15 The Ideal of Smallholding (Pliny the Elder, Natural History 18.4.17–23 and 18.7.35 and 18.8.41–43)

Over the last few decades our understanding of what Australia was like during the Mesozoic Era has changed radically. A rush of new fossil discoveries, together with cutting-edge analytical techniques, has created a much more detailed picture of ancient life and environments from the great southern continent. Giant dinosaurs, bizarre sea monsters and some of the earliest ancestors of Australia’s unique modern animals and plants all occur in rocks of Mesozoic age. Ancient geographical positioning of Australia close to the southern polar circle and mounting geological evidence for near freezing temperatures also make it one of the most unusual and globally significant sources of fossils from the age of dinosaurs. This book provides the first comprehensive overview of current research on Australian Mesozoic faunas and floras, with a balanced coverage of the many technical papers, conference abstracts and unpublished material housed in current collections. It is a primary reference for researchers in the fields of palaeontology, geology and biology, senior undergraduate and postgraduate students, secondary level teachers, as well as fossil collectors and anyone interested in natural history. Dinosaurs in Australia is fully illustrated in colour with original artworks and 12 reconstructions of key animals. It has a foreword by Tim Flannery and is the ideal book for anybody seeking to know more about Australia’s amazing age of dinosaurs.

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Revealing metallic ink in Herculaneum papyri

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1519958113 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 113 (14) ◽

pp. 3751-3754 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Emmanuel Brun ◽

Marine Cotte ◽

Jonathan Wright ◽

Marie Ruat ◽

Pieter Tack ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Computed Tomography ◽

Natural History ◽

Strong Evidence ◽

Scientific Study ◽

First Century ◽

Fundamental Importance ◽

Historical Understanding ◽

Greco Roman ◽

Pliny The Elder

Writing on paper is essential to civilization, as Pliny the Elder remarks in his Natural History, when he describes the various types of papyri, the method of manufacturing them, and all that concerns writing materials in the mid-first century AD. For this reason, a rigorous scientific study of writing is of fundamental importance for the historical understanding of ancient societies. We show that metallic ink was used several centuries earlier than previously thought. In particular, we found strong evidence that lead was intentionally used in the ink of Herculaneum papyri and discuss the possible existence of ruled lines traced on the papyrus texture. In addition, the metallic concentrations found in these fragments deliver important information in view of optimizing future computed tomography (CT) experiments on still-unrolled Herculaneum scrolls to improve the readability of texts in the only surviving ancient Greco-Roman library.

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Marc Lescarbot sur les traces de Pline l'Ancien

Renaissance and Reformation ◽

10.33137/rr.v36i3.8632 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 36 (3) ◽

pp. 5-15

Author(s):

Marie-Christine Pioffet

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

Pliny The Elder ◽

The Many ◽

The Relationship

This study examines the relationship between the work of Pliny the Elder and Marc Lescarbot's Histoire de la Nouvelle-France. Among the many works cited by the erudite lawyer, the annals of the Roman naturalist stand out as constituting a veritable encyclopedia of universal knowledge. Curiously, Lescarbot, who sees in the Natural History a model to imitate, is not afraid to commit to paper the tales and exaggerations that it contains, if only to set himself apart from them. The importance of the French traveller's indebtedness to his Latin predecessor can be explained not only by the authority that the latter enjoyed at the beginning of the Grand Siècle, but also by an agreement of thought: very much like the Roman, the Frenchman from Vervins castigates the deceptive behaviour and the taste for luxury so widespread among his contemporaries.

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A review of adhesives for entomotaxy

10.7287/peerj.preprints.27184v1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Andrew R Deans

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

Polyvinyl Acetate ◽

Polymer Chemistry ◽

Specimen Preparation ◽

Art Restoration ◽

Comprehensive List ◽

Museum Professionals ◽

The Ideal

Insect specimens that are too small to be pinned safely are usually affixed to a piece of card on a pin or to the pin itself using an adhesive. This practice has been in place for more than two centuries, and >400,000 such mounts continue to be accessioned annually in collections. Entomologists appear to agree on the ideal properties of adhesives used in specimen preparation---that they remain (1) archival, (2) reversible, (3) easy to prepare and use, and (4) safe. There remains no consensus, however, regarding which adhesives satisfy these criteria. Entomologists continue to use fixatives they were taught to use (institutional inertia) or which have good initial working properties, even though their archivability and reversibility have never been tested or have been shown to be suspect. Museum professionals recently identified this topic, adhesives applied to natural history specimens, as one that could be informed by research and knowledge from other domains. This review includes a comprehensive list of adhesives used in entomotaxy, with brief summaries of their properties as examined in the contexts of archaeology, paleontology, art restoration, and polymer chemistry. The general conclusion is that no adhesive has the properties sought by entomologists, and several commonly used brands or classes of adhesive should never be used for entomotaxy, including most clear nail polishes, shellac, and certain polyvinyl acetate-based dispersions, like Elmer's Glue-All.

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Pliny the Elder, Natural History

Primary Sources on Monsters ◽

10.1515/9781942401223-008 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 43-48

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

Pliny The Elder

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Laodicea

A Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey ◽

10.1093/oso/9780195139174.003.0036 ◽

2003 ◽

Author(s):

Clyde E. Fant ◽

Mitchell G. Reddish

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

River Valley ◽

Small Rivers ◽

Book Of Revelation ◽

Commercial Success ◽

The Road ◽

Pliny The Elder ◽

Ancient City ◽

The Village ◽

The City

Ancient Laodicea, once a thriving city, now lies in ruins, awaiting a more thorough excavation than it has so far received. Overshadowed by the more spectacular nearby site of Hierapolis (Pamukkale), Laodicea receives the occasional busload of tourists who stop to view the remains of this city that the book of Revelation imagined as having boasted, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing” (3:17). Laodicea is south of the modern village of Goncalï and north of the village of Eskihisar. The site is located on a plateau between two small rivers that are tributaries of the Lycus River. The Asopus River runs along the western part of the ancient city, while the Caprus River runs along the east. To visit the site, take the road from Denizli that leads to Pamukkale. Two different roads from the Denizli-Pamukkale highway lead to Laodicea, both of which are on the left and marked with a sign indicating the way to Laodicea. Laodicea is situated 10 miles from Colossae and 6 miles from Hierapolis. This area was a part of the region of Phrygia, although it was sometimes considered a part of Lydia or Caria. Pliny the Elder claims that Laodicea was built on the site of an earlier settlement known as Diospolis and later as Rhoas (Natural History 5.105). Because of its location near the Lycus River, the city was known as Laodicea ad Lycum in order to differentiate it from several other cities named Laodicea. Of particular importance to the commercial success of the city was its position at the junction of two roads—one that ran from the Aegean coast near Ephesus through the Meander River valley and on to the Euphrates, and another that ran from Pergamum to Sardis and then to Perga and Attalia (modern Antalya). Antiochus II, the Seleucid king (r. 261–246 B.C.E.), founded the city during the middle of the 3rd century B.C.E. He named the city in honor of his wife Laodice, whom he later divorced. After the Romans, with the aid of the Pergamene kingdom, defeated Antiochus III at Magnesia in 189 B.C.E., Laodicea came under the control of Pergamum.

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Earth And Heaven, 1750-1800: Enlightenment Ideas About The Relevance To Geology Of Extraterrestrial Operations And Events

Earth Sciences History ◽

10.17704/eshi.17.2.14010xt74738ut13 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 84-91 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kenneth Taylor

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

Celestial Mechanics ◽

Empirical Investigation ◽

Earth Science ◽

Geological Investigation ◽

The Earth ◽

History Of ◽

Geological Science ◽

The Ideal

A conceptual and methodological tension can be discerned among Enlightenment advocates of earth science, as regards extraterrestrial events and processes. True to the fundamental traditions of Theories of the Earth, many scientific thinkers exhibited clear recognition of the Earth's planetary status, as a member of a celestial family. To some this legitimated integration of a geological perspective into that of cosmology and astronomy. In extreme instances it even entailed an ideal of establishing earth science by deduction from principles of celestial mechanics. However, this integrative aspect of Theories of the Earth ran counter to another important element in the geological thinking of this era, one which asserted the overriding value of empirical investigation. In the minds of many empirical-minded champions of a natural history of the Earth, a true geology could only be built up through inductive discovery focussed exclusively on accessible terrestrial phenomena. Sometimes explicitly, often by merely tacit exclusion of extraterrestrial considerations, much geological investigation before 1800 tended to identify the integrity of the emerging science with the distinctively Earth-bound nature of the objects of study. The ideal of an autonomous geological science thus tended to be intertwined with a concept of terrestrial autonomy.

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