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Broch Of Mousa
Broch of Mousa (or Mousa Broch) is a preserved Iron Age broch or round tower. It is on the island of Mousa in Shetland, Scotland. It is the tallest broch still standing and amongst the best-preserved prehistoric buildings in Europe. It is thought to have been constructed c. 100 BC, and is one of more than 500 brochs built in Scotland. The site is managed by Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument. Location The broch is located on the western shore of the island of Mousa (). It is accessible by boat from Sandwick, Shetland, south of Lerwick. It stands on the flat rock surface of a low promontory near the shore overlooking Mousa Sound. It is the tallest broch still standing and amongst the best-preserved prehistoric buildings in Europe. Description Mousa Broch has one of the smallest overall diameters of any broch, as well as one of the thickest wall bases and smallest interiors; this massive construction (as well as its remote location) is likely to be the ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mousa
Mousa ( non, Mosey "moss island") is a small island in Shetland, Scotland, uninhabited since the nineteenth century. The island is known for the Broch of Mousa, an Iron Age round tower, and is designated as a Special Protection Area for storm-petrel breeding colonies. Geography Mousa lies a mile off the east coast of Mainland Shetland in the parish of Dunrossness about south of Lerwick. Almost divided in two by inlets, East and West Hams, the island is long and almost in maximum width. Geologically beds of hard sandstone alternate with muddy limestones that weather to produce fertile soil. A quarry provided flagstones for Lerwick. Mousa's fertile soil supports a rich diversity of plants, including sheep's-bit and creeping willow in the herb-rich grassland, despite the wind, salt spray and grazing by sheep. The Norse tended to consider an island to be something that they could circumnavigate, and this included being able to drag a boat over land. Thus Mousa was considered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic Roundhouse
In archaeology, an Atlantic roundhouse is an Iron Age stone building found in the northern and western parts of mainland Scotland, the Northern Isles and the Hebrides. Circular houses were the predominant architectural style of the British landscape since second millennia BC (Early Bronze Age). Although many of these roundhouses have not survived, it is ascertained they were based on wattle-and daub walls with thatched conical roof. In 1970, archaeologist Chris Musson estimated that there were 200 certified roundhouses in Scotland and Britain. A United Kingdom-based archaeology group today estimates that there are over 4000 roundhouses. The first documented roundhouse was founded in the 3rd millennium BC in South-West Scotland. The Bronze Age people were known to adapt the leveled upland landscapes situated in hillsides. Types of structure A form of dry-stone Iron Age dwelling, they are unique to the region, and are subdivided by the archaeologists into two broad types - ''simp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The first laser was built in 1960 by Theodore H. Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on theoretical work by Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow. A laser differs from other sources of light in that it emits light which is ''coherent''. Spatial coherence allows a laser to be focused to a tight spot, enabling applications such as laser cutting and lithography. Spatial coherence also allows a laser beam to stay narrow over great distances ( collimation), enabling applications such as laser pointers and lidar (light detection and ranging). Lasers can also have high temporal coherence, which allows them to emit light with a very narrow spectrum. Alternatively, temporal coherence can be used to produce ultrashort puls ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black-burnished Ware
Black-burnished ware is a type of Romano-British ceramic. Burnishing is a pottery treatment in which the surface of the pot is polished, using a hard smooth surface. The classification includes two entirely different pottery types which share many stylistic characteristics. Black burnished ware 1 (BB1), is a black, coarse and gritty fabric. Vessels are hand made. Black burnished ware 2 (BB2) is a finer, grey-coloured, wheel thrown fabric. Decoration on both types includes burnished lattice or, additionally, in the case of bowls and dishes, a wavy line design. Standard forms across both types include jars with everted rims and bowls with upright or flat flanged rims. Black Burnished Ware 1 Black Burnished Ware Category 1 (BB1) is made from a clay body that has a coarse texture. The clay body can contain black iron ores, flint, quartz, red iron ores, shale fragments, and white mica.Tyers, P A. "South-east Dorset black-burnished 1." Potsherd. Accessed February 21, 2011. Last mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Museum Of Scotland
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in 1866 as the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, renamed in 1904, and for the period between 1985 and the merger named the Royal Museum of Scotland or simply the Royal Museum), with international collections covering science and technology, natural history, and world cultures. The two connected buildings stand beside each other on Chambers Street, by the intersection with the George IV Bridge, in central Edinburgh. The museum is part of National Museums Scotland. Admission is free. The two buildings retain distinctive characters: the Museum of Scotland is housed in a modern building opened in 1998, while the former Royal Museum building was begun in 1861 and partially opened in 1866, with a Victorian Venetian Renaissance facade an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Office Of Works
The Office of Works was established in the English royal household in 1378 to oversee the building and maintenance of the royal castles and residences. In 1832 it became the Works Department forces within the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings. It was reconstituted as a government department in 1851 and became part of the Ministry of Works in 1940. The organisation of the office varied; senior posts included Surveyor of the King's Works (1578–1782) and Comptroller of the King's Works (1423–1782). In 1782 these offices were merged into Surveyor-General and Comptroller. From 1761 there were named Architects. The office also had posts of Secretary, Master Mason and Master Carpenter. After James Wyatt's death in 1813 a non-professional Surveyor-General was appointed: Major-General Sir Benjamin Stephenson. He was assisted by three "Attached Architects": Sir John Soane, John Nash and Sir Robert Smirke. This arrangement ended in 1832 with the form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dryden Baronets
There have been three baronetcies created for persons with the surname Dryden, one in the Baronetage of England and two in the Baronetage of Great Britain. Two of the creations are extant and are joined under a single holder since 1874. The Dryden Baronetcy, of Canons Ashby in the County of Northampton, was created in the Baronetage of England on 16 November 1619 for Erasmus Dryden, subsequently Member of Parliament for Banbury. The second Baronet represented Northamptonshire in the House of Commons. The title became extinct on the death of the seventh Baronet in 1770. However, the title was revived in 1795 (see below). The poet John Dryden was the grandson of the first Baronet and father of the fifth. The Turner, later Page-Turner, later Dryden Baronetcy, of Ambrosden in the County of Oxford, was created in the Baronetage of Great Britain on 24 August 1733 for Edward Turner. The second Baronet sat as Member of Parliament for Great Bedwyn, Oxfordshire and Penrhyn. His second ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Hibbert-Ware
Samuel Hibbert-Ware (21 April 1782 – 30 December 1848), born Samuel Hibbert in St Ann's Square Manchester, was an English geologist and antiquarian. Life He was the eldest son of Samuel Hibbert (d.1815), a linen yarn merchant, and his wife Sarah Ware, from Dublin. Hibbert was granted an MD and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He served as the secretary of the Society of Scottish Antiquarians, a member of the Royal Medical and Wernerian Societies of Edinburgh, as well as a member of the Philosophical Society of Manchester. His book ''Sketches of the Philosophy of Apparitions'' (1825) is an early skeptical work that gave possible physical and physiological explanations for sightings of ghosts. He died at Hale Barns, Altrincham in Cheshire on 30 December 1848. He is buried in Ardwick cemetery in Manchester. Publications *'' A Description of the Shetland Islands: Comprising an Account of their Scenery, Antiquities and Superstitions'' (1822) Reprinted 189 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy'', '' Waverley'', '' Old Mortality'', ''The Heart of Mid-Lothian'' and '' The Bride of Lammermoor'', and the narrative poems '' The Lady of the Lake'' and '' Marmion''. He had a major impact on European and American literature. As an advocate, judge and legal administrator by profession, he combined writing and editing with daily work as Clerk of Session and Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire. He was prominent in Edinburgh's Tory establishment, active in the Highland Society, long a president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1820–1832), and a vice president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1827–1829). His knowledge of history and literary facility equipped him to establish the historical novel genre as an exemplar of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harald Maddadsson
Harald Maddadsson (Old Norse: ''Haraldr Maddaðarson'', Gaelic: ''Aralt mac Mataid'') (c. 1134 – 1206) was Earl of Orkney and Mormaer of Caithness from 1139 until 1206. He was the son of Matad, Mormaer of Atholl, and Margaret, daughter of Earl Haakon Paulsson of Orkney. Of mixed Norse and Gaelic blood, and a descendant of Scots kings, he was a significant figure in northern Scotland, and played a prominent part in Scottish politics of the twelfth century. The '' Orkneyinga Saga'' names him one of the three most powerful Earls of Orkney along with Sigurd Eysteinsson and Thorfinn Sigurdsson.''Orkneyinga Saga'', c. 112. Background In the early twelfth century, the Earldom of Orkney, although weakened since the time of Earl Thorfinn, remained in control of Caithness and was dominant in Sutherland and parts of the Outer Hebrides. Thus the succession of the earldom was of great interest to the Scots king David I. The marriage of Matad and Margaret is believed to have tak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egil's Saga
''Egill's Saga'' or ''Egil's saga'' ( non, Egils saga ; ) is an Icelandic saga (family saga) on the lives of the clan of Egill Skallagrímsson (Anglicised as Egill Skallagrimsson), an Icelandic farmer, viking and skald. The saga spans the years c. 850–1000 and traces the family's history from Egill's grandfather to his offspring. Its oldest manuscript (a fragment) dates back to 1240 AD, and comprises the sole source of information on the exploits of Egill, whose life is not historically recorded. Stylistic and other similarities between ''Egill's Saga'' and ''Heimskringla'' have led many scholars to believe that they were the work of the same author, Snorri Sturluson. The work is generally referred to as ''Egla'' by Icelandic scholars. Synopsis The saga begins in Norway around 850, with the life of Egill's grandfather Ulf ( Úlfr) aka Kveldulf or "Evening Wolf", and his two sons Thorolf (Þórólfr) and Skallagrim ( Skalla-Grímr). Strife with the royal house drive the fam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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