Hasil untuk "Ancient history"

Chamila Gamage

This paper frames calculus as a global, centuries-long development rather than a subject that began only with Newton and Leibniz. Drawing on ideas from Greek, Indian, Islamic, and later European mathematics, it highlights how concepts like infinity, area, motion, and continuous change slowly evolved through solving problems and cultural exchange. I argue that bringing this history into the classroom helps students see calculus as more than a set of procedures: it becomes a story of human creativity and persistence. By revisiting the questions early mathematicians struggled with, students can better appreciate and better understand the core ideas behind the formulas they use today.

James I. Porter

Este artigo explora a natureza multifacetada da filologia, traçando suas raízes na história ocidental desde a Grécia clássica até seu florescimento na Alexandria helenística e a subsequente integração na Europa durante o Renascimento e depois. Ao contrário da narrativa predominante da "philologia perennis", esse relato desafia o entendimento convencional da filologia ao destacar suas diversas dimensões além da análise textual. O argumento lida com as posições críticas defendidas por acadêmicos tão diferentes quanto James Turner, Sirad Ahmed, Sasha-Mae Eccleston, Dan-el Padilla Peralta e outros. A tensão entre os dois domínios da filologia e da filosofia é então explorada a fim de enfatizar a interconexão da sabedoria e das palavras.  Ao considerar figuras muitas vezes ignoradas pela história da erudição clássica, como Hannah Arendt, Victor Klemperer, Adorno e Horkheimer, Rachel Bespaloff, Simone Weil, Erich Auerbach, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jacob Bernays, Vico e Spinoza, o presente relato vê a filologia além dos limites acadêmicos tradicionais, levando a uma reflexão sobre a relevância contemporânea da filologia e seu futuro em potencial.

Adam Kucharski

Polski ksiądz, kanonik smoleński, Ignacy Hrebnicki, pochodził z litewskiej rodziny szlacheckiej. Pozostawił ciekawą pamiątkę historyczną, którą jest dziennik podróży do Włoch z lat 1788-1790. Duchowni z terenów polsko-litewskiej Rzeczypospolitej napisali wiele relacji z podróży na kapituły generalne swoich zgromadzeń zakonnych. Dziennik podróży Hrebnickiego ma jednak inny charakter. Jest zapisem drogi do Rzymu. Zawiera także odniesienia do kultu męczennika Andrzeja Boboli. Hrebnicki darzył tego zmarłego jezuitę wielką czcią i zabiegał u papieża o jego beatyfikację. Podkreśla w swoim pamiętniku własne, liczne inicjatywy szerzenia kultu tego męczennika w czasie tej podróży. Pisał na jego cześć wiersze i modlitwy oraz rozdawał obrazki z jego wizerunkiem.

Anita Di Chiara, Lisa Tauxe, Helen Gries et al.

Data from the marriage of paleomagnetism and archaeology (archaeomagnetism) are the backbone of attempts to create geomagnetic field models for ancient times. Paleointensity experimental design has been the focus of intensive efforts and the requirements and shortcomings are increasingly well understood. Some archaeological materials have excellent age control from inscriptions, which can be tied to a given decade or even a specific year in some cases. In this study, we analyzed fired mud bricks used for the construction of the Ishtar Gate, the entrance complex to the ancient city of Babylon in Southern Mesopotamia. We were able to extract reliable intensity data from all three phases of the gate, the earliest of which includes bricks inscribed with the name of King Nebuchadnezzar II (605 to 562 BCE). These results (1) add high quality intensity data to a region relatively unexplored so far (Southern Mesopotamia), (2) contribute to a better understanding of paleosecular variation in this region, and the development of an archaeomagnetic dating reference for one of the key regions in the history of human civilizations; (3) demonstrate the potential of inscribed bricks (glazed and unglazed), a common material in ancient Mesopotamia, to archaeomagnetic studies; and (4) suggest that the gate complex was constructed some time after the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem, and that there were no substantial chronological gaps in the construction of each consecutive phase. The best fit of our data (averaging 136±2.1 ZAm2) with those of the reference curve (the Levantine Archaeomagnetic Curve) is 569 BCE.

Dmitrii Igorevich Makarov

In Chapters 93 to 98 of the Sententious Notes (1320s), Theodore Metochites put forward an idea that the basic social and political agents in the society, i. e. emperor, aristocracy, and the people, belonged to different natures. Such a consideration, which was also uttered in passing by Shakespeare in Hamlet (1599–1601), meant theologically a transposition into the political philosophy of some tenets of the heresy of Tritheism, which was known to have emerged in the sixth century AD and to have become the target of polemics lead by Leontios of Byzantium, some Fathers of the Church, and anonymous polemists. In the late-thirteenth century, some allegations of this heresy came to be rejuvenated by John XI Bekkos in his messy theological system. Evidently, Metochites reinvigorates those Latinophile statements that already in the last third of the thirteenth century had been close to his father George Metochites, who had been condemned at the Council of Blachernai in 1285 together with John Bekkos and Constantine Meliteniotes. Metochites was certain to recognize aristocracy as the entelechy of the people and its political role, in compliance with a tenet of Theodore II Laskaris’ (1254–1258) Neoplatonism, to wit, that entelechy and difference are the two principles which govern all the beings. This article also considers some partly similar ideas about the role of the people and of the aristocracy in the social structure from the Foreigner (Forestiero) by Giulio Capaccio (1560–1634), a baroque thinker from Napoli. Capaccio was closer, than Metochites, to the concept of the people’s representation in the authorities, working on a regular basis. But Capaccio was also too close to the aforementioned notions of the Mediaeval Neoplatonism. Therefore, we believe, unlike Eva de Vries – van der Velden, that Metochites’ political views should be compared not with those of Montesquieu, but with those notions and concepts which were characteristic for the representatives of the Renaissance and Early Baroque world from the fourteenth to seventeenth century. Simultaneously, the idea of maintaining social harmony, which was conceived as similar to the musical one, was proffered as early as in the first century BC in the Confucian treatise Records of Music. Consequently, this concept goes beyond the Indo-European civilizational community.

Guo-Dong Wang, W. Zhai, He-Chuan Yang et al.

The origin and evolution of the domestic dog remains a controversial question for the scientific community, with basic aspects such as the place and date of origin, and the number of times dogs were domesticated, open to dispute. Using whole genome sequences from a total of 58 canids (12 gray wolves, 27 primitive dogs from Asia and Africa, and a collection of 19 diverse breeds from across the world), we find that dogs from southern East Asia have significantly higher genetic diversity compared to other populations, and are the most basal group relating to gray wolves, indicating an ancient origin of domestic dogs in southern East Asia 33 000 years ago. Around 15 000 years ago, a subset of ancestral dogs started migrating to the Middle East, Africa and Europe, arriving in Europe at about 10 000 years ago. One of the out of Asia lineages also migrated back to the east, creating a series of admixed populations with the endemic Asian lineages in northern China before migrating to the New World. For the first time, our study unravels an extraordinary journey that the domestic dog has traveled on earth.

David Coniam, Polyxeni Poupounaki-Lappa, Tzortzina Peristeri

This paper builds on the work presented previously in this journal by Poupounaki-Lappa et al. (2021), which described the development of a communicative test of Reading and Language Use of Classical Greek calibrated to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) at levels A1 and A2 (Council of Europe, 2001). In the current paper, the two tests of Classical Greek are calibrated both together and to the CEFR. In addition to describing the methodology for comparing the two separate tests of Classical Greek, the paper is also designed to be of interest to educators of other classical languages. It is hoped that they may find it useful not only by facilitating robust test design, but also by demonstrating the methods by which tests can be linked together on a common scale (as with the CEFR) or linking tests one to another (e.g., different end-of-year tests, at different points in time).

Ram Sagar

The Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), a premier autonomous research institute under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India has a legacy of about seven decades with contributions made in the field of observational sciences namely atmospheric and astrophysics. The Survey of India used a location at ARIES, determined with an accuracy of better than 10 meters on a world datum through institute participation in a global network of Earth artificial satellites imaging during late 1950. Taking advantage of its high-altitude location, ARIES, for the first time, provided valuable input for climate change studies by long term characterization of physical and chemical properties of aerosols and trace gases in the central Himalayan regions. In astrophysical sciences, the institute has contributed precise and sometime unique observations of the celestial bodies leading to a number of discoveries. With the installation of the 3.6 meter Devasthal optical telescope in the year 2015, India became the only Asian country to join those few nations of the world who are hosting 4 meter class optical telescopes. This telescope, having advantage of geographical location, is well-suited for multi-wavelength observations and for sub-arc-second resolution imaging of the celestial objects including follow-up of the GMRT, AstroSat and gravitational-wave sources.

Yongzhe Zhang, Connor Olson, Ilyas Khan et al.

We construct an ancient solution to planar curve shortening. The solution is at all times compact and embedded. For $t\ll0$ it is approximated by the rotating Yin-Yang soliton, truncated at a finite angle $α(t) = -t$, and closed off by a small copy of the Grim Reaper translating soliton.

Miguel Ángel Maté-González, Cristina Sáez Blázquez, Pedro Carrasco García et al.

This research focuses on the study of the ruins of a large building known as “El Torreón” (the Tower), belonging to the Ulaca <i>oppidum</i> (Solosancho, Province of Ávila, Spain). Different remote sensing and geophysical approaches have been used to fulfil this objective, providing a better understanding of the building’s functionality in this town, which belongs to the Late Iron Age (ca. 300–50 BCE). In this sense, the outer limits of the ruins have been identified using photogrammetry and convergent drone flights. An additional drone flight was conducted in the surrounding area to find additional data that could be used for more global interpretations. Magnetometry was used to analyze the underground bedrock structure and ground penetrating radar (GPR) was employed to evaluate the internal layout of the ruins. The combination of these digital methodologies (surface and underground) has provided a new perspective for the improved interpretation of “El Torreón” and its characteristics. Research of this type presents additional guidelines for better understanding of the role of this structure with regards to other buildings in the Ulaca <i>oppidum</i>. The results of these studies will additionally allow archaeologists to better plan future interventions while presenting new data that can be used for the interpretation of this archaeological complex on a larger scale.

Guillermo Luis López Merino

Christian Frevel

The paper addresses two crucial questions of the history of Israelite religion. Did YHWH emerge in the southern steppe and when did YHWH become the God of Judah? After discussing the available evidence for YHWH’s origin in the South, the paper tests the extra-biblical evidence for the worship of YHWH in Israel and Judah and questions his widespread importance in the tenth and early ninth centuries BCE in the mentioned territories. By presenting the theophoric personal names, the hypothesis is corroborated that YHWH was significantly introduced at the earliest by the Omrides. Moving then to the epigraphic evidence, the additional evince for YHWH’s origin in the South is reviewed negatively. YHWH of Teman from Kuntillet ʽAjrud cannot prove the origin of this deity in the South. It is rather a piece of evidence that the worship of this deity in the South was not natural even in the mid-eighth century BCE. That YHWH’s true origin is in Midian, Paran, Seir, etc. remains a speculative hypothesis that is built on the tradition-history of some biblical passages and the biblical Sinai tradition. This particular feature is indeed related to the South and its struggle to claim independence for the Southern YHWH from the North. YHWH was only introduced to Judah as a patron deity of the dynasty, and that is the state of the Omrides ruling in Jerusalem.

Murray Gell-Mann, James B Hartle

This paper discusses the relation between the decoherent histories approach to quantum mechanics that is based on coarse-grained decoherent histories of a closed system, and the approximate quantum mechanics of measured subsystems, as in the Copenhagen interpretation. We show how the a classical world used in such formulations is not to something to be postulated but rather explained by suitable sets of alternative histories of quasiclassical variables. We discuss the general definition of measurement, the collapse of the wave function, and irreversibility from the perspective of decoherent histories quantum theory..

Wassim Swaileh, Dimitrios Kotzinos, Suman Ghosh et al.

Access to historical monuments' floor plans over a time period is necessary to understand the architectural evolution and history. Such knowledge bases also helps to rebuild the history by establishing connection between different event, person and facts which are once part of the buildings. Since the two-dimensional plans do not capture the entire space, 3D modeling sheds new light on the reading of these unique archives and thus opens up great perspectives for understanding the ancient states of the monument. Since the first step in the building's or monument's 3D model is the wall detection in the floor plan, we introduce in this paper the new and unique Versailles FP dataset of wall groundtruthed images of the Versailles Palace dated between 17th and 18th century. The dataset's wall masks are generated using an automatic approach based on multi directional steerable filters. The generated wall masks are then validated and corrected manually. We validate our approach of wall mask generation in state-of-the-art modern datasets. Finally we propose a U net based convolutional framework for wall detection. Our method achieves state of the art result surpassing fully connected network based approach.

Evan K. Irving-Pease, Rasa Muktupavela, Michael Dannemann et al.

Genetic association data from national biobanks and large-scale association studies have provided new prospects for understanding the genetic evolution of complex traits and diseases in humans. In turn, genomes from ancient human archaeological remains are now easier than ever to obtain, and provide a direct window into changes in frequencies of trait-associated alleles in the past. This has generated a new wave of studies aiming to analyse the genetic component of traits in historic and prehistoric times using ancient DNA, and to determine whether any such traits were subject to natural selection. In humans, however, issues about the portability and robustness of complex trait inference across different populations are particularly concerning when predictions are extended to individuals that died thousands of years ago, and for which little, if any, phenotypic validation is possible. In this review, we discuss the advantages of incorporating ancient genomes into studies of trait-associated variants, the need for models that can better accommodate ancient genomes into quantitative genetic frameworks, and the existing limits to inferences about complex trait evolution, particularly with respect to past populations.

Sjang L. ten Hagen

This article contributes to a global history of relativity, by exploring how Einstein's theory was appropriated in Belgium. This may sound as a contradiction in terms, yet the early-twentieth-century Belgian context, because of its cultural diversity and reflectiveness of global conditions (the principal example being the First World War), proves well-suited to expose transnational flows and patterns in the global history of relativity. The attempts of Belgian physicist Théophile de Donder to contribute to relativity physics during the 1910s and 1920s illustrate the role of the war in shaping the transnational networks through which relativity circulated. The local attitudes of conservative Belgian Catholic scientists and philosophers, who denied that relativity was philosophically significant, exemplify a global pattern: while critics of relativity feared to become marginalized by the scientific, political, and cultural revolutions that Einstein and his theory were taken to represent, supporters sympathized with these revolutions.

P. Aiewsakun, A. Katzourakis

The rapid rates of viral evolution allow us to reconstruct the recent history of viruses in great detail. This feature, however, also results in rapid erosion of evolutionary signal within viral molecular data, impeding studies of their deep history. Thus, the further back in time, the less accurate the inference becomes. Furthermore, reconstructing complex histories of transmission can be challenging, especially where extinct viral lineages are concerned. This problem has been partially solved by the discovery of viruses embedded in host genomes, known as endogenous viral elements (EVEs). Some of these endogenous viruses are derived from ancient relatives of extant viruses, allowing us to better examine ancient viral host range, geographical distribution and transmission routes. Moreover, our knowledge of viral evolutionary timescales and rate dynamics has also been greatly improved by their discovery, thereby bridging the gap between recent and ancient viral evolution.

Laurence Hanes, Robert Stone

Virtual environments are an important aspect of serious games for heritage. However navigable three-dimensional (3D) environments can be costly and resource-intensive to create and for users to run. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach using “constrained virtual environments”, which present an environment through a series of reduced fidelity two-dimensional (2D) scenes without exhaustive detail. We describe the development of a constrained virtual environment to replicate a 3D environment from a serious game concerning ancient Mesopotamian history. An exploratory experiment discovered that participants experienced a similar sense of presence in the constrained environment to that of the 3D environment and rated the two games to be of similar quality. Participants were equally likely to pursue further information on the subject matter afterwards and collected more information tokens from within the constrained environment. A subsequent interview with a museum expert explored opportunities for such games to be implemented in museum displays, and based on the experiences and issues encountered, a preliminary set of guidelines was compiled for implementing future constrained virtual environments within serious games for heritage.

Loy John W., Morford W. Robert

The contest element of modern sport has its ancient roots in the “agon” of early Greek life. We begin with an overview of the material and historical continuities in the social development of sport, followed by a discussion of our suppositions regarding the original linkage of sport and war in terms of what we call “the agon motif”, and conclude with speculations about residuals of the agon motif in modern sport. We argue it is important to recognize that notwithstanding of the many transitions and transformations in the social development of sport since the agon of Homeric and Hellenic Greek cultures there are notable, long-standing, material and historical continuities in the structure of sport and the ethos of agonal contests. To better depict the relationships between the concepts of sport and contest, we highlight these vestiges of agon. We employ the phrase “the agon motif” to embrace both the concept of “agon”and the concept of “aethlos”. In a structural sense the agon motif refers to the overall properties, processes, and products of agonal competition, including contestants, spectators, battle grounds, sporting venues, festivals and spectacles, prizes and award ceremonies. Whereas, in an ideational sense, the agon motif refers to the ethos of chivalric competition associated with the pursuit of prestige (status-honor) and the active quest to achieve excellence (bodily and moral) through physical prowess in agonal contests wherein individuals place their reputation, moral character, and at times, their very lives at stake. There is a close link to the cult of masculinity and masculine domination in the Western world, since the primary avenues of pursuing the agon motif through war and sport are two of the most highly and rigidly “gendered” activities in the history of humankind. We suggest that the most fundamental dynamic of the agon motif as well as the most enduring residual of the agon motif in modern sport is the pursuit of prestige, honor and excellence through physical prowess. The ethical framework of archaic (heroic) agon represents the epitome of a morality of honor and an ethics of virtue and offers a largely unfamiliar picture from a contemporary viewpoint of winning and losing in sport.

F. Fragkoudi, R. J. J. Grand, R. Pakmor et al.

We explore the chemodynamical properties of a sample of barred galaxies in the Auriga magneto-hydrodynamical cosmological zoom-in simulations, which form boxy/peanut (b/p) bulges, and compare these to the Milky Way (MW). We show that the Auriga galaxies which best reproduce the chemodynamical properties of stellar populations in the MW bulge have quiescent merger histories since redshift $z\sim3.5$: their last major merger occurs at $t_{\rm lookback}>12\,\rm Gyrs$, while subsequent mergers have a stellar mass ratio of $\leq$1:20, suggesting an upper limit of a few percent for the mass ratio of the recently proposed Gaia Sausage/Enceladus merger. These Auriga MW-analogues have a negligible fraction of ex-situ stars in the b/p region ($<1\%$), with flattened, thick disc-like metal-poor stellar populations. The average fraction of ex-situ stars in the central regions of all Auriga galaxies with b/p's is 3% -- significantly lower than in those which do not host a b/p or a bar. While the central regions of these barred galaxies contain the oldest populations, they also have stars younger than 5Gyrs (>30%) and exhibit X-shaped age and abundance distributions. Examining the discs in our sample, we find that in some cases a star-forming ring forms around the bar, which alters the metallicity of the inner regions of the galaxy. Further out in the disc, bar-induced resonances lead to metal-rich ridges in the $V_φ-r$ plane -- the longest of which is due to the Outer Lindblad Resonance. Our results suggest the Milky Way has an uncommonly quiet merger history, which leads to an essentially in-situ bulge, and highlight the significant effects the bar can have on the surrounding disc.