I could spend all day photographing these marvelous birds. They are so quick and so vocal and it's a real experience to get close and hear all the chatter!

#DEDPXL02

"Wall of Values".

Painting on architectural/spatial forms.

Fired Clay, Raw Oxides,

Pupils have their own space in the Dixon Centre.

A box car letter SMW 536020, St Marys Railway West LLC

 

Call it art or call it vandalism or call it both, railroad graffiti has transformed greatly in the one hundred and fifty years since the first trains began rolling over the rails in North America. In the early days of railroading, rail workers left marks to other railroaders as a form of communication. These messages were more often left in chalk could relate to handling of a specific car or load, the condition of equipment that needs repair or simply an indication of an item's dimensions (as can be seen on the grade crossing arm in the image to the right).

 

Some railroaders today leave chalk markings on rail cars after they have gone to the car shop for work. These tend to carry generic musings or to identify the artist in a way not to give away their true identity.

 

Likewise, hobos let marks to other hobos as the economic strife of the 1920s and 30s forced men to hop trains to get where they were going. Some drawings by hobos mean specific things while others seek to identify themselves.

 

The larger and more graphic style of graffiti commonly known as tagging originated in east coast cities in the 1960s as part of hip hop culture. New York City subway cars were early targets; the practice soon spread to boxcars and other railroad freight cars. Today’s taggers run the gamut from stereotypical troubled youth to white collar office workers who moonlight with spray cans.

  

Supporters form up for the Houston Women's March in Houston, Texas, a sister march to the Women's March on Washington. || DJI FC220 || Houston

Finished! The remainder went quickly as the beautiful surprise in the center revealed itself. I found this puzzle to be brilliantly entertaining, with great colors, intricate details and cutting, yet a recognizable form that made solving somewhat easier than other Tibetan puzzles from Genest. A mandala puzzle would be a great introduction to Genest's larger puzzles and he has another example of a modern mandala currently listed on his Etsy shop.

 

Completed in 33 hr., 8 mins with no box reference. 96.5 secs./piece; 37.3 pcs/hr. Difficulty rating: 9.7/10.

 

Here is the information provided about the mandala:

 

"The Wish-Fulfilling Mandala of Avalokiteshvara"

 

Your white-colored body is free from any faults,

and your crown ornament is the completion of Buddha (Mandala).

You look at beings with eyes of compassion;

To you, Avalokiteshvara, I bow and rejoice.

 

- Avalokiteshvara sadhana composed by Drikung Chetsang II, Trinley Zangpo, 1656-1718

 

In this tangka the four-armed Avalokiteshvara called Sadkshari Lokeshvara, "the Lord who looks down (in compassion)," is represented in his fourfold emanation called the Father (Chenrezig), the Mother (Lhamo Yigdrugma), the Son (Se Norbu Dzimpa), and the Daughter (Semo Rigdzinma) according to the mandala called "The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel for Taming Beings."

 

Belonging to the Sakya school, this tangka is dated to the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. Its characteristic feature is the arrangement of the deities within the mandala in the manner of a chess board. The arrangement of gurus and deities bordering the central mandala is typical for the early period of this painting style of Central Tibet. It presents the entire Sakya lineage tree of spiritual masters in the uppermost row, together with Indian siddhas and their Tibetan protagonists in the middle section,, and a number of wisdom protectors and wrathful meditation deities at the bottom.

 

The cult of Avalokiteshvara and the use of his classical six-syllable mantra, Om mani padme hum, dates back to the earliest transmission of Buddhism to Tibet. The Mahayana literature, while largely concerned with the cult of various buddhas conceived of as residing throughout an endless universe in different "pure lands" or buddhafields, presumes also the existence of bodhisattvas. Avalokiteshvara is the most popular bodhisattva, and a whole sutra, the Karandavyuha, is devoted to him. This work was translated into Chinese in the third century and became well established throughout Central Asia. Avalokiteshvara became popular in Tibet, where the cult began to spread from the seventh century onward.

 

Unlike most other celestial bodhisattvas who are enlisted to serve as the entourage of the presiding buddhas, Avalokiteshvara became the center of a cult in his own right. He became the supreme ideal of compassion for living beings in all their various spheres of existence. He is variously invoked as the "Universal Saviour," the "Great Compassionate One," the "Stirrer of the Pit of Existence," and the "Stirrer of the Pit of Hell." Since each title implies a different manifestation, it involves a differing entourage of supporting divine forms and a different rite of invocation. A new development in the cult of Avalokiteshvara in Tibet started with the Indian pandit Atisha, who, while staying in Guge, Western Tibet, devised a special version of the Guhyasamaja Tantra. Where the tantra normally concentrates on the Five Buddhas, in Atisha's version Avalokiteshvara is the central divinity. This was - in the words of Daniel Snellgrove - "a subtle change from the dependence on an accepted Buddhist symbolic arrangement to a devotional alliance to a divine being conceived as a god in the Hindu patterns. From now on this change begins to characterize all Tibetan Buddhist practice, as expressed in private meditation upon tutelary divinities and public worship of the great gods of later Buddhism in temples and monasteries."

 

The sacred mantra of Avalokiteshvara, in this mandala embodied as the "Mother" or "Goddess of the Six Syllables," is recited throughout Tibet, and countless prayer wheels are filled with its scrolls. The benefits and qualities of the six syllables are commented on in many treatises. Recitation of the mantra is said to produce wealth and nourishment in poor countries and cause one to be reborn as a man and not as a woman. Further, between one and seven recitations is said to purify the defilements accumulated in 108,000 kalpas. Reciting the mantra ten thousand times is said to close the gates into the three lower realms of existence, and one billion recitations is said to bring about complete buddhahood.

 

Each syllable of the mantra is connected with colors and also with the six realms. The white Om closes the gate for rebirth among the gods and grants the siddhi of long life. Its sound and light vanquish dullness, purify all physical obscurations, and allow one to reach the path of accumulation.

 

The green Ma closes the gates for a human rebirth and grants the siddhi of good health. Its sound and light overcome hatred, purify the obscurations of speech, and allow one to achieve the path of preparation.

 

The yellow Ni closes the gates for a human rebirth and grants the siddhi of glory. Its sound and light subdue pride, purify mental obscurations, and lead one to the path of seeing.

 

The red Pad closes the gates into the animal realms and grants the siddhi of power. Its sound and light subdue desire, purify the obscurations of emotions, and lead one to the path of meditation.

 

The blue Me closes the gates into the realms of the hungry ghosts and grants the siddhi of splendor. Its sound and light subdue jealousy, purify the obscurations of karmic traces, and lead one to the path of no more learning.

 

The black Hum closes the gates into the hells and grants unimaginable siddhis. Its sound and light dispel off all emotions, purify all obscurations, and allow one to attain the path of union.

 

By the merit of this recitation may all beings be reborn into the heavenly abode of Sukhavati!

Shapes of the city

Forms came off today. Lumber is expected tomorrow, and framing will start. The opening for the crawlspace on the west foundation wall makes it a lot easier to step into the studio than on Saturday. They expect to reuse many of the 2x6 boards as floor joists, which makes their use as forms make a lot more sense.

 

MAP shop tour. Chico, CA

Silicone Breast Form Mastectomy Fake Prosthesis Enhancer Crossdresser Boob pair 1

transsexual.silicone-breast.com/2016/12/10/silicone-breas...

cross-dress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/272289518003...

   

Pur Blanc Bugatti Veyron Supersport in its Purest form!

Taken with a Kodak 66 mk3 folding camera from 1959.

120 Fuji Reala ISO 100 film

Light leak in bellows caused the red flare despite my efforts to repair them!

 

This is a relatively new sculpture on public display at Snape Maltings in Suffolk, England. Entitled 'Large interior form' by Henry Moore. He produced this in 1982 when he was 84. There are six of these sculptures in existence worldwide.

 

A succession of Henry Moore works has been sited on this lawn (chosen by HM himself) outside the entrance to the huge Concert Hall at Snape. The spot has naturally become known as the Henry Moore lawn.

  

Many of the tropical butterflies have distinctive seasonal forms. This phenomenon is termed seasonal polyphenism and the seasonal forms of the butterflies are called the dry-season and wet-season forms. How the season affects the genetic expression of patterns is still a subject of research. The dry-season forms are usually more cryptic and it has been suggested that the protection offered may be an adaptation. Some also show greater dark colours in the wet-season form which may have thermoregulatory advantages by increasing ability to absorb solar radiation.

 

The wet-season forms have large, very apparent multiple eyespots whereas the dry-season forms have very reduced, oftentimes nonexistent, eyespots. Larvae that develop in hot, wet conditions develop into wet-season adults whereas those growing in the transition from the wet to the dry season, when the temperature is declining, develop into dry-season adults. This polyphenism probably has an adaptive role. In the dry-season it is disadvantageous to have conspicuous eyespots because they blend in with the brown vegetation better without eyespots. By not developing eyespots in the dry-season they can more easily camouflage themselves in the brown brush. This minimizes the risk of visually mediated predation. In the wet-season, these brown butterflies cannot as easily rely on cryptic coloration for protection because the background vegetation is green. Thus, eyespots, which may function to decrease predation, are beneficial for Satyrine butterflies like the Bushbrown to express.

 

Pu'er, Yunnan, China

 

see comments for image of wet season form....

Today is Day 1.

 

I started a new job today. Today was a day of meetings and accepting 60+ future email meetings/trainings.

 

Except for the sound going out in my manager meeting, it wasn’t too bad of a first day.

 

And it all begins again tomorrow at 6 am.

 

Now, I just need to find a non-family member to sign a form for me by tomorrow. Any volunteers?

I was driving to Otterden, using John Vigar's book as a guide to the East Kent churches I had missed.

 

I was using the Sat Nav, at least to get me to the village, so I could concentrate on the roads and sights as I went along, just on the offchance I passed another church unexpectedly.

 

And so I came to Eastling, and across a walled field, I saw the church, so, finding there was a large car park, I pulled up.

 

To get into the church yeard, one could either climb over a wooden stile, one built into the wall, or through the gate a few metres further along. I chose the gate.

 

Through the churchyard, and under the shadow of a huge yew tree to find the porch door, and church door beyond both unlocked.

 

------------------------------------------------

 

A huge church entered across a meadow along a path which passes a huge Yew tree. The porch is high Victorian with the jazziest floor in Kent, no doubt the work of Richard Hussey who restored the church in the mid nineteenth century. This leads to a church with origins in the 12th century but owing more to the 13th and even more to the 19th century! The arcades are built in a much replaced Early English style but work well. In the centre alley is the lovely ledger slab of a man who put it there a few years before his death and inscribed lest someone else steal his pole position! In the south transept is a pretty monument showing kneeling children and a most colourful shield of arms displaying sea creatures. The chancel contains some rare blank arcading in the north wall which may have formed sedilia elsewhere or which may be part of a monument. Its arches are held up by four strong men with bulging shoulders. What a surprise it is! Next to it is one of the finest 14th century tomb recesses in the county, though the faces at either end are Victorian fantasies. This is a much-loved and rewarding Downland church, which is open daily.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Eastling

 

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It is widely accepted that there has been a place of worship on the site of the Parish Church of St Mary's at Eastling since Anglo-Saxon times.

The oldest surviving parts of the present building are the base of the south-west Tower, the Nave and the western part of the Chancel. All are thought to have been built by the 11th century, possibly on the foundations of an earlier church. The remainder of the Tower and the central part of the Chancel are Norman.

The North and South Aisles and the Arcades between the Aisles and the Nave were built in the 13th century. In the 14th century, the Chancel was extended eastwards to create a Sanctuary. Also in that century, the St Katherine Chapel and an Arcade was added to the south-east corner of the building.

In 1855-56, the Nave, North Aisle and the South Arcade were substantially rebuilt, the West Porch added and the Nave re-roofed.

 

The Nave - or central area of the church - dates from the 12th century and is notable for its unusually narrow original walls (later, the Arcade walls). Fractionally over 2ft thick, they are considered to be attributable to Saxon workmanship which favoured relatively "thin" solid walls against the Norman style of "thicker" walls comprising two leaves with a filled cavity.

The western end of the Nave is thought to be a late 12th-century extension.

The South Aisle was constructed in the early part of the 13th century and substantially rebuilt by Victorian architect R. C. Hussey in 1855. Some original 13th-century material was re-used, and the eastern respond located against the Chancel remains substantially untouched.

The North Aisle was also created in the 13th century and completely rebuilt by Hussey as part of his major "modernisation" of the building. The South Aisle incorporates a 14th-century window.

The Victorians' enthusiasm for remodelling churches also extended to the Nave which was rebuilt by Hussey in 1855-56. He also added the West Porch, constructed a Vestry and re-built the Chancel arch. It's worth comparing the ceilings of the South Aisle which is said to have escaped Hussey's attentions and that of the Nave where he left only the tie beams and principal trusses visible.

The box pews, pulpit, lectern, rector's stall and choir stalls all date from the Victorian era. The wooden wall benches pre-date the pews.

 

The alignment of the Tower and Chancel is considered attributable to Saxon, rather than Norman, workmanship. If you stand in front of the east window and look back to the west door you will see that the Nave and Chancel are out of alignment, and this suggests that the Chancel pre-dates the Nave.

Examples of Norman workmanship to be seen in St Mary today are:

• the upper part of the Tower;

• perhaps the belfry stage with its pairs of round-headed openings;

• the re-styling of the western part of the Chancel; and

• the west end of the Nave (possibly a late 12th century extension).

Early in the 13th century, the Chancel was re-styled and given Early English lancet windows.

A further period of rebuilding-took place during the 14th century. The Chancel was extended eastwards by a further 22ft, so creating the Sanctuary.

The stained glass in the Chancel windows are memorials to the Birch Reynardson family. The east window contains picture panels, the work of famous church glass artist Thomas Willement of Davington.

 

On the north wall of the Sanctuary at Eastling Church is a double Aumbry.

Built as a cupboard in the wall - usually with a wooden door - this would have been used to house the Church Plate.

 

A piscina is, in effect, a medieval stone bowl near the altar where a priest carried out ceremonial cleaning tasks.

The piscina in Eastling Church dates from the late 13th century and takes the form of a stone cill incorporating twin bowls - one for hand washing, the other for cleaning the chalice and other sacred vessels.

It was originally located in the Chancel. When this part of the building was extended during the 14th century, the piscina was moved to its present position on the south wall of the Sanctuary.

 

The sedilia at Eastling Church comprise three recessed stone seats with trefoiled canopies. By convention, sedilia were placed south of the altar and used by the priest, deacon and sub-deacon.

Created late in the 13th century, Eastling's sedilia were moved, during the 14th century, from the Chancel to their present position in the (then) new Sanctuary.

 

The Stone Stalls, on the north side of the Chancel, would have once served as choir stalls. These recessed seats have unusual carved stone canopies in the form of four trefoiled arches carried on caryatids (columns sculpted as female figures).

In his "Notes on the Church", Eastling Church historian Richard Hugh Perks says that a 19th century ecclesiologist, Francis Grayling, theorised that they were mural recesses. Mr Perks considers the church might once have been decorated extensively with murals - born out by the traces of wall paintings found in the 1960s when the Chancel was re-decorated. However, the paintings were in such very poor condition that they were covered over. Mr Perks also draws attention to the fragment of the former Chancel east wall which can be seen at the east end of the Stone Stalls.

 

The St Katherine Chapel was built around 1350. As part of the scheme, an arcade was formed on the south side of the Chancel. The fluted (concave-sided) pillars are an unusual design, also found in Faversham Parish Church and at Eastchurch, Sheppey. It is thought that the workmanship might be by masons from either Leeds Priory or Faversham Abbey.

The Chapel houses a 19th century organ, the Martin James monument and a fine oak chest with an inscription of "1664 H" carved inside. The "H" is the mark of a Michael Shilling, who was churchwarden at the time.

 

There is evidence that Eastling Church once had a Rood Screen, possibly extending across both the Chapel and the Chancel. On this would have stood a Cross with a carving representing a crucified Jesus. The Reformation saw the destruction of the Rood and no trace remains, apart from the base of a stairs turret at the south-east corner of the South Aisle.

 

The West Porch was built in 1855, by Victorian architect R.C. Hussey as part of his major alterations to the church.

However, the fine Norman west doorcase is much older, possibly dating from 1180. It is carved from chalk blocks; some of the internal wall faces are also chalk, a common feature of many Downland churches. It was partly restored by the Victorians.

 

The churchyard owes much to a generous bequest for its maintenance by Dorothy Long (d. 1968). It used to be part of the 'Gods Acre Project' setup by the Vicar of Eastling Parish Caroline Pinchbeck (who departed the parish in 2012) but from 2013 has been returned to previous landscaping regimes.

When the churchyard was being managed with wildlife in mind, it preserved the diversity of nature alongside well kempt areas. This means parts of the old graveyard were left to grow from springtime onwards and were cut in September. Many species of wild flowers grew in a spring meadow and were followed by grasses. This encouraged wildlife into the graveyard, owls, field mice, voles, multiple species of insects and birds. The uncut areas were managed, which means to say they were not left to grow out of control. Brambles, the majority of stinging nettles and other unwanted plants were removed by hand and the graves were always tended so that the vegetation did not disturb them.

Areas of the churchyard that were mown were done so with a petrol mower but the grass was not collected, It was left on the ground as a mulch. No pesticides were used, they damaged the graves, leaving contaminated black rings around them and killed any wild flowers or grass in the affected areas. The emphasis of the gods acre project management process, started in 2008, was balance. By maintaining the churchyard in this way it was both cost effective and beneficial to local wildlife and preservation. (N. Perkins/ Grounds man Eastling Church 2007-2012)

The original graveyard has a modern extension with spaces still available for burials and close to the entry gate is an area dedicated to the burial of ashes.

Several graves date from the 17th and 18th centuries and include memorial stones to Mary Tanner who was born in the year of the Battle of Naseby; to Christopher Giles born in 1674 and his wife Susannah born in 1691; and to Thomas Lake of Eastling Gent died February the 19th 1717.

Close to the West Porch is a 13th century stone coffin slab, in the form of a cross with a sword, a style sometimes referred to as a "Crusader Tomb".(original text) This is infact incorrect, an archaeologist has confirmed that the stone is a medieval headstone most likely from the back of the church which was once standing that has been moved and placed by the entrance for asthetic qualities. There is another stone to the left of the entrance from a sarcophagus which again has been moved and placed by the entrance.

  

There is a Yew Tree by the West Door and It is said to be an ancient which would put it's minimum age at 2000 years, predating the church. However dating methods for Yew Trees are inconclusive.. It is hard to reliably scientifically date a Yew Tree due to several factors.. Information on the dating process can be found here. (source: ancient-yew.org) Also Yew trees can grow fast and ages can be exaggerated, a large Yew is most likely the age of the Church but unlikely to be older than it's Anglo-Saxon predecessor. There is no firm evidence to link Yew trees to pagan religions or the theory that Church's were built on Pagan Ritual Sites. (source: Illustrated History of the Countryside, Oliver Rackham)

The circle of yews which continue around the church have been said to have sprouted from the ancient Yew Tree, however archeologists and Yew Tree Specialists have put forward that actually the Yew Trees have been landscaped to look like that. In the past Yew Trees were planted to ward of witches and evil spirits. It is clear if you measure out the trees and use dimensions for aging that the trees have been landscaped.

 

Work carried out on the tower in 2010 to install a compostable toilet has radically changed the dimensions and structure of the lower and middle of the tower.

The base of the south-west Tower is said to date from the early 11th century, possibly earlier. Much of the remainder of the Tower is Norman.

The Tower - five feet thick at its base - is of flint and chippings, with ragstone quoins, and is heavily buttressed. The external brick buttress to the tower is 18th century. Brick was also used in rebuilding sections of the north-west angle of the Tower, the belfry openings and the Tower doorcase. Today's slated spire would once have been clad with wooden shingles.

The door to the Tower is set in a large arch with "Articles" of the Ringing Chamber, on wooden boards above it.

 

Eastling has six bells, four of them made by Richard Phelps during the time he occupied the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Click here for more info. Unfortunately, the present condition of the timber bell frame with its elm headstocks (constructed around 1700) and the upper part of the Tower do not allow the bells to be rung safely.

 

www.eastlingvillage.co.uk/st-mary-s-church.html

 

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THE next parish south-eastward from Newnham, is Easling, written in old deeds likewise Esling, and Iseling.

 

It is situated among the hills, on very high ground, about five miles southward from Faversham, and a little more than a mile south-eastward from Newnham valley, in a healthy but cold and forlorn country, being much exposed to the north-east aspect. The village, with the church and parsonage in it, a near pretty dwelling, stands on the road leading from Otterden to Newnham valley; in it there is a large well-timbered house, called Gregories, formerly of some account, and rebuilt in 1616, it formerly belonged to Hoskins, and then to Parmeter, in which name it still continues.—Though there is some level land in the parish, yet it is mostly steep hill and dale, the soil in gen ral a red cludgy earth, poor, and much covered with flints. It is very woody, especially in the eastern parts of it.

 

A fair is held in the village on Sept. 14, yearly, for toys and pedlary ware. On Nov. 30, being St. Andrew's, there is yearly a diversion called squirrel bunting, in this and the neighbouring parishes, when the labourers and lower kind of people assembling together, form a lawless rabble, and being accoutred with guns, poles, clubs, and other such weapons, spend the greatest part of the day in parading through the woods and grounds, with loud shoutings, and under the pretence of demolishing the squirrels, some few of which they kill, they destroy numbers of hares, pheasants, partridges, and in short whatever comes in their way, breaking down the hedges, and doing much other mischief, and in the evening betaking themselves to the alehouses, finish their career there in drunkenness, as is usual with such sort of gentry.

 

THIS PLACE, at the time of the taking of the general survey of Domesday, was part of the extensive possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in that record:

 

Herbert held of the bishop of Baieux Nordeslinge. The arable land is one carucate. It was taxed at half a suling. There two borderers pay two shillings. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, and afterwards, it was worth twenty shillings, now twenty-five shillings. Turgod held it in the time of king Edward the Confessor.

 

These two manors, (one of which was Throwley, described immediately before in this record) Herbert, the son of Ivo, Held of the bishop of Baieux.

 

And a little below,

 

Roger, son of Ansebitil, held of the bishop, Eslinges. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is one carucate. There is in demesne . . . . and one borderer has half a carucate. There is a church, and one mill of ten shillings, and two acres of meadow. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth sixty shillings, and afterwards twenty shillings, now forty shillings. Unlot held it of king Edward, and could go where he pleased with his land.

 

Fulbert held of the bishop, Eslinges. It was taxed at five suling, in the time of king Edward the Confessor, and now for two, and so it did after the bishop gave the manor to Hugh son of Fulbert. The arable land is six carucates. In demesne there are two carucates, and thirty villeins having three carucates. There is a church, and twenty-eight servants, and one mill of ten shilings. Wood for the pannage of thirty bogs In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth ten pounds, and when he received it six pounds, now four pounds, and yet the bishop had eight pounds. Sired held it of king Edward.

 

The three estates described before, included North Easting and its appendages, Huntingfield and Diven manors, with others estates in this parish, then esteemed as part of them.

 

On the bishop's disgrace four years afterwards, all his possessions were confiscated to the crown.

 

Fulbert de Dover, mentioned above as tenant to the bishop of Baieux for one of these estates, appears afterwards to have held all three of them of the king in capite by barony, the tenant of them being bound by tenure to maintain a certain number of soldiers from time to time, for the defence of Dover castle, in which there was a tower called Turris dei inimica, which he was bound by his tenure likewise to repair.

 

Of him and his heirs these estates were held by knight's service, of the honor of Chilham, which they had made the caput baroniæ, or chief of their barony. (fn. 1) That part of the above-mentioned estates, called in Domesday Nordeslinge, was afterwards known by the name of THE MANOR OF EASLING, alias NORTHCOURT, which latter name it had from its situation in respect to the others, being held of the lords paramount by a family of the name of Esling, one of whom, Ralph de Esling, died possessed of it in the 26th year of king Edward I. anno 1297, then holding it by knight's service of the honor of Chilham. He left an only daughter and heir Alice, who carried this manor, with that of Denton, alias Plumford, in marriage to Sir Fulk de Peyforer, who, with Sir William de Peyforer, of Otterden, accompanied king Edward. I. in his 28th year, at the siege of Carlaverock, where, with many other Kentish gentlemen, they were both knighted. They bore for their arms, Argent, six fleurs de lis, azure.

 

Sir Fulk de Peyforer, in the 32d year of the above reign, obtained a grant of a market weekly on a Friday, and one fair yearly on the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross at Esling, and free-warren for his lands there. Before the end of which reign, the property of these manors was transferred into the family of Leyborne, and it appears by an inquisition taken in the 1st year of Edward III. that Juliana, the widow of William de Leyborne, who died anno 2 Edward II. was possessed of these estates at her death, and that their grand-daughter Juliana, was heir both to her grandfather and father's possessions, from the greatness of which she was usually stiled the Infanta of Kent.

 

She was then the wife of John de Hastings, as she was afterwards of Sir William de Clinton, created earl of Huntingdon, who paid aid for the manor of Northcourt, alias Easling. She survived him, and afterwards died possessed of this estate in Easling, together with Denton, alias Plymford, in the 41st year of king Edward III. and leaving no issue by either of her husbands, these manors, among the rest of her estates, escheated to the crown, for it appears by the inquisition taken that year, after her death, that there was no one who could make claim to her estates, either by direct or even by collateral alliance.

 

These manors remained in the crown till the beginning of king Richard the IId.'s reign, when they became vested in John, duke of Lancaster, and other seoffees, in trust for the performance of certain religious bequests in the will of Edward III. in consequence of which, the king Afterwards, in his 22d year, granted them, among other premises, to the dean and canons of St. Stephen's college, in Westminster, for ever. (fn. 2) In which situation they continued till the 1st year of king Edward VI. when, by the act passed that year, they were surrendered into the king's hands.

 

After which the king, by his letters patent, in his 3d year, granted these manors, among others lately belonging to the above-mentioned college, to Sir Thomas Cheney, privy counsellor and treasurer of his houshold, with all and singular their liberties and privileges whatsoever, in as ample a manner as the dean and canons held them, to hold in capite by knight's service. (fn. 3) whose son Henry, lord Cheney, of Tuddington, had possession granted to him of his inheritance anno 3 Elizabeth, and that year levied a fine of all his lands.

 

He passed these manors away by sale, in the 8th year of that reign, to Martin James, esq. prothonotary of the court of chancery, and afterwards a justice of the peace for this county, who levied a fine of them anno 17 Elizabeth, and died possessed of them in 1592, being buried in the south chancel of this church, under a monument, on which are the effigies of himself and his wife. He bore for his arms, Quarterly, first and fourth, vert, a dolphin naiant; second and third, Ermine, on a chief gules, three crosses, or. His great-grandson Walter James, esq. was possessed of them at the time of the restoration of king Charles II. whose heirs sold them in the latter end of that reign, to Mr. John Grove, gent. of Tunstall, who died possessed of them in 1678, after which they descended down to Richard Grove, esq. of Cambridge, but afterwards of the Temple, in London, who died unmarried in 1792, and by his will devised them to Mr. William Jemmet, of Ashford, and Mr. William Marshall, of London, who continue at this time the joint possessors of them.

 

THE MANOR OF HUNTINGFIELD, situated in the eastern part of this parish, was, at the time of the takeing of the general survey of Domesday, part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux, as has been already taken notice of before, and on his disgrace came, with the rest of his estates, to the crown, about the year 1084.

 

After which, Fulbert de Dover appears to have held it, with others in this parish, of the king in capite by barony, by the tenure of ward to Dover castle for the defence of it. Of him and his heirs it was held by knight's service, of the honor of Chilham, the head or chief of their barony.

 

Simon de Chelsfield held it of them, as lords paramount, in the reign of Henry III. but at the latter end of that reign, this manor was come into the possession of that branch of the eminent family of Huntingfield settled in this county, descended from those of Suffolk, in which county and in Norfolk they had large possessions. Hence this manor assumed the name of Huntingfield-court, and it appears by the roll of knights fees, taken at the beginning of the reign of Edward I. that Peter de Huntingfield then held it. He resided at times both here and at West Wickham, of which manor he was likewise possessed, though it seems when he was sheriff in the 11th, 12th, and 13th years of that reign, he kept his shrievalty at Huntingfield-court. In the 9th year of it he obtained a charter of free-warren for his lands at Eslynge and Stalesfeld, and in the 28th year of it attended the king at the siege of Carlaverock, in Scotland, for which service he, with others, received the honor of knighthood. He died in the 7th year of Edward II. anno 1313, leaving by the lady Imayne his wise, who was buried in the church of the Grey Friars, London, Sir Walter de Huntingfield his son and heir, who having obtained several liberties for his manor of Wickham, and liberty to impark his grounds there, (fn. 4) seems to have deserted this place, which in the next reign of Edward III. was sold either by him or by his son, Sir John de Huntingfield, to one of the family of Sawfamere, and in the 20th year of that reign, the lady Sawfamere, Dna' de Sawsamero, as she is written in the book of aid, paid respective aid for it.

 

But before the end of that reign, it had passed into the name of Halden, for it appears by the escheat-rolls that William de Halden died in the 50th year of it, possessed of Easling manor, called Huntingfield, held of the castle of Chilham; soon after which it became the property of Sir Simon de Burleigh, who being attainted in the 12th year of Richard II. this manor, among the rest of his possessions, came to the crown. After which, anno 2 Henry IV. John, son and heir of Sir John de Burley, cousin and heir of Sir Simon de Burley, was, upon his petition, restored in blood, and the judgment against Sir Simon was revoked, and three years afterwards the king, with the assent of the lords, wholly restored him to all his hereditaments, except as to those excepted by him. (fn. 5) How long this manor remained in this name I have not found, but in the reign of Henry VI. it was in the possession of Sir James Fienes, who anno 25 of that reign, by reason of his mother's descent, was created Lord Say and Sele, and was afterwards made lord treasurer, but becoming unpopular, from his being so great a favorite, he was seized on in the insurrection raised by Jack Cade, and beheaded in the 29th year of that reign. He was at his death possessed of this manor, which by his will be devised to his son Sir William Fienes, who became likewise lord Say and Sele, but the unhappy contention which then subsisted between the houses of York and Lancaster, in which he risked not only his person, but his whole fortune, brought him soon afterwards into great distresses, and necessitated him to mortgage and sell the greatest part of his lands. How this manor was disposed of I have not found, but within a very few years afterwards it appears to have been in the hands of the crown, for king Richard III. in his first year, granted to John Water, alias Yorke Heraulde, an annuity out of the revenues of his lordship of Huntingfield, and afterwards by his writ, in the same year, on the resignation of John, garter, principal king at arms, and Thomas, clarencieux, king at arms, he committed to Richard Champeney, alias called Gloucestre, king of arms, the custody of this manor.

 

But the see of it seems to have remained in the crown till king Henry VIII. in his 35th year, granted it to John Guldford and Alured Randall, esqrs. to hold in capite by knight's service. John Guildford was the next year become the sole proprietor of it, and then alienated it to Sir Thomas Moyle; he sold it, in the 7th year of Edward VI. to John Wild, esq. of St. Martin's hill, Canterbury, with its members and appurtenances in Esling, Sheldwich, Whitstaple, Reculver, and Ulcombe. However, it appears that he was not possessed of the entire see of it at his death in 1554, for he by his will devised his two thirds of this manor, (besides the third part due to the queen, after his wife's death) to his son Thomas Wild, then an infant, whose son John Wild, esq. of St. Martin's hill, alienated his share, or two thirds of it, which included the courts, sines, amerciaments, and other privileges belonging to it, to Martin James, esq. prothonotary of the court of chancery, owner of the manor of North-court, alias Easling, as above-mentioned, whose great-grandson, Walter James, esq. possessed it at the restoration of Charles II. at the latter end of which reign his heirs sold it to Mr. John Grove, gent. of Tunstall, who died possessed of it in 1678, and his great-grandson Richard Grove, esq. of London, proprietor likewise of North-court above-described, died in 1792, having by his will devised these manors (which having been for many years united in the same owners, are now consolidated, one court being held for both, the stile of which is, the manor of Easling, alias North court, with that of Huntingfield annexed, in Easling, Ulcomb, and Sheldwich) among the rest of his estates, to Wm. Jemmet, gent. of Ashford, and William Marshall, of London, and they continue at this time the joint possessors of these manors.

 

BUT THE REMAINING THIRD PART of the manor of Hunting field, in the hands of the crown in the reign of Philip and Mary, as before-mentioned, in which was included the mansion of Huntingfield court, with the demesne lands adjoining to it, continued there till it was granted, in the beginning of the next reign of queen Elizabeth, to Mr. Robert Greenstreet, who died possessed of it in the 14th year of that reign, holding it in capite by knight's service. His descendant Mr. Mathew Greenstreet, of Preston, leaving an only daughter Anne, she carried this estate in marriage to Mr. Richard Tassell, of Linsted, and he alienated it in 1733 to Edward Hasted, esq. barrister-at law, of Hawley, near Dartford, whose father Mr. Joseph Hasted, gent. of Chatham, was before possessed of a small part of the adjoining demesne lands of Huntingfield manor, which had been in queen Elizabeth's reign become the property of Mr. Josias Clynch.

 

The family of Hasted, or as they were antiently written, both Halsted and Hausted, was of eminent note in very early times, as well from the offices they bore, as their several possessions in different counties, and bore for their arms, Gules, a chief chequy, or, and azure. William Hausted was keeper of the king's exchange, in London, in the 5th year of Edward II. from whom these of Kent hold themselves to be descended, one of whom, John Hausted, clerk, or as his descendants wrote themselves, Hasted, born in Hampshire, is recorded to have been chaplain to queen Elizabeth, and a person much in favor with her, whom he so far displeased by entering into the state of marriage, which he did with a daughter of George Clifford, esq. of Bobbing, and sister of Sir Coniers Clifford, governor of Connaught, in Ireland, that he retired to the Isle of Wight, where he was beneficed, and dying there about the year 1596, was buried in the church of Newport. His great grandson Joseph Hasted, gent. was of Chatham, and dying in 1732, was buried in Newington church, as was his only son Edward, who was of Hawley, esq. the purchaser of Huntingfield court as before-mentioned. He died in 1740, leaving by his wife Anne, who was descended from the antient and respectable family of the Dingleys, of Wolverton, in the isle of Wight, one son, Edward Hasted, esq. late of Canterbury, who has several children, of whom the eldest, the Rev. Edward Hasted, late of Oriel college, in Oxford, is now vicar of Hollingborne. He bears for his arms the antient coat of the family of Halsted, or Hausted, as mentioned before, with the addition in the field, of an eagle displayed,ermine,beaked and legged, or, with which he quarters those of Dingley, Argent, a fess azure, in chief, two mullets of the second between two burts, which colours Charles, the third son of Sir John Dingley, of Wolverton, in James the 1st.'s reign, changed from those borne by his ancestors and elder brothers, i.e. from sable to azure.

 

Edward Hasted, esq. of Canterbury, above-mentioned, succeeded his father in this estate, which he, at length, in 1787, alienated to John Montresor, esq. of Throwley, who continues the possessor of it.

 

The foundations of slint and stone, which have continually been dug up near this house, shew it to have been formerly much larger that it is at present. There was once a chapel and a mill belonging to it, the fields where they stood being still known by the name of chapel-field and mill-field, which answers the description of this estate given in Domesday.

 

DIVEN is A MANOR, situated almost adjoining to the church of Easting, which is so corruptly called for Dive-court, its more antient and proper name. This estate was likewise one of those described before in Domesday, as being part of the possessions of the bishop of Baieux, on whose disgrace it was, among, the rest of his estates, forfeited to the crown; after which, Fulbert de Dover appears to have held it, with others in this parish therein-mentioned, of the king in capite by barony, by the tenure of ward to Dover cattle, and of him and his heirs it was held, as half a knight's fee, of the honor of Chilham, the caput barouiæ, or head of their barony.

 

In the reign of Henry III. John Dive held this estate as before-mentioned, of that honor; and his descendant Andrew Dive, in the 20th year of king Edward III. paid aid for it as half a knight's fee, held of the above barony, when it paid ward annually to Dover castle. In this name the manor of Diven continued till the beginning of the next reign of king Richard II. when it was alienated to Sharp, of Ninplace, in Great Chart, in which it remained till the latter end of Henry VII. when it was conveyed to Thurston, of Challock, from which, some year after, it was passed by sale to John Wild, esq. who, before the reign of queen Elizabeth, sold it to Gates, and he alienated it to Norden, who conveyed it to Bunce, where it remained after the death of king Charles I. in 1648; soon after which this manor was sold to John Adye, esq of Down court, in Doddington, who died possessed of it in 1660, and his two sons, Edward and Nicholas, seem afterwards to have possessed it in undivided moieties.

 

Edward Adye, esq. was of Barham, and left seven daughters his coheirs, of whom Susanna, married to Ruishe Wentworth, esq. son and heir of Sir George Wentworth, a younger brother to Thomas, the noted but unfortunate earl of Strafford, entitled her husband to the possession of her father's moiety of this manor, with other lands in Doddington, upon the division of his estates among them. He left an only daughter and heir Mary, who married Thomas, lord Howard, of Essingham, who died possessed of this moiety of Diven-court in 1725, and leaving no male issue, he was succeeded in this estate by Francis his brother and heir, who was in 1731 created Earl of Essingham, and died in 1743. His son Thomas, earl of Effingham, afterwards alienated this moiety of Divencourt to Oliver Edwards, esq. of the six clerks office, as will be further mentioned hereafter.

 

The other moiety of this manor, which, on the death of his father, came into the possession of Nicholas Adye, esq. of Down-Court, in Doddington, was devised by him to his eldest son John Adye, esq. of Down court, who anno 23 Charles II. suffered a recovery of it. (fn. 6)

 

He left an only daughter and heir Mary, married to Henry Cullum, sergeant-at-law; but before that event, this estate seems to have been passed away by him to Thomas Diggs, esq. of Chilham castle, Whose descendant of the same name, in 1723, conveyed it, with Chilham-castle, and the rest of his estates in this county, to Mr. James Colebrook, citizen and mercer of London, who died possessed of this moiety of Diven-court in the year 1752, after which it passed in like manner with them, till it was at length sold by his descendants, under the same act of parliament, in the year 1775, to Thomas Heron, esq. of Newark upon Trent, afterwards of Chilham-castle, who about the year 1776, joined with Oliver Edwards, esq. the proprietor of the other moiety, as has been mentioned beforce, to Mr. Charles Chapman, of Faversham, who then became possessed of the whole of it, which, at his death in 1782, he devised by his will to his nephews and nieces, of the name of Leeze, two of whom are now entitled to the fee of it.

 

THE MANOR OF ARNOLDS, which is situated about a mile eastward from the church of Easling, was likewise part of the estates of the bishop of Baieux, mentioned before, and on his disgrace came with the rest of them, to the crown, of which it was held afterwards in capite by barony, by Fulbert de Dover, by the tenure of ward to Dover castle, and of him and his heirs it was again held, as half a knight's fee, as of the honor of Chilham, the head of their barony.

 

Of them it was held by Arnold de Bononia, whence it acquired the name of Arnolds, alias Esling. His son John Fitzarnold afterwards possessed it in the reign of Edward III. after which Peter de Huntingfield was owner of it, but in the 20th year of Edward III. the lady Champaine, or Champion, and the earl of Oxford paid aid for it, as half a knight's fee, held of the barony above-mentioned. How it passed afterwards I have not seen, but in the next reign of Richard II. it was become part of the endowment of the dean and canons of the collegiate free chapel of St. Stephen's, Westminster, with whom it remained till the suppression of it in the 1st year of Edward VI. when it came into the hands of the crown; after which it became the property of Gates, and after that of Terry, in which it continued several years, and by that acquired the name of Arnolds, alias Terrys, from which name it was sold, in the reign of queen Anne, one part to the Rev. William Wickens, rector of this parish, who bore for his arms, Party, per pale, or, and sable, a chevron coupee, between three trefoils, all counter changed, whose son Mr. William Wickens, succeeded to it on his death in 1718. He died without male issue, and by his will devised it to his two daughters, one of whom marrying Elvy, he bought the other sister's share in it, and his widow surviving him now possesses both of them; another part was sold to Chapman, and a third to Avery. Since which it has become more inconsiderable, by the two parts last-mentioned having been again parcelled out, so that now it is sunk into that obscurity, as hardly to be worthy of notice, but the manerial rights of the manor are claimed by John Wynne and Lydia his wife.

 

Charities.

 

EDWARD GRESWOLD, by his will in 1677, gave 20l. for the benefit of the poor not receiving alms, to be laid out in land or otherwise, by his executors, who in 1680 purchased a piece of land, called Pinkes-cross, in Easling, containing two acres, in trust, for this purpose, the rent of it is now 154. per annum, vested in the minister and parish officers.

 

The poor constantly relieved are about twelve, casually twenty-five.

 

EASLING is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Ospringe.

 

The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, consists of three isles and a south chancel, called St. Katherine's. The steeple, which is a low pointed one, stands at the west end; there are six bells in it.

 

Alicia de Esling, wife of Robert de Eschequer, and lady of the manor of Esling, with the consent of archbishop Theobald, in the reign of king Stephen, granted the church of Elinges, situated on her estate, to the priory of Ledes, in perpetual alms, together with the temporalities, or appropriation of it, to be possessed by them for ever after the death of Gervas then incumbent of it. Which gift was confirmed by archbishop Hubert, in the reign of Richard I.

 

Notwithstanding which, there was no vicarage endowed here, nor did the canons of Ledes ever enjoy the parsonage of it; but archbishop Stephen Langton, who succeeded archbishop Hubert, with the consent and approbation of William de Eslinges, patron of this church, granted to the canons of Ledes twenty shillings yearly, to be received from it in the name of a benefice; and he ordained, that beyond that sum, they should not claim any thing further from it, but that whenever it should become vacant, the said William de Esling should present to it. But it should seem that after this, they had not given up all pretensions to it, for they obtained, seventy years after this, viz. in 1278, of the prior, and the convent of Christchurch, Canterbury, a confirmation of the archbishops Theobald and Hubert's charters to them, in which this church is particularly mentioned. (fn. 7) How long it continued in the hands of the family of Esling I do not find, or in those of private patronage; but before the 22d year of Edward III. it was become part of the possessions of the college founded by Sir John Poultney, in the church of St. Laurence, Canon-street, London, with which it remained till the suppression of the college, in the reign of Edward VI. when it came, with the rest of the possessions of it, into the hands of the crown.

 

After which it seems to have been granted to Sir Thomas Moyle, of Eastwell, whose sole daughter and heir Catherine married Sir Thomas Finch, of that place, and afterwards Nicholas St. Leger, esq. who in her right presented to this rectory in 1574; after which Sir Moyle Finch, knight and baronet, the eldest son of Sir Thomas and lady Catherine, succeeded to it, in whose descendants, earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham, this advowson continued down to Daniel, earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham, who died possessed of it in 1769, without male issue, leaving his four daughters his coheirs. He was succeeded in titles by his nephew George Finch, esq. only son of his next brother William; but this advowson, with Eastwell, and the rest of his Kentish estates, he gave by his will to his nephew George Finch Hatton, esq. only son of his third brother the hon. Edward Finch Hatton, (fn. 8) who is the present owner of it.

 

The pension of twenty shillings payable from this church to the priory of Ledes, at its suppression in the reign of Henry VIII. came into the hands of the crown; after which it was settled, among other premises, by the King, in his 33d year, on his newerected dean and chapter of Rochester, who are now entitled to it.

 

¶This rectory is valued in the king's books at sixteen pounds, and the yearly tenths at 1l. 12s. In 1587 the communicants here were eighty-seven.

 

In 1640 it was valued at 120l. Communicants one hundred. It is now worth upwards of 200l. per annum.

  

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol6/pp422-437

The Great North Museum: Hancock is a museum of natural history and ancient civilisations in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

 

The museum was established in 1884 and was formerly known as the Hancock Museum. In 2006 it merged with Newcastle University's Museum of Antiquities and Shefton Museum to form the Great North Museum. The museum reopened as the Great North Museum: Hancock in May 2009 following a major extension and refurbishment of the original Victorian building. The museum and most of its collections are owned by the Natural History Society of Northumbria, and it is managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums on behalf of Newcastle University.

 

The museum is located on the campus of Newcastle University, next to the Great North Road, and close to Barras Bridge. The nearest Tyne & Wear Metro station is Haymarket, and there is also a bus station at Haymarket.

 

One of the Second World War air raid shelter openings into the Victoria Tunnel is beneath the grounds of the museum.

 

The collection of the Hancock Museum can be traced to about 1780 when Marmaduke Tunstall started accumulating ethnographic and natural history material from around the world. He then brought his collection from London to North Yorkshire. In 1790 Tunstall died, and George Allan of Darlington purchased Tunstall's collection; and later in 1823 it was acquired by the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne. A wombat, which is still on display, is considered to be the earliest object in the collection. It was the first complete wombat specimen to reach Europe. In 1829 the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne (now the Natural History Society of Northumbria) was formed as a scientific offshoot of the Literary and Philosophical Society. Amongst the founding and early members of the Natural History Society were Joshua Alder, Albany Hancock, John Hancock, Prideaux John Selby and William Chapman Hewitson.

 

The museum opened on its current site in 1884 after the collection of the Natural History Society outgrew its small museum, located on Westgate Road, which opened in 1834. A major benefactor to the museum was William Armstrong who gave the then large sum of £11,500. Armstrong had also founded the College of Physical Science which later became part of Newcastle University. The museum was renamed in the 1890s, after the local Victorian naturalists, Albany and John Hancock. In 1959 the Natural History Society agreed with the University of Newcastle for the university to care for the building and collections, and since 1992 the university has contracted with Tyne & Wear Museums to manage the museum under a Service Level Agreement.

 

The Hancock Museum was closed on 23 April 2006 for refurbishment and did not reopen until 23 May 2009. It was completely refurbished and extended as part of the Great North Museum Project, at a cost of £26 million. Great North Museum project is a partnership between Newcastle University, Tyne & Wear Museums, Newcastle City Council, the Natural History Society of Northumbria and the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. The project was made possible with funds from the Heritage Lottery Fund, TyneWear Partnership, One NorthEast, the European Regional Development Fund, Newcastle University, Newcastle City Council, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Wolfson Foundation and The Northern Rock Foundation, as well as numerous other trusts and foundations. The building architects were Terry Farrell and Partners; Sir Terry Farrell is a native of Newcastle, and had previously been a student at Newcastle University.

 

The new museum includes new displays on natural history and geology, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, Romans and Hadrian's Wall, World Cultures and Pre-history. It also includes an interactive study zone, an under 5's space, and a digital Planetarium, as well as new learning facilities, a new temporary exhibition space, and a study garden. The new museum houses not only the Hancock Museum collections, but also those of the university's Museum of Antiquities and Shefton Museum. The building that formerly housed the Museum of Antiquities was later demolished. The Hatton Gallery is also a part of the Great North Museum Project, but is not relocating to the Hancock, and is remaining in Newcastle University's Fine Art Building.

 

In September 2008, the Great North Museum searched for a lookalike of the Emperor Hadrian, for a photo shoot, whose likeness would feature in a permanent display at the Hancock Museum. On 21 November 2008 the 'Be Part of It' campaign was launched, and it was announced that the Great North Museum: Hancock would be opening in May 2009. Athlete Jonathan Edwards is the patron of the 'Be Part of It' campaign. Other celebrity supporters of the museum include Sir Thomas Allen and Adam Hart-Davis. Donors to the campaign have the opportunity to have their name (or the name of a loved one) permanently included on a donor wall in the museum.

 

The Great North Museum formally re-opened on 23 May 2009. In August the museum announced that they had surpassed their expected annual target of 300,000 visitors. By August over 400,000 people had visited the reopened museum. On 6 November 2009 HM The Queen officially opened the Great North Museum. In 2009, the Great North Museum had over 600,000 visitors.

 

By August 2010, the reopened Great North Museum had welcomed its one millionth visitor.

 

Among the museum's permanent residents are a life-size cast of an African elephant; the Egyptian mummy Bakt-en-Hor (previously known as Bakt-hor-Nekht); a full size replica of a T-Rex skeleton; and Sparkie, Newcastle's famous talking budgie, who was stuffed after his death in 1962 and is now the subject of a new opera by Michael Nyman.

 

The full size cast of an African Elephant was built in the Living Planet gallery. The model was crafted by Zephyr Wildlife, who took a cast from an actual stuffed elephant at a museum in Bonn in Germany. To get the elephant into the museum a crane, from Bel Lift Trucks, had to be used. The full size model of a T-Rex dinosaur has been shipped from Canada, where it was built by a company called Research Casting International. It forms part of the display known as the Fossil Stories gallery. The T-Rex model was one of the first items to be placed in the new museum, due to its size. In 1908, the Manchester taxidermist Harry Ferris Brazenor mounted a "fine bison bull" for the museum.

 

Other exhibitions include 'Hadrian's Wall' looking at Roman life in the north of England, 'Natural Northumbria' focusing on the wildlife found in the northeast, 'Ancient Egypt' looking at the Ancient Egyptians and featuring the museum's two mummies, 'Ice Age to Iron Age' detailing the history of the British Isles over the past 12,000 years, 'World Cultures' featuring artifacts and displays from cultures across the globe, 'The Shefton Collection' with one of the most detailed collections of Greek artifacts in the UK and 'Explore' which is a more hands-on area of the museum and features regular interactive sessions.

 

There were live animals on display but these have now been withdrawn, as well as a conference area for corporate events and a fully provisioned learning suite for school visits.

 

The museum was entered into the 'long list' for the 2010 Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries.

 

The interactive Bio-Wall features hundreds of creatures, that visitors will be able to investigate and find out where they live and how they survive in such extreme places as the Arctic and Desert. There is also a great white shark display, polar bear and giraffe specimens from the historic Hancock collections and a moa skeleton. Also between May and October 2019 the museum hosted Dippy the dinosaur as part of its UK tour.

 

Within the museum's archives are the nineteenth century botanical paintings by Margaret Rebecca Dickinson of plants from the Newcastle and Scottish Borders region.

  

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

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Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in northeastern India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE.

 

The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one". "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in a Yuga era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha) of the present age. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala.

 

Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.

 

CONTENTS

HISTORICAL SIDDHARTA GAUTAMA

Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era during the reign of Bimbisara, the ruler of the Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajasattu, who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira, the Jain tirthankara. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of other influential śramaṇa schools of thoughts like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism, and Ajñana. It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahavira, Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambalī, Pakudha Kaccāyana, and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, whose viewpoints the Buddha most certainly must have been acquainted with and influenced by. Indeed, Sariputta and Moggallāna, two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, the skeptic. There is also evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, were indeed historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques. While the general sequence of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" is widely accepted, there is less consensus on the veracity of many details contained in traditional biographies.

 

The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. More recently his death is dated later, between 411 and 400 BCE, while at a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all historians.

 

The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha Gautama was born into the Shakya clan, a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch. According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini, nowadays in modern-day Nepal, and raised in the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu, which may have been in either present day Tilaurakot, Nepal or Piprahwa, India. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, and died in Kushinagar.

 

No written records about Gautama have been found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to the Buddha's birthplace in Lumbini. Another one of his edicts mentions several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era and which may be the precursors of the Pāli Canon. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, reported to have been found in or around Haḍḍa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in the British Library. They are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.

 

TRADITIONAL BIOGRAPHIES

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE. The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra, and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The Nidānakathā is from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by Buddhaghoṣa.

 

From canonical sources, the Jataka tales, the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123) which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātakas retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from the Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.

 

NATURE OF TRADITIONAL DEPICTIONS

In the earliest Buddhists texts, the nikāyas and āgamas, the Buddha is not depicted as possessing omniscience (sabbaññu) nor is he depicted as being an eternal transcendent (lokottara) being. According to Bhikkhu Analayo, ideas of the Buddha's omniscience (along with an increasing tendency to deify him and his biography) are found only later, in the Mahayana sutras and later Pali commentaries or texts such as the Mahāvastu. In the Sandaka Sutta, the Buddha's disciple Ananda outlines an argument against the claims of teachers who say they are all knowing while in the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta the Buddha himself states that he has never made a claim to being omniscient, instead he claimed to have the "higher knowledges" (abhijñā). The earliest biographical material from the Pali Nikayas focuses on the Buddha's life as a śramaṇa, his search for enlightenment under various teachers such as Alara Kalama and his forty five year career as a teacher.

 

Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahāvastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supra-mundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma". Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In modern times there has been an attempt to form a secular understanding of Siddhārtha Gautama's life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies.

 

Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human:

It is important to stress that, despite modern Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance, he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a mahāpuruṣa, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta he states that he could live for an aeon were he asked to do so.The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical figure. Michael Carrithers goes a bit further by stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.

 

BIOGRAPHY

CONCEPTION AND BIRTH

The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini, in present-day Nepal to be the birthplace of the Buddha. He grew up in Kapilavastu. The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, present-day India, or Tilaurakot, present-day Nepal. Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only 15 miles apart from each other.

 

Gautama was born as a Kshatriya, the son of Śuddhodana, "an elected chief of the Shakya clan", whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. Gautama was the family name. His mother, Maya (Māyādevī), Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.

 

The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak. Buddha's Birthday is called Buddha Purnima in Nepal and India as he is believed to have been born on a full moon day. Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhattha), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great sadhu. By traditional account, this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight Brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man. Kondañña, the youngest, and later to be the first arhat other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.

 

While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Suryavansha (Solar dynasty) of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars think that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.

 

Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the human condition. The state of the Shakya clan was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic. The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the śramanic Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.

 

EARLY LIFE AND MARRIAGE

Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati. By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.

 

When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā). According to the traditional account, she gave birth to a son, named Rāhula. Siddhartha is said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.

 

RENUNCIATION AND ASCETIC LIFE

At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. When his charioteer Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome aging, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.

 

Accompanied by Channa and riding his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant. It's said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods" to prevent guards from knowing of his departure.

 

Gautama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street. After King Bimbisara's men recognised Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest, Bimbisara offered Siddhartha the throne. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.

 

He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers of yogic meditation. After mastering the teachings of Alara Kalama (Skr. Ārāḍa Kālāma), he was asked by Kalama to succeed him. However, Gautama felt unsatisfied by the practice, and moved on to become a student of yoga with Udaka Ramaputta (Skr. Udraka Rāmaputra). With him he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.

 

Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha was rescued by a village girl named Sujata and she gave him some payasam (a pudding made from milk and jaggery) after which Siddhartha got back some energy. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's ploughing. He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the jhāna.

 

AWAKENING

According to the early Buddhist texts, after realizing that meditative dhyana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way - a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, or the Noble Eightfold Path, as was identified and described by the Buddha in his first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata. Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a spirit that had granted her a wish.

 

Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree - now known as the Bodhi tree - in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth. Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment. According to some traditions, this occurred in approximately the fifth lunar month, while, according to others, it was in the twelfth month. From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One" ("Buddha" is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One").

 

According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths", which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being. The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states, or "defilements" (kilesas). Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. In such a state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging to every Buddha.

 

According to a story in the Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1) - a scripture found in the Pāli and other canons - immediately after his awakening, the Buddha debated whether or not he should teach the Dharma to others. He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance, greed and hatred that they could never recognise the path, which is subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, in the story, Brahmā Sahampati convinced him, arguing that at least some will understand it. The Buddha relented, and agreed to teach.

 

FORMATION OF THE SANGHA

After his awakening, the Buddha met Taphussa and Bhallika — two merchant brothers from the city of Balkh in what is currently Afghanistan - who became his first lay disciples. It is said that each was given hairs from his head, which are now claimed to be enshrined as relics in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma. The Buddha intended to visit Asita, and his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta, to explain his findings, but they had already died.

 

He then travelled to the Deer Park near Varanasi (Benares) in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists call the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five companions with whom he had sought enlightenment. Together with him, they formed the first saṅgha: the company of Buddhist monks.

 

All five become arahants, and within the first two months, with the conversion of Yasa and fifty four of his friends, the number of such arahants is said to have grown to 60. The conversion of three brothers named Kassapa followed, with their reputed 200, 300 and 500 disciples, respectively. This swelled the sangha to more than 1,000.

 

TRAVELS AND TEACHING

For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to servants, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as Alavaka. Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardization.

 

The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vāsanā rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them.

 

The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara. During this visit, Sariputta and Maudgalyayana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha's two foremost followers. The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, capital of Magadha.

 

Upon hearing of his son's awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama's (who also became an arahant), however, delivered the message.

 

Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying:

 

"Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms."

 

The Buddha is said to have replied:

 

"That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms."

 

Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha. The Buddha's cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant.

 

Of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputta, Maudgalyayana, Mahakasyapa, Ananda and Anuruddha are believed to have been the five closest to him. His ten foremost disciples were reputedly completed by the quintet of Upali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Punna.

 

In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near Vesali when he heard news of the impending death of his father. He is said to have gone to Suddhodana and taught the dharma, after which his father became an arahant.The king's death and cremation was to inspire the creation of an order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that the Buddha was reluctant to ordain women. His foster mother Maha Pajapati, for example, approached him, asking to join the sangha, but he refused. Maha Pajapati, however, was so intent on the path of awakening that she led a group of royal Sakyan and Koliyan ladies, which followed the sangha on a long journey to Rajagaha. In time, after Ananda championed their cause, the Buddha is said to have reconsidered and, five years after the formation of the sangha, agreed to the ordination of women as nuns. He reasoned that males and females had an equal capacity for awakening. But he gave women additional rules (Vinaya) to follow.

 

MAHAPARINIRVANA

According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon his earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha. Mettanando and Von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning. The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms; the Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monks and nuns.

 

Waley suggests that Theravadin's would take suukaramaddava (the contents of the Buddha's last meal), which can translate as pig-soft, to mean soft flesh of a pig. However, he also states that pig-soft could mean "pig's soft-food", that is, after Neumann, a soft food favoured by pigs, assumed to be a truffle. He argues (also after Neumann) that as Pali Buddhism was developed in an area remote to the Buddha's death, the existence of other plants with suukara- (pig) as part of their names and that "(p)lant names tend to be local and dialectical" could easily indicate that suukaramaddava was a type of plant whose local name was unknown to those in the Pali regions. Specifically, local writers knew more about their flora than Theravadin commentator Buddhaghosa who lived hundreds of years and kilometres remote in time and space from the events described. Unaware of an alternate meaning and with no Theravadin prohibition against eating animal flesh, Theravadins would not have questioned the Buddha eating meat and interpreted the term accordingly.

 

Ananda protested the Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of Kuśināra (present-day Kushinagar, India) of the Malla kingdom. The Buddha, however, is said to have reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy:

 

44. Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds - the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabours, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of "Eat, drink, and be merry!"

 

The Buddha then asked all the attendant Bhikkhus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. According to Buddhist scriptures, he then finally entered Parinirvana. The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All composite things (Saṅkhāra) are perishable. Strive for your own liberation with diligence" (Pali: 'vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā'). His body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. For example, The Temple of the Tooth or "Dalada Maligawa" in Sri Lanka is the place where what some believe to be the relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present.

 

According to the Pāli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa, the coronation of Emperor Aśoka (Pāli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of the Buddha. According to two textual records in Chinese (十八部論 and 部執異論), the coronation of Emperor Aśoka is 116 years after the death of the Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravāda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravāda countries is 544 or 545 BCE, because the reign of Emperor Aśoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates. In Burmese Buddhist tradition, the date of the Buddha's death is 13 May 544 BCE. whereas in Thai tradition it is 11 March 545 BCE.

 

At his death, the Buddha is famously believed to have told his disciples to follow no leader. Mahakasyapa was chosen by the sangha to be the chairman of the First Buddhist Council, with the two chief disciples Maudgalyayana and Sariputta having died before the Buddha.

 

While in the Buddha's days he was addressed by the very respected titles Buddha, Shākyamuni, Shākyasimha, Bhante and Bho, he was known after his parinirvana as Arihant, Bhagavā/Bhagavat/Bhagwān, Mahāvira, Jina/Jinendra, Sāstr, Sugata, and most popularly in scriptures as Tathāgata.

 

BUDDHA AND VEDAS

Buddha's teachings deny the authority of the Vedas and consequently [at least atheistic] Buddhism is generally viewed as a nāstika school (heterodox, literally "It is not so") from the perspective of orthodox Hinduism.

 

RELICS

After his death, Buddha's cremation relics were divided amongst 8 royal families and his disciples; centuries later they would be enshrined by King Ashoka into 84,000 stupas. Many supernatural legends surround the history of alleged relics as they accompanied the spread of Buddhism and gave legitimacy to rulers.

 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

An extensive and colorful physical description of the Buddha has been laid down in scriptures. A kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".

 

The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no means unattractive." (D, I:115)

 

"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant." (A, I:181)

 

A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an arahant, was so obsessed by the Buddha's physical presence that the Buddha is said to have felt impelled to tell him to desist, and to have reminded him that he should know the Buddha through the Dhamma and not through physical appearances.

 

Although there are no extant representations of the Buddha in human form until around the 1st century CE (see Buddhist art), descriptions of the physical characteristics of fully enlightened buddhas are attributed to the Buddha in the Digha Nikaya's Lakkhaṇa Sutta (D, I:142). In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by Yasodhara to their son Rahula upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn, Narasīha Gāthā ("The Lion of Men").

 

Among the 32 main characteristics it is mentioned that Buddha has blue eyes.

 

NINE VIRTUES

Recollection of nine virtues attributed to the Buddha is a common Buddhist meditation and devotional practice called Buddhānusmṛti. The nine virtues are also among the 40 Buddhist meditation subjects. The nine virtues of the Buddha appear throughout the Tipitaka, and include:

 

- Buddho – Awakened

- Sammasambuddho – Perfectly self-awakened

- Vijja-carana-sampano – Endowed with higher knowledge and ideal conduct.

- Sugato – Well-gone or Well-spoken.

- Lokavidu – Wise in the knowledge of the many worlds.

- Anuttaro Purisa-damma-sarathi – Unexcelled trainer of untrained people.

- Satthadeva-Manussanam – Teacher of gods and humans.

- Bhagavathi – The Blessed one

- Araham – Worthy of homage. An Arahant is "one with taints destroyed, who has lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached the true goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and is completely liberated through final knowledge."

 

TEACHINGS

TRACING THE OLDEST TEACHINGS

Information of the oldest teachings may be obtained by analysis of the oldest texts. One method to obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pali Canon and other texts. The reliability of these sources, and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute. According to Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies.

 

According to Schmithausen, three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished:

 

"Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable part of the Nikayic materials;"

"Scepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism;"

"Cautious optimism in this respect."

 

DHYANA AND INSIGHT

A core problem in the study of early Buddhism is the relation between dhyana and insight. Schmithausen, in his often-cited article On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of 'Liberating Insight' and 'Enlightenment' in Early Buddhism notes that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting "liberating insight", which is attained after mastering the Rupa Jhanas, is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36

 

CORE TEACHINGS

According to Tilmann Vetter, the core of earliest Buddhism is the practice of dhyāna. Bronkhorst agrees that dhyana was a Buddhist invention, whereas Norman notes that "the Buddha's way to release [...] was by means of meditative practices." Discriminating insight into transiency as a separate path to liberation was a later development.

 

According to the Mahāsaccakasutta, from the fourth jhana the Buddha gained bodhi. Yet, it is not clear what he was awakened to. "Liberating insight" is a later addition to this text, and reflects a later development and understanding in early Buddhism. The mentioning of the four truths as constituting "liberating insight" introduces a logical problem, since the four truths depict a linear path of practice, the knowledge of which is in itself not depicted as being liberating:

 

[T]hey do not teach that one is released by knowing the four noble truths, but by practicing the fourth noble truth, the eightfold path, which culminates in right samadhi.

 

Although "Nibbāna" (Sanskrit: Nirvāna) is the common term for the desired goal of this practice, many other terms can be found throughout the Nikayas, which are not specified.

 

According to Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term "the middle way". In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the eightfold path.

 

According to both Bronkhorst and Anderson, the four truths became a substitution for prajna, or "liberating insight", in the suttas in those texts where "liberating insight" was preceded by the four jhanas. According to Bronkhorst, the four truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism, and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of "liberating insight". Gotama's teachings may have been personal, "adjusted to the need of each person."

 

The three marks of existence may reflect Upanishadic or other influences. K.R. Norman supposes that these terms were already in use at the Buddha's time, and were familiar to his listeners.

 

The Brahma-vihara was in origin probably a brahmanic term; but its usage may have been common to the Sramana traditions.

  

LATER DEVELOPMENTS

In time, "liberating insight" became an essential feature of the Buddhist tradition. The following teachings, which are commonly seen as essential to Buddhism, are later formulations which form part of the explanatory framework of this "liberating insight":

 

- The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an ingrained part of existence; that the origin of suffering is craving for sensuality, acquisition of identity, and fear of annihilation; that suffering can be ended; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to accomplish this;

- The Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration;

- Dependent origination: the mind creates suffering as a natural product of a complex process.

 

OTHER RELIGIONS

Some Hindus regard Gautama as the 9th avatar of Vishnu. The Buddha is also regarded as a prophet by the Ahmadiyya Muslims and a Manifestation of God in the Bahá'í Faith. Some early Chinese Taoist-Buddhists thought the Buddha to be a reincarnation of Lao Tzu.

 

The Christian Saint Josaphat is based on the Buddha. The name comes from the Sanskrit Bodhisattva via Arabic Būdhasaf and Georgian Iodasaph. The only story in which St. Josaphat appears, Barlaam and Josaphat, is based on the life of the Buddha. Josaphat was included in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology (feast day 27 November) — though not in the Roman Missal — and in the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August).

 

Disciples of the Cao Đài religion worship the Buddha as a major religious teacher. His image can be found in both their Holy See and on the home altar. He is revealed during communication with Divine Beings as son of their Supreme Being (God the Father) together with other major religious teachers and founders like Jesus, Laozi, and Confucius.

 

In the ancient Gnostic sect of Manichaeism the Buddha is listed among the prophets who preached the word of God before Mani.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Southern Pylon form traveller raised to deck level .....Please note ALL pictures on this Photostream are Copyright Protected

Form 2/4

Form and function. Easy to use, a degree of theft protection (must have 6mm allen wrench to open on the other side) and a lot of sexy. All bits hand made in the shop.

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Michele Zecchin - Photographic Tales ©

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52 défis photographiques. Voir les formes.

Une certaine forme de mal vient justement de l'usage terriblement perverti que l'on fait de la beauté.

François Cheng

 

Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia

A quiet moment at Blue Anchor during the WSR Spring gala.

www.archiviocrispolti.it/fNewsDettaglio.asp?idNews=67

Pictures form the latest round of Severe Weather Limited Traction driver training courses we've beeing running for the British Red Cross Fife Lothian & Borders area.

De forma accidental, en 1903, se hallaron los restos de unos baños árabes en el Campo de los Santos Mártires, que meses más tarde fueron soterrados. Entre 1961 y 1964, un grupo de historiadores cordobeses sacó a la luz dicha construcción, dejando constancia de la gran envergadura de la misma.

Estos baños o hammam, contiguos al desaparecido Alcázar omeya, al cual con toda seguridad pertenecían, posiblemente fueran los más importantes de la ciudad. Las abluciones y limpieza corporal constituían una parte esencial en la vida del musulmán. Eran preceptivos de la oración, además de constituir un rito social.

Realizados bajo el califato de Alhakem II, forman un conjunto de estancias con muros de sillería. Se cierran con bóvedas (donde aparecen los característicos lucernarios de estrella), soportadas por arcos ultra semicirculares sobre capiteles y columnas de mármol.

 

Durante los siglos XI al XIII, fueron reutilizados por almorávides y almohades, prueba de ello son las yeserías talladas con motivos de ataurique y franjas epigráficas de la época que se guardan en el museo arqueológico.

158798 formed of 52798, 58715 and 57798 is seen arriving at Bristol Temple Meads carryings its Springboard Opportunity Group advert livery.

Birdwatchers plus one, Bempton, East Yorkshire, UK

These three rollers are in the fender forming machine of the last photo. They arch the flat strip of stainless steel, break the lip for the rolled edge, and roll the lip.

1976 - Walter J. Diethelm

Formed in 2000, Ferrovie Emilia Romagna was formed by the merging of several private operators in the area. Seen here is a 4-car set powered by ALn663.1017 and ALn663.1019 waiting to depart on train R7560, 15:31 Codigoro to Ferrara on 10 November 2003.

 

Following a merge with ACT Bologna City Transport, the company became Trasporto Passeggeri Emilia Romagna.

1976 - Walter J. Diethelm

hoodoos.bisti badlands.new mexico