, with Civilis to head a new civilian administration.
Another imperial usurper, Magnus Maximus, raised the standard of revolt at Segontium (Caernarfon) in north Wales in 383, and crossed the English Channel. Maximus held much of the western empire, and fought a successful campaign against the Picts and Scots around 384. His continental exploits required troops from Britain, and it appears that forts at Chester and elsewhere were abandoned in this period, triggering raids and settlement in north Wales by the Irish. His rule was ended in 388, but not all the British troops may have returned: the Empire's military resources were stretched to the limit along the Rhine and Danube. Around 396 there were more barbarian incursions into Britain. Stilicho led a punitive expedition. It seems peace was restored by 399, and it is likely that no further garrisoning was ordered; by 401 more troops were withdrawn, to assist in the war against Alaric I.
End of Roman rule
The traditional view of historians, informed by the work of Michael Rostovtzeff, was of a widespread economic decline at the beginning of the 5th century. Consistent archaeological evidence has told another story, and the accepted view is undergoing re-evaluation. Some features are agreed: more opulent but fewer urban houses, an end to new public building and some abandonment of existing ones, with the exception of defensive structures, and the widespread formation of "dark earth" deposits indicating increased horticulture within urban precincts. Turning over the basilica at Silchester to industrial uses in the late 3rd century, doubtless officially condoned, marks an early stage in the de-urbanisation of Roman Britain.
The abandonment of some sites is now believed to be later than had been thought. Many buildings changed use but were not destroyed. There was a growing number of barbarian attacks, but these targeted vulnerable rural settlements rather than towns. Some villas such as Chedworth, Great Casterton in Rutland and Hucclecote in Gloucestershire had new mosaic floors laid around this time, suggesting that economic problems may have been limited and patchy. Many suffered some decay before being abandoned in the 5th century; the story of Saint Patrick indicates that villas were still occupied until at least 430. Exceptionally, new buildings were still going up in this period in Verulamium and Cirencester. Some urban centres, for example Canterbury, Cirencester, Wroxeter, Winchester and Gloucester, remained active during the 5th and 6th centuries, surrounded by large farming estates.
Urban life had generally grown less intense by the fourth quarter of the 4th century, and coins minted between 378 and 388 are very rare, indicating a likely combination of economic decline, diminishing numbers of troops, problems with the payment of soldiers and officials or with unstable conditions during the usurpation of Magnus Maximus 383–87. Coinage circulation increased during the 390s, but never attained the levels of earlier decades. Copper coins are very rare after 402, though minted silver and gold coins from hoards indicate they were still present in the province even if they were not being spent. By 407 there were very few new Roman coins going into circulation, and by 430 it is likely that coinage as a medium of exchange had been abandoned. Mass-produced wheel thrown pottery ended at approximately the same time; the rich continued to use metal and glass vessels, while the poor made do with humble "grey ware" or resorted to leather or wooden containers.
Sub-Roman Britain
Towards the end of the 4th century Roman rule in Britain came under increasing pressure from barbarian attacks. Apparently, there were not enough troops to mount an effective defence. After elevating two disappointing usurpers, the army chose a soldier, Constantine III, to become emperor in 407. He crossed to Gaul but was defeated by Honorius; it is unclear how many troops remained or ever returned, or whether a commander-in-chief in Britain was ever reappointed. A Saxon incursion in 408 was apparently repelled by the Britons, and in 409 Zosimus records that the natives expelled the Roman civilian administration. Zosimus may be referring to the Bacaudic rebellion of the Breton inhabitants of Armorica since he describes how, in the aftermath of the revolt, all of Armorica and the rest of Gaul followed the example of the Brettaniai. A letter from Emperor Honorius in 410 has traditionally been seen as rejecting a British appeal for help, but it may have been addressed to Bruttium or Bologna. With the imperial layers of the military and civil government gone, administration and justice fell to municipal authorities, and local warlords gradually emerged all over Britain, still utilizing Romano-British ideals and conventions. Historian Stuart Laycock has investigated this process and emphasised elements of continuity from the British tribes in the pre-Roman and Roman periods, through to the native post-Roman kingdoms.
In British tradition, pagan Saxons were invited by Vortigern to assist in fighting the Picts, Scoti, and Déisi. (Germanic migration into Roman Britannia may have begun much earlier. There is recorded evidence, for example, of Germanic auxiliaries supporting the legions in Britain in the 1st and 2nd centuries.) The new arrivals rebelled, plunging the country into a series of wars that eventually led to the Saxon occupation of Lowland Britain by 600. Around this time, many Britons fled to Brittany (hence its name), Galicia and probably Ireland. A significant date in sub-Roman Britain is the Groans of the Britons, an unanswered appeal to Aetius, leading general of the western Empire, for assistance against Saxon invasion in 446. Another is the Battle of Deorham in 577, after which the significant cities of Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester fell and the Saxons reached the western sea.
Historians generally reject the historicity of King Arthur, who is supposed to have resisted the Anglo-Saxon conquest according to later medieval legends.
Trade
During the Roman period Britain's continental trade was principally directed across the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel, focusing on the narrow Strait of Dover, with more limited links via the Atlantic seaways. The most important British ports were London and Richborough, whilst the continental ports most heavily engaged in trade with Britain were Boulogne and the sites of Domburg and Colijnsplaat at the mouth of the river Scheldt. During the Late Roman period it is likely that the shore forts played some role in continental trade alongside their defensive functions.
Exports to Britain included: coin; pottery, particularly red-gloss terra sigillata (samian ware) from southern, central and eastern Gaul, as well as various other wares from Gaul and the Rhine provinces; olive oil from southern Spain in amphorae; wine from Gaul in amphorae and barrels; salted fish products from the western Mediterranean and Brittany in barrels and amphorae; preserved olives from southern Spain in amphorae; lava quern-stones from Mayen on the middle Rhine; glass; and some agricultural products. Britain's exports are harder to detect archaeologically, but will have included metals, such as silver and gold and some lead, iron and copper. Other exports probably included agricultural products, oysters and salt, whilst large quantities of coin would have been re-exported back to the continent as well.
These products moved as a result of private trade and also through payments and contracts established by the Roman state to support its military forces and officials on the island, as well as through state taxation and extraction of resources. Up until the mid-3rd century, the Roman state's payments appear to have been unbalanced, with far more products sent to Britain, to support its large military force (which had reached c. 53,000 by the mid-2nd century), than were extracted from the island.
It has been argued that Roman Britain's continental trade peaked in the late 1st century AD and thereafter declined as a result of an increasing reliance on local products by the population of Britain, caused by economic development on the island and by the Roman state's desire to save money by shifting away from expensive long-distance imports. Evidence has been outlined that suggests that the principal decline in Roman Britain's continental trade may have occurred in the late 2nd century AD, from c. 165 AD onwards. This has been linked to the economic impact of contemporary Empire-wide crises: the Antonine Plague and the Marcomannic Wars.
From the mid-3rd century onwards, Britain no longer received such a wide range and extensive quantity of foreign imports as it did during the earlier part of the Roman period; vast quantities of coin from continental mints reached the island, whilst there is historical evidence for the export of large amounts of British grain to the continent during the mid-4th century. During the latter part of the Roman period British agricultural products, paid for by both the Roman state and by private consumers, clearly played an important role in supporting the military garrisons and urban centres of the northwestern continental Empire. This came about as a result of the rapid decline in the size of the British garrison from the mid-3rd century onwards (thus freeing up more goods for export), and because of 'Germanic' incursions across the Rhine, which appear to have reduced rural settlement and agricultural output in northern Gaul.
Economy
Mineral extraction sites such as the Dolaucothi gold mine were probably first worked by the Roman army from c. 75, and at some later stage passed to civilian operators. The mine developed as a series of opencast workings, mainly by the use of hydraulic mining methods. They are described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History in great detail. Essentially, water supplied by aqueducts was used to prospect for ore veins by stripping away soil to reveal the bedrock. If veins were present, they were attacked using fire-setting and the ore removed for comminution. The dust was washed in a small stream of water and the heavy gold dust and gold nuggets collected in riffles. The diagram at right shows how Dolaucothi developed from c. 75 through to the 1st century. When opencast work was no longer feasible, tunnels were driven to follow the veins. The evidence from the site shows advanced technology probably under the control of army engineers.
The Wealden ironworking zone, the lead and silver mines of the Mendip Hills and the tin mines of Cornwall seem to have been private enterprises leased from the government for a fee. Mining had long been practised in Britain (see Grimes Graves), but the Romans introduced new technical knowledge and large-scale industrial production to revolutionise the industry. It included hydraulic mining to prospect for ore by removing overburden as well as work alluvial deposits. The water needed for such large-scale operations was supplied by one or more aqueducts, those surviving at Dolaucothi being especially impressive. Many prospecting areas were in dangerous, upland country, and, although mineral exploitation was presumably one of the main reasons for the Roman invasion, it had to wait until these areas were subdued.
By the 3rd and 4th centuries, small towns could often be found near villas. In these towns, villa owners and small-scale farmers could obtain specialist tools. Lowland Britain in the 4th century was agriculturally prosperous enough to export grain to the continent. This prosperity lay behind the blossoming of villa building and decoration that occurred between AD 300 and 350.
Britain's cities also consumed Roman-style pottery and other goods, and were centres through which goods could be distributed elsewhere. At Wroxeter in Shropshire, stock smashed into a gutter during a 2nd-century fire reveals that Gaulish samian ware was being sold alongside mixing bowls from the Mancetter-Hartshill industry of the West Midlands. Roman designs were most popular, but rural craftsmen still produced items derived from the Iron Age La Tène artistic traditions. Britain was home to much gold, which attracted Roman invaders. By the 3rd century, Britain's economy was diverse and well established, with commerce extending into the non-Romanised north.
Government
Further information: Governors of Roman Britain, Roman client kingdoms in Britain, and Roman auxiliaries in Britain
Under the Roman Empire, administration of peaceful provinces was ultimately the remit of the Senate, but those, like Britain, that required permanent garrisons, were placed under the Emperor's control. In practice imperial provinces were run by resident governors who were members of the Senate and had held the consulship. These men were carefully selected, often having strong records of military success and administrative ability. In Britain, a governor's role was primarily military, but numerous other tasks were also his responsibility, such as maintaining diplomatic relations with local client kings, building roads, ensuring the public courier system functioned, supervising the civitates and acting as a judge in important legal cases. When not campaigning, he would travel the province hearing complaints and recruiting new troops.
To assist him in legal matters he had an adviser, the legatus juridicus, and those in Britain appear to have been distinguished lawyers perhaps because of the challenge of incorporating tribes into the imperial system and devising a workable method of taxing them. Financial administration was dealt with by a procurator with junior posts for each tax-raising power. Each legion in Britain had a commander who answered to the governor and, in time of war, probably directly ruled troublesome districts. Each of these commands carried a tour of duty of two to three years in different provinces. Below these posts was a network of administrative managers covering intelligence gathering, sending reports to Rome, organising military supplies and dealing with prisoners. A staff of seconded soldiers provided clerical services.
Colchester was probably the earliest capital of Roman Britain, but it was soon eclipsed by London with its strong mercantile connections. The different forms of municipal organisation in Britannia were known as civitas (which were subdivided, amongst other forms, into colonies such as York, Colchester, Gloucester and Lincoln and municipalities such as Verulamium), and were each governed by a senate of local landowners, whether Brythonic or Roman, who elected magistrates concerning judicial and civic affairs. The various civitates sent representatives to a yearly provincial council in order to profess loyalty to the Roman state, to send direct petitions to the Emperor in times of extraordinary need, and to worship the imperial cult.
Demographics
Roman Britain had an estimated population between 2.8 million and 3 million people at the end of the second century. At the end of the fourth century, it had an estimated population of 3.6 million people, of whom 125,000 consisted of the Roman army and their families and dependents.[80] The urban population of Roman Britain was about 240,000 people at the end of the fourth century. The capital city of Londinium is estimated to have had a population of about 60,000 people. Londinium was an ethnically diverse city with inhabitants from the Roman Empire, including natives of Britannia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. There was also cultural diversity in other Roman-British towns, which were sustained by considerable migration, from Britannia and other Roman territories, including continental Europe, Roman Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. In a study conducted in 2012, around 45 percent of sites investigated dating from the Roman period had at least one individual of North African origin.
Town and country
During their occupation of Britain the Romans founded a number of important settlements, many of which survive. The towns suffered attrition in the later 4th century, when public building ceased and some were abandoned to private uses. Place names survived the deurbanised Sub-Roman and early Anglo-Saxon periods, and historiography has been at pains to signal the expected survivals, but archaeology shows that a bare handful of Roman towns were continuously occupied. According to S.T. Loseby, the very idea of a town as a centre of power and administration was reintroduced to England by the Roman Christianising mission to Canterbury, and its urban revival was delayed to the 10th century.
Roman towns can be broadly grouped in two categories. Civitates, "public towns" were formally laid out on a grid plan, and their role in imperial administration occasioned the construction of public buildings. The much more numerous category of vici, "small towns" grew on informal plans, often round a camp or at a ford or crossroads; some were not small, others were scarcely urban, some not even defended by a wall, the characteristic feature of a place of any importance.
Cities and towns which have Roman origins, or were extensively developed by them are listed with their Latin names in brackets; civitates are marked C
Alcester (Alauna)
Alchester
Aldborough, North Yorkshire (Isurium Brigantum) C
Bath (Aquae Sulis) C
Brough (Petuaria) C
Buxton (Aquae Arnemetiae)
Caerleon (Isca Augusta) C
Caernarfon (Segontium) C
Caerwent (Venta Silurum) C
Caister-on-Sea C
Canterbury (Durovernum Cantiacorum) C
Carlisle (Luguvalium) C
Carmarthen (Moridunum) C
Chelmsford (Caesaromagus)
Chester (Deva Victrix) C
Chester-le-Street (Concangis)
Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum) C
Cirencester (Corinium) C
Colchester (Camulodunum) C
Corbridge (Coria) C
Dorchester (Durnovaria) C
Dover (Portus Dubris)
Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) C
Gloucester (Glevum) C
Great Chesterford (the name of this vicus is unknown)
Ilchester (Lindinis) C
Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum) C
Lincoln (Lindum Colonia) C
London (Londinium) C
Manchester (Mamucium) C
Newcastle upon Tyne (Pons Aelius)
Northwich (Condate)
St Albans (Verulamium) C
Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) C
Towcester (Lactodurum)
Whitchurch (Mediolanum) C
Winchester (Venta Belgarum) C
Wroxeter (Viroconium Cornoviorum) C
York (Eboracum) C
Religion
The druids, the Celtic priestly caste who were believed to originate in Britain, were outlawed by Claudius, and in 61 they vainly defended their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey). Under Roman rule the Britons continued to worship native Celtic deities, such as Ancasta, but often conflated with their Roman equivalents, like Mars Rigonemetos at Nettleham.
The degree to which earlier native beliefs survived is difficult to gauge precisely. Certain European ritual traits such as the significance of the number 3, the importance of the head and of water sources such as springs remain in the archaeological record, but the differences in the votive offerings made at the baths at Bath, Somerset, before and after the Roman conquest suggest that continuity was only partial. Worship of the Roman emperor is widely recorded, especially at military sites. The founding of a Roman temple to Claudius at Camulodunum was one of the impositions that led to the revolt of Boudica. By the 3rd century, Pagans Hill Roman Temple in Somerset was able to exist peaceably and it did so into the 5th century.
Pagan religious practices were supported by priests, represented in Britain by votive deposits of priestly regalia such as chain crowns from West Stow and Willingham Fen.
Eastern cults such as Mithraism also grew in popularity towards the end of the occupation. The London Mithraeum is one example of the popularity of mystery religions among the soldiery. Temples to Mithras also exist in military contexts at Vindobala on Hadrian's Wall (the Rudchester Mithraeum) and at Segontium in Roman Wales (the Caernarfon Mithraeum).
Christianity
It is not clear when or how Christianity came to Britain. A 2nd-century "word square" has been discovered in Mamucium, the Roman settlement of Manchester. It consists of an anagram of PATER NOSTER carved on a piece of amphora. There has been discussion by academics whether the "word square" is a Christian artefact, but if it is, it is one of the earliest examples of early Christianity in Britain. The earliest confirmed written evidence for Christianity in Britain is a statement by Tertullian, c. 200 AD, in which he described "all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ". Archaeological evidence for Christian communities begins to appear in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Small timber churches are suggested at Lincoln and Silchester and baptismal fonts have been found at Icklingham and the Saxon Shore Fort at Richborough. The Icklingham font is made of lead, and visible in the British Museum. A Roman Christian graveyard exists at the same site in Icklingham. A possible Roman 4th-century church and associated burial ground was also discovered at Butt Road on the south-west outskirts of Colchester during the construction of the new police station there, overlying an earlier pagan cemetery. The Water Newton Treasure is a hoard of Christian silver church plate from the early 4th century and the Roman villas at Lullingstone and Hinton St Mary contained Christian wall paintings and mosaics respectively. A large 4th-century cemetery at Poundbury with its east–west oriented burials and lack of grave goods has been interpreted as an early Christian burial ground, although such burial rites were also becoming increasingly common in pagan contexts during the period.
The Church in Britain seems to have developed the customary diocesan system, as evidenced from the records of the Council of Arles in Gaul in 314: represented at the council were bishops from thirty-five sees from Europe and North Africa, including three bishops from Britain, Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelphius, possibly a bishop of Lincoln. No other early sees are documented, and the material remains of early church structures are far to seek. The existence of a church in the forum courtyard of Lincoln and the martyrium of Saint Alban on the outskirts of Roman Verulamium are exceptional. Alban, the first British Christian martyr and by far the most prominent, is believed to have died in the early 4th century (some date him in the middle 3rd century), followed by Saints Julius and Aaron of Isca Augusta. Christianity was legalised in the Roman Empire by Constantine I in 313. Theodosius I made Christianity the state religion of the empire in 391, and by the 5th century it was well established. One belief labelled a heresy by the church authorities — Pelagianism — was originated by a British monk teaching in Rome: Pelagius lived c. 354 to c. 420/440.
A letter found on a lead tablet in Bath, Somerset, datable to c. 363, had been widely publicised as documentary evidence regarding the state of Christianity in Britain during Roman times. According to its first translator, it was written in Wroxeter by a Christian man called Vinisius to a Christian woman called Nigra, and was claimed as the first epigraphic record of Christianity in Britain. This translation of the letter was apparently based on grave paleographical errors, and the text has nothing to do with Christianity, and in fact relates to pagan rituals.
Environmental changes
The Romans introduced a number of species to Britain, including possibly the now-rare Roman nettle (Urtica pilulifera), said to have been used by soldiers to warm their arms and legs, and the edible snail Helix pomatia. There is also some evidence they may have introduced rabbits, but of the smaller southern mediterranean type. The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) prevalent in modern Britain is assumed to have been introduced from the continent after the Norman invasion of 1066. Box (Buxus sempervirens) is rarely recorded before the Roman period, but becomes a common find in towns and villas
Legacy
During their occupation of Britain the Romans built an extensive network of roads which continued to be used in later centuries and many are still followed today. The Romans also built water supply, sanitation and wastewater systems. Many of Britain's major cities, such as London (Londinium), Manchester (Mamucium) and York (Eboracum), were founded by the Romans, but the original Roman settlements were abandoned not long after the Romans left.
Unlike many other areas of the Western Roman Empire, the current majority language is not a Romance language, or a language descended from the pre-Roman inhabitants. The British language at the time of the invasion was Common Brittonic, and remained so after the Romans withdrew. It later split into regional languages, notably Cumbric, Cornish, Breton and Welsh. Examination of these languages suggests some 800 Latin words were incorporated into Common Brittonic (see Brittonic languages). The current majority language, English, is based on the languages of the Germanic tribes who migrated to the island from continental Europe