Ancient Egypt Towards the end of the fourth millennium BC several independent city-states were unified to form a single state, marking the beginning of over 3,000 years of pharaonic civilisation in the Nile Valley. Fertile earth left behind after the yearly Nile flood provided the basis for Egypt’s agricultural prosperity, a key factor in the longevity of the civilisation. Impressive monuments were erected in the name of kings, from monumental temples for the gods to the pyramids marking the burials of rulers. The British Museum collection includes statuary and decorated architecture from throughout pharaonic history, often inscribed with hieroglyphs. Texts preserved on papyrus help reveal the complex administration of the country, but also include magical, medical and mathematical works and poetry. At certain periods, Egypt’s empire extended over neighbouring areas, from Upper Nubia to the Euphrates river.
EMLoT: introduction Before you start You will better understand and get the most benefit from this website if you read the Introductory paragraphs which follow and the Help section, which explain the kinds of information in the database and how to search it effectively. Because one of our main goals is to help people who want to examine how period documents were used in later writings that inform our understanding of early London theatre history, EMLoT only includes those historical occurrences that got recorded before 1642 and then were copied by others after 1642. How we know what we know about early London theatres Most of what we know about the early London theatres, which developed before, during and shortly after the life of Shakespeare, has been passed down to us through a complex process of filtration. There is nothing wrong with such a process of filtration: it is both inevitable, and a fit subject in its own right for cultural history. How EMLoT helps By identifying Sources By categorising Sources
Aztecs (Mexica) During the twelfth century AD the Mexica were a small and obscure tribe searching for a new homeland. Eventually they settled in the Valley of Mexico and founded their capital, Tenochtitlan, in 1345. At the beginning of the sixteenth century it was one of the largest cities in the world. Warfare was extremely important for the Mexica people and led them to conquer most of modern-day central and southern Mexico. Stone sculpture in the British Museum collection reflects the Mexica's complex religious beliefs and the large pantheon of gods they worshipped. Craftsmen also worked in gold, turquoise mosaic and feathers. Hernán Cortés and his small Spanish army arrived in 1519 and overthrew the Mexica ruler Moctezuma Xocoyotzin with relative ease. *The people and culture we know as 'Aztec' referred to themselves as the Mexica (pronounced 'Mé-shee-ka'). Image caption: Mosaic mask of Quetzalcoatl Mexica/Mixtec, 15th-16th century AD.
Caxton's Chaucer - Background to William Caxton's Life These web pages will give you information on Caxton’s life. The section called Caxton’s England talks about how Caxton worked with others and how he found his readers. It also tells you something about his use of the English language. Caxton’s texts has information about the way Caxton used the English language, about the first book which he printed in English, and about the texts of the two editions of the Canterbury Tales themselves. Caxton’s technologies gives a brief introduction to printing - then still a relatively new invention - the way in which Caxton used woodcuts and a little about the arrangements of a printer’s workshop in the 15th century. Caxton in the British Library has the detailed bibliographical description of the copies of the two editions which are now here in the British Library.
British Museum shop online People in Place: houses, families in early modern London (1550-1720) A family at home. A woodcut from 1612. Families and households are central to our understanding of past and present societies, whether we are examining population change, economy, health, gender roles, or social relationships. This website introduces the methods and findings of a research project focused on family and household in London in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a period of great social and economic transformation. The project, 'People in Place; families, households and housing in early modern London, 1550-1720' was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (APN 16429) and ran from October 2003 to November 2006. On this site you will find a brief account of the 'People in Place' project and discussion of its key findings, access to published and unpublished papers and reports, and links to sites where the project's data are archived. back to the top
Polynesia The islands of the eastern Pacific are known as Polynesia, from the Greek for ‘many islands’. They lie across a vast stretch of ocean from Hawaii in the north, to New Zealand in the south and Easter Island in the east. The western Polynesian islands of Fiji and Tonga were settled approximately 3,000 years ago, whilst New Zealand was settled as recently as AD1200. In the past, Polynesians were skilled navigators and canoe builders, creating double-hulled vessels capable of travelling great distances. Today, Polynesian culture continues to develop and change, partly in response to colonialism. The Polynesian collections at the Museum date back to the earliest contact with European explorers and missionaries.
Geography Department, Cambridge » The Demography of Early Modern London circa 1550 to 1750 London in the early modern period was a rapidly-expanding pre-industrial metropolis, growing from c. 80,000 to over 700,000 inhabitants between 1550 and 1750, coming to contain a tenth of the country's population and perhaps half of its urban population. This growth was fuelled by high levels of in-migration from elsewhere in England, for very high levels of infant and child mortality precluded the possibility of growth through natural increase. While early modern London was unique for its time, developments there came to have wider significance, for they pre-dated, and to some extent prefigured, the experience of provincial cities that mushroomed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Map of London sample areas (click on image to enlarge) 1. The overall aim of this project was to set family groups and family and individual demographic behaviour in seventeenth and early eighteenth century London within their physical and, especially, housing environments. 2. 3. Publications
Méridien de Greenwich Un article de Wikipédia, l'encyclopédie libre. Emplacement du méridien de Greenwich (ligne rouge verticale) sur un planisphère Le méridien de Greenwich est le méridien qui sert de référence internationale de longitude, d'où son nom de « méridien origine ». Description[modifier | modifier le code] Histoire[modifier | modifier le code] Le choix du méridien de Greenwich comme point de référence pour la longitude est complètement arbitraire, aussi différents méridiens ont été utilisés par le passé : ↑ History of the Prime Meridian -Past and Present [1] [archive] Zones traversées[modifier | modifier le code] Matérialisation du méridien à l'observatoire de Greenwich Depuis le pôle Nord jusqu'au pôle Sud, le méridien de Greenwich traverse les régions et pays suivants : Notes et références[modifier | modifier le code] Voir aussi[modifier | modifier le code] Méridien
The Material Renaissance:Costs and Consumption in Italy 1300-1650 "The project explored: • The comparative prices of different types of goods in Italy over both time and place • The market for domestic goods such as food and clothing • The market for objects now considered 'art', particularly panel paintings, metalwork and antiquities The project aimed to investigate whether the relationship between the marketplace and individual or institutional artistic patronage changed between the 14th and the 17th centuries. We were particularly interested in asking whether art objects were, as is usually assumed, bought and sold in ways that distinguished them from other commodities. In addition we questioned the gendered nature of Renaissance consumption, examining how social communities of buyers and sellers were formed, and exploring the different means by which objects were acquired in courts and republican communities" (from project web site: please see for more details). Funding sources: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Getty Grant Program
Piccadilly Circus, London The Circus lies at the intersection of five main roads: Regent Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, Piccadilly Street, Covent Street and Haymarket. It was created by John Nash as part of the future King George IV's plan to connect Carlton House - where the Prince Regent resided - with Regent's Park. The creation of Shaftesbury Avenue in 1885 turned the plaza into a busy traffic junction. Eros statue currently only one building still carries large (mostly electronic) displays. At the center of the Circus stands the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain. The name 'Piccadilly' originates from a seventeenth-century frilled collar The Circus at night named piccadil. Piccadilly Circus is now partly pedestrianized and a favorite place for people to congregate before going to the nearby shopping and entertainment areas.