Q. Mucius Scaevola and Oenoanda: a new Inscription

1995 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 73-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. F. Eilers ◽  
N. P. Milner
Keyword(s):  
Outer Edge ◽  
Second Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
The West ◽  
Northern Margin ◽  
The North ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
Th 1

The following inscription was found at Oenoanda, an antique city in north Lycia, by the late Alan S. Hall in 1974. The text (inv. no. YÇ 1014) is inscribed on the short face of a large grey limestone statue base, found lying on its left side at the northern margin of the Upper Agora (the “Esplanade”), directly before the outer edge of the portico of the north stoa (cf. Figs. 1 and 2). Its position suggests that it has fallen forward, with other bases beside it to the west, from its original situation on the pavement of the Upper Agora, immediately fronting the podium of the stoa. There was no evidence that it had been re-used, as originally thought by Hall. Its dimensions are h. 0·73 m.; w. 0·74 m. (slightly broken to the left); th. 1·50+ m. (buried behind). Since it is unmoulded and there are no foot-holes in the top, it is probable that top and bottom sections have become detached. The large base beside it to the west, measuring h. 1·25 m.; w. 2·10 m.; th. 0·60+ m., has two sets of foot-holes and a moulded top; a connection between this and our base is perhaps not unlikely—possibly they formed part of a family monument. On architectural grounds it has been argued that the north stoa was built in either the first century B.C. or the first century A.D. Since it is reasonable to suppose that the base, which we date to the 90s B.C. for reasons that will become clear shortly, was erected after its construction, the stoa should probably be dated no later than second century B.C.

Zooming In Rome, the Middle Euphrates, and Dura

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon James
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Its Region ◽  
Second Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
The West ◽  
Persian Empire ◽  
Spheres Of Influence ◽  
The Military

Dura-Europos was a product and ultimately a victim of the interaction of Mediterranean- and Iranian-centred imperial powers in the Middle East which began with Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Achaemenid Persian empire in the later fourth century BC. Its nucleus was established as part of the military infrastructure and communications network of the Seleucid successor-state. It was expanding into a Greekstyle polis during the second century BC, as Seleucid control was being eroded from the east by expanding Arsacid Parthian power, and threatened from the west by the emergent imperial Roman republic. From the early first century BC, the Roman and Parthian empires formally established the Upper Euphrates as the boundary between their spheres of influence, and the last remnants of the Seleucid regime in Syria were soon eliminated. Crassus’ attempt to conquer Parthia ended in disaster at Carrhae in 53 BC, halting Roman ambitions to imitate Alexander for generations. The nominal boundary on the Upper Euphrates remained, although the political situation in the Middle East remained fluid. Rome long controlled the Levant largely indirectly, through client rulers of small states, only slowly establishing directly ruled provinces with Roman governors, a process mostly following establishment of the imperial regime around the turn of the millennia. However, some client states like Nabataea still existed in AD 100 (for overviews see Millar 1993; Ball 2000; Butcher 2003; Sartre 2005). The Middle Euphrates, in what is now eastern Syria, lay outside Roman control, although it is unclear to what extent Dura and its region—part of Mesopotamia, and Parapotamia on the west bank of the river—were effectively under Arsacid control before the later first century AD. For some decades, Armenia may have been the dominant regional power (Edwell 2013, 192–5; Kaizer 2017, 70). As the Roman empire increasingly crystallized into clearly defined, directly ruled provinces, the contrast with the very different Arsacid system became starker. The ‘Parthian empire’, the core of which comprised Iran and Mesopotamia with a western royal capital at Ctesiphon on the Tigris, was a much looser entity (Hauser 2012).

The Xiongnu

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyun Jin Kim
Keyword(s):  
Northern China ◽  
First Century ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
First Empire ◽  
Western Eurasia ◽  
Asian People

The Xiongnu were an Inner Asian people who formed an empire, a state entity encompassing a multiethnic, multicultural, and polyglot population. The ruling elite of this empire were, for the most part, pastoralists. However, the empire also possessed a substantial agrarian base. In the late 3rd and early 2nd centuries bce, the Xiongnu created the first empire to unify much of Inner Asia. The Xiongnu Empire stretched from Manchuria in the east to the Aral Sea in the west, from the Baikal region in the north to the Ordos and Gansu regions of China in the south. In the 2nd century bce, the Xiongnu also subjected the Han Empire of China to tribute payments. However, late in that century, the Han broke the heqin policy of engagement with the Xiongnu and began a long struggle for supremacy with its northern foe. Political instability arising from protracted struggles over the imperial succession gradually undermined the Xiongnu Empire. In the middle of the first century ce, the state splintered into two halves: the Northern Xiongnu and the Southern Xiongnu. The Southern Xiongnu later conquered Northern China in the early 4th century ce, while the remnants of the Northern Xiongnu became the political and cultural forebears of the later Huns of western Eurasia.

The Late Cenozoic evolution of the Aksu basin (Isparta Angle; SW Turkey). New insights

2011 ◽  
Vol 182 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Poisson ◽  
Fabienne Orszag-Sperber ◽  
Erdal Kosun ◽  
Maria-Angella Bassetti ◽  
Carla Müller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Normal Faults ◽  
The West ◽  
Shallow Marine ◽  
Northern Margin ◽  
Sea Level Fluctuations ◽  
Marine Deposits ◽  
The North ◽  
Sw Turkey ◽  
Isparta Angle

Abstract The Mio-Pliocene basins around the Antalya gulf in SW Turkey developed above the Tauric Mesozoic platforms on which the Antalya nappes had been thrusted (in Late Cretaceous-Paleocene times). The closure of the initial Isparta Angle during these events (E-W compression) initiated the N-S orientation of the main structural lines, which persisted later and explains the orientation of the Aksu basin in contrast with the E-W orientation of the eastern Neo-gene Mediterranean basins. The area, and all southwestern Turkey, became emergent at the end of the Oligocene and were the site of shallow-marine carbonate deposits in the Chattian-Aquitanian, giving way to the wide Lycian basin in Burdigalian-Langhian times. The progressive emplacement of the Lycian nappes from the north over this basin provoked first its subsidence and then its emersion when the nappes attained their final position over the Bey Daglari platform in Langhian times. Coinciding, or in response to the Lycian nappes emplacement, the Aksu basin was initiated as an elongated N-S graben which was filled by thick accumulations of terrestrial and marine deposits(including coral reefs), which derived from the erosion of the Lycian allochton and its basement (Langhian?, Serravallian and Tortonian times). The syn-sedimentary tectonics : reactivation of the normal faults along the west margin of the basin, the continuous uplift of the neighbouring continental areas (beginning of the Aksu thrust), governed the geometry of the basin. As a result and due to the uplift of its northern margin, the Aksu basin migrated towards the south and in Messinian times it was reduced to a narrow gulf along the eastern margin of which the Gebiz limestones were deposited as fringing coral reefs. The age of these limestones has been debated. Our new data allow us to attribute them to the Messinian. The drastic retreat of the sea at the end of this period, provoked the erosion of large parts of the Messinian deposits and the formation of deep canyons on land and under the sea down to the Antalya abyssal plain, in which evaporites were deposited. During the Zanclean transgression, the Eskiköy-Kargi canyon was filled by coarse clastics of a Gilbert delta derived from the northern continental area following a model well known elsewhere in the Mediterranean basins. Southward, shallow-marine sands and marls unconformably cover the remnants of the Messinian deposits and the emergent areas of the southern Antalya gulf. After Zanclean times (end of Pliocene?), the Aksu basin was deformed, due to the west-directed Aksu compressional event (end of the Aksu thrust). Quaternary terraces of the Aksu river at various altitudes, as well as the terraces of the Antalya tufa can be related to sea level fluctuations.

Limes Germanicus—Bridge and Frontier

1939 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-274
Author(s):  
Goetz A. Briefs
Keyword(s):  
Word Meaning ◽  
Second Century ◽  
German History ◽  
Roman Emperor ◽  
The West ◽  
Southern Germany ◽  
New Name ◽  
The North ◽  
The Will ◽  
Roman Limes

There is great significance in the recent renaming of the Siegfried line, Germany's line of fortifications in the West. By the will of the Fuehrer, the western fortification is now called Limes. The new name is obviously intended to imply something very specific, otherwise it would not have been chosen.“Limes”, a Latin word meaning “borderline”, is a word of great significance in Roman as well as German history. The term was first used by the Roman conquerors to signify the line of fortifications which, after many setbacks, they built around the northernmost reaches of their realm. The Roman Limes enclosed what today is die greater part of Bavaria, the rest of Southern Germany, Switzerland and the Rhinelands. Started under the Roman Emperor Domitian in 83 A.D. and finished in the Second Century, the fortifications signified that the Roman impetus of expansion had reached its limit. It meant a consolidation of the earlier conquests against Teutonic invasion from the North and East.

scholarly journals Origin and age of the Shenshan tectonic mélange in the Jiangshan-Shaoxing-Pingxiang Fault and late Early Paleozoic juxtaposition of the Yangtze Block and the West Cathaysia terrane, South China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lijun Wang ◽  
Kexin Zhang ◽  
Shoufa Lin ◽  
Weihong He ◽  
Leiming Yin
Keyword(s):  
South China ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Carbonaceous Shale ◽  
Early Paleozoic ◽  
Yangtze Block ◽  
The West ◽  
Northern Margin ◽  
The North ◽  
Tectonic Mélange ◽  
Different Parts

When and how the Yangtze Block (Yangtze) and the West Cathaysia terrane (West Cathaysia) in South China were amalgamated are critical to a better understanding of the Neoproterozoic to early Paleozoic tectonic evolution of South China and remain highly debatable. A key to this debate is the tectonic significance of the Jiangshan-Shaoxing-Pingxiang (JSP) Fault, the boundary between Yangtze and West Cathaysia. The Shenshan mélange along the JSP Fault has the typical block-in-matrix structure and is composed of numerous shear zone-bounded slivers/lenses of rocks of different types and ages that formed in different tectonic environments, including middle to late Tonian volcanic and volcanogenic sedimentary rocks (turbidite) of arc/back-arc affinity, a series of middle Tonian ultramafic to mafic plutonic rocks of oceanic island basalt affinity, a carbonaceous shale that was deposited in a deep marine environment, and a red mudstone. U-Pb zircon ages and acritarch assemblages (Leiosphaeridia-Brocholaminaria association) found in the turbidite confirm its Tonian age, and fossils from the carbonaceous shale (Asteridium-Comasphaeridium and Skiagia-Celtiberium-Leiofusa) constrains its age to the Early to Middle Cambrian. Field relationships and available age data leave no doubt that the ultramafic-mafic rocks are exotic blocks (rather than intrusions) in the younger metasedimentary rocks. We conclude that the Shenshan mélange is not an ophiolitic mélange, but rather a tectonic mélange that formed as a result of movement along the JSP Fault in the early Paleozoic. We suggest that Yangtze and West Cathaysia were two separate microcontinents, were accreted to two different parts of the northern margin of Gondwana in the early Early Paleozoic, and juxtaposed in the late Early Paleozoic through strike-slip movement along the JSP Fault. We further suggest that the ca. 820 Ma collision in the Jiangnan Orogen took place between Yangtze and a (micro)continent that is now partly preserved as the Huaiyu terrane and was not related to West Cathaysia. We compare our model for South China with the accretion of terranes in the North American Cordillera and propose a similar model for the relationship between the Avalon and Meguma terranes in the Canadian Appalachians, i.e., the two terranes were accreted to two different parts of the Laurentian margin and were later juxtaposed through margin-parallel strike slip faulting.

V.—Two Bronze Age Cairns in South Wales: Simondston and Pond Cairns, Coity Higher Parish, Bridgend

Archaeologia ◽  
1938 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 129-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Fox
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
East Side ◽  
The West ◽  
Northern Margin ◽  
The North ◽  
Outstanding Feature ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The Town

In the angle between the rivers Ogwr and Ewenny on the northern margin of the Vale of Glamorgan, east of the town of Bridgend, Brackla Hill (287 ft.) is the outstanding feature. Its pastoral slopes are linked to higher ground on the north by a saddle, on the east side of which there is a gentle fall to a tributary of the Ewenny, and on the west to a rivulet which flows into the Ogwr. Coity village lies at the point where the saddle merges into the upland.

South America II: The Southern Cone

Horse Nations ◽  
2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Native Americans ◽  
Southern Cone ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
Andean Cordillera ◽  
South Central ◽  
Southern Patagonia ◽  
Desert Steppes ◽  
Formed Part

Taking in the Andean cordillera, the Pampas grasslands of Argentina and Uruguay, the desert steppes of southern Patagonia, and the temperate lowlands of south-central Chile (Araucanía), this chapter explores the horse’s arrival and impact in South America’s Southern Cone. Convention divides the Cone along the spine of the mountains between Chile and Argentina. To their east it contrasts the Pampas in the north with Patagonia in the south. I follow most recent scholarship in stressing the historical connections that such boundaries obscure. Similarly, I emphasize not only the acquisition of horses, but also the significance of hunting, taking, and trading feral livestock and the adoption of elements of food production. Both developments formed part of the inclusion of ‘free’ Native Americans within broader international political and commercial systems. At the same time, the work of anthropologists and the comments of contemporary European observers make the Southern Cone one of the most richly documented regions of all for studying the emergence of Horse Nations post-1492. The Southern Cone is environmentally far more complex than a simple tripartite classification into Araucanía, Patagonia, and Pampas suggests. In the north the Pampas reach to the Paraná and Salado drainages, to the south as far as the Río Colorado and its tributaries. They extend east to include Uruguay and the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul and in the west reach the Andean foothills. A basic division follows the 500 mm isohyet: to its west the Dry Pampa is increasingly water-deficient, while to the east the Humid Pampa ultimately benefits from as much as 800 mm of rain a year (Plate 23). The Uruguayan Savannah forms a third ecological subdivision that includes areas with palms and some forest enclaves. Generally, the Pampas comprise a gently sloping plain covered by extensive grasslands, but drier-adapted shrub occurs in the west and a wedge of forest penetrates their centre from the north. The Sierra de Tandilia and Sierra de la Ventana south of Buenos Aires are rare areas of higher relief. Climate is temperate, but surface water is often scarce, stone for tool-making rare, game dispersed.

Around the Bend: Nanga Parbat, Namche Barwa

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Searle
Keyword(s):  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Lower Boundary ◽  
Indian Plate ◽  
Metamorphic Rocks ◽  
The West ◽  
Northern Margin ◽  
The North ◽  
Nanga Parbat ◽  
Namche Barwa ◽  
The Himalaya

From the geological mapping, structural, and metamorphic investigations along the main Himalayan Range from Zanskar in the west through the Himachal Pradesh and Kumaon regions of India and along the whole of Nepal to Sikkim, a similar story was emerging. The overall structure and distribution of metamorphic rocks and granites was remarkably similar from one geological profile to the next. The Lesser Himalaya, above the Main Boundary Thrust was composed of generally older sedimentary and igneous rocks, unaffected by the young Tertiary metamorphism. Travelling north towards the high peaks, the inverted metamorphism along the Main Central Thrust marked the lower boundary of the Tertiary metamorphic rocks formed as a result of the India–Asia collision. The large Himalayan granites, many forming the highest peaks, lay towards the upper boundary of the ‘Greater Himalayan sequence’. North of this, the sedimentary rocks of the Tethyan Himalaya crop out above the low-angle normal fault, the South Tibetan Detachment. The northern ranges of the Himalaya comprise the sedimentary rocks of the northern margin of India. The two corner regions of the Himalaya, however, appeared to be somewhat different. The Indian plate has two major syntaxes, where the structural grain of the mountains swings around through ninety degrees: the western syntaxis, centred on the mountain of Nanga Parbat in Pakistan, and the eastern syntaxis, centred on the mountain of Namche Barwa in south-east Tibet. Nanga Parbat (8,125 m) is a huge mountain massif at the north-western end of the great Himalayan chain. It is most prominent seen from the Indus Valley and the hills of Kohistan to the west, where it seems to stand in glorious isolation, ringed by the deep gorges carved by the Indus and Astor Rivers, before the great wall of snowy peaks forming the Karakoram to the north.

Données nouvelles sur le protérozoïque inférieur du domaine nord-armoricain (France): age et signification

1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 532-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Auvray ◽  
René Charlot ◽  
Philippe Vidal
Keyword(s):  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
The West ◽  
West African Craton ◽  
Northern Margin ◽  
The North ◽  
Upper Proterozoic ◽  
Lower Proterozoic ◽  
Proterozoic Basement ◽  
Armorican Massif

Orthogneisses from the Tregor area of the North Armorican Massif have been dated using the U/Pb method on zircons. Ages of between 1.8 and 2.0 Ga have been obtained, thus significantly extending the known size of the Lower Proterozoic basement in this area. It is argued that the presence of such a substantial area of basement is a further argument for an Upper Proterozoic (Brioverian) south-dipping subduction zone which was located to the north of the Armorican Massif. On the other hand, the similarities between the North Armorican block and the northern margin of the West African craton during the Proterozoic are emphasized.

Crustal structure of the London–Brabant Massif, southern North Sea

1993 ◽  
Vol 130 (5) ◽  
pp. 569-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Rijkers ◽  
Ed Duin ◽  
Michiel Dusar ◽  
Vital Langenaeker
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
The West ◽  
Seismic Line ◽  
Southern Limit ◽  
Northern Margin ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
Seismic Sections ◽  
Fault Belt ◽  
Lower Crustal

AbstractIn 1991 a deep seismic line, MPNI-9101, was acquired in the southern North Sea. The line runs from the Mesozoic Broad Fourteens Basin in the north, across the West Netherlands Basin, onto the London–Brabant Massif in the south. The London–Brabant Massif is a WNW–ESE trending stable structure located beneath southeastern England, the southern North Sea and Belgium. The London–Brabant Massif represents the most easterly part of the Anglo-Brabant Massif. At the northern margin of the London-Brabant Massif, Devonian and Carboniferous siliciclastic and carbonate rocks onlap the massif. Farther south, shallow parts of the seismic line in the vicinity of the axial zone of the London–Brabant Massif are almost completely devoid of primary reflections. This zone is composed of strongly folded Lower Palaeozoic sedimentary units which have been mapped in the onshore part of Belgium. Numerous seismic reflection multiples from the base of the Cretaceous are observed on this part of the section. The southern limit of the zone is very abrupt and may correspond to a fault belt delimiting an area of magmatic rocks known in the onshore part of Belgium. Unusually the deeper parts of the seismic line show a strongly reflective lower crust beneath the London-Brabant, a phenomenon which has not been observed on other deep seismic sections across the massif. Two-way travel times to the base of the lower crustal reflective zone (corresponding to the Moho), increase from 10 seconds beneath the West Netherlands Basin in the north to 12 seconds beneath the London–Brabant Massif, suggesting a thickening of the crust.

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