indigenous beliefs of ancient Egypt from predynastic times (4th millennium BC) to the disappearance of the traditional culture in the first centuries AD. For historical background and detailed dates, see Egypt, history of.
the study of pharaonic Egypt, spanning the period c. 4500 BC to AD 641. Egyptology began when the scholars accompanying Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt (1798-1801) published Description de l'Egypte (1809-28), which made large quantities of source material about ancient ...
any of a class of diagrams that illustrate the fields of stability of mineral or chemical species in terms of the activity of hydrogen ions (pH) and the activity of electrons (Eh). Consequently, the reactions illustrated on Eh-pH diagrams involve ...
prefecture (ken), northwestern Shikoku, Japan, facing the Inland Sea (north) and Bungo-suido (Bungo Strait; west). It occupies an area of 2,190 square miles (5,672 square km). The interior is mountainous, and most of the population is grouped on the shallow ...
rare, heritable disorder characterized by great elasticity of the skin, skin fragility with a tendency to hemorrhage, poor scar formation, and hyperextensibility of the joints ("elastic men"). The skin is velvety and bruises easily, and the ears tend to droop; ...
human fossils found between 1908 and 1925 near Weimar, Germany. The most complete fossils consist of a fragmented braincase and lower jaw of an adult and the lower jaw, trunk, and arm bones of a child. The skull was found ...
German medical scientist known for his pioneering work in hematology, immunology, and chemotherapy and for his discovery of the first effective treatment for syphilis. He received jointly with Elie Metchnikoff the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1908.
American biologist and educator who in 1990 shared Sweden's Crafoord Prize (established in 1980 and awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, to support those areas of science not covered by the Nobel Prizes) with biologist E.O. Wilson.
assistant for domestic affairs during the administration of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon; he was best known for his participation in the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's resignation.
in the Old Testament (Judges 3:12-4:1), son of Gera, the Benjaminite, Israelite hero who delivered Israel from 18 years of oppression by the Moabites. A left-handed man, Ehud tricked Eglon, king of Moab, and killed him. He then led the ...
city, Guipuzcoa province, in the autonomous Basque Country, northern Spain, lying east of Bilbao on the Bilbao-San Sebastian railway. The city was chartered by Alfonso XI of Castile in 1346. Its chief industry since the 16th century has been the ...
German biblical scholar and orientalist who taught at Jena and Gottingen, one of the first commentators to make a scientific comparison between the biblical books and other Semitic writings. A pioneer in distinguishing the various documentary and cultural sources of ...
any of several large sea ducks variously classified as members of the tribe Mergini or placed in a separate tribe Somateriini (family Anatidae, order Anseriformes). Eiders are heavy and round-bodied, with humped bills that produce the bird's characteristic sloping profile. ...
(1848-64), the domestic and foreign policy cornerstone of Denmark's National Liberal governments during the Schleswig-Holstein crises. The program, which called for the incorporation of the duchy of Schleswig into Denmark, was brought to an end by the German occupation of ...
river, Schleswig-Holstein Land (state), northern Germany. It rises in the hills south of Kiel, flows through Westensee (West Lake) northward to a point northwest of Kiel, and then bends westward and flows across the low peninsula in a sluggish, winding ...
an unusually vivid subjective visual phenomenon. An eidetic person claims to continue to "see" an object that is no longer objectively present. Eidetic persons behave as if they are actually seeing an item, either with their eyes closed or while ...
in phenomenology, a method by which the philosopher moves from the consciousness of individual and concrete objects to the transempirical realm of pure essences and thus achieves an intuition of the eidos (Greek: "shape") of a thing-i.e., of what it ...
one of the most prominent German architects to emerge after World War II, whose wide variety of buildings have been admired for their elegant proportions, precise detail, and structural clarity.
plateau region of western Germany, lying between the Rhine, the Mosel (French: Moselle), and the Luxembourg and Belgian frontiers. Continuous with the Ardennes and the Hohes Venn (French: Haute Fagnes) of Belgium, the German plateau falls into three sections: Schneifel ...
all those rocks deposited worldwide during the Eifelian Age (387 to 380 million years ago). The top of the Eifelian Stage is defined by the base of an overlying subdivision, the Givetian Stage. Together the two subdivisions constitute the Middle ...
Parisian landmark that is also a technological masterpiece in building-construction history. When the French government was organizing the International Exposition of 1889 to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution, a competition was held for designs for a suitable monument. ...
German physicist who was corecipient, with R.G.W. Norrish and George Porter, of the 1967 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for work on extremely rapid chemical reactions.
one of a set of discrete values of a parameter, k, in an equation of the form Ppsi = kpsi, in which P is a linear operator (that is, a symbol denoting a linear operation to be performed), for which there are ...
popular American pocket-billiards game in which 15 balls numbered consecutively and a white cue ball are used. Those numbered 1-7 are solid colours; 9-15 are white with a single thick stripe in varying colours; and the eight ball is black. ...
Chinese painters who worked in the area of Yangzhou, in Jiangsu province, during the Qianlong era (1735-96) of the Qing dynasty. The group includes Jin Nong, Huang Shen, Gao Xiang, Li Fangying, Li Shan, Luo Ping, and Wang Shishen. Other ...
group of Chinese artists who lived and worked during the late 17th century in Nanjing (known as Jinling during the early Tang dynasty, c. 7th century). Although their group identity derives largely from the locale in which they worked, certain ...
(1375-78), conflict between Pope Gregory XI and an Italian coalition headed by Florence, which resulted in the return of the papacy from Avignon to Rome. In 1375, provoked by the aggressiveness of the Pope's legates in Italy, Florence incited a ...
group of American painters who exhibited together only once, in New York City in 1908, but who established one of the main currents in 20th-century American painting. The original Eight included Robert Henri, leader of the group, Everett Shinn, John ...
the division of the Buddhist community in India in the first three centuries following the death of the Buddha in c. 483 BC. Although texts speak of the "18 schools," the lists differ considerably; and more than 30 names are ...
doctrine taught by Gautama Buddha in his first sermon at the deer park near Banaras (Varanasi), in India. It is also called the Middle Path, as it steers a course between the sensual pleasures of the materialists and the self-mortification ...
classification of subatomic particles known as hadrons into groups on the basis of their symmetrical properties, the number of members of each group being 1, 8 (most frequently), 10, or 27. The system was proposed in 1961 by the American ...
larger of the two major Chinese communist forces that fought the Japanese from 1937 to 1945. The 8th Route Army also engaged in political and propaganda work, helping to increase communist support among the populace. The army grew from 30,000 ...
coastal edge of the arid, sedimentary Great Sandy Desert and the Canning Basin (qq.v.), northwestern Western Australia, bordering the Indian Ocean. Extending in a curve northeast from Cape Keraudren (east of the De Grey River mouth) to Cape Bossut, it ...
(1568-1648), the war of Netherlands independence from Spain, which led to the separation of the northern and southern Netherlands and to the formation of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (the Dutch Republic). The first phase of the war began ...
Dutch physician and pathologist whose demonstration that beriberi is caused by poor diet led to the discovery of vitamins. Together with Sir Frederick Hopkins, he was awarded the 1929 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
pre-Hellenic goddess of childbirth, who hindered or facilitated the process according to her disposition. The earliest evidence for her cult is at Amnisus, in Crete, where excavations indicate that she was worshiped continuously from Neolithic to Roman times. In Homer's ...
German poet important in the history of the court epic and the development of the Tristan and Isolde story in Romance literature. Eilhart was a member of a Brunswick family mentioned in the records of Henry III of Saxony. His ...
genus of parasitic protozoans of the spore-producing phylum Apicomplexa (previously Sporozoa). Eimeria, which causes coccidiosis in livestock and wild animals, infects mainly the cells of the digestive tract, although it also attacks cells of the liver and the bile duct. ...
