Verständnis

The word Verständnis is a German noun that means understanding, comprehension, sympathy, appreciation, or insight1. It is derived from the verb verstehen, which means to understand, comprehend, or perceive. The suffix -nis is used to form abstract nouns from verbs or adjectives3.

The origin of the word verstehen can be traced back to the Proto-Germanic *furstēnijaną, which meant to stand before or in front of. This verb was composed of the prefix *fur-, meaning before or in front of, and the root *stē-, meaning to stand4. The prefix *fur- is cognate with the English for and fore, while the root *stē- is related to the English stand and stay.

The suffix -nis is derived from the Proto-Germanic *-nassuz, which was used to form abstract nouns from verbs or adjectives. This suffix is cognate with the English -ness and -nesses, as well as the Latin -ntia and -ntium, which are found in words like patientia (patience) and sapientia (wisdom).

The word Verständnis has been used in German since at least the 15th century. It has been influenced by the philosophical concept of Verstehen, which refers to the interpretive understanding of human action and social phenomena. Verstehen was developed by German thinkers such as Wilhelm Dilthey, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel in the 19th and 20th centuries.

In summary, Verständnis is a German word that means understanding or insight. It is derived from the verb verstehen, which means to understand or perceive. The suffix -nis is used to form abstract nouns from verbs or adjectives. The word Verständnis has a long history in German language and philosophy.

Feuerwerfer🔥

The word Feuerwerfer is a German noun that means fire-thrower, flamethrower, or firework launcher1. It is composed of the words Feuer, which means fire, and Werfer, which means thrower or launcher. The suffix -er is used to form agent nouns from verbs or nouns2.

The origin of the word Feuer can be traced back to the Proto-Germanic *fōr, which meant fire or flame3. This word is cognate with the English fire, the Dutch vuur, the Swedish eld, and the Latin pyr (as in pyre or pyrotechnics). The word Feuer has been used in German since at least the 8th century.

The origin of the word Werfer can be traced back to the Proto-Germanic *werpōną, which meant to throw or cast. This verb is cognate with the English warp, the Dutch werpen, the Swedish värpa, and the Latin verber (as in verberate or reverberate). The word Werfer has been used in German since at least the 10th century.

The word Feuerwerfer has been used in German since at least the 16th century. It was originally used to refer to devices that threw fire or explosives, such as cannons or grenades. Later, it was also used to refer to devices that launched fireworks for entertainment or celebration. In the 20th century, it was also used to refer to weapons that sprayed burning fuel or gas, such as flamethrowers.

In summary, Feuerwerfer is a German word that means fire-thrower or firework launcher. It is composed of the words Feuer, which means fire, and Werfer, which means thrower or launcher. The word Feuerwerfer has a long history in German language and technology.

The Tłı̨chǫ

The various Dogrib bands inhabited a vast region between Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake in the present-day Northwest Territories of northern Canada.

They are classified as northern ATHAPASCANS based on language and as SUBARCTIC INDIANS based on location and lifeways. The CHIPEWYAN living to their southeast,

the YELLOWKNIFE (TATSANOTTINE) to their east, and the SLAVEY (ETCHAREOTTINE) to their south--all Athapascans--were their rivals. The Dogrib also fought with the CREE to the south, who were Algonquian-speaking,

and the INUIT to the east and northeast.

The Dogrib lived in autonomous nomadic bands,

each with a headman and a hunting and fishing territory.

Caribou, moose, musk ox, hare, and birds were their primary foods. They preferred meat over fish, but they caught whitefish, trout, and other species in willow bark nets. Caribou also provided clothing and coverings for portable cone-shaped tents similar to those of the Chipewyan. Some Dogrib bands instead used poles and brush to make winter huts that resembled the dwellings of the HARE (KAWCHOTTINE) and other Athapascans to the north. Dogrib canoes of spruce bark, or birch bark when it was available, unlike those of neighboring tribes,

had decking at the bow and stern, at least by postcontact times.

Among many of the northern Athapascans, it was customary for a father to drop his name after the birth of his first child, becoming known thereafter as “father of. . . .” Dogrib fathers, however, changed their names following the birth of each child. Their women enjoyed better status than women of other Subarctic tribes, but the old and sick were abandoned in times of hardship. Shamans healed the sick and prophesized the future. The Dogrib believed that spirits resided in nature, and, as was the case with many Native Americans, guardian spirits were sought in dreams and visions. Like other Subarctic peoples, they buried their dead on scaffolds. Family and even band members destroyed their property in mourning; women cut themselves. A year after the funeral, a memorial feast was held.

The Dogrib had contact with non-Indian traders as early as 1744, despite efforts by the Chipewyan to prevent their access to non-Indian trading posts. In the late 18th century and part of the 19th century, the Dogrib were dominated by the Yellowknife. In 1823, a Dogrib war party attacked the Yellowknife near Great Bear Lake,

forcing them to withdraw from the region and leading to their absorption by the Chipewyan. Some Dogrib merged with Hare and Slavey around Great Bear Lake,

becoming known as Sahtu Dene, or Bear Lake Indians,

who traded regularly with Hudson’s Bay Company representatives at Fort Franklin, founded in 1825. Fort Rae,

founded by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1852 on the northern arm of the Great Slave Lake, became the center of trading activity for most Dogrib bands, who collected muskrat, mink, fox, and other furs in exchange for European trade goods. The Dogrib remained an isolated people until the mid-20th century, at which time improvements in transportation and communication led to increased contacts with other Canadians.

In August 2003, the Dogrib signed a land-claims agreement with the Canadian government in which the various Dogrib bands--collectively known as Tli Cho First Nation--received some 25,000 square miles north of Yellowknife between the Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. The new Tli Cho government will also receive $152 million in payments over 15 years. Four legislative bodies govern the region’s communities; the chiefs must be Tli Cho,

although anyone may run for councillor and vote. The Tli Cho have control over their language and culture as well as taxation, resource royalties, social services, liquor laws, licensing healers, and land management, including hunting, fishing, and industrial development. The central government controls criminal law, and the territorial government controls services such as health care and education. Unlike in the case of Nunavut, created in 1999, and the homeland mostly of Inuit, the Tli Cho land settlement does not create a new territory.

caption:Map of Tłı̨chǫ Lands, indicating the Traditional Use Zone and the Cultural Heritage Zone of the Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measure. (CNW Group/Environment and Climate Change Canada)

Caption:Canoe Trail from Gameti to Mesa Lake on Tłı̨chǫ Land in Northwest Territories. Photo credit: Petter Jacobsen (2014) (CNW Group/Environment and Climate Change Canada)

Language

Tłı̨chǫ belongs to the Northern Athabaskan branch of the Na-Dené language family, and is spoken in the Northwest Territories of Canada by 2,640 people. It is also known as Dogrib, and is spoken in the region between the Great Slave Lake and the Great Bear Lake.

The largest Tłı̨chǫ community in that region is Behchokǫ̀ ('Big Knife'), which was formerly known as Rae-Edzo. There are also Dogrib communities in Whatì (Lac la Martre), Gamèti (Rae Lakes), Wekweeti (Snare Lake), Dettah, and N'Dilo, a sub-community of Somba K’e (Yellow Knife).

Source:Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes

by Carl Waldman, Molly Braun (Illustrator)

Hans Christian Andersen

Andersen, Hans Christian

(1805-75)

   A Danish shoemaker's son who as a child had heard traditional storytelling 'in the spinning-room or during the hop harvest'. He began writing fairytales in 1835, and continued all his life; the first English translations appeared in 1846. Some, for instance 'The Travelling Companions' and 'Big Claus and Little Claus', follow traditional plots quite closely; others are variations on old motifs, such as 'The Little Mermaid', elaborating the belief that water-spirits may love humans, and may desire to obtain salvation. Many, including the well-known 'Ugly Duckling', are entirely his own creations; almost all are full of pathos and emotionalism. Andersen's influence on the later literary fairytale in England was profound; it pervades the fairytales of Oscar Wilde, and can be felt as early as 1857 in several passages of Dickens's Little Dorrit. About a dozen are now among the stock of fairytales which most English children know, and are no longer felt as foreign.

Cutch

an extract obtained from several plants, its chief sources being the wood of two species of acacia (A. catechu and A. suma), both natives of India. This extract is known as black catechu. A similar extract, known in pharmacy as pale catechu (Catechu pallidum), and in general commerce as gambir, or terra japonica, is produced from the leaves of Uncaria gambir  and U. acida, cinchonaceous plants growing in the East Indian Archipelago. A third product to which the name catechu is also applied, is obtained from the fruits of the areca or betel palm, Areca catechu.

Ordinary black catechu is usually imported in three different forms. The first and best quality, known as Pegu catechu, is obtained in blocks externally covered with large leaves; the second and less pure variety is in masses, which have been moulded in sand; and the third consists of large cubes packed in coarse bags. The wood of the two species of Acacia yielding 

catechu is taken for the manufacture when the trees have attained a diameter of about 1 ft. The bark is stripped off and used for tanning, and the trunk is split up into small fragments, which are covered with water and boiled. When the extract has become sufficiently thick it is cast into the forms in which the catechu is found in commerce. Catechu so prepared is a dark brown, or, in mass, almost black, substance, brittle, and having generally a shining lustre. It is astringent, with a sweetish taste. In cold water it disintegrates, and in boiling water, alcohol, acetic acid and strong caustic alkali it is completely dissolved. Chemically it consists of a mixture of a peculiar variety of tannin termed catechu-tannic acid with catechin or catechuic acid, and a brown substance due to the alteration of both these principles. Catechu-tannic acid is an amorphous body soluble in cold water, while catechin occurs in minute, white, silky, needle-shaped crystals, which do not dissolve in cold water. A very minute proportion of quercetin, a principle yielded by quercitron bark, has been obtained from catechu.

Gambir, which is similar in chemical composition to ordinary catechu, occurs in commerce in the form of cubes of about an inch in size, with a pale brown or yellow colour, and an even earthy fracture. For the preparation of this extract the plants above mentioned are stripped of their leaves and young twigs, and these are boiled down in shallow pans. The juice is strained off, evaporated, and when sufficiently concentrated is cast into shallow boxes, where, as it hardens and dries, it is cut into small cubes.

Gambir and catechu are extensively employed in dyeing and tanning. For dyeing they have been in use in India from the most remote period, but it was only during the 19th century that they were placed on the list of European dyeing substances. Catechu is fixed by oxidation of the colouring principle, catechin, on the cloth after dyeing or printing; and treated thus it yields a variety of durable tints of drabs, browns and olives with different mordants (see Dyeing). The principal consumption of catechu occurs in the preparation of fibrous substances exposed to water, such as fishing-lines and nets, and for colouring stout canvas used for covering boxes and portmanteaus under the name of tanned canvas. Black catechu is official in most pharmacopoeias except that of Great Britain, in which pale catechu is the official drug. The actions and uses of the two are similar, but black catechu is the more powerful. 

The dose is from five to twenty grains. The pulvis catechu compositus contains catechu and kino, and may be given in doses twice as large as those named. The drug has the actions and uses of tannic acid, but owing to the relative insolubility of catechu-tannic acid, it is more valuable than ordinary tannic acid in diarrhoea, dysentery and intestinal haemorrhage.

Mihai Eminescu

Mihail Eminescu was born at Ipotesti in northern Moldavia on Jan. 15, 1850, into a family of country gentry. He spent his first years like a peasant child in the midst of nature and under the influence of folklore. His adolescence was agitated by conflicts with his family. He interrupted his studies several times, going on tours with theatrical companies. He made his literary debut at 16 in the Romanian review Familia (The Family), published in Budapest.

Eminescu studied philosophy in Vienna from 1869 to 1872 and in Berlin from 1872 to 1874. Returning to Romania in 1874, he held several minor jobs in laşi (custodian of the university library, inspector of schools, subeditor of an obscure newspaper). There, and after leaving laşi, he found himself under the influence of the political and esthetic literary circle Junimea ("Youth"). In 1877 Eminescu went to Bucharest to work on the staff of the newspaper Timpul (Time). Eminescu's steady journalistic activity filled the years from 1877 to 1883. Struck by insanity in 1883, he lived until 1889 in a dramatic alternation between lucidity and madness.

Eminescu concentrated in his work the entire evolution of Romanian national poetry. The most illustrative poems of his early years (1866-1873) are "The Dissolute Youth," "The Epigones," "Mortua Est," "Angel and Demon," and "Emperor and Proletarian." The overwhelming influences on his poetry of this period were from Shakespeare and Lord Byron.

The ever deeper influence of Romanian folklore, his close contact with German philosophy and romanticism in the years 1872 to 1874 when he was preparing for a doctor's degree in philosophy in Berlin, and the evolution of his own creative powers carried Eminescu toward a new vision of the world. His poetical universe shifted to the spheres of magical transparencies offered by folklore as ideal and possible grounds for a love that was both a dream and a transfiguration. His poetical expression became increasingly inward, simplified, and sweetened. His poetry began to show rare strength and beauty, involving a universe in which a demiurgical eye and hand seemed to have conferred a new order upon the elements and to have infused them with infinite freshness and power.

In "The Blue Flower" Eminescu offered a new interpretation of the aspiration in the fulfillment of love. The most important poem written during this period was "Câlin" ("Leaves from a Fairy Tale"), a synthesis of the epical and the lyrical, with a description of the Romanian landscape.

After 1876 the sphere of Eminescu's inner experience deepened. The poetry of his maturity reached all human dimensions, from the sensitive, emotional ones to the intellectual, spiritual ones. Until 1883 his poetry was an uninterrupted meditation on the human condition in which the artist always stood on the summits of human thinking and feeling. The most important works of his last period are "A Dacian's Prayer," "Ode in the Ancient Meter," and the "Epistles." His masterpiece is "The Evening Star" (1883), a version of the Hyperion myth. Ideas and meaning, expressed in symbols, are manifold, profoundly ambiguous, and discernible in an esthetic achievement of supreme simplicity and expressiveness. In Barren Genius, a posthumously published novel of romantic trend, and especially in "Poor Dyonis," a fantastic, philosophical short story, Eminescu added some demiurgical features to his romantic hero.

Mihai Eminescu, monument in Chisinau, Rep.of Moldova via #Wikipedia 

Castillo Armas, Carlos (1914–1957) US Client

GUATEMALA PRESIDENT CARLOS CASTILLO ARMAS VISITS HAVANA 1950s ORIG Photo Y 89 

10 X 7 INCHES

Carlos Castillo Armas (b. 4 November 1914; d. 26 July 1957), president of Guatemala (1954–1957). Born into a provincial Ladino family in the department of Escuintla, Castillo Armas pursued a military career, rising to the rank of colonel and director of the national military academy in 1947.

Obsessed by the July 1949 assassination of army chief and presidential candidate Colonel Francisco Javier Arana (an act he attributed to Arana's political rival, Lieutenant Colonel Jacobo Arbenz, who was elected president in November 1950), Castillo Armas launched a five-year rebellion against the Arbenz regime. In November 1949 he led an abortive attack on a Guatemala City military base. He was shot, but he revived while being taken to the cemetery. Sentenced to death, he tunneled out of the Central Penitentiary in June 1951 and took refuge in the Colombian embassy, which granted him political asylum. From Colombia he moved to Honduras, where, with a number of other Guatemalan political dissidents, he launched the National Liberation Movement. Supported by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), this offensive succeeded in overthrowing Arbenz on 2 July 1954 and established Castillo Armas as leader of a five-man governing junta set up in San Salvador under the auspices of U.S. Ambassador John Peurifoy. On 10 October 1954 Castillo Armas was elected president in an unopposed plebescite.

The presidency of Carlos Castillo Armas followed three broad interrelated policies: the dismantling of most of the governmental programs and institutions established by the Cerezo Arévalo and Arbenz regimes during the so-called revolutionary decade (1944–1954); a socioeconomic strategy that can be termed "conservative modernization"; and close cooperation with the United States. The "liberationist" regime banned all existing political parties, labor federations, and peasant organizations; disenfranchised three-quarters of the electorate by excluding illiterates; annulled the Arbenz agrarian reform  law; and restored the right of the Roman Catholic Church to own property and conduct religious instruction in the public schools.

Seeking to become a "showcase of capitalist development," the regime encouraged foreign investment by granting tax concessions and by repealing laws restricting foreign oil exploration and investments in public utilities. It secured substantial loans and credits from the United States for road building and beef and cotton production. It also sought to stimulate internal investment by maintaining low taxes and wage rates.

The July 1957 assassination of President Castillo Armas by one of his personal bodyguards in the National Palace has been attributed to a power struggle in his political party, the National Democratic Movement.

Herman Cortez

Extracted from Catholic Encyclopedia 

Cortex, HERNANDO, conqueror of Mexico, b. at Medellin in Spain c. 1485; d. at Castilleja de la Cuesta near Seville, December 2, 1547. He was married first to Catalina Xuarez, from which marriage there was no issue, and, after her death, to Dona Juana de Zuniga, niece of the Duke of Bejar. From this union there sprang four children, one son (Martin) and three daughters. His parents were Martin Cortes de Monroy and Catalina Pizarro Altamirano, both of honorable extraction, belonging to the middle class of nobility, but not wealthy. They sent their son to school at Salamanca when he was fourteen years of age, but study was irksome to him, his restless and ambitious temper chafed under restraint, and he returned home much to the displeasure of his parents. As he was the only son, they looked upon him as their hope and future support, and had wished that he would adopt the profession of the law. Dissatisfied at home Cortes turned his eyes to the newly discovered Western world, and, after an unsuccessful attempt to embark for the West Indies with Ovando, succeeded in reaching Espanola in a craft commanded by one Quintero, who signalized himself during the voyage by trying to deceive his superiors and reach the New World before them in order to secure personal advantages. It may be that the example of Quintero was a school for Cortes in his subsequent career. The life Cortes led in the Antilles was that of the military man of his time, with intervals of rest on such estates as he gradually acquired. He was a favorite of both Ovando and Velazquez, but he quarrelled with the latter, deceived him and made him a mortal enemy. The consequences were very serious, for Velazquez was Governor of Cuba and a man of influence at court. The conduct of Cortes during his stay in the Antilles (1504-1519) revealed, besides military aptitude (which he had small opportunity of displaying), shrewdness, daring (in his dealings with Velazquez), and no excess of scruples in morals. 

In 1517 Cordova reached the coast of Yucatan, while commanding a modest expedition despatched by Velazquez. He was mortally wounded and only a remnant of his crew reached Cuba again, bringing back news of the superior culture of the people they had met. Another expedition was determined upon, and was carried out the year following under the leadership of Grijalva. It touched the coast of Mexico, and brought home metallic objects and evidences of superior culture. Ere Grijalva had come back, Velazquez determined to send a third and more numerous squadron to the Mexican coast. Cortes, then one of Velazquez's favorites, was named as the commander, a choice which created no little envy. Cortes entered into the enterprise with zeal and energy, sacrificing with too much ostentation a considerable part of his fortune to equip the expedition. Eleven vessels were brought together, maimed with well-armed men, and horses and artillery were embarked. At the last moment Velazquez, whose suspicions were aroused by the actions of Cortes, instigated by his surroundings, attempted to prevent the departure. It was too late; Cortes, after the example set by Quintero, slipped away from the Cuban coast and thus began the conquest of Mexico. His life from the time he sailed on his momentous undertaking in 1519 is so intimately linked with the history of Mexico, that the reader may be referred for additional details to the articles Mexico. Aztecs. and Pedro de Alvarado. 

As a soldier Cortes put to use in Mexico the Indian mode of warfare he had observed in the Antilles, and it enabled him to achieve an unbroken success in the open field. Indian defensive tactics from buildings and walls were new to him, but he quickly saw both their strong and their weak points, and his reduction of the island settlement of Tenochtitlan was no small feat. He recognized at an early date the Indian method of proceeding by decoy and ambush, and this led to his success against the tribe of Tlaxcals. He was very quick in detecting devices and stratagems, even in time of apparent peace, and in adopting and executing measures to defeat them. One of the most remarkable instances is what has been called the "massacre of Cholula". When Cortes was at the large Indian settlement of Tlaxcals and had perfected an alliance with that people, some Indians from the neighboring tribe of Cholula urged him to visit their home. He was warned not to go, since the visitors did not express the wish of their kindred, who were bitterly opposed to dealing with the Spaniards. Though unacquainted with the character of the natives, he marched to Cholula, but noticed that a trap was being set for him. He prevented the outbreak by an attack on the Indians, and after a short struggle forced them into submission. 

The most daring of his exploits, and one that may be qualified as absolutely reckless although successful, was his march on Narvaez who, with a much superior force of Spaniards, had landed on the gulf coast with orders from Velazquez, not only to supersede Cortes, but to capture him and bring him to trial in Cuba for disobedience and treason towards the governor. Leaving only one hundred and forty men under Alvarado to hold an Indian settlement of twenty thousand souls, he set out against Narvaez, who had nine hundred soldiers, while Cortes, rein-forced as he approached the coast, mustered about two hundred and sixty. With these he surprised his antagonist and took him prisoner. The move was a desperate one, as the sequel proved. But the secret of his success lay in his marvellously quick movements, for which Narvaez was not prepared, as well as in his rapid return to the plateau, by which he surprised the Indians who held Alvarado and his people at their mercy. The desperate defense of the Spaniards in the absence of Cortes would have been unavailing had the latter not moved with such celerity. In contrast with that lightning-like quickness, but equally well adapted to the necessities of the case, was the methodical investment and capture of the lake settlement, showing the fertility of the conqueror's mind in suiting his tactics to altered conditions. 

To these military accomplishments Cortes joined an unusual perspicacity in penetrating the general situation in aboriginal Mexico. He saw, soon after landing at Vera Cruz, the looseness of the bonds by which the Indian tribes were connected, and yet his keen perception remained at fault in that he did not appreciate (nor could he, from the standpoint of the times, understand) Indian tribal organization. The sway the tribes of the tableland and interior lake-basin held over many of their neighbors appeared to him (judging from European and Asiatic models) as an evidence of a consolidated empire; the offices of superior rank held by chiefs, as parts of an organized hierarchy or feudal lordships; and the head war-chief a hereditary autocrat. Of the nature of tribal society he had not, and could not have, any idea. While, therefore, his attempts at winning tribes leagued with the Mexican confederacy over to the Spanish cause were usually successful, he was less fortunate in his relations with the Mexicans themselves. His seizure of the person of Montezuma, the head war-chief of the confederates, did not have the expected result. Led by the belief that Montezuma was a supreme ruler, hence the pivot of a state, Cortes confidently hoped to control the Mexican tribe and its confederates through his captive. The seizure itself appears as an act of singular daring, and Cortes and his men were astonished at the ease with which it was executed, and the lack of opposition on the part of the Indians; but they did not know that their prisoner was of so little importance. He was an elected officer, who could be replaced without trouble, and the tribal council, supported by the medicine men and guided by their oracular utterances, were the real heads of the confederacy. The general outbreak against the Spaniards began after Montezuma's successor had been installed; until then hostile manifestations were limited to blockading Alvarado. 

For the sake of policy, Cortes was, in general, far from cruel towards the Indians. He allowed Cuauhtemotzin to be tortured in order to force him to reveal the whereabouts of his supposed hidden treasures. Such acts were not uncommon at that period, and every nation was at times guilty of them. This cruelty was, however, useless, because the greater part of the Mexican treasures had already passed into the hands of the Spaniards. The execution of Cuauhtemotzin on the journey to Honduras was another instance of the misconception by Cortes of Indian conditions. It is not at all unlikely that the Mexican chieftain was party to a plan to exterminate the Spaniards while they were floundering through the forests and swamps, but even if this were so, his execution was not necessary. By restraint the same object might have been achieved. But Cortes had an exaggerated conception of the power and influence of Cuauhtemotzin's office, as he had in the case of Montezuma. To the Indians as a mass he was kind. He recognized that their preservation would insure eventual prosperity for the Spaniards, provided the Indians gradually accepted European ideas. Therefore he regarded the Church as the main instrument for the education of the Indian. But he was far from sharing in the dreams of Las Casas. His relations with the clergy were very cordial, he did all he could to introduce missionaries, and even Las Casas mentions him favorably. It has been intimated that the kind treatment of the Mexican natives by Cortes was part of a deeply-laid plan to use his conquest of Mexico for selfish and treasonable purposes, for Cortes was not always the faithful subject. This leads us to consider his relations to the Crown of Spain and a few points of his private character. 

The impression has prevailed that Cortes was treated by the Spanish Government with base ingratitude. It is true that a few years after 1521 an unfavorable change took place in his relations with the Emperor Charles V and his government. The change never led to an absolute break, but it caused a gradual curtailing of his power which Cortes felt very keenly. While lavishly contributing his own means at the outset, Cortes made his conquest avowedly as a Spanish subject, for and in behalf of Spain and its monarch. Mexico became a Spanish colony through his instrumentality, but it was the duty of the Spanish Government to care for it. Cortes personally was not ungenerously rewarded, but he speedily complained of insufficient compensation to himself and his comrades. Thinking himself beyond reach of restraint, he disobeyed many of the orders of the Crown, and, what was more imprudent, said so in a letter to the emperor, dated October 15, 1524 (Ycazbalceta, "Documentos para la Historia de Mexico", Mexico, 1858, I). In this letter Cortes, besides recalling in a rather abrupt manner that the conquest of Mexico was due to him alone, deliberately acknowledges his disobedience in terms which could not fail to create a most unfavorable impression. Soon after the capture of the Indian settlement the Crown, as was its prerogative, in 1522 sent to Mexico officers to investigate the condition of affairs, and to report on the conduct of Cortes. To this he could not object, as it was an established custom. The commissioner, Tapia, charged with the investigation, was so hampered, however, by the officers of Cortes that he did not even reach the valley of Mexico, but returned without carrying out his orders. Cortes himself, while keeping at a distance, treated him with the utmost courtesy, but rendered all action on his part impossible. A second commissioner, Luis Ponce de Lein, was sent in 1526 with discretionary and very dangerous powers. He died at Mexico soon after his arrival, in a manner that leaves little doubt of foul play, although Prescott discredits it. But Prescott had not then the documentary material since unearthed. A number of minor charges were brought against the conqueror, and they appear to have been substantiated. They could not fail to create grave suspicion, because they presented the picture of a conspiracy, the object of which was to make Cortes the independent ruler of Mexico. Under such circumstances the least that could be expected was the elimination of Cortes from the government of the new province. The situation was a very critical one for the Crown. Cortes held the country and its resources, and controlled a body of officers and men who had, in 1520, expressed to the emperor in writing their admiration for their captain, and dwelt in the strongest terms on the obligations under which his achievements had placed the mother country. It is true, in case of a clash, Spain might have counted upon the support of the inhabitants of the Antilles, but the military reputation of Cortes had become so great that the selection of a leader against him would have been very embarrassing. Hence a conflict had to be avoided as long as possible. Cortes' position was gradually undermined, titles and honors were conferred upon him, but not the administrative authority he coveted. At the same time his attention was insensibly directed to explorations outside of America, to the much-desired Moluccas or Spice Islands. 

At a time when there was almost a certainty, in court circles in Spain, of an intended rebellion by Cortes, a charge was brought against him that cast a fatal blight upon his character and plans. He was accused of the murder of his first wife. Prescott makes light of the accusation, but his opinion has little weight because, as above stated, evidence has since been discovered which was beyond his reach. This evidence leaves no doubt that Catalina Xuarez was strangled by her husband. The proceedings of the investigation were kept secret. No report, either exonerating or condemning Cortes, was published. Had the Government declared him innocent, it would have greatly increased his popularity; had it declared him a criminal, a crisis would have been precipitated by the accused and his party. Silence was the only safe policy. But that silence is a strong indication that grave danger was apprehended from his influence. It is curious that, after the conquest of the Mexicans had been consummated, but more particularly after the sinister deeds above mentioned, success seems to have abandoned his banner. Excluded from the government of Mexico, his eyes were turned to further exploration. Don Antonio de Mendoza, first viceroy of New Spain, was looked upon by Cortes as his enemy, but the accusation that he opposed and hampered Cortes in nearly every one of his new enterprises is not justified. It was the latter who, at once, opened a violent campaign against everybody who approached what he considered his new domain. He found grave faults with every measure, and resorted to statements that were utterly baseless. Thus his attack upon Father Marcos of Nizza, charging him with having attributed to himself the discovery of New Mexico while in reality he, Cortes, had been the discoverer, is so groundless that it appears almost ridiculous. Every expedition set on foot by Cortes in the Pacific either failed absolutely or produced meagre, unsatisfactory results. Soured by these failures which stood in flagrant contrast to the brilliant success of his early efforts, Cortes became a chronic complainant. He saw his influence gone, his prestige waning. The Government could not forget the proofs of unreliability which the conqueror of Mexico had given when he thought himself master of the situation. The emperor finally permitted him to join the great expedition against Algiers in 1541. It may be that had the advice of Cortes been followed that undertaking would have had a less disastrous end; but he was not even consulted. The enterprise failed, and the conqueror of Mexico did not long survive the failure. 

Cortes was a good writer. His letters to the emperor, on the conquest, deserve to be classed among the best Spanish documents of the period. They are, of course, colored so as to place his own achievements in relief, but, withal, he keeps within bounds and does not exaggerate, except in matters of Indian civilization and the numbers of population as implied by the size of the settlements. Even there he uses comparatives only, judging from outward appearances and from impressions. His first letter is lost, and the one from the municipality of Vera Cruz has to take its place. It was published for the first time in volume IV of "Documentos para la Historia de Espana", and subsequently reprinted. The "Segunda Carta de Relation", bearing the date of 30 reform. Here Cortese devoted himself to literary October, 1520, appeared in print at Seville in 1522. The "Carta tercera", May 15, 1522, appeared at Seville in 1523. The fourth, October 20, 1524, was printed at Toledo in 1525. The fifth, on the Honduras expedition, is contained in volume IV of the "Documentos para la Hist. de Espana". The important letter mentioned ip the text has been published under the heading of "Carta inedita de Cortes" by Ycazbalceta. A great number of minor documents, either by Cortes or others, for or against him, are dispersed through the voluminous collection above cited and through the "Coleccion de Documentos de Indias", as well as in the "Documentos para la Historia de Mexico" of Ycazbalceta. Of his letters on the conquest there are a number of reprints and translations into various languages. 

AD. F. BANDELIER 

Tulix Mul

Known as Tulix Mul, it appears at first blush as a mound-like island of jumbled trees and bushes jutting out of a landscape that has been otherwise cleared by local mechanized ranchers for their cattle ranch operations. It is a curious protrusion, but only because this site holds special value to archaeologists and other researchers. The local landowner ranchers have agreed to leave it untouched — at least for now. Going forward, however, there are no guarantees. Development must ultimately meet the needs of developers. In the meantime, investigators are racing against the clock and other elements to excavate, study, and preserve the site. It is an ancient Early Classic (200-600 CE) Maya site in northwestern Belize that contains evidence of at least two standing vaulted rooms.

View of Tulix Mul from the south. Courtesy Maya Research Program

As a relatively recent discovery, archaeologists, under the auspices of the Maya Research Program (MRP), and the University of Texas at Tyler, have been excavating at the site since 2012. It has been identified as a shrine group approximately 1 km. from Nojol Nah, another severely endangered Maya center where they have been excavating. In 2013, they focused on a structure (designated “Structure 2” on their site plan) that showed intrusion by a looter’s trench. Excavation revealed evidence of a vaulted room.

“Our goal in 2013 was to strip the final phase of architecture from the eastern facade of this Early Classic structure in order to document its abandonment [in Late Classic times, or 600 – 900 CE] and to penetrate the centerline of the structure *so its various phases of construction could be recorded,” said Colleen Hanratty, a member of the Board of Directors of MRP and a leading, long-time researcher and field archaeologist with the organization. “In addition, a looter’s trench on the western side of the structure was cleared out in order to document the architecture therein. While clearing out the looter’s trench, it was revealed that the vaulted room was intact and had been filled in by the ancient Maya. We could see spots of intact plaster on the walls, which was very exciting. But we had to be patient. We continued to focus our energy on the eastern facade of the structure and soon discovered that it was actually an Early Classic roomblock that apparently had been filled in at the beginning of the Late Classic time period. We carefully removed the construction fill and were thrilled to discover additional plaster adhering to the room’s western wall and bench.” 

Discovery of a plastered vaulted room was news enough. But by far the biggest prize was found beneath the plaster. Through time, small fragments had exfoliated from the plaster, revealing underlying evidence of a polychrome, fine-line mural. The mural style appeared generally similar to that found years before by other archaeologists at San Bartolo in Guatemala. Like San Bartolo, there are only a few other known Maya murals found in Central America. Aside from their artistic beauty, each has provided significant new information about Maya art, religious concepts, trade and interaction. The Tulix Mul mural may prove to be equally informative, especially as the site investigators suspect that “there is a real likelihood that the other room [still unexcavated] will also contain a mural.”*

Above and below, exterior of Structure 2 emerges through painstaking excavation of its eastern side. Courtesy Maya Research Program.

The looters trench on the western side. Courtesy Maya Research Program

The vaulted room as it appeared before the fill was removed. Courtesy Maya Research Program

Above and below: View into the vaulted room, now excavated, containing the mural (currently still mostly plasted over by the ancients). Courtesy Maya Research Program

For now, not enough of the mural has been exposed to determine what is depicted (see image below). Archaeologists are moving forward with a sense of urgency to ensure that a fuller view of the mural (or murals, as the case may be), will see the light of day. In 2014, the archaeological team, under the professional leadership of Thomas Guderjan of the University of Texas at Tyler, conservator Pieta Greaves of AOC Archaeology, Scotland, and Gail Hammond of University College London, will methodically and painstakingly remove the plaster overcoating from the mural to reveal the rest. Other specialized members of the team will document and interpret the mural as it is exposed. The same will be done for any additional mural finds as the team progresses to uncover the other vaulted room.

Closeup detail view of mural thus far exposed. Courtesy Maya Research Program

But the team will be working under a shadow of uncertainty.

“Several threats to the site exist,” says Guderjan. “First, the property is owned by a mechanized farming and ranching concern which often exhibits resistance to legalities. Legal protections exist but may not be followed and enforcement is difficult and generally non-existent until after the fact. Good relations exist today but cannot be guaranteed in the long run. The only solution to this problem is to purchase the site and put it into public hands. Second, the site is remote and therefore looting could occur unseen. Further, it is an obvious mott of trees on the landscape and easily found. There is also risk of damage by casual visitors so physical security of the mural must be achieved. Such security must also take into account the need to protect the mural from environmental degradation.”*

Some good news has brightened the horizon for the site. Recently, the Archaeological Institute of America has approved a generous grant to help conserve and record the site, including the development of an educational outreach program that will benefit not only the visiting public but also members of the local community. In terms of protection and preservation, the team plans to “include the construction of a sealed door enabling the mural to remain in a cave-like controlled temperature and humidity setting that also restricts access from intruders.”*

Article Extracted from Popular Archaeology 

Heckler & Koch HK G3

Authored By: MilitaryFactory

At the end of World War 2, German engineers were working on perfecting a new breed of service rifle known as the "assault rifle". The assault rifle immediately antiquated the bolt-action service rifle as the standard-issue firearm of any modern army. The new weapon allowed use of a rifle-caliber cartridge in a more compact body with the capability of repeat, automatic fire at targets within short and medium ranges - ranges most often being encountered by infantry. The most famous early example of this type of weapon became the German wartime StG 44 (Sturmgewehr 44 or "Storm Rifle") - often cited as the "Father of Assault Rifles" - which led to a more refined and simpler prototype - the StG 45. Unfortunately for the Germans, the StG 45 only existed in prototype form before the end of the war in May of 1945 and perhaps as little as 30 units were produced.

Mauser Gerät 06(H) prototype. Image source :Springfield Armory National Historic Site

The StG 45 made use of the intermediate 7.92x33mm Kurz ("short") cartridge though, perhaps most importantly, it brought about the use of the "roller-delayed blowback" firing principle. This operation essentially involved two locking rollers situated to either side of the firing pin near the base of the cartridge, engaging the sides of the receiver during the firing action and delaying the movement of the bolt head - the barrel remaining fixed in place. The principle was adopted as a cost-effective alternative to a proposed gas-operated, roller-locked breech system originally intended for the StG 45. The end of the war stymied development of the StG 45 but German engineers, having relocated to Spain after the war, began perfecting the system under the government-sponsored Centro de Estudios Tecnicos de Materiales Especiales ("Technical Studio of Special Materials") otherwise known as CETME. The engineers managed to produce a more refined and reliable roller-delayed blowback system chambered for the 7.92mm cartridge and marketed it towards the West German Army for consideration as their new standard-issue service rifle. The West German Army favored the CETME idea but preferred a weapon utilizing the 7.62x51mm NATO standard cartridge instead. CETME engineers continued their work on the design and ultimately produced the CETME "Model 58" assault rifle/battle rifle firing a reduced-charge 7.62mm cartridge (to become the 7.62x51mm CETME).

After evaluation of competing systems, the West German Army selected the CETME design as their new standard-issue assault rifle. License-production of the weapon was obtained and the firm of Heckler & Koch revised the CETME system to accept the full-power 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge. The resulting design became the HK G3 series ("Gewehr 3") automatic rifle/battle rifle series which made use of sheet metal stampings in its construction dotted by furniture manufactured of plastic. The internal firing mechanism was a much more refined form of the original StG 45 roller-delayed blowback system and the overall construction of the rifle budget-friendly. The G3 shared much with the Spanish CETME but was, for all intents and purposes, its own evolution of the Stg 45 before it - a fairly straightforward, basic unassuming rifle formally categorized as a "Battle Rifle" due to its use of a full-power rifle cartridge. The HK G3 was introduced in 1959 and became the standard-issue service rifle of the West German Army. Some early HK G3s were, however, known to feature "CETME" stamped along their receivers, at least up until 1961.

The designator "G3" was used to simply mark the initial production models which were noted for their wooden shoulder stocks and flip over rear sights. The G3 followed much of the form and function of the preceding Spanish CETME Model B rifle marks and these were then followed into service by the HK GA1 which incorporated a retractable buttstock. The HK G3A2 mark were simply G3 service rifles with a standardized rotary rear sight installation. 

The HK G3A3 became the final production form of the G3 family line and its most definitive mark. The G3A3 utilized the rotary rear sight unit of the G3A2 models with a revised front sight and fixed plastic shoulder stock. Additionally, this version also saw its flash hider upgraded to a "prong" type. A bipod was optional for stabilized sustained fire. This version weighed in at 9lbs, 11oz with a 40 inch overall length and 17.7 inch barrel. Cyclic rate-of-fire was 550 rounds per minute with a muzzle velocity of 2,625 feet per second. The G3A3A1 incorporated a brass ejection port deflector and ambidextrous firing selector.

Yule

This word, in various spellings, means a loosely defined midwinter period (not a single day) in the early languages of most Germanic and Scandinavian countries. Bede, writing of pagan England, mentions two months, 'early Yule' and 'later Yule', corresponding to Roman December and January; after the Conversion, 'Yule' was narrowed to mean either the Nativity (25 December), or the twelve days of festivity beginning on this date. The word *Christmas replaced 'Yule' in most of England in the 11th century, but not in north-eastern areas of Danish settlement, where it survived strongly till modern times as the normal dialect term for Christmas. Nineteenth-century writers took up the word as a way of denoting the 'Christmas of olden times', with its lavish food and secular jollity, situated in a largely invented *'Merrie England'.

   The medieval liking for pageantry and symbolism sometimes led to Yule being impersonated (cf. *Father Christmas). In 1572 the Archbishop of York ordered the Mayor and Aldermen to suppress an annual parade on St Thomas's Day (21 December) called 'The Riding of Yule and his Wife', because it drew 'great concourses of people' away from church-going, and involved disguising. The man representing Yule carried a shoulder of lamb and a large cake of fine bread; he was accompanied by his 'wife', carrying a distaff, and by attendants who threw nuts to the crowd (Duffy, 1992: 581-2).

The Yule Log (or Clog, or Christmas Block) is mentioned in folklore collections from most parts of England, but especially the West Country and the North. It would be the largest piece of wood which could fit on the family hearth, and was usually brought in on Christmas Eve with some ceremony, and put on the fire that evening; many writers, including *Herrick, say it was kindled with a fragment kept from the previous year's log (Hesperides (1648), no. 785; N&Q 11s:1 (1910), 129-30). It was also generally believed that it would be very unlucky for the family if the log was allowed to go out on Christmas Day. It is not clear when the custom arose, since the first definite references are only from the 17th century, for example Aubrey's 'In the West-riding of Yorkshire on Christmas Eve at night they bring in a large Yule-log, or Christmas block, and set it on fire and lap their Christmas ale and sing "Yule, Yule, a pack of new cards and a Christmas stool"' (Aubrey, 1686/1880: 134). Victorian illustrations of a medieval Christmas often show several men hauling huge trees or stumps in with ropes, but the antiquity of the word 'Yule' cannot prove the custom's age.

       The Yule Log

Less well known is the custom of lighting a Yule candle on Christmas Eve, first recorded by this name in 1817. These were taller than usual candles ('half a yard in length'), and there was a tradition of chandlers and grocers giving them to their regular customers. The custom is reported chiefly from the north of the country, but its wider range is indicated by Parson Woodeforde's diary entries, in Norfolk, such as: 'I lighted my large wax-candle being Xmas day during tea-time this afternoon for abt. an hour' (25 December 1790). The pre-Reformation Church made a particular feature of candles at Christmas, and strong connections between the season and candles persist to this day. It was thought unlucky to light the Yule candle before dusk on Christmas Eve, and once alight it was not moved. As with the log, a small piece was kept 'for luck' in the coming year (Wright and Lones 1940: iii. 215; Opie and Tatem, 1989: 75).

A Dictionary of English folklore. Jacqueline Simpson & Steve Roud. 2014.

Hydraulic Locks

a hydraulic engineering installation that is located between bodies of water with different levels and through which vessels or rafts pass. Locks are built on canals, at hydraulic

Figure 1. Diagrams of a single lock: (1) approach canal, (2) lock chamber, (3) upstream end, (4) downstream end, (5) filling and emptying system, (6) gate, (7) docks, (8) guiding dolphins, (9) a bridge; (Ie) chamber length, (bc) chamber width, (L) lift, (LHP) level of the higher pool, (LLP) level of the lower pool

engineering complexes on rivers, and in seaports whose water area experiences large-amplitude tides.

A sketch of a lock was discovered in the papers of Leonardo da Vinci. Locks were first built in Western Europe in the 16th century and in Russia—on the Vyshnii Volok Water System—in the 18th century. In the USSR, many large locks have been constructed on numerous navigation canals, at reservoirs, and at hydraulic engineering complexes on the Volkhov, Dnieper, Svir’, Volga, and Kama rivers. A substantial number of large locks have been built in Western Europe and in the USA, for example, on the Ohio, Mississippi, and St. Lawrence rivers.

Figure 2. Da Vinci Meter Lock

Figure 3.Tveretsky Canal from the bridge at the mouth of the canal in the Vyshny Volochyok Reservoir.

Figure 4.Mississippi River Lock and Dam No. 16, Illinois, USA

A lock (Figure 1) consists of chambers, ends, and approaches. A lock chamber, in which vessels to be raised or lowered are held, is formed by two longitudinal walls and a floor. As a rule, the walls and floor are made of reinforced concrete. The chamber is sealed by metal gates located within the upstream and downstream ends. According to the number of successive chambers in a lock, a distinction is made between single locks and flights of locks. The number of chambers in a lock depends on the magnitude of the change in water level and on the relief of the terrain. To increase the traffic capacity of a lock, two or more lanes of chambers are built in tandem.

The main dimensions of lock chambers—that is, their length and width—are chosen when a lock is designed. They depend on the category of the waterway, the amount of freight expected to be handled on the waterway, and the size of the largest vessel, train, or convoy the lock is designed to accommodate at one time. The chambers of the largest locks are up to 33 m wide, up to 400 m long, and—in locks in seaports—from 5 to 15 m deep at the sea entrance. Lock chambers are filled or emptied in a prescribed time, from 5 to 15 min, by means of filling or emptying valves and a culvert system.

The ends of a lock are usually massive headworks. In addition to gates, which maintain the difference in water levels and permit vessels to pass through when the levels of adjacent pools are equalized, the ends contain sluice culverts, equipment for eliminating water turbulence, repair and emergency booms, equipment control mechanisms, and automatic control systems. The approaches to a lock’s upstream and downstream ends comprise canals for sectors of a water area that contain both berthing facilities and facilities for mooring ships waiting to be locked and guiding structures for the safe entry of vessels into the lock.

Cite: The Great Soviet Encyclopedia 3rd Edition (1970-1979)

Jews of Marseille[ Massalia]

    Driving school of Celeste and Raoul Becca, Marseilles, c. 1938

The Oster Documentation Center, ANU – Museum of the Jewish People.

Courtesy of Elise Cohen-Jonathan

The earliest recorded presence of Jews in Marseilles can be traced to the sixth century. In 574 there was a sufficient number to provide asylum for the Jews who fled from clermont-ferrand to escape the coercive measures by Bishop avitus to convert them. In 591 Bishop Theodore of Marseilles also attempted to compel the Jews of the town to accept baptism, but Pope gregory i intervened in their favor. Although scant information is available on the Jews of Marseilles during the early Middle Ages, the importance of their settlement there is confirmed by the names of sites alluding to them. At the close of the tenth century there is mention of a valle Judaica in an area of fields and vineyards and at the end of the 11th century, of a vineyard named rua Judaica. During the 12th century, the Jews formed two communities; one in the upper part of the town, which was under the jurisdiction of the bishop; the other in the lower town, which belonged to the viscount. Both communities were placed under the authority of the bishop. (It was this right which Frederick I Barbarossa ratified for Bishop Peter in 1164.) The two communities are mentioned by the traveler benjamin of tudela , who also indicates that the yeshivot and the scholars were established in the upper town. As might be expected, the merchants settled in the lower part in the vicinity of the port. There they traded with Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, Spain, and Italy, dealing mainly in wood, spices, textiles, metals, pharmaceutics, various products for dyeing, and slaves. Commercial partnerships with Christians were very common. They rarely engaged in moneylending, although toward the end of the 12th century they did advance loans to the Monastery of Saint Victor and to the squire of Trets. In 1257 the statutes of Marseilles granted Jews the status of citizens. Nevertheless they were subject to some important restrictions. Jews were prohibited from working in public on Christian festivals, or from taking an oath in a lawsuit against Christians, and no more than four Jews were allowed to embark on a ship bound for Egypt. By at least the middle of the 14th century, all the Jews of the town had united into a single community, led by three officers who administered the schools, the three synagogues, the almshouse, and the mikveh. In the 14th century, Jews were granted equality with other citizens of Marseilles, yet they continued to have special privileges. Thus, although it was forbidden for all other citizens to sell flour in any place but on the bridge, a municipal ordinance of 1359 authorized Jews to sell or buy flour for unleavened bread (maẓẓot) in the Jewish quarter. Similarly, an ordinance issued in 1363 stipulated that whereas all other inhabitants were to sweep the street before their houses on Saturday, Jews were permitted to do so on Friday. Finally, in 1387 Jews were exempted on evenings of Jewish festivals from the general obligation to walk about with a lamp after curfew. Although they lived in an international trading port, the Jewish population remained relatively stable. For much of the Middle Ages, new arrivals in the town constituted little more than 10% of the population. (An important exception was in 1351, after an influx caused by the black death persecutions, when the percentage of new arrivals in the community

 reached 30%.) Although Jews did not generally participate in the maritime trade, limiting their transactions mainly to Spain, they were well represented in the town's urban commercial life, many of them acting as brokers. The Jewish surname Sabonarius has led to the belief that it was the Jews who introduced the soap industry to Marseilles. They had a virtual monopoly over coral craftsmanship, although those engaged in this occupation made very little money. Poorly off, too, were the Jews who earned their livelihood as laborers, porters, stonecutters, and tailors. Since they dealt only in small sums, even Jewish moneylenders were not noticeably wealthy .

Jews did, however, distinguish themselves in the medical field, the number of Jewish physicians in the town often exceeding that of their Christian colleagues. During the 15th century, Jewish economic life experienced a setback and economic activity was reduced to the retail trade, mainly the sale of wheat and textiles. Jews also suffered more than the rest of the population when the town was plundered by the Aragonese in 1423. Most of them became impoverished, and struggled to recover economically. Late in 1484 and early in 1485, shortly after the incorporation of provence into France (1481), the Jewish quarter of Marseilles was attacked. In the wake of plunder, destruction, and murder, the Jews of Marseilles began to flee. In 1486, however, the municipal council curbed their emigration and drew up an inventory of their belongings. The ensuing period is marked by severe upheavals in the composition of the community, as reflected in the extant lists of the heads of families; at least one half of the community's members were relatively new arrivals. Jews from Spain began to arrive in large numbers, particularly after 1491. Many shipowners in Marseilles amassed fortunes as a result of their expulsion in 1492. Spanish Jews hired vessels at exorbitant prices to transport them to Italy and Constantinople, and many of these ships called at the port of Marseilles. At times, the exiles attempted to remain in the city without the authorization of the municipal council. A general expulsion order for Provence was issued in 1500 and enforced in 1492. For about 20 years, conversions increased considerably as great numbers of Jews chose baptism to evade expulsion. The 12th-century Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela refers to Marseilles as a "town of learned men and scholars." Among those he mentions is R. isaac b. abba mari of Marseilles, a renowned commentator and author of prayers. Several members of the ibn tibbon family also lived in Marseilles, or were born there. (Records of a rabbinical lawsuit in this family about 1250 mention family relationships and marriages between the Jews of Marseilles and those of naples , aix-en-provence , and montpellier .) nissim b. moses of marseilles was the author of a commentary – which some regard as "almost rationalist" – on the Pentateuch, entitled Sefer ha-Nissim or Ma'aseh Nissim. Samuel b. Judah ha-Marsili (also known as Miles Bonjudas), born in Marseilles in 1294, translated several philosophical and scientific works from Arabic into Hebrew. Other scholars born in the city include Judah b. David (also known as Bonjudas Bendavi or Maestre Bonjua), a talmudist and physician of the late 14th/early 15th century, and the talmudist and commentator jacob b. david provencal (second half of the 15th century), both of whom emigrated to Italy.

 "Guida dei perplessi" di Maimonide, tradotta in ebraico da Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon; in una copia eseguita a Barcellona nel 1348

Bibliography 

Guide du Judaîsme français (1987), 39; Jewish Travel Guide (2002), 71. (Bernhard Blumenkranz / David Weinberg (2nd ed.)

Source: Encyclopedia Judaica 1971

The Davenport Conspiracy

The Davenport Tablet shown here is one of a handful of artifacts discovered in the Cook Farm Mound by Reverend Jacob Gass in 1877. It is covered with characters from a number of Old World alphabets. (Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, 1876­-1878)

In 1877, the Reverend Jacob Gass discovered two inscribed slate tablets in a mound on a farm in Davenport, Iowa. One of the tablets had a series of inscribed concentric circles with enigmatic signs believed by some to be zodiacal. The other had various animal figures, a tree, and a few other marks on one face; its reverse face had a series of apparently alphabetic characters from half a dozen different languages across the top, and the depiction of a presumed cremation scene on the bottom. Gass discovered or came into possession of a number of other enigmatic artifacts ostensibly associated with the moundbuilder culture,

including two pipes whose bowls were carved into the shape of elephants.

The discoveries in Davenport generated great excitement. However, the fact that such a concentration of apparently conclusive finds regarding the moundbuilder controversy had been discovered by a single individual within a radius of a few miles of one Iowa town caused many to question the authenticity of the discoveries.

Cyrus Thomas launched an in-depth investigation of the tablets. Evidence from Gass’s excavation indicated pretty clearly that the tablets had been planted only recently in the mound. Also, Thomas believed that he had identified the source of the bizarre, multiple-alphabetic inscription: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary of 1872 presented a sample of characters from ancient alphabets; all of the letters on the tablet were in the dictionary, and most were close copies.

Thomas (1894, 641­42) suggested that the dictionary was the source for the tablet inscription.

Marshall McKusick (1991) reports a confession by a Davenport citizen, who alleged that the tablets and the other artifacts were frauds perpetrated by a group of men who wished to make Gass appear foolish. Though there are some significant problems with the confession (most notably the fact that the confessor was too young to have been an active participant in the hoax), the Davenport Tablets were certainly fraudulent.

More recently, McKusick has discerned the presence of lowercase Greek letters on the second Davenport Tablet--but lowercase Greek letters were not invented until medieval times. McKusick has also identified Arabic numbers, Roman letters,

musical clefs, and ampersands (&) on the tablet. Their presence is clear proof of the Fraudulent nature of the stone. In fact, no genuine artifacts containing writing in any Old World alphabet have ever been found in any of the mounds.

Further Reading 

The definitive work on the Davenport Tablets is the book The Davenport Conspiracy Revisited by archaeologist Marshall McKusick (1991).

Smiling Faces

Smiling figures (called sonrientes in Spanish) are one of the most intriguing examples of Mesoamerican ceramic artistry, part of a long-standing tradition of hollow ceramic figures produced in south-central Veracruz throughout the Precolumbian period. The animated expression that is responsible for their name is surprising in Mesoamerican art, where emotion of any kind is rarely depicted.

Nude from the waist up, this sonriente wears a cap and skirt covered in geometric patterns, circular earspools, and a beaded necklace and bracelet. He raises his right hand as though in greeting and clutches a gourd rattle in his left. Musicians are depicted playing similar rattles in ceremonial scenes from both Veracruz and the Maya area. Thin red lines drawn below the eyes and the chin, and traces of the black tar paint often used in the region (see MMA 1978.412.59) on the chest represent body paint or tattooing. Additional traces of black paint on the skirt indicate a two-dimensional design once overlaid that in low relief.

All this detailing appears on the front of the figure. In contrast, the back is entirely unadorned, suggesting that the figure was meant to be seen only from the front. Sonrientes like this one are unable to stand on their own, and are too large to be held in the hand. In secondary burials at the Veracruz site of El Zapotal, several smiling figures were interred in a standing position, supported by human skulls and disarticulated bones. If used in ritual before interment, they may have been positioned similarly; their backs placed against some form of support.

Little cloth from Ancient Mesoamerica has survived, but the intricate designs depicted in artistic imagery testify to the importance of textiles and their motifs throughout the region. Here, a combination of low relief and incising is used to represent the details of both cap and skirt. On the cap, a double-edged meander frames interlocking forms that resemble the Aztec glyph for motion (olin). A feather tassel above the forehead is repeated on each side. Actual feathers or other decorative attachments may once have hung from round holes on both sides of the cap. Large step-frets cover the top half of the skirt. Below these, a row of ovoid shapes is bordered by plain bands above and a fringed band below. Three-lobed woven tassels trim the hem.

The first scientific excavations of smiling figures were conducted by Alfonso Medellín Zenil, in 1952, unearthing numerous figures and fragments from rubbish heaps within artificial mounds on the periphery of ceremonial centers. It is unclear whether they had served some ritual function and then been discarded, or were rendered useless and tossed aside because they had been damaged during firing. Most smiling figures lack any information concerning their original context, limiting our understanding of their purpose and meaning.

Sonrientes are most often referred to as male, and those depicted wearing loincloths or with exposed genitalia clearly are (see MMA 1979.206.561). However, authors have disagreed on the gender of others, such as this one, that wear skirts. In both dress and body representation, they do not fit easily into the norms of Mesoamerican representation of the gendered form. Skirts, for example, are usually shown worn by women, although there are exceptions in Maya imagery (see MMA 1979.206.1063). The identification of sonrientes as women is challenged, however, by the fact that artists depict female figures in Veracruz art wearing a garment called a huipil that completely covers the upper body, or with their breasts clearly and naturalistically represented (see MMA 1978.412.73, 1979.206.574). Additionally, the squat proportions and relatively large heads of sonrientes could indicate that they represent either dwarfs or small children. This very ambiguity of gender and age, together with the unusual triangular head shape, suggests that the smiling figures may represent spiritual entities rather than fully-human beings. The discovery of numerous smiling figures in situ in a ceremonial context at the site of El Zapotal lends support to this interpretation.

Excavations at the Mound 2 funerary complex of El Zapotal in the 1970’s unearthed numerous sonrientes undisturbed in both primary and secondary burials of human remains. The U-shaped ceremonial space above them combines architecture, terracotta sculpture, and painting to depict a narrative scene taking place in the court of a death god. The larger-than-life skeletal figure sits at the center of the U-shaped enclosure. Life-sized terracotta figures of standing, bare-breasted women wearing elaborate headdresses are placed to either side as though in procession, their mouths open in song. Other women are seated. Additional attendants are pictured in the wall paintings. Among these are small dwarf-like figures which may represent an earlier version of the chaneque of Mexican folklore who the Mixe-Zoque peoples of southern Veracruz believe serve Chane, the god of the underworld. Cherra Wyllie argues that the sonrientes placed in the burials below Mound 2 may also represent chaneque, placed there to attend or guard the human remains as the chaneque depicted in the paintings attend the death deity.

Patricia J. Sarro, 2018

Further Reading

Heyden, Doris. “Nueva interpretación de las figuras sonrientes, senalada por las fuentes históricas,” Tlalocan, Revista de Fuente para el Conocimiento de las Culturas Indígenas de México, VI:2, Mexico: 1970.

Medillín Zenil, Alfonso. Cerámicas del Totonacapan. Xalapa: Universidad Veracruzana, Instituto de Antropología, 1960.

Medellín Zenil, Alfonso. Nopiloa. Xalapa: Universidad Veracruzana, 1987.

Medellín Zenil, Alfonso, and Frederick A. Peterson. “A Smiling Head Complex from Central Veracruz, Mexico." American Antiquity, Vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 162-169. 1954.

Foix Castle

Illumination of the hall in the comte de Foix's castle at Orthez, capital of Bèarn.  (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group)

Castle Foix, in the city prefecture of Ariège, was built from the twelfth century on the foundations of an earlier building on a rocky spur overlooking the city.

It allowed to control the access to the valley while protecting the city whose inhabitants could take refuge inside its walls.

First made up of a single tower (there will be three in the end), the castle became seat of the county of Foix is reworked in the fourteenth century after having suffered a number of attacks during a crusade against the Albigensians, but without having ever been taken.

Under the era of the famous Gaston Fébus, in the fourteenth century, the castle is enlarged and embellished with ransoms paid by the prisoners he imprisoned over his conquests.

When the count does not reside in Béarn but comes to Foix, however, he stays rather in a palace below the castle.

Having become a veritable prison after the Revolution, the building underwent major changes. Classified Historical Monument since 1840, it was then the object of a restoration carried out by a pupil of Viollet-le-Duc which restored the site a medieval look (crénelages) without always respecting the historical realities.

In 1930, a museum is opened which evokes the history of the department since Prehistory.

Currently closed to the public, the castle and its museum will reopen after museum modernization work. At the foot of the castle, an area of ​​2000 m² will evoke the life of the Counts of Foix and a route will plunge into what was the castle in the time of Gaston Fébus (fortifications and military elements outside the indoor ceremonial room, especially).