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These arrived today from B&H to review, pretty sure two will be going back and one will become my new monitor after I am done with the review. My existing Samsung monitor is 7 years old.
"Monitor & Merrimac"
near Moab, Utah, USA
1404-4-4786
Along the way to Canyonlands National Park are Monitor and Merrimac, two incredibly beautiful sandstone features. I captured this shot under incredibly dramatic afternoon skies.
Ergaki (Russian: Ергаки) is a mountain range in the Western Sayan Mountains in southern Siberia, Russia.
Ergaki Nature Park is a protected area which contains the mountain range. One natural feature of the park is the Hanging Stone, it is a stone which is perched high above Lake Raduzhnoyeke.
Ergaki Nature Park (Russian: Природный парк Ергаки, also referred to as Irgaki) is located in located in the Ergaki mountain range in southern Siberia, Russia. The park was established in 2005 and it is referred to as the "Russian Yosemite".
Background
On April 4, 2005, Ergaki Nature Park was established as a protected area of Siberia. The purpose of the nature park designation was to protect and preserve the area and resources while also developing tourism. The Western Sayan Mountains are in the park and they were thought to be an area which would attract recreational tourism. The park covers an area of over 217,000 ha (540,000 acres).
History
The park is in the in Krasnoyarsk Krai and it is a popular tourist area. It is known for its recreational uses and there is a hiking trail which is 35 km (22 mi) long. The trail was started in 2005 and it takes tourists through the park passing glacial lakes, mountains, canyons and rivers with waterfall features. It is recommended that hikers allow themselves three to five days to complete the trail. The trail ends at Lake Raduzhnoe, which is below a natural feature and attraction known as the Hanging Stone. One quarter of the park is off limits to visitors so that the areas are not disturbed. Threats to the park include tourism, poaching, and logging. The park is monitored by the Natural Park Protection Service.
Features
The park also has a rock ridge known as 'Sleeping Sayan". The ridge appears to be a silhouette of a man lying on his back. Authorities say that the park was visited by 120 thousand tourists per year. Many of the peaks have been given names, like Mirror, Bird, Star, Dragon's Tooth and Cone.
The highest point found in the park is found in the Aradansky mountain range: it is 2,466 m (8,091 ft). The second highest is found in the middle of the Ergaki mountains (Zvezdny peak) 2,265 m (7,431 ft).Also within the park is a natural feature called the Hanging Stone. It is large stone which seems to teeter on the cliff face perched high above Lake Raduzhnoyeke.
Flora
There park has hundreds of different mosses, liverworts, lichens and fungi. The park is estimated to have 1,500 different species of vascular plants. There are more than fifty species of the Asteraceae flowering plants. There are Ergakov mushrooms which have not been the subject of studies.
The Sayan Mountains (Russian: Саяны Sajany; Mongolian: Соёны нуруу, Soyonï nurû; Old Turkic: , romanized: Kögmen) are a mountain range in southern Siberia spanning southeastern Russia (Buryatia, Irkutsk Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tuva and Khakassia) and northern Mongolia. Before the rapid expansion of Tsardom of Russia, the mountain range served as the border between Mongolian and Russian cultures and cultural influences.
The Sayan Mountains' towering peaks and cool lakes southwest of Tuva give rise to the tributaries that merge to become one of Siberia's major rivers, the Yenisei River, which flows north over 3,400 kilometres (2000 mi) to the Arctic Ocean. This is a protected and isolated area, having been kept closed by the Soviet Union since 1944.
Geography
At 92°E the Western Sayan system is pierced by the Ulug-Khem (Russian: Улуг-Хем) or Upper Yenisei River, and at 106°, at its eastern extremity, it terminates above the depression of the Selenga-Orkhon Valley. It stretches almost at a right angle to the Western Sayan for 650 km (400 mi) in a roughly northeast/southwest direction between the Shapshal Range of the Eastern Altai in the west and the Abakan Range of the Kuznetsk Alatau in the east. From the Mongolian plateau the ascent is on the whole gentle, but from the plains of Siberia it is much steeper. The range includes a number of subsidiary ranges of an Alpine character, such as the Aradan, Borus, Oy, Kulumys, Mirsky, Kurtushibin, Uyuk, Sheshpir-Taiga, Ergak-Targak-Taiga, Kedran and Nazarovsky ranges. The most important peaks are Kyzlasov Peak (2,969 m (9,741 ft)), Aradansky Peak (2,456 m (8,058 ft)), Bedelig Golets (2,492 m (8,176 ft)), Samzhir (2,402 m (7,881 ft)), Borus (2,318 m (7,605 ft)) and Zvezdny Peak (2,265 m (7,431 ft)).
Between the breach of the Yenisei and Lake Khövsgöl at 100° 30' E. the system bears also the name of Yerghik-Taiga. The flora is on the whole poor, although the higher regions carry good forests of larch, pine, juniper, birch, and alder, with rhododendrons and species of Berberis and Ribes. Lichens and mosses clothe many of the boulders that are scattered over the upper slopes.
Eastern Sayan
The Eastern Sayan stretches almost at a right angle to the Western Sayan for 1,000 km (620 mi) in a northwest/southeast direction, from the Yenisei to the Angara Range. Some subranges of the northwest form a system of "White Mountains" (Белогорье) or "Belki", such as Manskoye Belogorye, Kanskoye Belogorye, Kuturchinskoye Belogorye, as well as Agul Belki (Агульские Белки), with permanent snow on the peaks. In the central part, towards the upper reaches of the Kazyr and Kizir rivers, several ridges, such as the Kryzhin Range form a cluster culminating in the 2,982 m (9,783 ft) high Grandiozny Peak, the highest point in Krasnoyarsk Krai.
To the southeast rise the highest and most remote subranges, including the Bolshoy Sayan and Kropotkin Range, as well as "Goltsy" type of mountains, such as the Tunka Goltsy, Kitoy Goltsy, Botogolsky Goltsy, among others. The highest point of the Eastern Sayan, as well as the highest point of the whole Sayan system, 3,491 m (11,453 ft) high Mount Munku-Sardyk, is located in the range of the same name in this area. 2,939 m (9,642 ft) high Pik Tofalariya is the highest point of Irkutsk Oblast. The mountains of the Eastern Sayan characteristically display alpine relief forms. In general, rivers flowing down from the ranges form gorges and there is an abundance of waterfalls in the area.
The Ice Age Period
In this area that currently shows only small cirque glaciers, at glacial times glaciers have flowed down from the 3492 m high Munku Sardyk massif situated west of Lake Baikal and from the 12.100 km2 extended completely glaciated granite-gneiss plateau (2300 m asl) of the East-Sayan mountains as well as the east-connected 2600 – 3110 m-high summits in the Tunkinskaya Dolina valley, joining to a c. 30 km-wide parent glacier. Its glacier tongue that flowed down to the east, to Lake Baikal, came to an end at 500 m asl (51°48’28.98"N/103°0’29.86"E). The Khamar Daban mountains were covered by a large-scale ice cap filling up the valley relief.
From its valley heads, e.g. the upper Slujanka valley (51°32’N/103°37’E), but also through parallel valleys like the Snirsdaja valley, outlet glaciers flowed to the north to Lake Baikal. The Snirsdaja-valley-outlet glacier has calved, among other outlet glaciers, at c. 400 m asl into Lake Baikal (51°27’N/104°51’E). The glacial (Würm ice age = Last Glacial Period = MIS 2) glacier snowline (ELA) as altitude limit between glacier feeding area and ablation zone has run in these mountains between 1450 and 1250 m asl. This corresponds to a snowline depression of 1500 m against the current height of the snowline. Under the condition of a comparable precipitation ratio there might result from this a glacial depression of the average annual temperature of 7.5 to 9 °C for the Last Ice Age against today.
Origins of reindeer husbandry
According to Sev’yan I. Vainshtein, Sayan reindeer herding, as historically practiced by the Evenks, is "the oldest form of reindeer herding and is associated with the earliest domestication of the reindeer by the Samoyedic taiga population of the Sayan Mountains at the turn of the first millennium A.D."
The Sayan region was apparently the origin of the economic and cultural complex of reindeer hunters-herdsmen that we now see among the various Evenki groups and the peoples of the Sayan area.
The ancestors of modern Evenki groups inhabited areas adjacent to the Sayan Mountains, and it is highly likely that they took part in the process of reindeer domestication along with the Samoyedic population." The local indigenous groups that have retained their traditional lifestyle nowadays live almost exclusively in the area of the Eastern Sayan mountains. However, the local reindeer herding communities were greatly affected by russification and sovietization, with many Evenks losing their traditional lifestyle and groups like the Mator and Kamas peoples being assimilated altogether.
According to Juha Janhunen, and other linguists, the homeland of the Uralic languages is located in South-Central Siberia in the Sayan Mountains region. Meanwhile, Turkologist Peter Benjamin Golden locates the Proto-Turkic Urheimat in the southern taiga-steppe zone of the Sayan-Altay region. Alternatively, the Proto-Uralic homeland is located farther westwards (e.g. in the Volga-Kama region) while the Proto-Turkic homeland is located farther eastwards (e.g. "in the southern fringe of the [Northern Eurasian Greenbelt] in Northeast Asia ... near eastern Mongolia").
Science
The Sayan Solar Observatory is located in these mountains (51°37′18″N 100°55′07″E) at an altitude of 2,000 meters.
Siberia is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its various predecessor states since the centuries-long conquest of Siberia, which began with the fall of the Khanate of Sibir in the late 16th century and concluded with the annexation of Chukotka in 1778. Siberia is vast and sparsely populated, covering an area of over 13.1 million square kilometres (5,100,000 sq mi), but home to roughly a quarter of Russia's population. Novosibirsk and Omsk are the largest cities in the area.
Because Siberia is a geographic and historic concept and not a political entity, there is no single precise definition of its territorial borders. Traditionally, Siberia spans the entire expanse of land from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, with the Ural River usually forming the southernmost portion of its western boundary, and includes most of the drainage basin of the Arctic Ocean. It is further defined as stretching from the territories within the Arctic Circle in the north to the northern borders of Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China in the south, although the hills of north-central Kazakhstan are also commonly included. The Russian government divides the region into three federal districts (groupings of Russian federal subjects), of which only the central one is officially referred to as "Siberian"; the other two are the Ural and Far Eastern federal districts, named for the Ural and Russian Far East regions that correspond respectively to the western and eastern thirds of Siberia in the broader sense.
Siberia is known for its long, harsh winters, with a January average of −25 °C (−13 °F). Although it is geographically in Asia, Russian sovereignty and colonization since the 16th century have rendered the region culturally and ethnically European. Over 85% of its population are of European descent, chiefly Russian (comprising the Siberian sub-ethnic group), and Eastern Slavic cultural influences predominate throughout the region. Nevertheless, there exist sizable ethnic minorities of Asian lineage, including various Turkic communities—many of which, such as the Yakuts, Tuvans, Altai, and Khakas, are Indigenous—along with the Mongolic Buryats, ethnic Koreans, and smaller groups of Samoyedic and Tungusic peoples (several of whom are classified as Indigenous small-numbered peoples by the Russian government), among many others.
The Prehistory of Siberia is marked by several archaeologically distinct cultures. In the Chalcolithic, the cultures of western and southern Siberia were pastoralists, while the eastern taiga and the tundra were dominated by hunter-gatherers until the Late Middle Ages and even beyond. Substantial changes in society, economics and art indicate the development of nomadism in the Central Asian steppes in the first millennium BC.
History of research
Scholarly research of the archaeological background of the region between the Urals and the Pacific began in the reign of Peter the Great (1682-1725), who ordered the collection of Scythian gold hoards and thereby rescued the contents of several robbed graves before they were melted down. During his reign, several expeditions were charged with the scientific, anthropological and linguistic research of Siberia, including the Second Kamchatka Expedition of the Dane Vitus Bering (1733-1743). Scholars also took an interest in archaeology and carried out the first archaeological excavations of Siberian kurgans. After a temporary reduction of interest in the first half of the nineteenth century, archaeological research in Siberia reached new heights in the late nineteenth century. Excavations were particularly intense in South Siberia and Central Asia. The results of the October Revolution 1917 created different, often restricted, conditions for archaeological research, but led to even larger projects, especially rescue excavations as a result of gigantic building projects. Eventually, even remote areas of the Soviet Union such as Sakha and Chukotka, were archaeologically explored. After the Second World War, these developments continued. Following the Collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, much more intensive collaboration with the west became possible.
Topography
Siberia is characterised by a great deal of variety in climate, vegetation, and landscape. In the west, Siberia is bordered by the Ural Mountains. From there, the west Siberian lowlands extend to the east, all the way to the river Yenisei. Beyond this are the central Siberian highlands which are bordered on the east by the basin of the Lena River, beyond that are the northeast Siberian highlands. Siberia is bordered on the south by a rough chain of mountains and to the southwest by the hills of the Kazakh border. The climate in Siberia is very variable. Yakutia, northeast of the Lena, is among the coldest places on Earth, but every year temperatures may vary for more than 50 °C, from as low as −50 °C in winter to over +20 °C in summer. The rainfall is very low. This is true of the southwest as well, where steppes, deserts and semi-deserts border on one another.
Agriculture is only possible in Siberia without artificial irrigation today between 50° and 60° north. The climatic situation is responsible for the different biomes of the region. In the northernmost section, there is tundra with minimal vegetation. The largest part of Siberia, aside from the mountainous regions, is taiga, northern coniferous forests. In the southwest this becomes forested steppe, and even further south it transitions to grass steppes and the central Asian desert. Before the beginning of the Holocene about 12,000 years ago, the situation was different. During the Weichselian glaciation (from before 115,000 years ago until 15,000 years ago), the tundra extended much further south and an ice sheet covered the Urals and the area to the east of the lower Yenisei.
Historical overview
Late Paleolithic southern Siberians appear to be related to paleolithic Europeans and the paleolithic Jōmon people of Japan. Various scholars point out similarities between the Jōmon and paleolithic and Bronze Age Siberians. A genetic analyses of HLA I and HLA II genes as well as HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 gene frequencies links the Ainu people and some Indigenous peoples of the Americas, especially populations on the Pacific Northwest Coast such as Tlingit, to paleolithic southern Siberians.
Mesolithic to Neolithic (until c. 2400 BC)
Finds from the Lower Paleolithic appear to be attested between east Kazakhstan and Altai. The burial of a Neanderthal child found in 1938 shows similarities with the Mousterian of Iraq and Iran. In the Upper Palaeolithic, by contrast, most remains are found in the Urals, where, among other things, rock carvings depicting mammoths are found, in Altai, on the upper Yenissei, west of Lake Baikal and around 25,000 on the shore of the Laptev Sea, north of the arctic circle. The remains of huts have been found in the settlement of Mal'ta near Irkutsk. Sculptures of animals and women (Venus figurines) recall the European Upper Palaeolithic. The Siberian Palaeolithic continues well into the European Mesolithic. In the postglacial period, the taiga developed. Microliths, which are common elsewhere, have not been found.
In North Asia, the Neolithic (c. 5500–3400 BC)[7] is mostly a chronological term, since there is no evidence for agriculture or even pastoralism in Siberia during the central European Neolithic. However, the neolithic cultures of North Asia are distinguished from the preceding Mesolithic cultures and far more visible as a result of the introduction of pottery.
Southwest Siberia reached a neolithic cultural level during the Chalcolithic, which began here towards the end of the fourth millennium BC, which roughly coincided with the introduction of copper–working. In the northern and eastern regions, there is no detectable change.
Bronze Age (c. 2400–800 BC)
In the second half of the third millennium BC, bronzeworking reached the cultures of western Siberia. Chalcolithic groups in the eastern Ural foothills developed the so-called Andronovo culture, which took various local forms. The settlements of Arkaim, Olgino and Sintashta are particularly notable as the earliest evidence for urbanisation in Siberia. In the valleys of the Ob and Irtysh the same ceramic cultures attested there during the neolithic continue; the changes in the Baikal region and Yakutia were very slight.
Bronze Age
In the middle Bronze Age (c. 1800–1500 BC), the west Siberian Andronovo culture expanded markedly to the east and even reached the Yenissei valley. In all the local forms of the Andronovo culture, homogenous ceramics are found, which also extended to the cultures on the Ob. Here, however, unique neolithic ceramic traditions were maintained as well.
With the beginning of the late Bronze Age (c. 1500–800 BC), crucial cultural developments took place in southern Siberia. The Andronovo culture dissolved; its southern successors produced an entirely new form of pottery, with bulbous ornamental elements. At the same time the southern cultures also developed new forms of bronze working, probably as a result of influence from the southeast. These changes were especially significant in the Baikal region. There, the chalcolithic material culture which had continued up to this time was replaced by a bronze-working pastoralist culture. There and in Yakutia, bronze was only used as a material for the first time at this point.
The Ymyakhtakh culture (c. 2200–1300 BC) was a Late Neolithic culture of Siberia, with a very large archaeological horizon. Its origins seem to be in the Lena river basin of Yakutia, and also along the Yenisei river. From there it spread both to the east and to the west.[8]
Iron Age (c. 800 BC - AD 500)
The cultural continuity on the Ob continued in the first millennium BC, as the Iron Age began in Siberia; the local ceramic style continues there even in this period. A much larger break occurred in the central Asian steppe: the sedentary, predominantly pastoralist society of the late Bronze Age is replaced by the mobile horse nomads which would continue to dominate this region until modern times. The mobility, which the new cultural form enabled, unleashed a powerful dynamic, since henceforth the people of Central Asia were able to move across the steppe in great numbers. The neighbouring sedentary cultures were not unaffected by this development. Ancient China was threatened by the Xiongnu and their neighbours, the ancient states of modern Iran were opposed by the Massagetae and Sakas, and the Roman empire eventually was confronted by the Huns. The social changes are clearly indicated in the archaeological finds. Settlements are no longer found, members of the new elite were buried in richly furnished kurgans and completely new forms of art developed.
In the damper steppes to the north, the sedentary pastoralist culture of the late Bronze Age developed under the influence of the material culture of the nomads. Proto-urban settlements like Tshitsha form the late Irmen culture in west Siberia and the settlements in the north of the Xiongnu cultural area.
Subsequent period
In many places the transition to later periods remains problematic due to the lack of archaeological evidence. Nevertheless, some generalisations are possible. In the Central Asian steppes, Turkic groups become detectable sometime in the 5th century; over the following centuries, they expand to the north and west until eventually they brought the whole of southern Siberia under their control. The area further north, where the speakers of Uralic and Paleosiberian languages were located is still poorly known. The next clear break in the history of Siberia is the Russian expansion into the east which began in the 16th century and only concluded in the 19th century. This process marks the beginning of modernity in Siberia
Peoples and languages
Reliable historical evidence for the area first appears at the beginning of the first millennium BC, with sources from the Near East. Greek and Chinese sources are also available from slightly later. Thus, certain statements about the peoples and languages of the region are only possible from the Iron Age. For earlier times and the northern part of Siberia, only archaeological evidence is available. Some theories, like the Kurgan hypothesis of Marija Gimbutas, attempt to relate hypothetical language families to archaeological cultures, but this is a highly uncertain procedure.
Sure statements are possible only since the first millennium BC, when neighbouring literate cultures came into contact with the people of the steppe. In the steppes north of the Black Sea and east of the Caspian Sea, Greek, Assyrian and Persian sources attest to horse nomads, which can be identified as speakers of Iranian languages. The first reports from ancient China of the nomads north of China date from the same period. Along with various unidentified groups from Shang and Zhou dynasty texts, the Xiongnu are worthy of mention. Based on personal names and titles transmitted by the Chinese sources, different scholars have attempted to identify the language of the Xiongnu as an early Turkic language, a proto-Mongolic language or a Yeniseian language. At the beginning of the early Middle Ages, the Iranian peoples disappeared and in their place Turkic peoples expanded across the region between the eastern edge of Europe and northeastern Siberia. In the areas to the north of the Asiatic steppes, speakers of Uralic and Palaeo-Siberian languages are suspected to have been settled; in the Middle Ages, Turkic peoples appear here as well, but their prehistoric extent is not clear.
Cultures
Siberia before the Chalcolithic
The earliest known archaeological finds from Siberia date to the Lower Palaeolithic. In various places in West Siberia, the Baikal region and Yakutia, storage places from early Neolithic times have been found, which often remained in use for centuries. Alongside tent settlements which leave no traces in the ground, there were also huts, often dug slightly into the ground, whose walls and roofs were made of animal bone and reindeer antlers. Tools and weapons were mostly made from flint, slate and bone, with few discernable differences between them despite their immense chronological and geographical scope. In some settlements, early artworks have been found, which consist of human, animal and abstract sculptures and carvings. The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic inhabitants of Siberia were hunter-gatherers, whose prey consisted of mammoths and reindeer, and occasionally fish as well. In the 6th millennium BC, pottery spread across the whole of Siberia, which scholars treat as the beginning of the Siberian neolithic. Unlike Europe and the Near East, this event did not mark a major change in lifestyle, economy or culture.
The prehistoric inhabitants of the vast areas of taiga and tundra east of the Yenissei and north of Baikal differ in many ways from the prehistoric cultures of the other parts of north Asia. There is stronger evidence than usual for settlement continuity here from the Mesolithic until the second half of the first millennium AD, when the not yet entirely clear transition to the Medieval period occurred. Despite the enormous geographic extent of the area, only minor local differences are visible, indicating very mobile, nomadic inhabitants. The earliest culture in Yakutia to make ceramic was the Syalakh culture, which have been dated by radiocarbon dating to the 5th millennium BC. They are known from a type of pottery decorated with net patterns and bands of puncture marks. Their remains include weapons and tools made from flint and bone. A series of settlements, some of which were already in use in the Mesolithic, are known, at which the finds are limited to hearths and pits, while remains of buildings are entirely absent. Thus, the people responsible for the Syalakh culture were nomads who survived from hunting and fishing and inhabited certain spots on a seasonal basis.
This culture gradually transitions into the Belkachi culture (named after the Belkachi settlement in Yakutia) without any clear break. Their pottery features cord decorations, stripes, zigzag lines and such like. Their dead were buried on their backs in earthen graves. Otherwise, no major differences from the preceding culture are visible.
The Ymyyakhtakh culture (2200–1300 BC) is marked out by a new kind of "waffle ceramic", whose upper side is decorated with textile impressions and takes on a waffle-like appearance as a result. Towards the end of the 2nd millennium BC, bronzeworking reached Yakutia. Ymyyakhtakh settlements already feature bronze artifacts.
Ust-Mil culture followed next. In the first millennium BC, an independent culture developed on the Taymyr Peninsula, which shared its basic features with the Ust-Mil culture. The Iron Age began in Yakutia around the 5th century BC, but apart from the adoption of iron weapons and tools it does not mark a major change in the material culture.
The cultural development in neolithic and chalcolithic Baikal region, where the circumstances were similar to those in Yakutia until the appearance of the late Bronze Age Slab Grave culture. Here too there were some multi-layer storage places which extended back to the Mesolithic period, with hearths, waste pits and storage pits but no remains of buildings. The pottery was similar to that in Yakutia and shows a more or less parallel course of development. The burials are mostly stretched out on their backs, but often the graves were covered by stone slabs. An exception is the area of the Onon River, where crouching graves are found. Grave goods and bone finds indicate that the inhabitants lived by hunting bears, fish, elk and beavers, as well as some fish. The importance of the hunt to their culture is indicated by carvings on bones and rock faces. Their main subjects are people hunting animals. Unlike in Yakutia, pastoralism was adopted in the Baikal region before the Middle Ages; the earliest evidence comes from the chalcolithic Glazkov culture.
Sedentary societies of West Siberia and the Baikal region
From the Neolithic or early in the Chalcolithic, sedentary groups in which pastoralism played an important economic role developed in southwestern Siberia. The transition to the new economic system and to sedentarism was very smooth. Subsequently, it spread to the Baikal region, where the influence of northern China may also have played a role.
Ceramics
Through the whole Siberian prehistoric period from the Neolithic until the Iron Age, there are a very limited range of ceramic types. The vast majority of ceramic finds are round bulbous vessels, often with folded edges. In the Neolithic they mostly had concave bases, while later flat bases became more common. In the eastern part of the west Siberian forest steppe, on the Ob, Irtysh and Yenissei, decoration consisted of comb patterns, puncture rows and dimples, arranged in long series or fields (right image). In the course of the dramatic growth of the Andronovo culture in the middle Bronze Age, another type spread through the region. Examples of it are decorated with meander bands, herringbone patterns and triangles (left image). These ceramic types endured even into the Iron Age in west Siberia, yet a stark decline in decoration is observable, contemporary with the entrance of the Scythian and Hunnic Sarmatian nomads. This applies even to the nomadic cultures themselves.
Art and small finds
Excepting the abstract decoration of the pottery, which has been dealt with above, artistic products are found in south Siberia only in the early Bronze Age.
Artefacts from the Karakol culture in Altai and the Okunev culture in the middle Yenissei include anthropomorphic motifs on stone plates and steles; the Okunev culture also produced humanoid sculptures. The art of the Samus culture of the upper Ob is related to these. In addition to humanoid sculptures and human heads engraved in pottery, the Samus culture also produced ceramic phalli and animal heads. Members of the nearby Susgun culture produced humanoid figures in bone. The only artistic products of the late Bronze Age are early South Siberian deer stones, stone steles decorated with images of deer, which were subsequently imitated by Scythian art.
The early Iron Age animal style of the south Siberian horse nomads only influenced the cultures of the west Siberian lowlands a little. An entirely unique style was developed by the Kulaika culture and its neighbours in the middle and lower Ob. Here bronze figures of animals and people were manufactured, in which eagles and bears played a particularly important role.
Architecture
The predominant building material in prehistoric north Asia was wood; stone was used for foundations at most. Most houses were tight structures, sunk less than 1 metre into the earth and had a rectangular or circular ground plan; oval or polygonal ground plans occur rarely. The structure of the roofs may have been pitched wooden constructions or saddle roofs. In many cultures, a small, corridor-like porch was built in front of the entrance. One or more hearths were found in the inner house.
Floodplains and lakesides were the preferred settlement locations. Settlements could take entirely different forms in different cultures; small groups of houses, large unfortified settlements, fortified city-like settlements and elevated fortress complexes are all found. Small village-like groups of houses are found in great numbers in all the sedentary cultures. In some cases, such as the chalcolithic settlement of Botai on the Ishim river, settlements experienced substantial expansion. It was not unusual for larger settlements to have walls and extramural graveyards, as in the case of the west Siberian settlements of Sintashta and Tshitsha. The inner space of these city-like settlements was densely and regularly packed with rectangular houses, indicating a form of town planning. The fortified settlements in elevated locations, like those located in the Minusinsk Hollow and Khakassia in the bronze and Iron Ages are usually distinguished from these settlements by their small size. Their purpose is still unclear; they may have been temporary refuges, the seats of elites, or sanctuaries.
Society
Unlike the nomadic groups of earlier times and of northeastern Siberia, complex social structures can be detected in sedentary groups in West Siberia in the early Bronze Age. Their existence is indicated by the city-like settlements and by the social differentiation indicated by differences in their grave goods. In the middle Bronze Age, this development seems to have reversed and social differentiation is only detectable again in the late Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Since the northern part of west Siberia was unknown to ancient literate cultures and the ancient inhabitants of this region have left no literary source material themselves, it is very difficult to make detailed statements about their society. In reference to the settled populations of the Wusun, who settled in the Tianshan and Zhetysu, Chinese sources indicate the existence of a king and several nobles.
Economy
The economy of the sedentary population in prehistoric Siberia was dominated by pastoralism. Cattle were intensively farmed in all cultures, as were sheep and goats. The raising of horses became very significant in western Siberia, particularly with the beginning of the Iron Age. A somewhat different image is given by the finds from the Xiongnu, who had also domesticated pigs and dogs. Hunting and fishing were initially an important supplement, but lost a lot of their significance over time.
Based on important tool remains and the possible remains of irrigation systems, a wide use of agriculture has been proposed by many researchers, but other scholars state that remains of cereals and other clear evidence are only found in the southernmost cultures, as remains of the Wusun of the Tianshan and Zhetysu. There, as in the northern parts of the Xiongnu territory, millet was cultivated and traces of wheat and rice have also been found. Millet seeds are also found in graves from Tuva, possibly indicating that a hitherto unknown population of settled agriculturalists, who might have been responsible for the area's metal-working, existed there alongside the horse nomads.
From the chalcolithic, ore mining and metallurgy also occurred. This is shown by finds of slag, tools and workshops in various cultural contexts.
Religion and funerary practices
The burial customs of the sedentary societies were characterised by great variation. In the west Siberian chalcolithic, simple flat graves are found, in which the corpse is laid flat on its back. In the early Bronze Age, kurgans were erected for the first time, whose inhabitants were members of a newly developed warrior class (to judge from the grave goods interred with them) and were not buried in simple pits, but in wooden or stone structures. Already in the middle Bronze Age phase of the Andronovo culture, kurgans are found, but without differentiation of their grave goods. The corpse was interred in a crouched position or cremated. In the somewhat later Karasuk culture on the middle Yenissei, the tombs include rectangular stone enclosures, which were further developed into the stone-cornered kurgans characteristic of the area by the Tagar culture in the Iron Age. A special position belongs to the early Iron Age Slab Grave culture in the Transbaikal area; their dead were sometimes interred in stone cist graves. The burial of corpses lying on their backs which was practiced in west Siberia continued in the developing Scythian cultures of south Siberia, which is dealt with separately along with the other horse nomad cultures below.
Only isolated sanctuaries are known. Among them are the many burnt offering places found near the necropolis of the chalcolithic Afanasevo culture in south Siberia. They consisted of simple stone circles containing ashes, pottery, animal bones and tools made of copper, stone and bone. The many circular buildings containing wooden stakes and walls, in the necropoleis near the early Bronze Age settlement of Sintashta, are probably cult buildings.
Iron age steppe people of central and eastern Asia
The horse nomads who were characteristic of the Asiatic steppe until modern times are a relatively recent phenomenon. Even in the late second millennium BC, settled pastoralists lived in the arid regions of Central Asia. They were replaced by the early horse nomads in the course of the first millennium BC in ways which are not entirely clear.
The transition to the sedentary groups further north was fluid in many places. The inhabitants of the Minusinsk hollow remained settled pastoralists even in the Iron Age, but their cultural development shows strong affinities to the neighbouring nomads. The Xiongnu in Transbaikal region show characteristics of both horse nomads and settled pastoralists and farmers. The situation in northern Tianshan and Zhetysu is remarkable: in the early Iron Age the nomadic Sakas lived there, but the region was subsequently taken over by the sedentary Wusun.
The earlier nomadic cultures are referred to collectively by archaeologists using the term "Scythian", which is the ancient Greek term for a group of horse nomads living north of the Black Sea; in a wider sense it referred to all horse nomads in the Eurasian steppe. The third century AD marks the beginning of the Hunnic-Sarmatian period, named after two nomadic groups from southern Russia, which continued until the establishment of the Khaganate of the Gokturks in the sixth century AD.
Art
While the art of the settled cultures of the Asiatic steppe in the Bronze Age was dominated by anthropomorphic motifs, the advent of the horse nomads was accompanied by the development of the Scytho-Sarmatian animal style, which all the steppe people of Asia and eastern Europe shared. Its basic motifs were taken from a repertoire of wild animals, with a remarkable absence of animals which were significant to the daily life of the horse nomads. Thus depictions of horses and of people are extremely rare. Instead, the common motifs are deer, mostly lying down, elk, big cats (which must indicate Near Eastern influence), griffins and hybrids. Individual animals sometimes appear rolled up together as a "rolled animal", pairs of different animal species may be interlaced in a purely ornamental way, or depicted fighting one another. A line of the members of the same species often appear in borders, while individual parts of animals, like their heads, often serve as ornaments.
Especially in the western steppes metal wares are found almost exclusively decorated with elements of the animal style; in the permafrost of south Siberia and Transbaikal, felt carpets and other textiles with elements from the animal style are also found, among which a felt swan stuffed with moss deserves special attention. Stone was only used a little, mostly in the so-called "deer stele," probably anthropomorphic grave stele, which were decorated with deer and are found in south Siberia, Transbaikalia and Mongolia. Finally, the bodies of important people were tattooed with motifs from the animal style.
The origins of the animal style are unclear. Based on possible interactions with ancient eastern art, a strong influence from the south has been proposed. The early dating of some pieces from southern Siberia however, makes a local development on the steppes themselves more likely. It is certain however that especially in central Asia and the area north of the Black Sea, Greek and Persian art had a great influence on the art of the steppe peoples.
Society
Known features, which were shared by the societies of the horse nomad cultures of the Bronze Age, include a powerful warrior elite, whose wealth and strength is clear from their elaborate grave goods. Particularly interesting in this context are the Chinese reports which provide detailed descriptions of the society of the Xiongnu. According to them, the population was divided into clan-like groups, which gathered together in large clan alliances. Their leaders stood in a strict hierarchy and were all under the authority of the Chanyu, the commander of the entire Xiongnu confederacy.
Economy
The horse nomads of Inner Asia were nomadic pastoralists and probably travelled about in rather small groups. They particularly focussed on sheep, goats and horses, and in some regions other animals, such as the camel. Agriculture was undertaken by parallel settled populations, but probably did not play an important role. Ore mining and metal working which are known for some nomadic cultures, was probably undertaken by very elusive settled groups as well.
Religion and funerary practices
All horse nomad cultures shared the burial of the dead in barrow graves which are known as kurgans. Their size is very variable, with a radius of between 2 and 50 metres and a height of less than one or more than 18 metres, evidently reflecting differences in social hierarchy.
In some regions, kurgans are surrounded by various kinds of stone enclosure. The more or less rectangular tombs of the later Tagar culture were sometimes surrounded by a row of stones at the edge of the kurgan mound, which was broken up by higher stones at regular intervals - later these were usually just at the corners.[20] In the Iron Age culture of Tuva, some but not all kurgans were surrounded by a rectangular or round stone wall. The kurgans themselves were partially built of earth and partially of stone, with regional variation.
In the ground beneath the kurgan was buried one or (very often) more tombs. The corpse lay either in a wooden chamber or a stone cist. The grave goods found along with them indicate that wooden chambers were reserved for people of higher status. While in burials from the Bronze Age the corpses were usually in a crouching position, in the Iron Age they were usually laid on their backs. Evidence for the handling of the dead are only known from Altai and Tuva, were some bodies are preserved as ice mummies by the permafrost, making detailed analysis possible. In these locations, the guts and muscles were removed before burial and the resulting holes were stitched closed with tendons and horse hair. It is uncertain whether damage to the skull reflects injuries that occurred before death or were made after death. Ritual trepanation cannot be assumed. After the guts were removed, distinguished corpses were tattooed and embalmed. These traditions are described also by the Greek historian Herodotus, who included material on the Scythians north of the Black Sea in his 5th century BC work, and is the main Greek source on the Scythians. Even his report of cannabis inhalation in small groups during the funeral have been corroborated by finds from the Pazyryk burials. This corroboration not only affirms the accuracy of Herodotus, but also indicates the cultural homogeneity of the steppe peoples of west Siberia, Central Asia and the region north of the Black Sea. The great kurgans of the Xiongnu present a rather different picture, however. There the burial chambers are deeper and were accessed by a ramp.
Along with the corpse, the burial chambers also contained grave goods, whose richness could vary dramatically. Ordinary mounted warriors were buried with a fully equipped horse and weapons, women were buried with a horse, a knife and a mirror. The burials of higher ranking people were much richer. These could include up to twentyfive richly outfitted horses and an elaborate chariot; the actual burial chamber was built from wooden planks (often larch). The corpse, with a woman who probably accompanied him in death, lay, clothed, in a long treetrunk coffin. In Noin Ula in Mongolia, a woman's braids were interred instead of the woman herself. Outstanding examples of kurgans include the necropoleis of Pazyryk in Altai, Noin Ula in Mongolia, and Arzhan in Tuva, where organic matter was preserved by the permafrost. Thus, felt carpets which decorated the inner walls of the burial chamber, decorated saddles and various kinds of clothing were also found. Although many large kurgans have been robbed of their contents by grave robbers, exceptional examples still remain, including countless gold objects.
On account of the general absence of written source material, research on the religion of the steppe people is based on parallels with later peoples and on the archaeological finds themselves. The funerary rituals leave no doubt about the belief in an afterlife, in which the dead had need of the same material items which they had in life – hence their burial with them.
Monitor Valley with the Toquima Range in the background. As viewed from the top of Diana's Punchbowl.
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Some historic former manufacturing plants have a dark side, as these environmental monitoring wells at the former John Lucas/Sherwin-Williams Paint Works plant site show. The area is an EPA Superfund site.
I wanted to document some of the Pinery fire (25th Nov 2015). Partly to understand it but also so that others can appreciate what the locals have to deal with.
The Jenkin history and my memories of farms, covers the Pinery fire area. I still have uncles and oher relatives in the area with farms.
My father grew up in the area and knows almost everyone affected in the local townships (Many are related to me in some way). We took a day to check out two of my uncles farms (one was my grandparents old farm),
We checked out the creeks and roads my father learnt to drive on and where my Grandfather had a push bike accident. .
The area had 2 feet high crops everywhere ...... gone. Nothing left. No ash, no roots, no nothing. Empty fields.
Lush green areas were starting to dry out for summer, but are now arid desert sands. Some areas feel like the drought striken Mallee scrub.
We visited many of my fathers friends. My father was checking up on people in the local car club, seeing what cars survived. A few were lost and we got to see them first hand.
My dad told me about going to School and knowing Allan Tiller, who died in the fire. We saw Paul Blacket's burnt out machinery. We saw the house where they had no insurance, 4 children.
It was a very sureal evnvonment with smoke on the horizen in many directions. Days later, state emergency services, fire forensics, county fire service trucks with emergency lights flashing and insurance assessors are everywhere.
Spot fires are still burning, homes still smouldering, hay still smoking and dead livestock still laying in fields.
In town, in Wasley, the local post office is burnt and so are the Bowls club, club rooms. To show how tough they are, the locals are playing bowls, with the club behind them in ruins.
As we go through town, we see a house intact, then a burnt out house, then another house ok, then a burnt out car. The railway lines and sleepers are still smouldering.
Many houses look intact but poeple are moving out. The beams in the cealing are about to collapse.
The fire front was about 42kms (26 miles) long and was being fanned by 90 km/hr (55 miles/hr) winds. Cars were catching on fire as people were driving to flee the scene.
Many cars simply died with the lack of ozygen and vapour lock.
The fire travelled quickly and caught people off guard.
I mentioned to my father about all the old ruins about the place that had been there for years. He told me that these where from the last great fire, January 1948.
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/43753242
Tens of thousands of hectares of crops, livestock and expensive farm machinery have been destroyed.
Industry figures estimate the economic loss to farmers could top $100 million AUD and that more than 51,000 animals have died amid fears of even more widespread damage
The area affected by the massive blaze is home to many leading cereal and pulse grain producers, who grow wheat, barley, canola, lentils and chickpeas.
Almost two-thirds of the damaged zone was paddocks. Many farmers lost valuable hay for feed and revenue.
EIGHTY seven homes have been destroyed by the Pinery fire.
Friday it was announced that the fire had been contained, with 200 firefighters remaining on the fireground to monitor and control any flare-ups.
A further 388 farm sheds and outbuildings, 93 pieces of farm machinery and 98 vehicles were destroyed.
Two people have died.
Five people remain in a critical condition in hospital with serious burns.
Ninety people have sought assistance for very minor to critical injuries.
PIRSA has assessed more than 270 properties in the fireground. They continue to help farmers and livestock owners.
More than 50,000 poultry were lost in the fire.
About 950 sheep have had to be euthanised (a number which is expected to rise sharply).
The fire has burnt an area of 82,600 hectares (826 kms squared / 513 miles squared) and has a 265 kilometre perimeter. (164 miles)
Canon EOS 5D
2015
IMG_7035_6_7
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Locandina:
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www.italyformovies.com/film-serie-tv-games/detail/56/fiore
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The municipality of Mongiuffi Melia (ME), not far from Taormina, is made up of two villages, Mongiuffi and Melia, separated by a valley, a bridge joins them, they climb up the opposite ridge of two mountains, looking at each other; in this municipality (defined as a "scattered municipality" for not having a single inhabited center), there are two patron saints, San Sebastian for Melia (his float was built with the money collected by Sicilian soldiers sent to the front, to fight in Greece during the Second World War, hoping in this way to receive His intercession to save their lives), and San Leonard di Noblac (or Abbot) for Mongiuffi; but in this municipality there is also the cult of the "Virgin Mary of the Chain", whose sanctuary attracts pilgrims from everywhere. I have made this description to introduce a singular coincidence that not everyone is aware of, and to do this it is necessary to describe the figure of Saint Leonard (a kind of Saint Francis), and that of the Virgin Mary of the Chain, trying to be concise. Saint Leonard was born in Orléans around 496 (and died in Noblac, on November 6 – the feast day – of 545 or 559), and for most of his life (very interesting) he lived as a hermit; one episode of his life in particular I would like to recall, he received from Clovis, king of the Franks, the privilege of being able to free those prisoners, who he believed had been unjustly imprisoned, so from that moment on, he incessantly committed himself to giving freedom to all those prisoners who were reduced to visibly critical conditions. Let us leave this Saint for a moment, the cult of the “Virgin Mary of the Chain”, this name given to the Blessed Virgin, derives from a prodigious event that occurred in Palermo in 1392, known as the “miracle of the chains”. In short, in August 1392 in Palermo, three men for a glaring miscarriage of justice, were sentenced to death by hanging, shortly before going up to the gallows a violent storm broke out, which forced the three unfortunates and the gendarmes to take refuge in the nearby church of Saint Mary of the Port, close to the sea, also called "Churc of the Chain" due to the presence of a chain that, when positioned, prevented the Saracen pirate ships from accessing the inside of the port; in this holy place, the three condemned, were tied with double chains, in the meantime the door of the church was barred, in fact the storm did not seem to stop and in addition night had come, clearly the execution was now postponed to the next day. The three desperate men, in chains, under the gaze of the gendarmes, approached the painting of the Madonna in tears, imploring her to intercede for them, a voice was heard coming from the painting, which reassured them of their new freedom, this while the chains broke, and the door of the little church was thrown open. From then on, the cult of the Virgin Mary of the Chain spread from Palermo throughout Sicily, and even beyond. Now let's get to the coincidences I mentioned before, both Saint Leonard and the Virgin Mary of the Chain (and also Her Child that She holds in Her arms) carry a long chain in their hands, in fact both the Saint and the Blessed Virgin have given freedom to prisoners, furthermore to access Mongiuffi Melia, coming from Letojanni, you have to pass through a tunnel, called "Gallery of Postoleone" dug in the rock in 1916, with bare hands or with pickaxe blows, as explosives could not be used, by 300 Austrian prisoners, during the First World War (and also on this occasion, in Mongiuffi Melia, there are prisoners forced to do forced labor). Finally, a curiosity, very often from the cult of the Virgin Mary of the Chain, comes a singular name, very common in these parts, both in the masculine with the name of "Cateno" and in the feminine "Catena" (to quote a well-known character, the writer Catena Fiorello). Furthermore, if it rains, whatever the religious procession-feast, with the float carried on the shoulders, the float with the saint does not come out, but if the rain arrives during the event, then the event becomes a source of strong psycho-physical stress for the devotee-bearers (not for the devotee-pullers or devotee-pushers...), as the ground made slippery by the rain (or perhaps, worse, by the presence of mud mixed with water) makes the route risky due to the possibility that one, or more, bearers, could slip, with the possible overturning of the float, and easily imaginable consequences.
The photographic story that I present here was created by assembling photographs taken on November 6, 2022, November 6 and 10 of this year 2024; the heart of the celebration-procession is when the priest hangs a large “cuddurra” (donut) on the hand of Sint Leonard, on that occasion small “cuddure” (donuts) are offered to the population (prepared by hand in the days preceding the procession); there are girls wearing a typical monk's habit-like dress, adorning their head with a veil, they belong to the congregation of the "daughters of Mary" (third order Carmelite); at the end of the procession, with the float that has returned to the church, we witness a rite that has the "affective" purpose of keeping it alive, it is done so as not to lose its memory, even if it has not lost its original meaning, what remains is now only a symbolic fact, it is the ritual of "weighing" (in some centers of Sicily, it has maintained its original meaning) a wooden board is placed "in balance" on one of the two beams that are used to carry the float with the Saint on the shoulders, at the two ends a child is placed on one side, and on the other side a sack with grain, filled until the weight of the grain reaches the weight of the child, and that grain will be given as a gift to the Saint, in reality the symbolic aspect of the procedure remains, and the donation is still made to the Saint, but in paper money.
Postscript: Our Lady of the Chain and Saint Leonard freed from chains, these as such, are not only physical, there are also psychic ones, and perhaps they are the worst….
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Il comune di Mongiuffi Melia (ME), non molto distante da Taormina, è formato da due borghi, Mongiuffi e Melia, separati da una vallata, un ponte li congiunge, essi si inerpicano sul crinale opposto di due monti, guardandosi l’un l’altro; in questo comune (definito “comune sparso” per non avere un centro abitato unico), si hanno due santi patroni, San Sebastiano per Melia (la sua vara fu costruita con i soldi racimolati dai soldati Siciliani mandati al fronte, a combattere in Grecia durante la seconda guerra mondiale, sperando così facendo di ricevere la Sua intercessione per avere salva la vita), e San Leonardo di Noblac (o Abate) per Mongiuffi; ma in questo comune vi è anche il culto per la “Madonna della Catena”, il cui santuario attira pellegrini da ogni dove. Ho fatto questa descrizione, per introdurre una singolare coincidenza della quale non tutti sono a conoscenza, e per far questo è necessario descrivere la figura di San Leonardo (una specie di San Francesco), e quella della Madonna della Catena, cercando di essere sintetico. San Leonardo nasce ad Orléans nel 496 circa (e morto a Noblac, il 6 novembre – giorno della festa – del 545 o 559), per gran parte della sua vita (interessantissima) visse da eremita; un episodio della sua vita in particolare desidero ricordare, egli riceve da Clodoveo, re dei Franchi, il privilegio di poter rendere liberi quei prigionieri, che egli riteneva fossero stati incarcerati ingiustamente, egli così, da quel momento, si impegna incessantemente a dare la libertà a tutti quei prigionieri che erano ridotti in condizioni visibilmente critiche. Lasciamo per un attimo questo Santo, il culto della “Madonna della Catena”, questo nome dato alla Beata Vergine, deriva da un evento prodigioso avvenuto a Palermo nel 1392, conosciuto come “miracolo delle catene”. In breve, nell’agosto del 1392 a Palermo, tre uomini per un eclatante errore giudiziario, furono condannati a morte per impiccagione, poco prima di salire sul patibolo si scatenò un violento temporale, che costrinse i tre malcapitati ed i gendarmi a riparare nella vicina chiesa di S. Maria del Porto, a ridosso del mare, detta anche “Chiesa della Catena” per la presenza di una catena che, quando posizionata, impediva alle navi pirata Saracene di accedere all’interno del porto; in questo luogo santo, i tre condannati, furono legati con doppie catene, nel mentre la porta della chiesa veniva sbarrata, infatti il temporale non accennava a smettere ed in più era subentrata la notte, chiaramente l’esecuzione era oramai rimandata al giorno dopo. I tre disperati, in catene, sotto lo sguardo dei gendarmi, si avvicinarono in lacrime al quadro della Madonna implorandola di intercedere per loro, dal quadro si udì provenire una voce, che li rassicurava sulla sopraggiunta libertà, questo mentre le catene si spezzavano, e la porta della chiesetta si spalancava. Da allora il culto per la Madonna della Catena si diffuse da Palermo in tutta la Sicilia, ed anche oltre. Veniamo adesso alle coincidenze di cui accennavo prima, sia San Leonardo che la Madonna della Catena (ed anche il suo Bimbo che regge in braccio) recano in mano una lunga catena, infatti sia San Leonardo che la Beata Vergine hanno dato la liberà a dei prigionieri, inoltre per accedere a Mongiuffi Melia, provenendo da Letojanni, si deve passare necessariamente da una galleria, chiamata “Galleria di Postoleone” scavata nel 1916 nella roccia, a mani nude o con colpi di piccone, in quanto non si poteva usare l’esplosivo, da parte di 300 prigionieri austriaci, durante la prima guerra mondiale (ed anche in questa occasione, a Mongiuffi Melia, si ha la presenza di prigionieri costretti ai lavori forzati). Infine una curiosità, molto spesso dal culto della Madonna della Catena, proviene un singolare nome, molto comune da queste parti, sia al maschile col nome di “Cateno” che al femminile, “Catena” (per citare un personaggio noto, la scrittrice Catena Fiorello). Inoltre, se piove, qualsiasi sia la processione-festa religiosa, con la vara portata in spalla, la vara col santo non esce, se invece la pioggia arriva durante la manifestazione, allora l’evento acquista per i devoti-portatori (non per i devoti-tiratori o devoti-spingitori…) un motivo di forte stress psico-fisico, in quanto il terreno reso scivoloso dalla pioggia (o magari, peggio, dalla presenza di fango misto ad acqua) rende rischioso il percorso per la possibilità che uno, o più portatori, possano scivolare, con il possibile ribaltamento della vara, e conseguenze facilmente immaginabili.
Il racconto fotografico che qui presento, è stato realizzato assemblando fotografie fatte il 6 novembre del 2022, il 6 ed il 10 novembre di quest’anno 2024; il fulcro della festa-processione è quando il sacerdote appende una grande cuddurra (ciambella) sulla mano di San Leonardo, in quella occasione piccole cuddure vengono offerte alla popolazione (preparate ed intrecciate a mano nei giorni precedenti la processione); sono presenti delle ragazze che indossano un tipico vestito “tipo saio di monaco”, adornando il capo con un velo, appartengono alla congregazione delle “figlie di Maria” (terz’ordine carmelitano); alla fine della processione, con la vara che ha fatto rientro in chiesa, si assiste ad un rito che ha lo scopo “affettivo” di tenerlo in vita, viene fatto per non disperderne la memoria, pur non avendo perso il suo significato originario, quel che resta è oramai solamente un fatto simbolico, è il rito della “pesatura” (in alcuni centri della Sicilia, esso ha mantenuto il suo significato originario) un asse di legno viene messo “in equilibrio” su di una delle due travi che servono a portare in spalla la vara col Santo, alle due estremità si pongono da un lato un bimbo/a, e dall’altro lato un sacco con del grano, riempito fino a quando il peso del grano raggiungerà il peso del bimbo/a, e quel grano verrà dato in dono al Santo, in realtà resta l’aspetto simbolico della procedura, la donazione viene ugualmente fatta al Santo, ma in cartamoneta.
P.S. La Madonna della Catena e San Leonardo liberavano dalle catene, queste in quanto tali, non sono solo fisiche, ci sono anche quelle psichiche, e forse sono le peggiori….
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Varosha - Maras is the southern quarter of the Famagusta, a de jure territory of Cyprus, currently under the control of Northern Cyprus. Varosha has a population of 226 in the 2011 Northern Cyprus census. The area of Varosha is 6.19 km2 (2.39 sq mi).
The name of Varosha derives from the Turkish word varoş (Ottoman Turkish: واروش, 'suburb'). The place where Varosha is located now was empty fields in which animals grazed.
In the early 1970s, Famagusta was the number-one tourist destination in Cyprus. To cater to the increasing number of tourists, many new high-rise buildings and hotels were constructed. During its heyday, Varosha was not only the number-one tourist destination in Cyprus, but between 1970 and 1974, it was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world and was a favorite destination of such celebrities as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, and Brigitte Bardot.
Before 1974, Varosha was the modern tourist area of the Famagusta city. Its Greek Cypriot inhabitants fled during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, when the city of Famagusta came under Turkish control, and it has remained abandoned ever since. In 1984 a U.N. resolution called for the handover of the city to UN control and said that only the original inhabitants, who were forced out, could resettle in the town.
Entry to part of Varosha was opened to civilians in 2017.
In August 1974, the Turkish Army advanced as far as the Green Line, a UN-patrolled demilitarized zone between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, and controlled and fenced Varosha. Just hours before the Greek Cypriot and Turkish armies met in combat on the streets of Famagusta, the entire Greek Cypriot population fled to Paralimni, Dherynia, and Larnaca, fearing a massacre. The evacuation was aided and orchestrated by the nearby British military base. Paralimni has since become the modern-day capital of the Famagusta province of Greek Cypriot-led Cyprus.
The Turkish Army has allowed the entry of only Turkish military and United Nations personnel since 2017.
One such settlement plan was the Annan Plan to reunify the island that provided for the return of Varosha to the original residents. But this was rejected by Greek Cypriots in a 2004 referendum. The UN Security Council Resolution 550 states that it "considers attempts to settle any part of Varosha by people other than its inhabitants as inadmissible and calls for the transfer of this area to the administration of the United Nations".
The European Court of Human Rights awarded between €100,000 and €8,000,000 to eight Greek Cypriots for being deprived of their homes and properties as a result of the 1974 invasion. The case was filed jointly by businessman Constantinos Lordos and others, with the principal judgement in the Lordos case dating back to November 2010. The court ruled that, in the case of eight of the applicants, Turkey had violated Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right of peaceful enjoyment of one's possessions, and in the case of seven of the applicants, Turkey had violated Article 8 on the right to respect for private and family life.
In the absence of human habitation and maintenance, buildings continue to decay. Over time, parts of the city have begun to be reclaimed by nature as metal corrodes, windows are broken, and plants work their roots into the walls and pavement and grow wild in old window boxes. In 2014, the BBC reported that sea turtles were observed nesting on the beaches in the city.
During the Cyprus Missile Crisis (1997–1998), the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, threatened to take over Varosha if the Cypriot government did not back down.
The main features of Varosha included John F. Kennedy Avenue, a street which ran from close to the port of Famagusta, through Varosha and parallel to Glossa beach. Along JFK Avenue, there were many well known high rise hotels including the King George Hotel, The Asterias Hotel, The Grecian Hotel, The Florida Hotel, and The Argo Hotel which was the favourite hotel of Elizabeth Taylor. The Argo Hotel is located near the end of JFK Avenue, looking towards Protaras and Fig Tree Bay. Another major street in Varosha was Leonidas (Greek: Λεωνίδας), a major street that came off JFK Avenue and headed west towards Vienna Corner. Leonidas was a major shopping and leisure street in Varosha, consisting of bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and a Toyota car dealership.
According to Greek Cypriots, 425 plots exist on the Varosha beach front, which extends from the Contandia hotel to the Golden Sands hotel. The complete number of plots in Varosha are 6082.
There are 281 cases of Greek Cypriots who filed to the Immovable Property Commission (IPC) of Northern Cyprus for compensation.
In 2020, Greek Cypriot Demetrios Hadjihambis filed a lawsuit seeking state compensation for financial losses.
The population of Varosha was 226 in the 2011 Northern Cyprus census.
In 2017, Varosha's beach was opened for the exclusive use of Turks (both Turkish Cypriots and Turkish nationals).
In 2019, the Government of Northern Cyprus announced it would open Varosha to settlement. On 14 November 2019, Ersin Tatar, the prime minister of Northern Cyprus, announced that Northern Cyprus aims to open Varosha by the end of 2020.
On 25 July 2019, Varosha Inventory Commission of Northern Cyprus started its inventory analysis on the buildings and other infrastructure in Varosha.
On 9 December 2019, Ibrahim Benter, the Director-General of the Turkish Cypriot EVKAF religious foundation's administration, declared all of Maraş/Varosha to be the property of EVKAF. Benter said "EVKAF can sign renting contracts with Greek Cypriots if they accept that the fenced-off town belongs to the Evkaf."
In 2019–20, inventory studies of buildings by the Government of Northern Cyprus were concluded. On 15 February 2020, the Turkish Bar Association organised a round table meeting at the Sandy Beach Hotel in Varosha, which was attended by Turkish officials (Vice President Fuat Oktay and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül), Turkish Cypriot officials, representatives of the Turkish Cypriot religious foundation Evkaf, and Turkish and Turkish Cypriot lawyers.
On 22 February 2020, Cyprus declared it would veto European Union funds to Turkish Cypriots if Varosha were opened to settlement.
On 6 October 2020, Ersin Tatar, the Prime Minister of Northern Cyprus, announced that the beach area of Varosha would reopen to the public on 8 October 2020. Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said Turkey fully supported the decision. The move came ahead of the 2020 Northern Cypriot presidential election, in which Tatar was a candidate. Deputy Prime Minister Kudret Özersay, who had worked on the reopening previously, said that this was not a full reopening of the area, that this was just a unilateral election stunt by Tatar. His People's Party withdrew from the Tatar cabinet, leading to the collapse of the Turkish Cypriot government. The EU's diplomatic chief condemned the plan and described it as a "serious violation" of the U.N. ceasefire agreement. In addition, he asked Turkey to stop this activity. The U.N. Secretary-General expressed concern over Turkey's decision.
On 8 October 2020, some parts of Varosha were opened from the Officers' Club of Turkish and Turkish Cypriot Army to the Golden Sands Hotel.
In November 2020, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkey's ambassador to Nicosia, visited Varosha. In addition, the main avenue in Varosha has been renamed after Semih Sancar, Chief of the General Staff of Turkey from 1973 to 1978, a period including the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
The European Parliament on 27 November, asked Turkey to reverse its decision to re-open part of Varosha and resume negotiations aimed at resolving the Cyprus problem on the basis of a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation and called on the European Union to impose sanctions against Turkey, if things do not change. Turkey rejected the resolution, adding that Turkey will continue to protect both its own rights and those of Turkish Cypriots. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus presidency also condemned the resolution.
On 20 July 2021, Tatar, the president of Northern Cyprus announced the start of the 2nd phase of the opening of Varosha. He encouraged Greek Cypriots to apply Immovable Property Commission of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to claim their properties back if they have any such rights.
Bilal Aga Mosque, constructed in 1821 and taken out of service in 1974, was re-opened on 23 July 2021.
In response to a decision by the government of Turkish Cyprus, the presidential statement of the United Nations Security Council dated on 23 July said that settling any part of the abandoned Cypriot suburb of Varosha, "by people other than its inhabitants, is 'inadmissible'." The same day, Turkey rejected the presidential statement of the UNSC on Maras (Varosha), and said that these statements were based on Greek-Greek Cypriot propaganda, were groundless and unfounded claims, and inconsistent with the realities on the Island. On 24 July 2021, the presidency of Northern Cyprus condemned the presidential statement of the UNSC dated on 23 July, and stated that "We see and condemn it as an attempt to create an obstacle for the property-rights-holders in Varosha to achieve their rights".
By 1 January 2022, nearly 400,000 people had visited Varosha since its opening to civilians on 6 October 2020.
On 19 May 2022, Northern Cyprus opened a 600m long X 400m wide stretch of beach on the Golden Sands beach (from the King George Hotel to the Oceania Building) in Varosha for commercial use. Sun beds and umbrellas were installed.
UNFICYP said it would raise the decision taken by Turkish Cypriot authorities to open that stretch of beach in Varosha with the Security Council, spokesperson for the peacekeeping force Aleem Siddique said on Friday. The UN announced its "position on Varosha is unchanged and we are monitoring the situation closely".
In October 2022, the Turkish Cypriots announced that public institutions will be opened in the city.
In April 2023, Cleo Hotel, the 7-floor Golden Seaside Hotel, and the 3-star Aegean Hotel were purchased by a Turkish Cypriot businessman (from their Greek Cypriot owners) who will operate them within 2025.
On 10 August 2023, the Government of Northern Cyprus decided to construct a marina and tourist facility in Varosha.
Varosha was analyzed by Alan Weisman in his book The World Without Us as an example of the unstoppable power of nature.
Filmmaker Greek Cypriot Michael Cacoyannis described the city and interviewed its exiled citizens in the film Attilas '74, produced in 1975.
In 2021, the Belarusian group Main-De-Gloire dedicated a song to this city that has become a ghostly place.
Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.
Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.
A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.
Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.
Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.
Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.
The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.
Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.
Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.
By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.
EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.
However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.
On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.
In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.
By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.
In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.
The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.
After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".
As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.
Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.
The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.
Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.
The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis".[31] Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.
Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.
Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria
An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."
In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.
Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.
In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.
Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.
Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.
Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:
UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.
The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.
By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."
After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.
On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.
The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.
During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.
In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.
Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.
A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.
I found this poor homeless monitor camping in a hedgerow, and wondered if anyone will take him in. As can be seen he runs Photoshop C.S.6 quite well even if the colours may be off a little, (don't tell him but I think thats the pop he drinks).
From a three raw images processed in photomatix and photoshop.
Canon 40D
EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM @ 10mm
1/125 sec; f/8;
ISO 100
Press
"L" to view in Lightbox
"F" to make a favourite
"C" to comment
Please do not use my images without permission.
My most intresting images on Flickriver
My Blog Site. Not much on it yet.
USS MONITOR: Original Artwork by Donn Thorson - ©2012 Donn Thorson - All Rights Reserved
High quality prints available at:
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Monster monitor lizard in the park, Singapore 2014
He was an 8-9 footer!
Nikon D800, Sigma 20mm F1.8 EX DG ASP RF
Vegetation monitoring is done every two years. Exotics and native species are located and counted during this monitoring. In the above photo, plant species are identified and counted within the space between the two poles. The black tape on the poles are a foot apart and aid in quantifying how much of one species is within the sample space. This sampling took place before planting in 2008. Eventually, the ground was covered in plant life.
Young Monitor lizard
for more information about Monitor lizard
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monitor_lizard
Watch how it eat Uromastyx
www.youtube.com/watch?v=14csqD0TF6o
Canon 400D
Canon EF-S 18-55
Saudi Arabia
I stumbled upon this giant lizard while approaching a stream. It promptly slid into the water and gracefully swam away.
Director, Jules Dassin, cinematography William H. Daniels. (stills are just side by side laptop & external monitor)
This is the most favorite computer I used. My Apple IIGS got the signature of Apple II pioneer and its God - Steve Wozniak, the limited edition of Apple IIGS. Hey, though the Apple IIGS display is too blurred now, but the entire set except the monitor is workable!
My IIGS also has Vulcan 40MB hard disk with 512MB RAM, and 9MHz 65816 processor upgrade card from Applied Engineering. GS/OS 5.x loaded. Unfortunately, there is no Flickr group for Apple II, so I sent this to Macintosh groups.
這台電腦是我的最愛，Apple IIGS，國內大概很少人聽過吧，簡單地說，就是 Apple II 的 16bit 版加上 Mac OS 的使用者界面。這台真是超讚的機器，我花了很多時間在這台上，學了 65816 的組合語言，再加上 GS/OS 的 API call（C、Pascal、65816 assembly）。由於這台是那時音樂最強的機器，那時一直很想作一套做音樂的軟體，一直研究聲波的東西，例如怎麼把喇叭的聲音分割成好幾個段落，才能變成一個數位的樂器來使用，可惜後來真的是被 Mac 搶了風采，所以 Apple II 系列後來就不見了，我也在大專時代就改用 PC + Mac，所以這台就漸漸地被移到倉庫裡了...
Dampier Peninsular Monitor Varanus sparnus. Photographed in-situ, in Pindan shrubland, 30 years before this species was described. Broome, WA. Pre-digital image 1987
The blank stare of a Komodo Dragon monitor lizard. This handsome dude is located in the Asian Bamboo Gardens section of the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens.
Thanks for looking. I appreciate feedback!
Monitoring well
Groundwater is the general term used to describe the water that has permeated into the surface of the earth and formed underground water lakes that are known as aquifers. The level of groundwater is monitored by special measuring instruments within so called monitoring wells. Monitoring wells are wells with a small diameter drilled into the ground, which are used for level monitoring of groundwater and water quality analysis.
Aquifers form an underground water reservoir where water reaches impermeable material such as a solid rock layer. Yet, it does not have a flat level top as we would expect with surface water, due to the difference in permeability of the surrounding soil, which complicates the measurement of level within the underground reservoir. They may also form at different depths and it is therefore not unusual to find several different aquifers at different depths in the same area. To learn more about this resource of water and to monitor the level of these reservoirs, monitoring wells are bored and used for level monitoring.