scholarly journals Castles, Walls, Fortresses.The Sasanian Effort to Defend the Territory

2020 ◽  
pp. 37-59
Author(s):  
Meysam LABBAF-KHANIKI
Keyword(s):  
Local Features ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Vast Area

Defensive structures have been applied as the permanent elements of the Iranian urbanism, from the first phases of sedentism in the Neolithic period onwards. Following the Iranian tradition in architecture, Sasanian fortifications having local features were constructed in adaptation with the regional circumstances. Nevertheless, we can find some similarities in the components of the defensive installations. The defensive structures located within the Sasanian territory turned Iran into the unconquerable fortress providing Sasanians with military, political, cultural, and economic dominance over a vast area of the ancient world for more than four centuries.

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE OF THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD IN THE WESTERN FOOTHILLS OF THE ZAGROS MOUNTAINS: NEW EVIDENCE FROM THE SAR POL-E ZAHĀB REGION, IRAN-IRAQ BORDERLAND

Iraq ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 15-39
Author(s):  
Sajjad Alibaigi ◽  
Abdoljabar Salimiyan
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Zagros Mountains ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Zagros Range ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Zagros Region ◽  
Vast Area ◽  
Archaeological Landscape

A recent survey in the western foothills of the Zagros Mountains has located five new Neolithic sites. We present here the occupational features and finds of this period in the Sar Pol-e Zahāb region, along with an interpretation of their distribution and associated settlement patterns. Our research indicates that the visible distribution of Neolithic sites is highly influenced by geomorphological factors. All sites are located on natural outcrops or on the edge of alluvial plains. Many others have certainly been buried beneath layers of later sedimentation. All of the sites identified by our survey are small and of modest elevation, with cultural remains, particularly ceramics, similar to Neolithic sites such as Guran and Sarāb in the central Zagros region and Jarmo and Tamarkhan in Mesopotamia. Based on the ceramic evidence and the location of the region, between the central Zagros mountains on the east and Mesopotamia on the west, we suggest that this vast area maintained an integrated ceramic tradition, which suggests an overall cultural homogeneity of these areas during the seventh and early sixth millennia B.C. In other words, these recent discoveries indicate that similarities in Neolithic material culture in the Māhidasht, Kermanshāh and Hulailan plains with material culture of regions in Mesopotamia are not accidental or random but indicative of a large coherent zone with unique ceramic and cultural traditions (the patterned ceramic tradition of Sarāb-Jarmo), extending from Iraqi Kurdistan east into the central Zagros range. Regarding the lack of eighth and seventh millennium B.C. sites in the northern reaches of the Iranian part of the Zagros range, we may consider the pathway of Sar Pol-e Zahāb a primary route for transporting obsidian to upland areas of the central Zagros. This also suggests a lasting network of cross-regional communications, since archaeological discoveries prove this pathway was the main node connecting these two cultural regions for a long period of time.

A glimpse from the ancient world: What a gold necklace from Tillya-tepe reveals about opium in Afghanistan

Afghanistan ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-173
Author(s):  
Sara Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Opium Poppy ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Cultural Importance ◽  
Large Seed ◽  
Potent Drug ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Societal Role

Among the six excavated burials at Tillya-tepe, in northern Afghanistan, was one occupied by an elite woman wearing a substantial necklace consisting of large gold beads shaped as seed-heads. The scale and fine workmanship of this necklace suggest that it was one of her most important possessions. It can be demonstrated that these large seed-heads are representations of poppy capsules, whose significance lies in the fact that they are the source of the potent drug opium. This necklace is the most outstanding object within a group of items decorated with poppy imagery, all of which were discovered in female burials. The opium poppy has long been a culturally important plant, and the implication of this identification is investigated in several contexts. Firstly, the proliferation of poppy imagery in the female burials at Tillya-tepe is examined, and then there is a discussion of material evidence for opium among relevant peoples along the Eurasian steppes. The particular cultural importance of opium is reviewed, leading finally to a proposal for the societal role of these women.

‘Robenhausien’ in the Hunterian Museum

1981 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Isobel M Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Organic Materials ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Neolithic Europe ◽  
The University

Summary A report is presented of a study of the material from Robenhausen and other sites of the Neolithic period in Switzerland, part of the Bishop Collection in the Hunterian Museum, the University of Glasgow. The material is described and its likely setting within the cultural sequence of the Swiss Neolithic is discussed. The importance of the collection is seen to lie in the finds of organic materials, artefacts and macroscopic plant remains, which afford a rare glimpse of detail in craftsmanship and husbandry in Neolithic Europe.

A Pleasing Odour for Yahweh

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Anne Katrine De Hemmer Gudme
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The West ◽  
Sense Of Smell ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Crucial Part

This article investigates the importance of smell in the sacrificial cults of the ancient Mediterranean, using the Yahweh temple on Mount Gerizim and the Hebrew Bible as a case-study. The material shows that smell was an important factor in delineating sacred space in the ancient world and that the sense of smell was a crucial part of the conceptualization of the meeting between the human and the divine.  In the Hebrew Bible, the temple cult is pervaded by smell. There is the sacred oil laced with spices and aromatics with which the sanctuary and the priests are anointed. There is the fragrant and luxurious incense, which is burnt every day in front of Yahweh and finally there are the sacrifices and offerings that are burnt on the altar as ‘gifts of fire’ and as ‘pleasing odors’ to Yahweh. The gifts that are given to Yahweh are explicitly described as pleasing to the deity’s sense of smell. On Mount Gerizim, which is close to present-day Nablus on the west bank, there once stood a temple dedicated to the god Yahweh, whom we also know from the Hebrew Bible. The temple was in use from the Persian to the Hellenistic period (ca. 450 – 110 BCE) and during this time thousands of animals (mostly goats, sheep, pigeons and cows) were slaughtered and burnt on the altar as gifts to Yahweh. The worshippers who came to the sanctuary – and we know some of them by name because they left inscriptions commemorating their visit to the temple – would have experienced an overwhelming combination of smells: the smell of spicy herbs baked by the sun that is carried by the wind, the smell of humans standing close together and the smell of animals, of dung and blood, and behind it all as a backdrop of scent the constant smell of the sacrificial smoke that rises to the sky.

Recognition of Birds in Blurred and Illumination Images by Local Features

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 243
Author(s):  
Suresha .M ◽  
. Sandeep
Keyword(s):  
Computer Vision ◽  
Time Complexity ◽  
Feature Detection ◽  
Feature Matching ◽  
Fast Algorithms ◽  
Local Features ◽  
Experimental Demonstration ◽  
Harris Corner ◽  
Blurred Image ◽  
Blurred Images

Local features are of great importance in computer vision. It performs feature detection and feature matching are two important tasks. In this paper concentrates on the problem of recognition of birds using local features. Investigation summarizes the local features SURF, FAST and HARRIS against blurred and illumination images. FAST and Harris corner algorithm have given less accuracy for blurred images. The SURF algorithm gives best result for blurred image because its identify strongest local features and time complexity is less and experimental demonstration shows that SURF algorithm is robust for blurred images and the FAST algorithms is suitable for images with illumination.

Status of Food Security in Banten Province, Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weksi Budiaji
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Soil Types ◽  
Indicator Variables ◽  
Cereal Production ◽  
The Status ◽  
Vast Area

This paper discusses the status of food security in Banten Province, Indonesia based on regional and city characteristics. Secondary data is used and is analyzed descriptively covering population dynamics, the population living in poverty, cereal production, disaster risk and soil types. Tangerang Region is found to have the largest population with the greatest number of people living in poverty among the regions and cities in Banten Province. Cereal production is dominated by the regions rather than the cities due to their vast area. Regarding arable land, flooding is the most threatening disaster in the major rice producing areas. In order to identify the distributions of regions and cities regarding food security, three indicator variables of food security dimensions are plotted, namely, cereal normative consumption, proportion of the population living in poverty, and proportion of malnourished babies. The three regions of Pandeglang Region, Lebak Region and Serang Region are grouped together in a less secure group.

Using cattle for traction and transportduring the Neolithic period. Contribution of the study of the first and second phalanxes

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-98
Author(s):  
Daniel Helmer ◽  
Émilie Blaise ◽  
Lionel Gourichon ◽  
Maria Sana Segui
Keyword(s):  
Neolithic Period

Cholesterol and its Ayurvedic Complement – Depicting its role in Pathogenesis as well as Management of Diabetes

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Divya Kajaria
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Modality ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Therapeutic Interventions ◽  
Herbal Remedies ◽  
Natural Properties ◽  
Lipid Balance ◽  
Vast Area

Role of cholesterol in the pathogenesis of diabetes is the emergent are of research with full of potential; it not only open a vast area of therapeutic interventions but also can change the prevailing treatment modality. Ayurveda, the Indian system of medicine materialize the concept of lipocenteric approach for the management of diabetes even thousands of years back. According to Ayurveda, the natural properties of lipid are deranged that causes diabetes. It may prove beneficial to quest the search of herbal remedies that can harmonize the lipid balance and uproot the pathogenesis. In the presenting review article, role of cholesterol in the pathogenesis of diabetes is discussed along with detailed description of Ayurvedic concepts regarding pathogenesis and a brief description of herbal management.

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