Delphi: Architecture, part II

 

Treasure temple of the Siphnian islanders at Delphi
.
Some more digital and artwork architectural reconstructions of temples in Apollo’s Sanctuary at Delphi, Phokis (Central Greece).

Recent Admixture in Forming the Contemporary West Eurasians

Republication from cell.com

Highlights

• •Recent admixture events involved outside groups at the edges of West Eurasia
• •Admixture within Europe tended to fall within the European Migration Period
• •West Eurasian genetic structure today is likely to have been maintained by admixture

Summary

Over the past few years, studies of DNA isolated from human fossils and archaeological remains have generated considerable novel insight into the history of our species. Several landmark papers have described the genomes of ancient humans across West Eurasia, demonstrating the presence of large-scale, dynamic population movements over the last 10,000 years, such that ancestry across present-day populations is likely to be a mixture of several ancient groups [ 1–7 ].

Fortification plans of Fort San Diego, Acapulco

Plan of Fort San Diego, Acapulco, Mexico in 1776, designed by Spanish engineers a few years after 1600 (Instituto de Historia y Cultura Militar, Madrid).

Uniforms of Venezuela (War of Independence 1810-1824) part I

Officer of the Corps of Engineers. Artwork by Lafita Portabella.
.

This is a collection of uniforms of Venezuelan officers and regular troops during the Spanish-American Wars of Independence 1810-1824, that is the soldiers of the “Libertador” Gen. Simon Bolivar. Bolivar himself was born in Venezuela but he must be rather considered as a Pan-Spanish-American historical figure just as his Argentinean counterpart Gen. José Francisco de San Martín, the other main figure of the Wars of Independence. Together they share the honour of liberating much of the continent.

Οι Μουσκετοφόροι της Γαλλικής Βασιλικής Φρουράς

Αναδημοσίευση από   L’Art du duel

Του Γεώργιου Ε. Γεωργά προπονητή ξιφασκίας, εκπαιδευτή της Ελληνικής Πολεμικής Τέχνης του Παμμάχου,  Research Scholar της Συντεχνίας των Ελεύθερων Ξιφομάχων.

Οι Μουσκετοφόροι του Βασιλιά είναι γνωστοί στην Ελλάδα ως σωματοφύλακες. Ο λόχος τους ήταν επίλεκτοι πολεμιστές της Γαλλίας έχοντας ένδοξες στιγμές στα πεδία των μαχών.

Ο λόχος των Μουσκετοφόρων του Βασιλιά ιδρύθηκε το 1622 από τον Λουδοβίκο τον ΙΓ’. Η Μουσκετοφόροι ήταν εξέλιξη των καραμπινιέρων ελαφρών ιππέων της Βασιλικής φρουράς.

Imperial Rome urban plans

Site plans of ancient Rome including a site plan of the early settlements on the Seven Hills, a plan of the Capitoline (Platner), and  two general plans of the Imperial city.

Have humanity always gone to war?

Republished from the conversation

Two victims from Jebel Sahaba. The pencils mark weapon fragments.
Image from the Wendorf Archive, Used under a creative commons license.

.

By Sarah Peacey        PhD in Ecological Systems of Cooperation, UCL

 

The question of whether warfare is encoded in our genes, or appeared as a result of civilisation, has long fascinated anyone trying to get to grips with human society. Might a willingness to fight neighbouring groups have provided our ancestors with an evolutionary advantage? With conflicts raging across the globe, these questions have implications for understanding our past, and perhaps our future as well.

The Enlightenment philosophers Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau had different visions of prehistory. Hobbes saw humanity’s earliest days as dominated by fear and warfare, whereas Rousseau thought that, without the influence of civilisation, humans would be at peace and in harmony with nature.

Aegean Koine: the Minoan phase ca. 2200-1400 BCE

The Minoan phase of the Aegean Koine (economic and socio-cultural “Commonwealth”) in this excellent German map. Note the colonies of the Minoans on the nearby islands and their influence on the mainland.

Extensive West Eurasian admixture throughout the African continent revealed

Reoublication from Science mag

Characterizing genetic diversity in Africa is a crucial step for most analyses reconstructing the evolutionary history of anatomically modern humans. However, historic migrations from Eurasia into Africa have affected many contemporary populations, confounding inferences. Here, we present a 12.5x coverage ancient genome of an Ethiopian male (‘Mota’) who lived approximately 4,500 years ago. We use this genome to demonstrate that the Eurasian backflow into Africa came from a population closely related to Early Neolithic farmers, who had colonized Europe 4,000 years earlier.

Militaty architecture: Fortification plans by S. Fernández de Medrano, 1677

.
As many of the readers will surely have guessed, militaty architecture and even more, Renaissance militaty architecture, is among my favourite pursuits. These plans on the construction of the characteristic bastion fortifications, belong to the treatise “Rudimentos Geométricos y Militares” by the Spanish engineer Sebastián Fernández de Medrano, printed in 1677 at Brussels. Spanish and Italian engineers at the service of the Spanish crown were among the best in the world at that time.

Uniforms of Argentina (War of Independence 1810-1824) -part I

General Don Jose de San Martin, Liberator of Chile and most of Peru.
.

This is a collection of uniforms of Argentinean officers and regular troops during the Spanish-American Wars of Independence 1810-1824, that is the standing troops of the independent United Provinces of Rio de la Plata as well as the Argentinean troops of Gen. José Francisco de San Martín who gained independence for Chile and most of Peru.