The Case Against Prometheus

Worldview ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 42-46
Author(s):  
Patrick P. McDermott
Keyword(s):  
Seventh Century ◽  
The South ◽  
Offensive Weapon ◽  
The Will

The use of fire in warfare is as old as history itself. It has been an offensive weapon, a defensive weapon and an instrument of psychological terror. To the ancient warrior fire was a way to destroy wooden ships and fortifications made of inflammable materials. Greek fire, the secret weapon of the Byzantines, repelled barbarian invasions in the seventh century. General Sherman tried to break the will of the South by burning a path to the sea. The Americans, with napalm and Zippo lighters, and the Viet Cong, with flamethrowers, continued the tradition by laying waste peasant villages in Vietnam.Concrete bunkers and steel ships have not made fire obsolete from a military viewpoint, for the technology of setting fires has stayed a step ahead of the ability to put them out. The jet streaking in low with a canister of napalm has replaced the flaming brand tossed over a wall, and the flaming arrow has given way to a warhead of white-hot magnesium or thermite.

The Hellenistic and Byzantine Defences of Tocra (Taucheira)

1998 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 35-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Smith ◽  
James Crow
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Outer Wall ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Curtain Wall ◽  
South Side ◽  
Sea Wall ◽  
The City

AbstractThe fortifications of the Hellenistic and Roman city of Tocra are over 2 km long (including the sea-wall) and comprise a curtain wall up to 2 m wide flanked by 31 rectangular towers. Three main structural phases were noted in the survey carried out in 1966 by David Smith: (1) Hellenistic walls of isodomic ashlar, (2) later Hellenistic work of isodomic ashlar with bevelled edges, associated with the indented trace along the south rampart, and (3) an extensive rebuild of plain ashlar blocks including the towers and reconstruction to the East and West Gates, dateable, on the basis of Procopius, to the reign of Justinian. The general significance of the fortifications at Tocra is considered in the second part: these include the Hellenistic indented trace along the south side, later reinforced by towers in the sixth century AD. Also of wider importance was the use of an outer wall or proteichisma, and the pentagonal, pointed towers at the two main gates. Both these elements were unusual in Byzantine North Africa and they are discussed as part of the more general repertory of Byzantine fortifications. The unusual tower adjacent to the West Church is considered in the context of literary accounts. The article concludes by considering how the architecture and magnitude of the fortifications can allow a reassessment of the wider role of the city in the sixth and seventh century defences of Cyrenaica.

scholarly journals TRANSFORMATION OF GOVERNANCE IN STATE-OWNED COMPANIES: THE CASE OF SOUTH AFRICA AS A DEVELOPING COUNTRY

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 162-176
Author(s):  
Maphelo Malgas ◽  
Bonginkosi Wellington Zondi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
General Public ◽  
African State ◽  
South African Government ◽  
The South ◽  
African Government ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
The People ◽  
The Will

The basis of this article is an article published by Thomas (2012) whose objective was to track over a two-year period the performance of five strategic South African state-owned enterprises with regards to issues of governance. These enterprises were ESKOM, South African Airways (SAA), South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Telkom, and Transnet. The paper revealed that there were serious transgressions in these entities and recommendations were made to address these. The aim of this article therefore was to establish whether or not the transgressions reported by Thomas are still happening within these entities. The data was collected from the 2014/2015, 2015/2016, 2016/2017, and 2017/2018 financial reports of these entities. The study revealed that the transgressions are still taking place. With regards to issues of sustainability SAA and SABC continue to make loses, with SAA continuing to be bailed out by the South African government against the will of the South African general public. Fruitless and wasteful expenditure increased in all the five entities mentioned above and no serious action has been taken by the South African government to hold the people responsible accountable. While Telkom, Transnet and Eskom were making profits these profits are not at the envisaged level.

Under the Empire

2021 ◽  
pp. 73-115
Author(s):  
Avraham Faust
Keyword(s):  
Seventh Century ◽  
Place Names ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
Dramatic Decline ◽  
First Time

Chapter 4 (‘Under the Empire: Settlement and Demography in the Southwestern Margins of the Assyrian Empire in the Seventh Century BCE’) describes the settlement and demography in the period of Assyrian control. Comparing the detailed information available from the region with that provided in Chapter 2 allows us to estimate what were the consequences of the imperial takeover. The evidence shows that the provinces in the north were mostly devastated, whereas the client kingdoms prospered and, moreover, for the first time in history the south flourished more than the north. The dramatic decline in the north is also exemplified by the large number of place names that were forgotten following the Assyrian conquests. The chapter ends with an appendix on the demographic significance of deportations.

Esarhaddon's glazed bricks from Nimrud: The Egyptian campaign depicted

Iraq ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 109-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Nadali
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The South ◽  
Precise Location

During his excavations “in the south-east corner of the mound” at Nimrud, ancient Kalhu, A. H. Layard discovered some fragments of painted bricks (1853b: 164–7; 1867: 52–7). These can be dated to Esarhaddon on the basis of both iconographic style and subject matter. Thanks to the name “Tell of Athur” reported in Layard's accounts, we can plausibly identify the location as the site of Fort Shalmaneser; unfortunately, Layard does not give a more precise location. Although we can assert that the fragments belong to Fort Shalmaneser at the time of its renovation by Esarhaddon in the seventh century BC, we are not able to define exactly the rooms or outer façade that these fragments originally decorated.Some hypotheses have been suggested as to the original location of the glazed bricks, either in the south-east corner of the inner south-east courtyard (Oates 1959: 111, fn. 20; Nunn 1988: 183) or in Courtyard T (Postgate and Reade 1976–80: 317; Oates and Oates 2001: 183–4) (Fig. 1), where they seem to have adorned an outer façade, either the façade of Throne Room T1 or that of Courtyard T, where Shalmaneser's glazed-brick panel was found lying in front of the doorway of ante-chamber T3 (Reade 1963: 38–47; Dayton 1978: PL 24,1).

The Staffordshire (Ogley Hay) hoard: the find, the context, the problems

Antiquity ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 85 (327) ◽  
pp. 201-201
Keyword(s):  
Seventh Century ◽  
The South ◽  
Metal Detector

A large and intriguing collection of gold and silver fragments dating mainly to the seventh century AD was found in the parish of Ogley Hay near the south Staffordshire border (England) in 2009 by Mr Terry Herbert, while using a metal detector. With its peculiar composition and uncertain context, the origins and purpose of the Staffordshire Hoard currently remain something of a puzzle.

Becoming Messenian

2002 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 45-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nino Luraghi
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Significant Extent ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Westward Expansion ◽  
Dark Ages ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Will

AbstractThe article is an enquiry into the identity of two groups who called themselves Messenians: the Helots and perioikoi who revolted against Sparta after the earthquake in the 460s; and the citizens of the independent polity founded by Epameinondas in 370/69 bc in the Spartan territory west of the Taygetos. Based on the history of the Messenians in Pausanias Book 4, some scholars have thought that those two groups were simply the descendants of the free inhabitants of the region, subdued by the Spartans in the Archaic period and reduced to the condition of Helots. According to these scholars, the Helotized Messenians preserved a sense of their identity and a religious tradition of their own, which re-emerged when they regained freedom. One objection to this thesis is that there is no clear archaeological evidence of regional cohesiveness in the area in the late Dark Ages, while the very concept of Messenia as a unified region extending from the river Neda to the Taygetos does not seem to exist prior to the Spartan conquest. Furthermore, evidence from sanctuaries dating to the Archaic and Early Classical periods shows that Messenia was to a significant extent populated by perioikoi whose material culture, cults and language were thoroughly indistinguishable from those documented in Lakonia. Even the site where Epameinondas later founded the central settlement of the new Messenian polity was apparently occupied since the late seventh century at the latest by a perioikic settlement. Some of these perioikoi participated with the Helots in the revolt after the earthquake, and the suggestion is advanced, based on research on processes of ethnogenesis, that they played a key role in the emergence of the Messenian identity of the rebels. For them, identifying themselves as Messenians was an implicit claim to the land west of the Taygetos; therefore the Spartans consistently refused to consider the rebels Messenians, just as they refused to consider Messenians – that is, descendants of the ‘old Messenians’ – the citizens of Epameinondas' polity. Interestingly, the Spartan and the Theban-Messenian views on the identity of these people agreed in denying that the ‘old Messenians’ had remained in Messenia as Helots. Messenian ethnicity is explained as the manifestation of the will of perioikoi and Helots living west of the Taygetos to be independent from Sparta. The fact that most Messenian cults attested from the fourth century onwards were typical Spartan cults does not encourage the assumption that there was any continuity in a Messenian tradition going back to the period before the Spartan westward expansion.

Family, Kin and Community in Eight Lincolnshire Parishes, 1567–1800

Rural History ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.A. Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
The Other ◽  
The South ◽  
Important Place ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Will

The purpose of this study is to examine the changing proportions of bequests made by the inhabitants of eight Lincolnshire parishes to various categories of heirs between 1567 and 1800. Six of the parishes are located in the clay vale of western Lincolnshire, the other two are on the fen edge in the south of the county. There are 1,442 wills from these parishes which made 10,763 bequests. These bequests can be divided into three categories, those made to the immediate family, those made to kin and those made to unrelated people who must represent the community in which the deceased had lived. The share each of these categories enjoyed changed significantly in the period. By the eighteenth century the immediate family had become predominant and, apparently, the community occupied a less important place in the social environment of the will makers.

To the East of Samatata

1920 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Padmanath Bhattacharya Vidyainod
Keyword(s):  
Serial Order ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The South ◽  
North East ◽  
The North

The famous Chinese traveller Yuan Chwang travelled throughout India during the second quarter of the seventh century a.d.: he proceeded eastwards as far as Samataṭa, and when he was turning back he mentioned six countries which he had heard of but could not visit. Their names are given in serial order: “(1) Shihli-Ch'atalo to the north-east (from Samataṭa) among the hills near the sea; (2) south-east from this, on a bay of the sea, Kamolangka; (3) Tolopoti to the east of the preceding; (4) east from Tolopoti was Ishangnapulo; (5) to the east of this was Mohachanp'o; and (6) to the south-east of this was the Yenmonachou country.”

On the brass ewer unearthed from the crypt of the Shang-fang Śarīra Stupa of Qingshan Monastery in Lintong District, Shaanxi

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-183
Author(s):  
Yusheng Li ◽  
Jianxi Li ◽  
Jiangtao Niu
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
The Body ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Northwestern Part ◽  
The South ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Made In

Abstract A cast brass ewer was unearthed from the Shangfang Śarīra Stupa crypt at Qingshan Monastery. Most likely, it was made in the northwestern part of the South Asian subcontinent in the late seventh century. Integrating ancient Roman, Sassanian, and early Islamic styles, the shape of this ewer not only is a mixture of the elements of different eras and traditions but also reflects unique attributes. The multi-headed and multi-armed deities from Hinduism, especially Skanda, may have inspired the six-faced design on the body. Eventually, the ewer was taken to Chang’an by Indian or Kashmirian monks and buried in the pagoda’s crypt.

Tribes and Empires c.1500 bc–ad 500

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Cunliffe ◽  
Martin Millet
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
British Isles ◽  
The South ◽  
Historical Tradition ◽  
British People

The period of two thousand years or so which we set out to cover here— roughly 1500 bc to ad 500—begins at a time when the evidence available to us is purely archaeological, untainted by the vagaries of history, and ends when the gleanings from archaeology have to be reconciled with a rich historical tradition and the varied interpretations of linguists. Thus, in spanning the millennia, we bridge the disciplines. The first historian to consider the tribes of the British Isles from a truly informed position was Tacitus. Writing towards the end of the first century ad he had access not only to the vague and anecdotal writings of the Posidonian tradition and the observations of Julius Caesar on the tribal situation in the south-east, but he was also able to draw upon the reminiscences of his father-in-law, Julius Agricola, who had spent many seasons campaigning in Britain first as a legionary commander and later as governor of the province. Agricola travelled from one end of the island to the other and, incidentally, was probably responsible for killing more Britons than any other Roman. Assessing the varied array of evidence available to him in an attempt to characterize the British population, Tacitus showed the commendable restraint of an historian in his famous summation . . .who the first inhabitants of Britain were, whether native or immigrant remains obscure: one must remember, we are dealing with barbarians. (Agricola, 11). . . After several centuries of hard archaeological endeavour the situation has changed little. Forty years ago, in considering the formation of the British people, we would have been much more confident. We would have talked of a series of ‘invasions’ bringing in successive waves of new people from the Continent— Deverel-Rimbury folk in the Late Bronze Age about 1000 bc, Hallstatt overlords resplendent on their horses and wielding long slashing swords in the seventh century, invaders from the Marne region around 400 bc and Belgae first raiding and then settling in the south-east in the first century bc (Hawkes and Dunning 1931).

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