...particular piece of material, artifact, or cultural remains. Some of absolute dating techniques are radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology, and potassium-argon dating. Radiocarbon dating is one of the most widely used techniques. This method is used to determine the age of organic substances such as bone, charcoal, shell, or wood by measuring the amount of the carbon isotope, carbon-14, remaining in them. The technique focuses on carbon-14, an unsteady radioactive isotope of carbon, which decays away at a steady rate. Organisms seize a certain amount of carbon-14 from the atmosphere when they are alive. By measuring the ratio of the radio isotope to non-radioactive carbon, the amount of carbon-14 decay can be calculated, thus giving an age for the material in question. Radiocarbon dating is usually used for determining ages up to about 50,000 years old, because dating older materials is much less accurate with this method. The relationship between the age estimates, also known as radiocarbon years and calendar years varies through time. Due to the distinctive variation in the richness of the radioactive isotope, carbon-14, archeologists must adjust the radiocarbon dates using sets of dates obtained from tree rings in the trunks of very long-lived tree species like the bristlecone pine to bring the radiocarbon years and calendar year to agreement. Dendrochronology is a method of dating based on the number of rings of growth found in a tree trunk. For...
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...H. Reid Miller Geo- 380 Bob Dziak Cascadian Tsunami "Barely had they set foot in the city in mourning the death of their benefactor, they feel the earth shake beneath their feet, the sea rises bubbling in the harbor, and breaks the vessels that are to anchor. Swirls of flames and ashes covered the streets and public places; houses collapsed, roofs are reversed on the foundations, and foundations disperse, and thirty thousand inhabitants of all ages and sexes were crushed under the ruins, said the sailor, whistling and swearing: ʽ There will be something to win here. - What can be the sufficient reason of this phenomenon? said Pangloss. - Here is the last day of the world!’ Cried Candide” (Voltaire, 1759 translated by Google translate) Some of the first descriptions of tsunamis are grim at best this excerpt came from Voltaire’s Candide a French satire published during Europe’s Age of Enlightenment. This gives a chilling view of Lisbon on All Saint’s Day (November first) in 1755. What had occurred is a 200 km offshore 8.5-9.0 magnitude earthquake that resulted in a large-scale tsunami and rampaging fires, effectively killing thousands of people. This is one of the deadliest tsunamis recorded in history, but how do tsunamis function and what do we know about their inner workings. Tsunamis since the early 1600s have been synonymous with some form recording of “shaking of the earth”. Very rarely do you see other forms of tectonic activity such as volcanic eruptions...
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...Virginia, the first permanent colony in the Americas. Jamestown was founded during the year 1607. Many historical facts and findings about Jamestown has given the modern world an idea of how life was during the time of early America. We can uncover Americas history with archeology to discover the landscapes, find evidence that reveals the lives of slaves, and acquire knowledge from historians to best understand Americas past. Discovery over the years about Jamestown has been through many archeological findings and scientific studies. Archeologist and scientist conclude that in the core of ancient tree trunks they can reconstruct the history of how the climate was during certain time frames of the trees life through a study called “Dendrochronology, which is the study of data from tree ring growth” (Environmental Science.org). During the video clip “Unearthing Secret America” it stated that the “Colonists and Indians experienced a drought which probably made crop growing and merchandise trading very difficult” (episode...
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...mammoths preferred a diet of grasses, buttercups and moss, along with other natural vegetation.2 Ice cores reveal the changing climatic conditions of a period in a sample of snow and ice, where the falling snow will capture the conditions of the atmosphere it once fell through, collecting the chemistry of that atmosphere and the compounds and particles that were present. This evidence can then construct a picture as to how changing temperature affected environmental conditions. Ice cores reveal that in a period before the Holocene began 10,000 years ago, temperatures began to rise by 5-7 degrees Celsius. Where glaciers retreated and sea level rose to the present-day level of 120m.1 The evidence for warming temperatures is supported in dendrochronology. The thickness of tree rings suggests the rising temperature provided perfect climatic conditions for a large, unstoppable growth of coniferous trees to extend their way throughout Europe and Eastern Asia. This would have greatly disrupted the mammoths, as their natural food source of herbaceous vegetation was slowly destroyed by the rapidly rising forests. The rise in sea level, along with mountain ranges and other natural barriers would have made any movement in to new areas very difficult for the mammoths, and therefore adapting for survival was becoming ever-more unattainable. Other evidence supporting the lack of food from forest expansion can be discovered in the mammoth tusk. The tusk grows in layers throughout the mammal’s life...
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...CAN PAST TALK TO US INTRODUCTION 1. A few years back a movie titled ‘Jurassic Park’ was released and soon became box office hit. When I saw the movie I was astonished and impressed by the on screen appearance of the huge creatures, the dinosaurs, of different variety. The object of appreciation was, of course, the computer generated graphics and animation. But more than that, I was really amazed by the knowledge the people had about these wild monsters, who are the species extinct for almost 65 million years. How do these people come to know how did these creatures look like, what were their food habits, how did they live and how did they evolve? A question came to my mind, ‘CAN PAST TALK TO US?’ . 2. A few years later another movie was released, ‘The Mummy’. This time it was the Egyptian culture that was depicted. Incidentally this culture has also been extinct for thousands of years. It is believed that this culture was in existence some 4500 years ago. Where did the knowledge of the life style of the ancient Egyptians, their religious practices, their culture, their language and their houses, clothes and weapons come from? Could the past possibly have talked to the producers? 3. I am sure these questions must have surfaced in your minds also. If I was to answer these questions, I would say, yes, the past can talk to us. But only through an interpreter. This interpreter is called an ‘ARCHAEOLOGIST’. 4. Good morning lady and gentlemen, today...
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...Theories Behind the Disappearance of the Mayan Civilization Travis Epling Prof. Aprile Castagna Cappuzzo Introduction to Humanities 2 May 2014 Theories Behind the Disappearance of the Mayan Civilization There are many theories behind the decline of the Mayan Civilization. They range from over-population, war, famine, immigration, deforestation, climate change, and even aliens. When we say the disappearance of the Mayans we do not mean that the culture completely disappeared, we are talking about and extreme reduction in population. Tom Server believes as much as 90 to 95 percent of the population. Many of the major bustling cities of the Mayan Empire such as Tikal, Palenque, and Copan were simply abandoned for, what appears to be, no reason. Many of these theories have been debunked over time with the development of new science technology that allows for more thorough of investigations of these ancient civilizations. The first theory we will visit will be the affects of deforestation which also encompasses part of the climate change theory. NASA archaeologist, Tom Sever(2004) states that , “The Mayan civilization in Mesoamerica was one of the densest populations in human history”. He believes that the population during the height of the Mayan Empire would have been between 1800 and 2600 people per square mile. In 2000, the population density of Los Angeles was around 2300 for a comparison. The extreme amount of people living in the area would have put...
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...Introduction The United States of America for decades has been the best example of a nation that is a melting pot of cultures. This has mainly been due to the fact that currently, the country may be the most racially and culturally diverse nation on the planet. There may be other facts disputing this assumption but the United States beats other culturally diverse nations in terms of the tolerance and harmony between the resident cultures. All this can been attested to the fact that America is an Immigration Country. The country constitutes people from different parts of the world. The process of people moving into the new world that is the Americas where the United State lies began centuries ago and has been an ongoing process to the current day. This paper examines the origins of their Native Americans. This paper also explores their journey into the Americas as the first Immigrants. Their settlement patterns and ways of life will also be examined. The paper also explores how the Native Americans in the Americas fared during the European conquest of the region that is currently identified as the America. Euro-Indian relations, conflicts and their aftermath is also a focus point of the paper, which culminates into the current state of affairs of the Native American community in the Americas. Origins of the Native Americans There are diverse sources of information on the origins and history of the Native Americans. They include oral history passed down through generations...
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...Wooden" and "Heartwood" redirect here. For other uses, see Wooden (disambiguation) and Heartwood (disambiguation). For small forests, see Woodland. For wood as a commodity, see Lumber. For other uses, see Wood (disambiguation). Page semi-protected Wood surface, showing several features Wood is a hard, fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It has been used for thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers (which are strong in tension) embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression. Wood is sometimes defined as only the secondary xylem in the stems of trees,[1] or it is defined more broadly to include the same type of tissue elsewhere such as in tree roots or in other plants such as shrubs.[citation needed] In a living tree it performs a support function, enabling woody plants to grow large or to stand up by themselves. It also mediates the transfer of water and nutrients to the leaves and other growing tissues. Wood may also refer to other plant materials with comparable properties, and to material engineered from wood, or wood chips or fiber. The Earth contains about one trillion tonnes of wood, which grows at a rate of 10 billion tonnes per year. As an abundant, carbon-neutral renewable resource, woody materials have been of intense interest as a source of renewable energy. In 1991, approximately 3.5 billion cubic meters of...
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...vA Very Brief History of Computer Science Written by Jeffrey Shallit for CS 134 at the University of Waterloo in the summer of 1995. This little web page was hastily stitched together in a few days. Perhaps eventually I will get around to doing a really good job. Suggestions are always welcome. A translation of this web page into French has been prepared by Anne Dicky at the University of Bordeaux. Before 1900 People have been using mechanical devices to aid calculation for thousands of years. For example, the abacus probably existed in Babylonia (present-day Iraq) about 3000 B.C.E. The ancient Greeks developed some very sophisticated analog computers. In 1901, an ancient Greek shipwreck was discovered off the island of Antikythera. Inside was a salt-encrusted device (now called the Antikythera mechanism) that consisted of rusted metal gears and pointers. When this c. 80 B.C.E. device was reconstructed, it produced a mechanism for predicting the motions of the stars and planets. (More Antikythera info here.) John Napier (1550-1617), the Scottish inventor of logarithms, invented Napier's rods (sometimes called "Napier's bones") c. 1610 to simplify the task of multiplication. In 1641 the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) built a mechanical adding machine. Similar work was done by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). Leibniz also advocated use of the binary system for doing calculations. Recently it was discovered that Wilhelm Schickard (1592-1635)...
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...Evolutionary Anthropology 21:50–57 (2012) ISSUES The Science Behind Pre-Columbian Evidence of Syphilis in Europe: Research by Documentary GEORGE J. ARMELAGOS, MOLLY K. ZUCKERMAN, AND KRISTIN N. HARPER This article discusses the presentation of scientific findings by documentary, without the process of peer review. We use, as an example, PBS’s ‘‘The Syphilis Enigma,’’ in which researchers presented novel evidence concerning the origin of syphilis that had never been reviewed by other scientists. These ‘‘findings’’ then entered the world of peer-reviewed literature through citations of the documentary itself or material associated with it. Here, we demonstrate that the case for pre-Columbian syphilis in Europe that was made in the documentary does not withstand scientific scrutiny. We also situate this example from paleopathology within a larger trend of ‘‘science by documentary’’ or ‘‘science by press conference,’’ in which researchers seek to bypass the peer review process by presenting unvetted findings directly to the public. George J. Armelagos is Goodrich C. White Professor of Anthropology at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. His research has focused on diet and disease in prehistory. He was the Viking Medal Medalist (Wenner-Gren Foundation) in 2005, received The Franz Boas Award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology from the American Anthropological Association in 2008, and The Charles Darwin Award for Lifetime Achievement to Biological Anthropology...
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...Cambridge University Press 0521817404 - Ancient Cahokia and the Mississippians - Timothy R. Pauketat Excerpt More information 1 Civilization in North America This wasn’t a chiefdom; it was a kingdom! Robert Carneiro1 “Civilization” is not a word typically associated with ancient North America. The cities, stone pyramids, and writing systems of the Old World, Mexico, or Peru are not generally thought to have existed in the pre-Columbian Mississippi valley. However, if we define a civilization as a kind of political culture or as a great tradition associated with popu- lated administrative centers and spread across some portion of a conti- nent, then it is clear that there was a pre-Columbian civilization in the Mississippi valley, or at least the early stages of one. Archaeologists often call it “Mississippian culture” and refer to the many peoples of the time simply as “Mississippians.” There were political and religious centers associated with the Mississip- pian civilization, the largest of which was Cahokia, along the middle por- tion of the Mississippi...
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...Climate change From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For current and future climatological effects of human influences, see global warming. For the study of past climate change, see paleoclimatology. For temperatures on the longest time scales, see geologic temperature record. [pic] |Atmospheric sciences | |[pic] | |Aerology | |Atmospheric physics | |Atmospheric dynamics (category) | |Atmospheric chemistry (category) | |Meteorology | |Weather (category) · (portal) | |Tropical cyclone (category) | |Climatology | |Climate (category) | |Climate change (category) | |Global warming (category) · (portal) | |v · d · e | Climate change is a long-term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average (e.g., more or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change may be limited to a specific region or may occur across the whole Earth. |Contents ...
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...Research Article A GIS‐based reconstruction of Little Ice Age glacier maximum extensions for South Tyrol, Italy 5 Christoph Knoll Department of Geography University of Innsbruck Hanns Kerschner Department of Geography University of Innsbruck Armin Heller 10 Philipp Rastner 15 20 25 30 35 40 Department of Geography Institute for Applied Remote Sensing University of Innsbruck EURAC Bolzano Keywords: Little Ice Age, glacier reconstruction, glacier development, GIS Abstract A reconstruction method of historical glacier topographies and a possibility of the usage of these results are demonstrated in this paper. This reconstruction was accomplished for 310 Alpine glaciers in South Tyrol, Italy. These glaciers are featured with a wealth of different historical (e.g. paintings, photographs and historical maps) and recent data sources (airborne laser scan based digital terrain model and digital orthophotos) that allow the reconstruction of the Little Ice Age maximum extension. These sources are among the best historical and recent documents of glaciers for the mid 19th century. The results of this reconstruction visualize the ongoing climate change in a comprehensive way. The area changes between the time of the Little Ice Age maximum extent (around the year 1850) and the recent glaciation in 2006 amounts in a ...
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...Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions, or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions (i.e., more or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions. Certain human activities have also been identified as significant causes of recent climate change, often referred to as "global warming". Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models. A climate record — extending deep into the Earth's past — has been assembled, and continues to be built up, based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles, cores removed from deep accumulations of ice, floral and faunal records, glacial and periglacial processes, stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers, and records of past sea levels. More recent data are provided by the instrumental record. General circulation models, based on the physical sciences, are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data, make future projections, and link causes and effects in climate change. Terminology The most general definition of climate change is a change in the statistical properties of the climate system when considered over long periods...
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...Art history From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the academic discipline of art history. For an overview of the history of art worldwide, see History of art. For other uses, see Art history (disambiguation). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011) Venus de Milo on display at the Louvre Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style.[1] This includes the "major" arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture as well as the "minor" arts of ceramics, furniture, and other decorative objects. As a term, art history (also history of art) encompasses several methods of studying the visual arts; in common usage referring to works of art and architecture. Aspects of the discipline worms. As the art historian Ernst Gombrich once observed, "the field of art history [is] much like Caesar's Gaul, divided in three parts inhabited by three different, though not necessarily hostile tribes: (i) the connoisseurs, (ii) the critics, and (iii) the academic art historians".[2] As a discipline, art history is distinguished from art criticism, which is concerned with establishing a relative artistic value upon individual works with respect to others of...
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