|
Qurta
Qurta is a village in Egypt, located on the east bank of the Nile River in the upper Nile valley. It is known for its petroglyphs dating back to the Upper Paleolithic period, from Egypt's prehistoric era, which can be found in Nubian Sandstone formations bordering the Nile. The Qurta petroglyphs are the first known and oldest example of Pleistocene-era artwork in North Africa. Petroglyphs Qurta's petroglyphs, incised in Nubian Sandstone formations along the Nile, were discovered by modern archaeologists in 2005. Using luminescence dating via optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), researchers at Ghent University in Belgium determined the petroglyphs to be a minimum of 15,000 years old, and possibly between 17,000 and 19,000 years old. This dates the Qurta petroglyphs to the Upper Paleolithic era, from the prehistoric period of Egypt; they are the first known and earliest example of Pleistocene-era artwork in North Africa. The Qurta petroglyphs depict aurochs, birds, hippopotami ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aurochs
The aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') ( or ) is an extinct cattle species, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of the largest herbivores in the Holocene; it had massive elongated and broad horns that reached in length. The aurochs was part of the Pleistocene megafauna. It probably evolved in Asia and migrated west and north during warm interglacial periods. The oldest known aurochs fossils found in India and North Africa date to the Middle Pleistocene and in Europe to the Holstein interglacial. As indicated by fossil remains in Northern Europe, it reached Denmark and southern Sweden during the Holocene. The aurochs declined during the late Holocene due to habitat loss and hunting, and became extinct when the last individual died in 1627 in Jaktorów forest in Poland. The aurochs is depicted in Paleolithic cave paintings, Neolithic petroglyphs, Ancient Egyptian reliefs and Bronze Age ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Though villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighborhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings; however, transient villages can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as a dispersed settlement. In the past, villages were a usual form of community for societies that practice subsistence agriculture, and also for some non-agricultural societies. In Great Britain, a hamlet earned the right to be called a village when it built a church. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in the west, to Egypt's Suez Canal. Varying sources limit it to the countries of Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, a region that was known by the French during colonial times as "''Afrique du Nord''" and is known by Arabs as the Maghreb ("West", ''The western part of Arab World''). The United Nations definition includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, and the Western Sahara, the territory disputed between Morocco and the Sahrawi Republic. The African Union definition includes the Western Sahara and Mauritania but not Sudan. When used in the term Middle East and North Africa ( MENA), it often refers only to the countries of the Maghreb. North Africa includes the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and plazas de so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hartebeest
The hartebeest (; ''Alcelaphus buselaphus''), also known as kongoni or kaama, is an African antelope. It is the only member of the genus ''Alcelaphus''. Eight subspecies have been described, including two sometimes considered to be independent species. A large antelope, the hartebeest stands just over at the shoulder, and has a typical head-and-body length of . The weight ranges from . It has a particularly elongated forehead and oddly-shaped horns, a short neck, and pointed ears. Its legs, which often have black markings, are unusually long. The coat is generally short and shiny. Coat colour varies by the subspecies, from the sandy brown of the western hartebeest to the chocolate brown of the Swayne's hartebeest. Both sexes of all subspecies have horns, with those of females being more slender. Horns can reach lengths of . Apart from its long face, the large chest and the sharply sloping back differentiate the hartebeest from other antelopes. A conspicuous hump over t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghent University
Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the region was incorporated into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands after the fall of First French Empire. In that same year, he founded two other universities for the southern provinces as well, alongside Ghent University: University of Liège and State University of Leuven. After the Belgian revolution of 1830, the newly formed Belgian state began to administer Ghent University. In 1930, UGent became the first Dutch-speaking university in Belgium. Previously, French (and, even earlier, Latin) had been the standard academic language in what was ''Université de Gand''. In 1991, it was granted major autonomy and changed its name accordingly from ''State University of Ghent'' ( nl, Rijksuniversiteit Gent, abbreviated as ''RUG'') ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Optically Stimulated Luminescence
In physics, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) is a method for measuring doses from ionizing radiation. It is used in at least two applications: * Luminescence dating of ancient materials: mainly geological sediments and sometimes fired pottery, bricks etc., although in the latter case thermoluminescence dating is used more often * Radiation dosimetry, which is the measurement of accumulated radiation dose in the tissues of health care, nuclear, research and other workers, as well as in building materials in regions of nuclear disaster The method makes use of electrons trapped between the valence and conduction bands in the crystalline structure of certain minerals (most commonly quartz and feldspar). The trapping sites are imperfections of the lattice — impurities or defects. The ionizing radiation produces electron-hole pairs: Electrons are in the conduction band and holes in the valence band. The electrons that have been excited to the conduction band may become entr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luminescence Dating
Luminescence dating refers to a group of methods of determining how long ago mineral grains were last exposed to sunlight or sufficient heating. It is useful to geologists and archaeologists who want to know when such an event occurred. It uses various methods to stimulate and measure luminescence. It includes techniques such as optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL), and thermoluminescence dating (TL). "Optical dating" typically refers to OSL and IRSL, but not TL. Conditions and accuracy All sediments and soils contain trace amounts of radioactive isotopes of elements such as potassium, uranium, thorium, and rubidium. These slowly decay over time and the ionizing radiation they produce is absorbed by mineral grains in the sediments such as quartz and potassium feldspar. The radiation causes charge to remain within the grains in structurally unstable "electron traps". The trapped charge accumulates over time at a rate determined by the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antiquity (journal)
''Antiquity'' is an academic journal dedicated to the subject of archaeology. It publishes six issues a year, covering topics worldwide from all periods. Its current editor is Robert Witcher, Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Durham. Since 2015, the journal has been published by Cambridge University Press. ''Antiquity'' was founded by the British archaeologist O. G. S. Crawford in 1927 and originally called ''Antiquity: A Quarterly Review of Archaeology''. The journal is owned by the Antiquity Trust, a registered charity. The current trustees are Graeme Barker, Amy Bogaard, Robin Coningham (chair), Barry Cunliffe, Roberta Gilchrist, Anthony Harding, Carl Heron, Martin Millett, Nicky Milner, Stephanie Moser, and Cameron Petrie. List of editors * O. G. S. Crawford (1927–1957) * Glyn Daniel (1958–1986) * Christopher Chippindale (1987–1997) * Caroline Malone (1998–2002) * Martin Carver Martin Oswald Hugh Carver, FSA, Hon FSA Scot, ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in 2009 by the International Union of Geological Sciences, the cutoff of the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene was regarded as being 1.806 million years Before Present (BP). Publications from earlier years may use either definition of the period. The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period and also with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology. The name is a combination of Ancient Greek grc, label=none, πλεῖστος, pleīstos, most and grc, label=none, καινός, kainós (latinized as ), 'new'. At the end of the preceding Pliocene, the previously isolated North and South American continents were joined by the Isthmus of Panama, causing a faunal interchange between the t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip of Palestine and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. The Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast separates Egypt from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt, while Alexandria, the second-largest city, is an important industrial and tourist hub at the Mediterranean coast. At approximately 100 million inhabitants, Egypt is the 14th-most populated country in the world. Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage along the Nile Delta back to the 6th–4th millennia BCE. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Archaeology
''World Archaeology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering all aspects of archaeology. It was established in 1969 and originally published triannually by Routledge & Kegan Paul. In 2004 it changed to a quarterly publication schedule while remaining under the Routledge imprint. Each of the year's first three issues within a volume are dedicated to specific individual themes and topics within archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts ..., and contributions address the topic from a variety of perspectives. The fourth and last issue of the year has been given over to coverage of current debates within archaeology, in which papers discuss significant issues and global concerns in the field. Abstracting and indexing The journal is abstracted and indexed in: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nubian Sandstone
The Nubian Sandstone is a variety of sedimentary rock deposited on the Precambrian basement in the eastern Sahara, north-east Africa and Arabian Peninsula. It consists of continental sandstone with thin beds of marine limestones, and marls. The Nubian Sandstone was deposited between the Lower Paleozoic and Upper Cretaceous, with marine beds dating from the Carboniferous to Lower Cretaceous. Formation The Nubian Sandstone ranges in age from the Cambrian to Upper Cretaceous eras. Positioning of the paleoequator and paleolatitude at 20° S was derived from paleomagnetic data showing the Nubian was originally deposited in the paleoequatorial to subequatorial zone. These paleomagnetic results corroborated previous studies suggesting that north Africa did not shift in latitude from 210 to 110 million years ago and extended this period to 85 million years. Nubian Sandstone was deposited under a tropical to subtropical climate and formed under a variety of continental conditions, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.svg "Click for more on -> North Africa")
