scholarly journals The Long Road Out of Eden: Early Dynastic Temples, a Quantitative Approach to the Bent-Axis Shrines

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 666
Author(s):  
Pascal Butterlin
Keyword(s):  
Surface Area ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
Quantitative Approach ◽  
Original Matrix ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
Early Dynastic ◽  
City States ◽  
Social Units

This study was conducted to quantitatively assess the architectural data stemming from 70 buildings usually considered as bent-axis temples, a type of Mesopotamian temple mainly constructed from 2900 to 2300–2200 BC. The study reviews, region-by-region and site-by-site, the dimensions of the rooms considered the “holy of holies”, registering width, length, and surface area. The results are discussed in comparison to the previous reception rooms of the tripartite buildings, considered the original matrix from which these shrines developed. The chronological and regional differences that are outlined provide some insights about the kind of social units that were involved in the use of those buildings, which were key structures in the urban fabric of Early City states.

The Early Dynastic Near East

2020 ◽  
pp. 531-611
Author(s):  
Vitali Bartash
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Long Range ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Near East ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
Early Dynastic ◽  
The Creation ◽  
City States ◽  
The Way

The Middle East in the Early Dynastic period (ca. 2900–2300 BC) was characterized by the competition of local city states for hegemony. Combined with long-range military and diplomatic relationships, this led to the creation of the first, if short-lived, larger polities in Mesopotamia and Syria, which paved the way for the emergence of the Akkad state. Cuneiform archives of temples and palaces document a gradual concentration of land, power, and wealth in the hands of an elite that included the royal family and the members of the palace and temple administration, resulting in increasing social stratification and deepening inequality in the context of surplus economy, unprecedented urbanization, and endemic war.

Regional variation in canine diaphragm thickness

1991 ◽  
Vol 70 (6) ◽  
pp. 2663-2668 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. S. Margulies
Keyword(s):  
Body Weight ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Respiratory System ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
Diaphragm Thickness ◽  
Healthy Dogs ◽  
Pressure Generator ◽  
Crural Diaphragm ◽  
The Relationship

To quantify the relationship between both regional and overall diaphragm morphometry and body weight in the dog, diaphragm thickness was measured in five regions of the costal diaphragm and three regions of the crural diaphragm in 40 healthy dogs (8-40 kg). Surface area of the diaphragm, diaphragm weight, and body weight were also determined. Diaphragm surface area and weight varied linearly with body weight, but there was no significant correlation between overall diaphragm thickness and body weight. Diaphragm thickness varied significantly between regions, and three regions had systematic left-to-right differences as well. Because diaphragm geometry influences the diaphragm's function as a pressure generator, regional differences in thickness may alter the relationship between the force developed by the activation of a particular region of the diaphragm and its action on the respiratory system.

The Early Dynastic Period

2020 ◽  
pp. 595-618
Author(s):  
Ludwig D. Morenz
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Sociology Of Knowledge ◽  
Homogeneous Material ◽  
Territorial State ◽  
Political Concept ◽  
Early Dynastic ◽  
Egyptian Culture ◽  
The Creation ◽  
To Come ◽  
City States

The Early Dynastic Period is seen as a formative phase influencing the character and shape of Egyptian culture for millennia to come. The sacro-political concept of ‘unification of the two lands’ had the effect of mythologizing transition from a system of city states with an already widely homogeneous material culture into a kind of territorial state under one divine king (Narmer) at the end of the fourth millennium bc. This set the stage for the developments in iconography, archaeology of media and sociology of knowledge that are discussed in this chapter. A formalization of iconographic tradition building on ‘iconems’ (specifically shaped pictorial motives) was connected to the sphere of rulership from the earliest periods. Additionally, the developing need for an invention of new iconographic conventions to construct and visualize a unified Egyptian identity (as well as the concept of the divine dual king) culminated in the creation of monumental art and ceremonial objects as ‘semiophors’ (‘carriers of meaning’). Like iconography, the new medium of pictorial-phonetic writing served power and articulated governmental knowledge of the elite. As a state-wide standardized system of notation and expression, phonetic writing also provided an indispensable prerequisite to organize and administer a unified territory of this size.

The Ur III-Old Babylonian transition: An archaeological perspective

Iraq ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 79-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth C. Stone
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Ur Iii ◽  
Early Dynastic ◽  
Old Babylonian ◽  
City States ◽  
A Site ◽  
Archaeological Perspective

Mesopotamian history tends to be phrased in terms of stages: Early Dynastic city-states replaced by imperial Akkad, bureaucratic Ur III replaced by the more individualistic Isin-Larsa and Old Babylonian periods thanks to the influence of the Amorites, etc. Lost in this process is a sense of the longue durée of Mesopotamian civilization, the basic and largely unchanging aspects of its society, economy and politics. In this paper I will explore one of these transitions, that between Ur III and Isin-Larsa/Old Babylonian times, by examining the nexus between the cuneiform and archaeological records.My aim is to explore the circumstances that resulted in the unearthing of the textual record upon which our understanding of the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods is based. Where did these tablets come from and what were the circumstances that both led to their preservation and allowed them to be recovered so that we could read them? To answer these questions, it will be necessary to look at the interconnections between the survey data, excavated data and the written record.The broad sweep of settlement and abandonment provided by the survey data collected and analysed by Adams and his students and colleagues (Adams 1965, 1972, 1981, Adams and Nissen 1972, Gibson 1972, Wright 1981) has a direct impact on our understanding of the archaeological contexts of the cuneiform texts. Sites are subject to forces of erosion so that periods of abandonment — even if temporary relative to Mesopotamia's four-thousand-year history — still selectively remove parts of the archaeological record. Since all texts derive from archaeological contexts they are by no means immune. Indeed unbaked clay tablets are some of the most fragile of the artifacts recovered from Mesopotamian sites, only surviving to the present when buried rapidly at the outset and remaining so until uncovered by the spade of the archaeologist or, more often unfortunately, the looter. Then there is also the issue of accessibility. In most instances both archaeologists and looters dig from the top of a site down, and generally not that far down. Thus most of our data, both archaeological and textual, derive from those levels closest to the exposed surfaces of archaeological sites.

The Evidence of Numismatics

2020 ◽  
pp. 796-818
Author(s):  
Jürgen Strothmann
Keyword(s):  
Gold Standard ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Place Names ◽  
Fiscal System ◽  
City States ◽  
Political Units ◽  
Significant Attention

Numismatics in Merovingian Gaul offer a rather different image of the seventh century than we find in our most important source, the Histories of Gregory of Tours. Only the coins reveal that the moneyers, consisting of about 2,000 individuals between 585 and 670, were an important functional elite. Coinage, based on the gold standard following the Byzantine tradition, served as a fiscal instrument for levying taxes and other revenues. Moreover, there were no significant regional differences reflecting the practices of individual kings as coinage was part of a fiscal system that spanned over all of Gaul. Because the place names on these coins typically identify political units such as civitates (city-states) and pagi (rural political units), we can use them to understand political continuity in Gaul in the seventh century since these were the same city-states as in Roman times. Numismatics thus serve as a corrective to Gregory of Tours, who did not give significant attention to the civitates despite the fact that they did not lose their relevance for politics, finance, and society.

Preparation and characterisation of vanadium pentoxide supported rhodium catalyst

1988 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 946-947
Author(s):  
A. Legrouri
Keyword(s):  
Aqueous Solution ◽  
Thermal Decomposition ◽  
Physicochemical Properties ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Vanadium Pentoxide ◽  
High Purity ◽  
Gas Adsorption ◽  
Rhodium Catalyst ◽  
Optical Methods ◽  
Reducible Oxides

The industrial importance of metal catalysts supported on reducible oxides has stimulated considerable interest during the last few years. This presentation reports on the study of the physicochemical properties of metallic rhodium supported on vanadium pentoxide (Rh/V2O5). Electron optical methods, in conjunction with other techniques, were used to characterise the catalyst before its use in the hydrogenolysis of butane; a reaction for which Rh metal is known to be among the most active catalysts.V2O5 powder was prepared by thermal decomposition of high purity ammonium metavanadate in air at 400 °C for 2 hours. Previous studies of the microstructure of this compound, by HREM, SEM and gas adsorption, showed it to be non— porous with a very low surface area of 6m2/g3. The metal loading of the catalyst used was lwt%Rh on V2Q5. It was prepared by wet impregnating the support with an aqueous solution of RhCI3.3H2O.

Cell morphology, volume, and surface area determinations from multilevel contouring within HVEM micrographs of serial sections and whole-cell mounts

1987 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 588-589
Author(s):  
M. Marko ◽  
A. Leith ◽  
D. Parsons
Keyword(s):  
Surface Area ◽  
Electron Micrographs ◽  
Cell Morphology ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Serial Section ◽  
Stereo Pair ◽  
Complex Structures ◽  
Serial Sections ◽  
Surface Areas ◽  
Computer Based

The use of serial sections and computer-based 3-D reconstruction techniques affords an opportunity not only to visualize the shape and distribution of the structures being studied, but also to determine their volumes and surface areas. Up until now, this has been done using serial ultrathin sections.The serial-section approach differs from the stereo logical methods of Weibel in that it is based on the Information from a set of single, complete cells (or organelles) rather than on a random 2-dimensional sampling of a population of cells. Because of this, it can more easily provide absolute values of volume and surface area, especially for highly-complex structures. It also allows study of individual variation among the cells, and study of structures which occur only infrequently.We have developed a system for 3-D reconstruction of objects from stereo-pair electron micrographs of thick specimens.

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