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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aceramic-0.md

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+---
+title: "Aceramic"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aceramic"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:06.971443+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Aceramic is defined as "not producing pottery". In archaeology, the term means "without pottery". Aceramic societies usually used bark, basketry, gourds and leather for containers. 
+"Aceramic" is used to describe a culture at any time prior to its development of pottery as well as cultures that lack pottery altogether. A preceramic period is traditionally regarded as occurring in the early stage of the Neolithic period of a culture, but recent findings in Japan and China have pushed the origin of ceramic technology there well back into the Paleolithic era.
+
+
+== West Asia ==
+In Western Asian archaeology, Aceramic is used to refer to a specific early Neolithic period before the development of ceramics, the Middle Eastern Pre-Pottery Neolithic, in which case it is a synonym of preceramic or pre-pottery. 
+The Western Asian Pre-Pottery Neolithic A began roughly around 8500 BC and can be identified with over a half a dozen sites. The period was most prominent in Western Asia in an economy based on the cultivation of crops or the rearing of animals or both. Outside Western Asia, Aceramic Neolithic groups are more rare. Aceramic Neolithic villages had many attributes of agricultural communities: large settlement size, substantial architecture, long settlement duration, intensive harvesting of seeds with sickles, equipment and facilities for storing and grinding seeds, and containers. Morphological evidence for domestication of plants comes only from Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), and by Late PPNB some animals, notably goats, were domesticated or at least managed in most of the sites.
+
+
+=== Cyprus ===
+Some of the most famous Aceramic sites are located in the Republic of Cyprus. There was an Early Aceramic Neolithic phase beginning around 8200 BC. The phase can be best thought of as a "colony", or initial settlement of the island. Until the relatively recent discoveries of the Akrotiri and the Early Aceramic Neolithic phases, the Aceramic Neolithic culture known as the Khirokitia culture was thought to be the earliest human settlement on Cyprus, from 7000 to 5000 BC. There are a number of Late Aceramic Neolithic sites throughout the island. The two most important sites are called Khirokitia and Kalavasos-Tenta. Late Aceramic Cyprus did not have much external contact because of a lack of settlement in the west or northwest during the period. However, Late Aceramic Cyprus was a well-structured society.
+
+
+== Americas ==
+The specific term "Pre-Ceramic" is used for a period in many chronologies of the archaeology of the Americas, typically showing some agriculture and developed textiles but no fired pottery. For example, in the Norte Chico civilization and other cultures of Peru, the cultivation of cotton seems to have been very important in economic and power relations, from around 3200 BC. Here, Cotton Pre-Ceramic may be used as a period. The Pre-Ceramic may be followed by "Ceramic" periods or a formative stage.
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+ The dictionary definition of aceramic at Wiktionary

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acropolis-0.md

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+---
+title: "Acropolis"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acropolis"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:14.203861+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, yet nearly every Greek city had an acropolis of its own. The term derives from the homonymous Greek word "Ακρόπολις", composed from "akron" (ἄκρον), which means "top", and "polis" (πόλις), which means "city".
+Acropolises were used as religious centers and places of worship, forts, and places in which the royal and high-status resided. Acropolises became the nuclei of large cities of classical ancient times, and served as important centers of a community. Some well-known acropolises have become the centers of tourism in the present day, and they are a rich source of archaeological information of ancient Greece, especially, the Acropolis of Athens.
+
+== Origin ==
+The plural of acropolis (ακρόπολη) is acropolises, also commonly as acropoleis and acropoles, and ακροπόλεις in Greek. The term acropolis is also used to describe the central complex of overlapping structures, such as plazas and pyramids, in many Maya cities, including Tikal and Copán. Acropolis is also the term used by archaeologists and historians for the urban Castro culture settlements located in Northwestern Iberian hilltops. 
+
+ 
+It is primarily associated with the Greek cities of Athens, Argos (with Larisa), Thebes (with Cadmea), Corinth (with its Acrocorinth), and Rhodes (with its Acropolis of Lindos). It may also be applied generically to all such citadels including Rome, Carthage, Jerusalem, Celtic Bratislava, Asia Minor, or Castle Rock in Edinburgh. An example in Ireland is the Rock of Cashel. In Central Italy, many small rural communes still cluster at the base of a fortified habitation known as rocca of the commune. Other parts of the world have developed other names for the high citadel, or alcázar, which often have reinforced a naturally strong site. Because of this, many cultures have included acropolises in their societies; however, they do not use the same name for them.
+
+== Differing acropolises ==
+The acropolis of a city was used in many ways, with regard to ancient time and through references. Because an acropolis was built at the highest part of a city, it served as a highly functional form of protection, a fortress, and was as well as a home to the royal of a city and a centre for religion through the worshipping of different gods. There have been many classical and ancient acropolises, including the most commonly-known, Acropolis of Athens, as well as the Tepecik Acropolis at Patara, Ankara Acropolis, Acropolis of La Blanca, Acropolis at the Maya Site in Guatemala, and the Acropolis at Halieis.
+
+The most famous example is the Athenian Acropolis, which is a collection of structures featuring a citadel on the highest part of land in ancient (and modern-day) Athens, Greece. Many notable structures at the site were constructed in the 5th century BCE, including the Propylaea, Erechtheion, and the Temple of Athena. The Temple is also commonly known as the Parthenon, which is derived from the divine Athena Parthenos. There were often dances, music and plays held at the acropolis, which it served as a community centre for the city of Athens. It became a prime tourist destination by the 2nd century AD during the Roman Empire and was known as "the Greece of Greece," as coined by an unknown poet. Although originating in the mainland of Greece, use of the acropolis model quickly spread to Greek colonies such as the Dorian Lato on Crete during the Archaic Period.
+The Tepecik Acropolis at Patara served as a harbor to nearby communities and naval forces, such as Antigonos I Monopthalmos and Demetrios Poliorketes, and combined land and sea. Its fortification wall and Bastion date back to the Classical period. The acropolis was constructed in the fourth century BCE by the Hekatomnids that ultimately led to its seizure in 334 BCE by Alexander the Great. The acropolis contributed significantly to the overall development that took place during the Hellenistic empires. This acropolis was the earliest place of settlement, probably dating back to the third millennium BCE. During excavations that took place in 1989, ceramic items, terracotta figurines, coins, bone and stone objects were found that date to the fourth century BCE. The fortification wall and bastion that are built at this acropolis uses a style of masonry, commonly known as the Greek word ἔμπλεκτον (meaning "woven"). This style of masonry was likely used for weight-bearing purposes.
+The Acropolis at Halieis dates back to the Neolithic and Classical periods. It included a fortified wall, sanctuary of Apollo (two temples, an altar, a race course), and necropolis (cemetery). This acropolis was the highest point of fortification on the south edge at Halieis. There was a small open-air cult space, including an altar and monuments.
+The Ankara Acropolis, which was set in modern-day Turkey, is a historically prominent space that has changed over time through the urban development of the country from the Phrygian period. This acropolis was well known as a spot for holy worshipping, and was symbolic of the time. It has also been a place that has historically recognized the legislative changes that Turkey has faced.  
+The Acropolis of La Blanca was created in Guatemala as a small ancient Maya settlement and archaeological site that is located adjacent to the Salsipuedes River. This acropolis developed as a place of residence for the city of La Blanca's rulers. Its main period of usage was during the Classical period of 600 AD to 850 AD, as the city developed as a commercial place of trade among a number of nearby settlements.
+The Mayan Acropolis site in Guatemala included a burial site and vaulted tombs of the highest status royal. This funerary structure was integrated into this sacred landscape, and illustrated the prosperity of power between the royal figures of Pedras Negras in Guatemala.
+
+== Modern-day uses ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acropolis-1.md

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+---
+title: "Acropolis"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acropolis"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:14.203861+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Tourism ===
+Acropolises today have become the epicenters of tourism and attraction sites in many modern-day Greek cities. The Athenian Acropolis, in particular, is the most famous, and has the best vantage point in Athens, Greece. Today, tourists can purchase tickets to visit the Athenian Acropolis, including walking, sightseeing, and bus tours, as well as a classic Greek dinner.
+
+=== Cultural ties ===
+
+Because of its classical Hellenistic and Greco-Roman style, the ruins of Mission San Juan Capistrano's Great Stone Church in California, United States has been called an American Acropolis. The civilization developed its religious, educational, and cultural aspects of the acropolis, and is used today as a location that holds events, such as operas.
+The neighborhood of Morningside Heights in New York City is commonly referred to as the "Academic Acropolis" due to its high elevation and the concentration of educational institutions in the area, including Columbia University and its affiliates, Barnard College, Teachers College, Union Theological Seminary and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; Manhattan School of Music; Bank Street College of Education; and New York Theological Seminary. The analogy is also aided by the neoclassical architecture of the Columbia University campus, which was designed by McKim, Mead & White in the early 20th century.
+
+=== Excavations ===
+Much of the modern-day uses of acropolises have been discovered through excavations that have developed over the course of many years. For example, the Athenian Acropolis includes a Great Temple that holds the Parthenon, a specific space for ancient worship. Through today's findings and research, the Parthenon treasury is able to be recognized as the west part of the structure (the Erechtheion), as well as the Parthenon itself. Most excavations have been able to provide archaeologists with samples of pottery, ceramics, and vessels. The excavation of the Acropolis of Halieis produced remains that provided context that dated the Acropolis at Halieis from the Final Neolithic period through the first Early Helladic period.
+
+== See also ==
+Acropolis of Rhodes
+Acropolis Palaiokastro
+Idjang
+Tell (archaeology)
+Hillfort
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+Acropolis Museum
+Acropolis: description, photo album
+ Media related to Acropolis at Wikimedia Commons
+The Acropolis of Athens Archived 24 October 2019 at the Wayback Machine (Greek Government website)
+The Acropolis Restoration Project (Greek Government website)
+The Acropolis: A Walk Through History
+The Parthenon Frieze (Hellenic Ministry of Culture web site)
+UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Acropolis, Athens

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_tendency-0.md

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+---
+title: "Action tendency"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_tendency"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:08.318647+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Action tendency is a psychological term in behavioural science, which refers to an individual's urge to carry out a particular behaviour, particularly as a component of emotion. It represents a person’s initial compulsion for goal-directed behaviour in response to environmental stimuli, directly addressing the emotions experienced.
+Importantly, action tendencies do not guarantee that a behaviour will occur. Instead, they serve as effective predictors of how emotions guide actions, showcasing patterns of readiness to engage or avoid situations  depending on the emotional context. In behavioural science, an individual's emotions direct their response to current circumstances or relationships; thus, the action tendency, as a constituent factor of the individual's overall emotional responsivity, is a temporary and immediate impulse.
+
+== Role of emotions ==
+There are several distinct emotions - such as joy, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger – that form actions tendencies including approach, inaction, withdrawal, and attack. Emotional valence – whether the experienced emotion is positive or negative – arises from the measure of congruency between an individuals’ goals and their environment. Environments that support goal attainment typically elicit positive emotions and approach behaviours. Conversely, environments that limit resources necessary for goal achievement, activate negative emotions and avoidance behaviours.
+However, action tendencies are not fixed. They are immediate suggestions for a response in a particular set of circumstances, informed by an individual's set of preferences at the current point in time, which are supplied elsewhere within the emotion. Action tendency, therefore, changes as an individual moves between emotional states, and is modified by the individual's present cognitive and physiological abilities. The same emotion can lead to different action tendencies explaining why emotional responses do not always translate into consistent behaviours.
+
+== Formation ==
+Action tendencies develop from the interaction between emotional experience, physiological responses, and cognitive processes
+
+=== Biological and cognitive foundations ===
+Biologically, action urges are part of evolved survival mechanisms, preparing the body to rapidly adapt and respond to environmental challenges. As the motivational component of emotional decision making, action tendencies are responsible for the preparation and direction of motor responses. Under the emotional framework, motivation can be thought of as the state of readiness to engage in a certain action with the goal of achieving a desired result. The action tendency is distinct from cognitive, physiological, and expressive components, which likewise determine an individual's behaviour.
+
+Survival mechanisms: A key example is the Fight-or-Flight response induced by fear. This activates the sympathetic nervous system, realising hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, to prepare the body to either attack (fight) or escape (flight) the perceived threat. These physiological changes create a readiness to act shaped by an internal risk assessment to select the most effective behavioural strategy for the situation.
+Regulatory drives: The hypothalamus plays a central role in regulating motivational drives that underlie action tendencies. Its interaction with the automatic nervous system and endocrine system helps maintain homeostasis and regulate essential survival-based motivations. These drives are essential in adjusting goal priorities that are more likely to support survival in response to the changing environmental conditions.
+Reward system: The brain’s reward system, particularly the mesolimbic pathway, reinforces action tendencies. When a behaviour leads to a desirable outcome, dopamine is released, reinforcing the relationship between the stimulus and associated behaviour. Repeated pairings form learned associations, increasing the probability that specific emotional contexts trigger similar behavioural impulses. However, reinforcement can also promote counterproductive behavioural tendencies, such as addiction, where excessive dopamine release creates ‘super-learning’ cues. An unreactive reward system may motivate individuals to seek greater stimulation through antisocial behaviours, reinforcing reward-seeking action tendencies that relieve unpleasant states.
+
+=== Learning action tendencies ===
+Action tendencies can be learnt through conditioning. Repeated exposure to similar emotional environments and appraisals teaches individuals which behaviours are most effective or rewarding. This learning creates expectations about future events, resulting in the experience of ‘anticipated emotions’ which motivate behaviour before the emotion is felt. Baumgartner, Pieters and Bagozzi (2008) argued that, through common patterns of experience, individuals display preferences to select actions that are predicted to generate positive emotions and avoid negative ones. Action tendencies, therefore, may not solely arise from immediate emotional experiences but also caused by the expectation about an emotional outcome.
+Several theories and experiments support the notion that action tendencies can be primed to produce a desired result before the onset of emotion. For example, a 2010 experiment trained addicts to either approach or avoid alcohol, finding that the subjects' action tendency towards alcohol was positively affected in accordance with the training condition.
+
+== Appraisal theory and action tendencies ==
+Appraisal theory argues that emotions stem from an individual’s subjective evaluation of events in relation to personal goals. Emotional evaluations determine how learned appraisals manifest into specific action tendencies. As emotions become conceptualised through appraisal, behavioural urges reflect a person’s interpretation of the environment, distinguishing whether a particular behavioural response is compatible with the situation. Situations appraised as motive-consistent – those that align with personal goals - elicit positive emotions, creating impulses to seek more of the stimuli. Motive inconsistent situations elicit negative emotions, where impulses experienced are aimed to reduce the stimuli.
+However, the relationship between emotional valence and action tendency is not always congruent. Appraised intensity and emotional salience also influence the activation of actions. For example, although fear is perceived to have a negative valance, it can evoke approach (fight) or withdrawal (flight) tendencies, depending on the perceived threat intensity. Lower to moderate intensity fear leads to attack tendencies, whereas high intensity fear results in flee tendencies.
+
+=== Approach and withdrawal tendencies ===
+Charles Darwin (1872), in “The Expressions of the Emotion in Man and Animals”, proposed action tendencies as generally falling under two main categories: approach and withdrawal.
+
+Approach tendency: Guide behaviour towards rewarding stimuli. Commonly associated with positive emotions and motive-consistent appraisals. Approach-related emotions include joy, excitement, and sometimes anger.
+Withdrawal tendency: Guide behaviour away from potential harm and reject undesirable stimuli. Commonly associated with negative emotions and motive-inconsistent appraisals. Withdrawal-related emotions include fear, disgust, and sadness.

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+---
+title: "Action tendency"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_tendency"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:08.318647+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+==== Two cognitive systems maintain action tendency activation ====
+Source:
+
+The Behavioural Activation System (BAS): Responds to reward cues, predisposing individuals to approach behaviours.
+The Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS): Responds to punishment or novelty cues, predisposing individuals to avoidance or inhibiting behaviours.
+Neuroimaging studies show the left frontal cortex links to approach tendencies (BAS), while the right frontal cortex links to withdrawal tendencies (BIS).
+
+=== Cognitive and social regulation ===
+The activation, suppression, and regulation of action tendencies are influenced by cognitive, social, and contextual factors. One primary regulatory mechanism is cognitive reappraisal – the ability to reinterpret emotionally-inducing events to align with personal goals. This mechanism allows individuals to adjust emotional impulses prior to the full onset of a reaction. Studies show it effectively reduces negative emotions and promote positive emotions to generate more socially appropriate tendencies.
+Social environments and cultural norms also shape cognitive responses to emotional events. Social Identity Theory argues individuals internalise the beliefs and behaviours of their in-groups – groups they identify with – creating strong desires to perform actions that reinforce conformity to group norms. For instance, while anger may promote aggressive, confrontational urges, societal norms and law-compliance often inhibit these behaviours. This is often mediated by fear of punishment or reputational damage that override antisocial tendencies.
+Perceived action tendency may also play a role in social conditioning and self-esteem which is observable at an early developmental stage. In 1979, experimental data demonstrated that children who self-reported more frequent assertive and aggressive tendencies experienced lower self-image and negative social stigma. These findings suggest that the self-observation of behavioural tendencies plays a significant role in the construction of identity and the regulation of behaviour.
+However, highly irrational emotions present a harder regulatory challenge, evident in psychological disorders like depression, anxiety and panic, where involuntary emotions govern action tendencies. This can lead individuals to act on irrational and antisocial urges driven by unregulated emotional states.
+
+== See also ==
+Determination
+Behaviourism
+Behavioural change theories
+Emotion and culture
+Emotional self-regulation
+Emotional dysregulation
+Emotional expression
+Self-preservation
+Goal setting
+Motivational therapy
+Motivational Interviewing
+Instinct
+Normality (behaviour)
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agora-0.md

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+---
+title: "Agora"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agora"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:15.374935+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The agora (English:  or ; Ancient Greek: ἀγορά, romanized: agorá, meaning "market" in Modern Greek) was a central public space in ancient Greek city-states. The literal meaning of the word "agora" is "gathering place" or "assembly". The agora was the centre of the athletic, artistic, business, social, spiritual, and political life in the city. The Ancient Agora of Athens is the best example.
+
+
+== Origins ==
+
+Early in Greek history (10th–4th centuries BC), free-born citizens would gather in the agora for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council. Later, the agora also served as a marketplace, where merchants kept stalls or shops to sell their goods amid arcades. This attracted artisans who built workshops nearby.
+From these twin functions of the agora as a political and a commercial spot came the two Greek verbs ἀγοράζω, agorázō, "I shop", and ἀγορεύω, agoreúō, "I speak in public".
+
+
+== Ancient Agora of Athens ==
+
+The Ancient Agora of Athens was situated beneath the northern slope of the Acropolis. The Ancient Agora was the primary meeting ground for Athenians, where members of democracy congregated affairs of the state, where business was conducted, a place to hang out, and watch performers and listen to famous philosophers. The importance of the Athenian agora revolved around religion. The agora was a very sacred place, in which holiness is laid out in the architecture of the ground upon which it lay. The layout of the agora was centred around the Panathenaic Way, a road that ran through the middle of Athens and to the main gate of the city, Dipylon. This road was considered tremendously sacred, serving as a travel route for the Panathenaic festival, which was held in honour of the goddess Athena every four years. The agora was also famously known for housing the Temple of Hephaestus, the Greek god of metalworking and craftsmen. This temple is still in great condition to this day. Other temples priorly standing in the agora include honour for Zeus, Athena, Apollo, and Ares.
+
+
+== Location and constituents ==
+
+The agora was usually located in the middle of a city or near the harbour. Agoras were built of colonnades, or rows of long columns, and contained stoae, also known as a long open walkway below the colonnades. They were beautifully decorated with fountains, trees, and statues. When the Athenian agora was rebuilt after the Greco-Persian Wars, colonnades and stoae were not incorporated.
+
+
+== Phobia ==
+The term agoraphobia denotes a phobic condition in which the sufferer becomes anxious in unfamiliar environments – for instance, places where they perceive that they have little control. Such anxiety may be triggered by wide-open spaces, crowds, or public situations, and the psychological term derives from the agora as a large and open gathering place.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Forum (Roman)
+Agorism
+Platonic Academy
+Egora (electronic agora)
+
+
+== References ==
+
+https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/68303
+
+
+== External links ==
+ Media related to Agoras at Wikimedia Commons
+Official Athenian agora excavations
+Agora in Athens: photos

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphora-0.md

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+---
+title: "Amphora"
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+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphora"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:16.557361+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+An amphora (; Ancient Greek: ἀμφορεύς, romanized: amphoreús; English pl. amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storage rooms and packages, tied together with rope and delivered by land or sea. The size and shape have been determined from at least as early as the Neolithic Period. Amphorae were used in vast numbers for the transport and storage of various products, both liquid and dry, but mostly for wine. They are most often ceramic, but examples in metals and other materials have been found. Versions of the amphorae were one of many shapes used in Ancient Greek vase painting.
+The amphora complements a vase, the pithos, which makes available capacities between one-half and two and one-half tons. In contrast, the amphora holds under a half-ton, typically less than 50 kilograms (110 lb). The bodies of the two types have similar shapes. Where the pithos may have multiple small loops or lugs for fastening a rope harness, the amphora has two expansive handles joining the shoulder of the body and a long neck. The necks of pithoi are wide for scooping or bucket access. The necks of amphorae are narrow for pouring by a person holding it by the bottom and a handle. Some variants exist. The handles might not be present. The size may require two or three handlers to lift. For the most part, however, an amphora was tableware, or sat close to the table, was intended to be seen, and was finely decorated as such by master painters.
+Stoppers of perishable materials, which have rarely survived, were used to seal the contents. Two principal types of amphorae existed: the neck amphora, in which the neck and body meet at a sharp angle; and the one-piece amphora, in which the neck and body form a continuous curve upwards. Neck amphorae were commonly used in the early history of ancient Greece, but were gradually replaced by the one-piece type from around the 7th century BC onward.
+Most were produced with a pointed base to allow upright storage by embedding in soft ground, such as sand. The base facilitated transport by ship, where the amphorae were packed upright or on their sides in as many as five staggered layers.. If upright, the bases probably were held by some sort of rack, and ropes passed through their handles to prevent shifting or toppling during rough seas. Heather and reeds might be used as packing around the vases. Racks could be used in kitchens and shops. The base also concentrated deposits from liquids with suspended solid particles, such as olive oil and wines.
+Amphorae are of great use to maritime archaeologists, as they often indicate the age of a shipwreck and the geographic origin of the cargo. They are occasionally so well preserved that the original content is still present, providing information on foodstuffs and mercantile systems. Amphorae were too cheap and plentiful to return to their origin-point and so, when empty, they were broken up at their destination. At a breakage site in Rome, Testaccio, close to the Tiber, the fragments, later wetted with calcium hydroxide (calce viva), remained to create a hill now named Monte Testaccio, 45 m (148 ft) high and more than 1 kilometre in circumference.
+
+== Etymology ==
+Amphora is a Greco-Roman word developed in ancient Greek during the Bronze Age. The Romans acquired it during the Hellenization that occurred in the Roman Republic. Cato the Younger is the first known literary person to use it. The Romans turned the Greek form into a standard first declension noun, amphora, pl. amphorae. The word and the vase were almost certainly introduced to Italy through the Greek settlements there, which traded extensively in Greek pottery.
+Even though the Etruscans imported, manufactured, and exported amphorae extensively in their wine industry, and other Greek vase names were Etruscanized, no Etruscan form of the word exists. There was perhaps an as yet unidentified native Etruscan word for the vase that pre-empted the adoption of amphora.
+The Latin word derived from the Greek amphoreus (ἀμφορεύς), a shortened form of amphiphoreus (ἀμφιφορεύς), a compound word combining amphi- ("on both sides", "twain") and phoreus ("carrier"), from pherein ("to carry"), referring to the vessel's two carrying handles on opposite sides. The amphora appears as 𐀀𐀠𐀡𐀩𐀸, a-pi-po-re-we, in the Linear B Bronze Age records of Knossos, 𐀀𐀡𐀩𐀸, a-po-re-we, at Mycenae, and the fragmentary ]-re-we at Pylos, designated by Ideogram 209 𐃨, Bennett's AMPHORA, which has a number of scribal variants. The two spellings are transcriptions of amphiphorēwes (plural) and amphorēwe (dual) in Mycenaean Greek from which it may be seen that the short form prevailed on the mainland. Homer uses the long form for metrical reasons, and Herodotus has the short form. Ventris and Chadwick's translation is "carried on both sides."
+
+== Weights and measures ==
+
+Amphorae varied greatly in height. The largest stands as tall as 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) high, while some were less than 30 centimetres (12 inches) high - the smallest were called amphoriskoi  (literally "little amphorae"). Most were around 45 centimetres (18 inches) high.
+There was a significant degree of standardisation in some variants; the wine amphora held a standard measure of about 39 litres (41 US qt), giving rise to the amphora quadrantal as a unit of measure in the Roman Empire. In all, approximately 66 distinct types of amphora have been identified.
+Further, the term also stands for an ancient Roman unit of measurement for liquids. The volume of a Roman amphora (amphora quadrantal) was about one cubic pes (foot), equivalent to 26.2 liters (5.8 imp gal; 6.9 U.S. gal).

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+---
+title: "Amphora"
+chunk: 2/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphora"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:16.557361+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Production ==
+Roman amphorae were wheel-thrown terracotta containers. During the production process the body was made first and then left to dry partially. Then coils of clay were added to form the neck, the rim, and the handles. Once the amphora was complete, the maker then treated the interior with resin that would prevent permeation of stored liquids. The reconstruction of these stages of production is based primarily on the study of modern amphora production in some areas of the eastern Mediterranean.
+Amphorae often were marked with a variety of stamps, sgraffito, and inscriptions. They provided information on the production, content, and subsequent marketing. A stamp usually was applied to the amphora at a partially dry stage. It indicates the name of the figlina (workshop) and/or the name of the owner of the workshop. Painted stamps, tituli picti, recorded the weight of the container and the contents, and were applied after the amphora was filled. Today, stamps are used to allow historians to track the flow of trade goods and recreate ancient trade networks.
+
+== Classification ==
+The first systematic classification of Roman amphorae types was undertaken by the German scholar Heinrich Dressel. Following the exceptional amphora deposit uncovered in Rome in Castro Pretorio at the end of the 1800s, he collected almost 200 inscriptions from amphorae and included them in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. In his studies of the amphora deposit he was the first to elaborate a classification of types, the so-called "Dressel table", which still is used today for many types.
+Subsequent studies on Roman amphorae have produced more detailed classifications, which usually are named after the scholar who studied them. For the neo-Phoenician types see the work by Maña published in 1951, and the revised classification by Van der Werff in 1977–1978. The Gallic amphorae have been studied by Laubenheimer in a study published in 1989, whereas the Cretan amphorae have been analyzed by Marangou-Lerat. Beltràn studied the Spanish types in 1970. Adriatic types have been studied by Lamboglia in 1955. For a general analysis of the Western Mediterranean types see Panella, and Peacock and Williams.
+
+== History ==
+
+=== Prehistoric origins ===
+ 
+Ceramics of shapes and uses falling within the range of amphorae, with or without handles, are of prehistoric heritage across Eurasia, from the Caucasus to China. Amphorae dated to approximately 4800 BC have been found in Banpo, a Neolithic site of the Yangshao culture in China. Amphorae first appeared on the Phoenician coast at approximately 3500 BC.
+In the Bronze and Iron Ages amphorae spread around the ancient Mediterranean world, being used by the ancient Greeks and Romans as the principal means for transporting and storing grapes, olive oil, wine, oil, olives, grain, fish, and other agricultural products. They were produced on an industrial scale until approximately the 7th century AD. Wooden and skin containers seem to have supplanted amphorae thereafter.
+They influenced Chinese ceramics and other East Asian ceramic cultures, especially as a fancy shape for high-quality decorative ceramics, and continued to be produced there long after they had ceased to be used further west.
+
+=== Ancient Greece ===
+
+Besides coarse amphorae used for storage and transport, the vast majority, high-quality painted amphorae were produced in Ancient Greece in significant numbers for a variety of social and ceremonial purposes. Their design differs vastly from the more functional versions; they are typified by wide mouth and a ring base, with a glazed surface and decorated with figures or geometric shapes. They normally have a firm base on which they can stand. Panathenaic amphorae were used as prizes in the Panathenaic Festivals held between the 6th century BC to the 2nd century BC, filled with olive oil from a sacred grove. Surviving examples bear the inscription "I am one of the prizes from Athens", and usually depict the particular event they were awarded for.
+Painted amphorae were also used for funerary purposes, often in special types such as the loutrophoros. Especially in earlier periods, outsize vases were used as grave markers, while some amphorae were used as containers for the ashes of the dead. By the Roman period vase-painting had largely died out, and utilitarian amphorae were normally the only type produced.
+
+==== Greek amphora types ====
+Various different types of amphorae were popular at different times:
+
+===== Neck amphora (c. 6th–5th century BC) =====
+On a neck amphora, the handles are attached to the neck, which is separated from the belly by an angular carination. There are two main types of neck amphorae:
+
+the Nolan amphora (late 5th century BC), named for its type site, Nola near Naples, and
+the Tyrrhenian amphora.
+There are also some rarer special types of neck amphora, distinguished by specific features, for example:
+
+the Pointed amphora, with a notably pointed toe, sometimes ending in a knob-like protrusion
+the Loutrophoros, used for storing water during ritual ceremonies, such as marriages and funerals.
+
+===== Belly amphora (c. 640–450 BC) =====
+In contrast to the neck amphora, a belly amphora does not have a distinguished neck; instead, the belly reaches the mouth in a continuous curve. After the mid-5th century BC, this type was rarely produced. The pelike is a special type of belly amphora, with the belly placed lower, so that the widest point of the vessel is near its bottom. The pelike was introduced around the end of the 6th century BC.

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+---
+title: "Amphora"
+chunk: 3/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphora"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:16.557361+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+===== Panathenaic prize amphora =====
+Another special type is the Panathenaic prize amphora, with black-figure decoration, produced exclusively as prize vessels for the Panathenaia and retaining the black-figure technique for centuries after the introduction of red-figure vase painting. Some examples bear the inscription "ΤΩΝ ΑΘΗΝΗΘΕΝ ΑΘΛΩΝ" meaning "[I am one] of the prizes from [the goddess] Athena". They contained the prize of oil from the sacred olive tree of the goddess Athena for the winners of the athletic contests held to honour the goddess, and were evidently kept thereafter, and perhaps used to store wine, before being buried with the prize-winner. They depicted goddess Athena on one side (as seen on the second image on this page) and the athletic event on the other side, e.g. a scene of wrestling or running contest etc.
+
+=== Ancient Rome ===
+
+By the Roman period utilitarian amphorae were normally the only type produced.
+The first type of Roman amphora, Dressel 1, appears in central Italy in the late 2nd century BC. This type had thick walls and a characteristic red fabric. It was very heavy, although also strong. Around the middle of the 1st century BC the so-called Dressel 2-4 starts to become widely used. This type of amphora presented some advantages in being lighter and with thinner walls. It has been calculated that while a ship could accommodate approximately 4500 Dressel 1, it was possible to fit 6000 Dressel 2–4 in the same space. Dressel 2-4 were often produced in the same workshops used for the production of Dressel 1 which quickly ceased to be used.
+At the same time in Cuma (southern Italy) the production of the cadii cumani type starts (Dressel 21–22). These containers were mainly used for the transportation of fruit and were used until the middle imperial times. At the same time, in central Italy, the so-called Spello amphorae, small containers, were produced for the transportation of wine. On the Adriatic coast the older types were replaced by the Lamboglia 2 type, a wine amphora commonly produced between the end of the 2nd and the 1st century BC. This type develops later into the Dressel 6A which becomes dominant during Augustan times.
+In the Gallic provinces the first examples of Roman amphorae were local imitations of pre-existent types such as Dressel 1, Dressel 2–4, Pascual 1, and Haltern 70. The more typical Gallic production begins within the ceramic ateliers in Marseille during late Augustan times. The type Oberaden 74 was produced to such an extent that it influenced the production of some Italic types. Spanish amphorae became particularly popular thanks to a flourishing production phase in late Republican times. The Hispania Baetica and Hispania Tarraconensis regions (south-western and eastern Spain) were the main production areas between the 2nd and the 1st century BC due to the distribution of land to military veterans and the founding of new colonies. Spanish amphorae were widespread in the Mediterranean area during early imperial times. The most common types were all produced in Baetica and among these there were the Dressel 20, a typical olive oil container, the Dressel 7–13, for garum (fish sauce), and the Haltern 70, for defrutum (fruit sauce). In the Tarraconensis region the Pascual 1 was the most common type, a wine amphora shaped on the Dressel 1, and imitations of Dressel 2–4.
+North-African production was based on an ancient tradition which may be traced back to the Phoenician colony of Carthage. Phoenician amphorae had characteristic small handles attached directly onto the upper body. This feature becomes the distinctive mark of late-Republican/early imperial productions, which are then called neo-Phoenician. The types produced in Tripolitania and Northern Tunisia are the Maña C1 and C2, later renamed Van der Werff 1, 2, and 3. In the Aegean area the types from the island of Rhodes were quite popular starting from the 3rd century BC due to local wine production which flourished over a long period. These types developed into the Camulodunum 184, an amphora used for the transportation of Rhodian wine all over the empire. Imitations of the Dressel 2-4 were produced on the island of Cos for the transportation of wine from the 4th century BC until middle imperial times. Cretan containers also were popular for the transportation of wine and can be found around the Mediterranean from Augustan times until the 3rd century AD. During the late empire period, north-African types dominated amphora production. The so-called African I and II types were widely used from the 2nd until the late 4th century AD. Other types from the eastern Mediterranean (Gaza), such as the so-called Late Roman 4, became very popular between the 4th and the 7th century AD, while Italic productions ceased.
+The largest known wreck of an amphorae cargo ship, carrying 6,000 pots, was discovered off the coast of Kefalonia, an Ionian island off the coast of Greece.
+
+== Modern use ==
+Some modern winemakers and brewers use amphorae to provide a different palate and taste to their products from those that are available with other aging methods.
+
+== See also ==
+Ancient Roman pottery
+Ayla-Axum Amphoras
+Carinate
+Demijohn, another large container used historically for wine
+Lionel Casson, scholar of the contents of shipwrecked amphorae
+Maritime archaeology
+Monte Testaccio
+Stirrup jar, a two-handled amphora whose opposing handles connect the aperture to the sides of the vessel
+Tapayan, earthenware and stoneware vessels used for storing and transporting various products in ancient maritime Southeast Asia
+Zafar, Yemen
+
+== Citations ==
+
+== General references ==
+Bruno, Brunella (2005), "Le anfore da trasporto", in Gandolfi, Daniela (ed.), La ceramica e i materiali di Età Romana. Classi, produzioni, commerci e consumi, Bordighera: Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri.
+Panella, Clementina (2001), "Le anfore di età imperiale del Mediterraneo occidentale", in Lévêque, Pierre; Morel, Jean Paul Maurice (eds.), Céramiques hellénistiques et romaines III (in French), Paris: Belles Lettres, pp. 177–275.
+
+== External links ==
+
+Amphorae ex Hispania
+The AMPHORAS project Archived 30 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine
+Bulletin amphorologique
+Roman Amphorae: a digital resource from the University of Southampton
+Roman Amphoras in Britain in Internet Archaeology doi:10.11141/ia.1.6

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+---
+title: "Anatomical plane"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_plane"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:57.524568+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+An anatomical plane is an imaginary flat surface (plane) that is used to transect the body, in order to describe the location of structures or the direction of movements. In anatomy, planes are mostly used to divide the body into sections.
+In human anatomy three principal planes are used: the sagittal plane, coronal plane (frontal plane), and transverse plane. Sometimes the median plane as a specific sagittal plane is included as a fourth plane.  In animals with a horizontal spine the coronal plane  divides the body into dorsal (towards the backbone) and ventral (towards the belly) parts and is termed the dorsal plane.
+
+A parasagittal plane is any plane that divides the body into left and right sections. The median plane or midsagittal plane is a specific sagittal plane; it passes through the middle of the body, dividing it into left and right halves.
+The coronal plane, also frontal plane divides the body into front and back parts.
+The transverse plane, also called the axial or horizontal plane, is perpendicular to the other two planes, and is parallel to the ground.
+
+== Terminology ==
+There could be any number of sagittal planes, sometimes called parasagittal planes but they all run parallel to the median plane. The term cardinal refers to the one plane that divides the body into equal segments, with exactly one half of the body on either side of the cardinal plane. The term cardinal plane appears in some texts as the principal plane. The terms are interchangeable.
+In human anatomy, the anatomical planes are defined in reference to a body in the standard anatomical position, the upright or standing orientation.
+
+A transverse plane (also known as axial or horizontal plane) is parallel to the ground; it separates the superior from the inferior, or the head from the feet. The transverse planes identified in Terminologia Anatomica are the transpyloric plane, the subcostal plane, the transumbilical (or umbilical) plane, the supracristal plane, the intertubercular plane, and the interspinous plane.
+A coronal plane (also known as frontal plane) is perpendicular to the ground; it separates the anterior from the posterior, the front from the back, and the ventral from the dorsal.
+A sagittal plane (also known as anteroposterior plane) is perpendicular to the ground, separating left from right. The median (or midsagittal) plane is the sagittal plane in the middle of the body; it passes through midline structures such as the navel and the spine. All other sagittal planes (also known as parasagittal planes) are parallel to it.
+The axes and sagittal plane are the same for bipeds and quadrupeds, but the orientations of the coronal and transverse planes switch. The axes on particular pieces of equipment may or may not correspond to the axes of the body, especially since the body and the equipment may be in different relative orientations.
+
+== Uses ==
+
+=== Motion ===
+
+When describing anatomical motion, these planes describe the axis along which an action is performed. So by moving through the transverse plane, movement travels from head to toe. For example, if a person jumped directly up and then down, their body would be moving through the transverse plane in the coronal and sagittal planes.
+A longitudinal plane is any plane perpendicular to the transverse plane. The coronal plane and the sagittal plane are examples of longitudinal planes.
+
+=== Medical imaging ===
+Sometimes the orientation of certain planes needs to be distinguished, for instance in medical imaging techniques such as sonography, CT scans, MRI scans, or PET scans. There are a variety of different standardized coordinate systems. For the DICOM format, the one imagines a human in the anatomical position, and an X-Y-Z coordinate system with the x-axis going from front to back, the y-axis going from right to left, and the z-axis going from toe to head. The right-hand rule applies. 
+
+=== Finding anatomical landmarks ===
+
+In humans, reference may take origin from superficial anatomy, made to anatomical landmarks that are on the skin or visible underneath. As with planes, lines and points are imaginary. Examples include:
+
+The midaxillary line, a line running vertically down the surface of the body passing through the apex of the axilla (armpit). Parallel are the anterior axillary line, which passes through the anterior axillary skinfold, and the posterior axillary line, which passes through the posterior axillary skinfold.
+The mid-clavicular line, a line running vertically down the surface of the body passing through the midpoint of the clavicle.
+In addition, reference may be made to structures at specific levels of the spine (e.g. the 4th cervical vertebra, abbreviated "C4"), or the rib cage (e.g., the 5th intercostal space).
+Occasionally, in medicine, abdominal organs may be described with reference to the trans-pyloric plane, which is a transverse plane passing through the pylorus.
+
+=== Comparative embryology ===

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+---
+title: "Anatomical plane"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_plane"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:57.524568+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In discussing the neuroanatomy of animals, particularly rodents used in neuroscience research, a simplistic convention has been to name the sections of the brain according to the homologous human sections.   Hence, what is technically a transverse (orthogonal) section with respect to the body length axis of a rat (dividing anterior from posterior) may often be referred to in rat neuroanatomical coordinates as a coronal section, and likewise a coronal section with respect to the body (i.e. dividing ventral from dorsal) in a rat brain is referred to as transverse. This preserves the comparison with the human brain, whose length axis in rough approximation is rotated with respect to the body axis by 90 degrees in the ventral direction. It implies that the planes of the brain are not necessarily the same as those of the body.
+However, the situation is more complex, since comparative embryology shows that the length axis of the neural tube (the primordium of the brain) has three internal bending points, namely two ventral bendings at the cervical and cephalic flexures (cervical flexure roughly between the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord, and cephalic flexure between the diencephalon and the midbrain), and a dorsal (pontine or rhombic flexure) at the midst of the hindbrain, behind the cerebellum. The latter flexure mainly appears in mammals and sauropsids (reptiles and birds), whereas the other two, and principally the cephalic flexure, appear in all vertebrates (the sum of the cervical and cephalic ventral flexures is the cause of the 90-degree angle mentioned above in humans between body axis and brain axis). This more realistic concept of the longitudinal structure of vertebrate brains implies that any section plane, except the sagittal plane, will intersect variably different parts of the same brain as the section series proceeds across it (relativity of actual sections with regard to topological morphological status in the ideal unbent neural tube). Any precise description of a brain section plane therefore has to make reference to the anteroposterior part of the brain to which the description refers (e.g., transverse to the midbrain, or horizontal to the diencephalon). A necessary note of caution is that modern embryologic orthodoxy indicates that the brain's true length axis finishes rostrally somewhere in the hypothalamus where basal and alar zones interconnect from left to right across the median line; therefore, the axis does not enter the telencephalic area, although various authors, both recent and classic, have assumed a telencephalic end of the axis. The causal argument for this lies in the end of the axial mesoderm -mainly the notochord, but also the prechordal plate- under the hypothalamus. Early inductive effects of the axial mesoderm upon the overlying neural ectoderm is the mechanism that establishes the length dimension upon the brain primordium, jointly with establishing what is ventral in the brain (close to the axial mesoderm) in contrast with what is dorsal (distant from the axial mesoderm). Apart from the lack of a causal argument for introducing the axis in the telencephalon, there is the obvious difficulty that there is a pair of telencephalic vesicles, so that a bifid axis is actually implied in these outdated versions.
+
+== Other animals ==
+
+In quadrupeds the coronal plane is called the dorsal plane.
+
+== History ==
+Some of these terms come from Latin. Sagittal means "like an arrow", a reference to the position of the spine that naturally divides the body into right and left equal halves, the exact meaning of the term "midsagittal", or to the shape of the sagittal suture, which defines the sagittal plane and is shaped like an arrow.
+
+== See also ==
+Anatomical terms of location
+Horizontal plane
+Radial plane
+Body relative direction
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terminology-0.md

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+---
+title: "Anatomical terminology"
+chunk: 1/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terminology"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:31.649291+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Anatomical terminology is a specialized system of terms used by anatomists, zoologists, and health professionals, such as doctors, surgeons, and pharmacists, to describe the structures and functions of the body.
+This terminology incorporates a range of unique terms, prefixes, and suffixes derived primarily from Ancient Greek and Latin. While these terms can be challenging for those unfamiliar with them, they provide a level of precision that reduces ambiguity and minimizes the risk of errors. Because anatomical terminology is not commonly used in everyday language, its meanings are less likely to evolve or be misinterpreted.
+For example, everyday language can lead to confusion in descriptions: the phrase "a scar above the wrist" could refer to a location several inches away from the hand, possibly on the forearm, or it could be at the base of the hand, either on the palm or dorsal (back) side. By using precise anatomical terms, such as "proximal," "distal," "palmar," or "dorsal," this ambiguity is eliminated, ensuring clear communication.
+To standardize this system of terminology, Terminologia Anatomica was established as an international reference for anatomical terms.
+
+== Word formation ==
+Anatomical terminology follows a regular morphology, with consistent prefixes and suffixes used to modify different roots. The root of a term often refers to an organ or tissue. For example, the Latin name musculus biceps brachii can be broken down: musculus meaning 'muscle', biceps meaning 'two-headed', and brachii referring to the arm (brachial region). The first term identifies the structure, the second indicates the type or instance of the structure, and the third specifies its location.
+Anatomical structures are often described in relation to landmarks, such as the umbilicus, sternum, or anatomical lines like the midclavicular line (from the center of the clavicle). The term cephalon or cephalic region refers to the head, which is further divided into the cranium (skull), facies (face), frons (forehead), oculus (eye area), auris (ear), bucca (cheek), nasus (nose), os (mouth), and mentum (chin). The neck is known as the cervix or cervical region. Examples of structures named for these areas include the frontalis muscle, submental lymph nodes, buccal membrane and orbicularis oculi muscle.
+To reduce confusion, some terms are used specifically for certain body regions. For instance, in the skull rostral refers to proximity to the front of the nose and is primarily used when describing the skull's position, especially in comparison to other animals. Similarly, in the arms, different terms help clarify the "front", "back", "inner" and "outer" surfaces. For example:
+
+Radial referring to the radius bone, seen laterally in the standard anatomical position.
+Ulnar referring to the ulna bone, medially positioned when in the standard anatomical position.
+Additional terminology is used to describe the movement and actions of the hands and feet, and other structures such as the eyes.
+
+== History ==
+
+International morphological terminology is used by the colleges of medicine and dentistry and other areas of the health sciences. It facilitates communication and exchanges between scientists from different countries of the world and it is used daily in the fields of research, teaching and medical care. The international morphological terminology refers to morphological sciences as a biological sciences' branch. In this field, the form and structure are examined as well as the changes or developments in the organism. It is descriptive and functional. Basically, it covers the gross anatomy and the microscopic (histology and cytology) of living beings. It involves both development anatomy (embryology) and the anatomy of the adult. It also includes comparative anatomy between different species. The vocabulary is extensive, varied and complex, and requires a systematic presentation.
+Within the international field, a group of experts reviews, analyzes and discusses the morphological terms of the structures of the human body, forming today's Terminology Committee (FICAT) from the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA). It deals with the anatomical, histological and embryologic terminology. In the Latin American field, there are meetings called Iberian Latin American Symposium Terminology (SILAT), where a group of experts of the Pan American Association of Anatomy (PAA) that speak Spanish and Portuguese, disseminates and studies the international morphological terminology.
+The current international standard for human anatomical terminology is based on the Terminologia Anatomica (TA). It was developed by the Federative Committee on Anatomical Terminology (FCAT) and the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA) and was released in 1998. It supersedes the previous standard, Nomina Anatomica. Terminologia Anatomica contains terminology for about 7500 human gross (macroscopic) anatomical structures. For microanatomy, known as histology, a similar standard exists in Terminologia Histologica, and for embryology, the study of development, a standard exists in Terminologia Embryologica. These standards specify generally accepted names that can be used to refer to histological and embryological structures in journal articles, textbooks, and other areas. As of September 2016, two sections of the Terminologia Anatomica, including central nervous system and peripheral nervous system, were merged to form the Terminologia Neuroanatomica.
+The Terminologia Anatomica has been perceived with considerable criticism regarding its content including coverage, grammar and spelling mistakes, inconsistencies, and errors.
+
+== Location ==
+
+Anatomical terminology is often chosen to highlight the relative location of body structures. For instance, an anatomist might describe one band of tissue as "inferior to" another or a physician might describe a tumor as "superficial to" a deeper body structure.
+
+=== Anatomical position ===
+
+Anatomical terms used to describe location are based on a body positioned in what is called the standard anatomical position. This position is one in which a person is standing, feet apace, with palms forward and thumbs facing outwards. Just as maps are normally oriented with north at the top, the standard body "map", or anatomical position, is that of the body standing upright, with the feet at shoulder width and parallel, toes forward. The upper limbs are held out to each side, and the palms of the hands face forward.
+Using the standard anatomical position reduces confusion. It means that regardless of the position of a body, the position of structures within it can be described without ambiguity.

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+---
+title: "Anatomical terminology"
+chunk: 2/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terminology"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:31.649291+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Regions ===
+
+In terms of anatomy, anatomical lines are theoretical lines used to divide the body into regions, such as the nine regions of the abdomen. Axillary lines provide reference points for the underarm region 
+In the front, the trunk is referred to as the "thorax" and "abdomen". The back as a general area is the dorsum or dorsal area, and the lower back is the lumbus or lumbar region. The shoulder blades are the scapular area and the breastbone is the sternal region. The abdominal region is the area between the chest and the pelvis. The breast is also called the mammary region, the armpit as the axilla and axillary, and the navel as the umbilicus and umbilical. The pelvis is the lower torso, between the abdomen and the thighs. The groin, where the thigh joins the trunk, are the inguen and inguinal area.
+The entire arm is referred to as the brachium and brachial, the front of the elbow as the antecubitis and antecubital, the back of the elbow as the olecranon or olecranal, the forearm as the antebrachium and antebrachial, the wrist as the carpus and carpal area, the hand as the manus and manual, the palm as the palma and palmar, the thumb as the pollex, and the fingers as the digits, phalanges, and phalangeal. The buttocks are the gluteus or gluteal region and the pubic area is the pubis.
+Anatomists divide the lower limb into the thigh (the part of the limb between the hip and the knee) and the leg (which refers only to the area of the limb between the knee and the ankle). The thigh is the femur and the femoral region. The kneecap is the patella and patellar while the back of the knee is the popliteus and popliteal area. The leg (between the knee and the ankle) is the crus and crural area, the lateral aspect of the leg is the peroneal area, and the calf is the sura and sural region. The ankle is the tarsus and tarsal, and the heel is the calcaneus or calcaneal. The foot is the pes and pedal region, and the sole of the foot is the planta and plantar. As with the fingers, the toes are also called the digits, phalanges, and phalangeal area. The big toe is referred to as the hallux.
+
+==== Abdomen ====
+
+To promote clear communication, for instance about the location of a patient's abdominal pain or a suspicious mass, the abdominal cavity can be divided into either nine regions or four quadrants.
+
+===== Abdominal quadrants =====
+The abdomen may be divided into four quadrants, more commonly used in medicine, subdivides the cavity with one horizontal and one vertical line that intersect at the patient's umbilicus (navel). The right upper quadrant (RUQ) includes the lower right ribs, right side of the liver, and right side of the transverse colon. The left upper quadrant (LUQ) includes the lower left ribs, stomach, spleen, and upper left area of the transverse colon. The right lower quadrant (RLQ) includes the right half of the small intestines, ascending colon, right pelvic bone and upper right area of the bladder. The left lower quadrant (LLQ) contains the left half of the small intestine and left pelvic bone.
+
+===== Abdominal regions =====
+The more detailed regional approach subdivides the cavity into nine regions, with two vertical and two horizontal anatomical lines drawn according to landmark structures. The vertical; or midclavicular lines, are drawn as if dropped from the midpoint of each clavicle. The superior horizontal line is the subcostal line, drawn immediately inferior to the ribs. The inferior horizontal line is called the intertubercular line, and is to cross the iliac tubercles, found at the superior aspect of the pelvis.
+The upper right square is the right hypochondriac region and contains the base of the right ribs. The upper left square is the left hypochondriac region and contains the base of the left ribs. The epigastric region is the upper central square and contains the bottom edge of the liver as well as the upper areas of the stomach. The diaphragm curves like an upside down U over these three regions.
+The central right region is called the right lumbar region and contains the ascending colon and the right edge of the small intestines. The umbilical region is central square and contains the transverse colon and the upper regions of the small intestines. The left lumbar region contains the left edge of the transverse colon and the left edge of the small intestine.
+The lower right square is the right iliac region and contains the right pelvic bones and the ascending colon. The lower left square is the left iliac region and contains the left pelvic bone and the lower left regions of the small intestine. The hypogastric region is the lower central square and contains the bottom of the pubic bones, upper regions of the bladder and the lower region of the small intestine.
+
+=== Standard terms ===
+
+When anatomists refer to the right and left of the body, it is in reference to the right and left of the subject, not the right and left of the observer. When observing a body in the anatomical position, the left of the body is on the observer's right, and vice versa. These standardized terms avoid confusion. Examples of terms include:

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+---
+title: "Anatomical terminology"
+chunk: 3/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terminology"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:31.649291+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Anterior and posterior, which describe structures at the front (anterior) and back (posterior) of the body. For example, the toes are anterior to the heel, and the popliteus is posterior to the patella.
+Superior and inferior, which describe a position above (superior) or below (inferior) another part of the body. For example, the orbits are superior to the oris, and the pelvis is inferior to the abdomen.
+Proximal and distal, which describe a position that is closer to (proximal) or farther from (distal) the trunk of the body. For example, the shoulder is proximal to the arm, and the foot is distal to the knee.
+Superficial and deep, which describe structures that are closer to (superficial) or farther from (deep) the surface of the body. For example, the skin is superficial to the bones, and the brain is deep to the skull. Sometimes profound is used synonymously with deep.
+Medial and lateral, which describe a position that is closer to (medial) or farther from (lateral) the midline of the body. For example, the shoulders are lateral to the heart, and the umbilicus is medial to the hips. The medial side of the left knee is the side toward the opposite knee.
+Radial and ulnar, which describe only structures at or distal to the elbow and may be used interchangeably with medial and lateral in that particular area because they are less confusing. Examples: The thumb is on the radial side of the hand (the same as saying the lateral side); the ulnar side of the wrist is the side toward the little finger (medial side).
+Dorsal and ventral, which describe structures derived from the back (dorsal) or front (ventral) such as in the embryo, before limb rotation.
+Rostral and caudal, which describe structures close to (rostral) or farther from (caudal) the nose. For example, the eyes are rostral to the back of the skull, and the tailbone is caudal to the chest.
+Cranial and caudal, which describe structures close to the top of the skull (cranial), and towards the bottom of the body (caudal).
+Occasionally, sinister for left, and dexter for right are used.
+Paired, referring to a structure that is present on both sides of the body. For example, the hands are paired structures.
+
+=== Axes ===
+Each locational term above can define the direction of a vector, and pairs of them can define axes, that is, lines of orientation. For example, blood can be said to flow in a proximal or distal direction, and anteroposterior, mediolateral, and inferosuperior axes are lines along which the body extends, like the X, Y, and Z axes of a Cartesian coordinate system. An axis can be projected to a corresponding plane.
+
+=== Planes ===
+
+Anatomy is often described in planes, referring to two-dimensional sections of the body. A section is a two-dimensional surface of a three-dimensional structure that has been cut. A plane is an imaginary two-dimensional surface that passes through the body. Three planes are commonly referred to in anatomy and medicine:
+
+The sagittal plane is the plane that divides the body or an organ vertically into right and left sides. If this vertical plane runs directly down the middle of the body, it is called the midsagittal or median plane. If it divides the body into unequal right and left sides, it is called a parasagittal plane, or less commonly a longitudinal section.
+The frontal plane is the plane that divides the body or an organ into an anterior (front) portion and a posterior (rear) portion. The frontal plane is often referred to as a coronal plane, following Latin corona, which means "crown".
+The transverse plane is the plane that divides the body or organ horizontally into upper and lower portions. Transverse planes produce images referred to as cross sections.
+
+== Functional state ==
+Anatomical terms may be used to describe the functional state of an organ: 
+
+Anastomoses refers to the connection between two structures previously branched out, such as blood vessels or leaf veins.
+Patent, meaning a structure such as an artery or vein that abnormally remains open, such as a patent ductus arteriosus, referring to the ductus arteriosus which normally becomes ligamentum arteriosum within three weeks of birth.  Something that is patent may also refer to a channel such as a blood vessel, section of bowel, collecting system or duct that is not occluded and remains open to free flow. Such obstructions may include a calculus (i.e. a kidney stone or gallstone), plaque (like that encountered in vital arteries such as coronary arteries and cerebral arteries), or another unspecified obstruction, such as a mass or bowel obstruction.
+A plexus refers to a net-like arrangement of a nerve.
+
+=== Anatomical variation ===
+
+The term anatomical variation is used to refer to a difference in anatomical structures that is not regarded as a disorder. Many structures vary slightly between people, for example muscles that attach in slightly different places. For example, the presence or absence of the palmaris longus tendon. Anatomical variation is unlike congenital anomalies, which are considered a disorder.
+
+== Movement ==
+
+Joints, especially synovial joints allow the body a tremendous range of movements. Each movement at a synovial joint results from the contraction or relaxation of the muscles that are attached to the bones on either side of the articulation. The type of movement that can be produced at a synovial joint is determined by its structural type.
+Movement types are generally paired, with one being the opposite of the other. Body movements are always described in relation to the anatomical position of the body: upright stance, with upper limbs to the side of body and palms facing forward.
+
+=== General motion ===
+Terms describing motion in general include:

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+---
+title: "Anatomical terminology"
+chunk: 4/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terminology"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:31.649291+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Flexion and extension, which refer to a movement that decreases (flexion) or increases (extension) the angle between body parts. For example, when standing up, the knees are extended.
+Abduction and adduction refers to a motion that pulls a structure away from (abduction) or towards (adduction) the midline of the body or limb. For example, a star jump requires the legs to be abducted.
+Internal rotation (or medial rotation) and external rotation (or lateral rotation) refers to rotation towards (internal) or away from (external) the center of the body. For example, the lotus position posture in yoga requires the legs to be externally rotated.
+Elevation and depression refer to movement in a superior (elevation) or inferior (depression) direction. Primarily refers to movements involving the scapula and mandible.
+
+=== Special motions of the hands and feet ===
+These terms refer to movements that are regarded as unique to the hands and feet:
+
+Dorsiflexion and plantarflexion refers to flexion (dorsiflexion) or extension (plantarflexion) of the foot at the ankle. For example, plantarflexion occurs when pressing the brake pedal of a car.
+Palmarflexion and dorsiflexion refer to movement of the flexion (palmarflexion) or extension (dorsiflexion) of the hand at the wrist. For example, prayer is often conducted with the hands dorsiflexed.
+Pronation and supination refer to rotation of the forearm or foot so that in the anatomical position the palm or sole is facing anteriorly (supination) or posteriorly (pronation). For example, if a person is holding a bowl of soup in one hand, the hand is "supinated" and the thumb will point away from the body midline and the palm will be superior; if the hands are typing on a computer keyboard, they will be "pronated" with the thumbs toward the body midline and the palms inferior.
+Eversion and inversion refer to movements that tilt the sole of the foot away from (eversion) or towards (inversion) the midline of the body.
+
+== Muscles ==
+
+Muscle action that moves the axial skeleton work over a joint with an origin and insertion of the muscle on respective side. The insertion is on the bone deemed to move towards the origin during muscle contraction. Muscles are often present that engage in several actions of the joint; able to perform for example both flexion and extension of the forearm as in the biceps and triceps respectively. This is not only to be able to revert actions of muscles, but also brings on stability of the actions though muscle coactivation.
+
+=== Agonist and antagonist muscles ===
+The muscle performing an action is the agonist, while the muscle whose contraction brings about an opposite action is the antagonist. For example, an extension of the lower arm is performed by the triceps as the agonist and the biceps as the antagonist (which contraction will perform flexion over the same joint). Muscles that work together to perform the same action are called synergists. In the above example synergists to the biceps can be the brachioradialis and the brachialis muscle.
+
+=== Skeletal and smooth muscle ===
+
+The gross anatomy of a muscle is the most important indicator of its role in the body. One particularly important aspect of gross anatomy of muscles is pennation or lack thereof. In most muscles, all the fibers are oriented in the same direction, running in a line from the origin to the insertion. In pennate muscles, the individual fibers are oriented at an angle relative to the line of action, attaching to the origin and insertion tendons at each end. Because the contracting fibers are pulling at an angle to the overall action of the muscle, the change in length is smaller, but this same orientation allows for more fibers (thus more force) in a muscle of a given size. Pennate muscles are usually found where their length change is less important than maximum force, such as the rectus femoris.
+Skeletal muscle is arranged in discrete muscles, an example of which is the biceps brachii. The tough, fibrous epimysium of skeletal muscle is both connected to and continuous with the tendons. In turn, the tendons connect to the periosteum layer surrounding the bones, permitting the transfer of force from the muscles to the skeleton. Together, these fibrous layers, along with tendons and ligaments, constitute the deep fascia of the body.
+
+== Joints ==
+
+Movement is not limited to only synovial joints, although they allow for most freedom. Muscles also run over symphysis, which allow for movement in for example the vertebral column by compression of the intervertebral discs. Additionally, synovial joints can be divided into different types, depending on their axis of movement.
+
+== Body cavities ==
+
+The body maintains its internal organization by means of membranes, sheaths, and other structures that separate compartments, called body cavities. The ventral cavity includes the thoracic and abdominopelvic cavities and their subdivisions. The dorsal cavity includes the cranial and spinal cavities.
+
+== Membranes ==
+
+A serous membrane (also referred to as a serosa) is a thin membrane that covers the walls of organs in the thoracic and abdominal cavities. The serous membranes have two layers; parietal and visceral, surrounding a fluid filled space. The visceral layer of the membrane covers the organ (the viscera), and the parietal layer lines the walls of the body cavity (pariet- refers to a cavity wall). Between the parietal and visceral layers is a very thin, fluid-filled serous space, or cavity. For example, the pericardium is the serous cavity which surrounds the heart.
+
+== Additional images ==
+
+== See also ==
+Medical terminology
+Glossary of medicine
+Anatomical terms of bone
+Anatomical terms of muscle
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+Calais-Germain, Blandine (1993). Anatomy of Movement. Eastland Press. ISBN 978-0-939616-17-6.
+Drake, Richard; Vogl, Wayne; Mitchell, Adam (2004). Gray's Anatomy for Students. Churchill Livingstone. ISBN 978-0-443-06612-2.
+Martini, Frederic; Timmons, Michael; McKinnley, Michael (2000). Human Anatomy (3rd ed.). Prentice-Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-010011-5.
+Marieb, Elaine (2000). Essentials of Human Anatomy and Physiology (6th ed.). Addison Wesley Longman. ISBN 978-0-8053-4940-5.
+Muscolino, Joseph E. (2005). The Muscular System Manual: The Skeletal Muscles of the Human Body (2nd ed.). C.V. Mosby. ISBN 978-0-323-02523-2.
+Ngai, Steven (2006). Understanding Anatomical Latin (PDF) (3rd ed.). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-25. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
+Losardo, R. J.; Valverde Barbato De Prates, N. E.; Arteaga-Martinez, M.; García Peláez, M. I.; Cabral, R. H. (2017). "International Morphological Terminology (anatomy, histology and embryology): beyond scientific terms". Journal of Morphological Sciences. 34 (3): 130–133. doi:10.4322/jms.109916. ISSN 2177-0298.
+
+== Sources ==
+ This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Text taken from Anatomy and Physiology​, J. Gordon Betts et al, Openstax.

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+---
+title: "Anatomical terms of bone"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terms_of_bone"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:32.882162+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Many anatomical terms descriptive of bone are defined in anatomical terminology, and are often derived from Greek and Latin. Bone in the human body is categorized into long bone, short bone, flat bone, irregular bone and sesamoid bone.
+
+== Types of bone ==
+
+=== Long bones ===
+
+A long bone is one that is cylindrical in shape, being longer than it is wide. However, the term describes the shape of a bone, not its size, which is relative. Long bones are found in the arms (humerus, ulna, radius) and legs (femur, tibia, fibula), as well as in the fingers (metacarpals, phalanges) and toes (metatarsals, phalanges). Long bones function as levers; they move when muscles contract.
+
+=== Short bones ===
+
+A short bone is one that is cube-like in shape, being approximately equal in length, width, and thickness. The only short bones in the human skeleton are in the carpals of the wrists and the tarsals of the ankles. Short bones provide stability and support as well as some limited motion.
+
+=== Flat bones ===
+
+The term “flat bone” is something of a misnomer because, although a flat bone is typically thin, it is also often curved. Examples include the cranial (skull) bones, the scapulae (shoulder blades), the sternum (breastbone), and the ribs. Flat bones serve as points of attachment for muscles and often protect internal organs. Flat bones do not have a medullary cavity because they are thin.
+
+=== Irregular bones ===
+
+An irregular bone is one that does not have an easily classified shape and defies description. These bones tend to have more complex shapes, like the vertebrae that support the spinal cord and protect it from compressive forces. Many facial bones, particularly the ones containing sinuses, are classified as irregular bones.
+
+=== Sesamoid bones ===
+
+A sesamoid bone is a small, round bone that, as the name suggests, is shaped like a sesame seed. These bones form in tendons (the sheaths of tissue that connect bones to muscles) where a great deal of pressure is generated in a joint. The sesamoid bones protect tendons by helping them overcome compressive forces. Sesamoid bones vary in number and placement from person to person but are typically found in tendons associated with the feet, hands, and knees. The only type of sesamoid bone that is common to everybody is the kneecap (patella, pl. patellae) which is also the largest of the sesamoid bones.
+
+== Protrusions ==
+
+=== Rounded ===
+ 
+A condyle is the round prominence at the end of a bone, most often part of a joint – an articulation with another bone. The epicondyle refers to a projection near a condyle, particularly the medial epicondyle of the humerus. These terms derive from Greek. 
+An eminence refers to a relatively small projection or bump, particularly of bone, such as the medial eminence.
+A process refers to a relatively large projection or prominent bump, as does a promontory such as the sacral promontory.
+Both tubercle and tuberosity refer to a projection or bump with a roughened surface, with a "tubercle" generally smaller than a "tuberosity". These terms are derived from tuber (Latin: swelling)., as is also protuberance, which occasionally is synonymous with "tuberosity".
+A ramus (Latin: branch) refers to an extension of bone, such as the ramus of the mandible in the jaw or superior pubic ramus. Ramus may also be used to refer to nerves, such as the ramus communicans.
+A facet refers to a small, flattened articular surface.
+
+=== Pointed ===
+A line refers to a long, thin projection, often with a rough surface.
+Ridge and crest refer to a long, narrow line. Unlike many words used to describe anatomical terms, the word ridge is derived from Old English.  
+A spine, as well as referring to the spinal cord, may be used to describe a relatively long, thin projection or bump.
+
+=== Special ===
+These terms are used to describe bony protuberances in specific parts of the body.
+The Malleolus (Latin: "small hammer") is the bony prominence on each side of the ankle.  These are known as the medial and lateral malleolus. Each leg is supported by two bones, the tibia on the inner side (medial) of the leg and the fibula on the outer side (lateral) of the leg. The medial malleolus is the prominence on the inner side of the ankle, formed by the lower end of the tibia. The lateral malleolus is the prominence on the outer side of the ankle, formed by the lower end of the fibula.
+The trochanters are parts of the femur, to which muscles attach. It may refer to the greater, lesser, or third trochanter
+
+== Cavities ==
+
+=== Openings ===
+The following terms are used to describe cavities that connect to other areas:
+A foramen  is any opening, particularly referring to those in bone.  Foramina inside the body of humans and other animals typically allow muscles, nerves, arteries, veins, or other structures to connect one part of the body with another. An example is the foramen magnum in occipital bone.
+A canal is a long, tunnel-like foramen, usually a passage for notable nerves or blood vessels. An example is the auditory canal.
+
+=== Blind-ended ===
+The following terms are used to describe cavities that do not connect to other areas:
+A fossa (from the Latin "fossa", ditch or trench) is a depression or hollow, usually in a bone, such as the hypophyseal fossa, the depression in the sphenoid bone.
+A meatus is a short canal that opens to another part of the body. An example is the external auditory meatus.
+A fovea (Latin: pit) is a small pit, usually on the head of a bone. An example of a fovea is the fovea capitis of the head of the femur.

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+---
+title: "Anatomical terms of bone"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terms_of_bone"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:32.882162+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Walls ===
+The following terms are used to describe the walls of a cavity:
+A labyrinth refers to the bony labyrinth and membranous labyrinth, components of the inner ear, due to their fine and complex structure.
+A sinus refers to a bony cavity, usually within the skull.
+
+== Joints ==
+
+A joint, or articulation is the region where adjacent bones contact each other, for example the elbow, shoulder, or costovertebral joint. Terms that refer to joints include:
+
+articular process, referring to a projection that contacts an adjacent bone.
+suture, referring to an articulation between cranial bones.
+
+== Features of long bones ==
+
+=== Gross features ===
+Bones are commonly described with the terms head, neck, shaft, body and base.
+The head of a bone usually refers to the proximal end of a long bone, but also refers to the distal end of metacarpals, metatarsals, and the ulna. The shaft refers to the elongated sections of long bone, and the neck the segment between the head and shaft (or body). The end of the long bone opposite to the head is known as the base.
+
+=== Internal regions ===
+
+=== Internal and external ===
+
+The cortex of a bone is used to refer to its outer layers, and medulla used to refer to the inner surface of the bone.
+Red marrow, in which blood is formed is present in spongy bone as well as in the medullary cavity, while the fatty yellow marrow is present primarily in the medullary cavity. 
+
+== See also ==
+Anatomical terms of muscle
+Anatomical terminology
+
+== Notes ==
+
+== References ==
+This Wikipedia entry incorporates text from the freely licensed Connexions [1] edition of Anatomy & Physiology [2] text-book by OpenStax College
+
+Books
+J. A. Simpson, ed. (1989). The Oxford English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780198611868.

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+---
+title: "Anatomical terms of microanatomy"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terms_of_microanatomy"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:34.068800+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A histological scope of anatomical terminology describes structure, layout and position more precisely and mitigates ambiguity. An internationally accepted lexicon is Terminologia Histologica.
+
+
+== Layout ==
+
+
+=== Epithelia and endothelia ===
+Epithelial cells line body surfaces, and are described according to their shape, with three principal shapes: squamous, columnar, and cuboidal. 
+
+Squamous epithelium has cells that are wider than their height (flat and scale-like).
+Cuboidal epithelium has cells whose height and width are approximately the same (cube shaped).
+Columnar epithelium has cells taller than they are wide (column-shaped).
+Endothelium refers to cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels, forming an interface between circulating blood or lymph in the lumen and the rest of the vessel wall. It is a thin layer of simple, or single-layered, squamous cells called endothelial cells.  Endothelial cells in direct contact with blood are called vascular endothelial cells, whereas those in direct contact with lymph are known as lymphatic endothelial cells.
+Epithelium can be arranged in a single layer of cells described as "simple", or more than one layer, described as "stratified". By layer, epithelium is classed as either simple epithelium, only one cell thick (unilayered) or stratified epithelium as stratified squamous epithelium, stratified cuboidal epithelium, and stratified columnar epithelium that are two or more cells thick (multi-layered), and both types of layering can be made up of any of the cell shapes. However, when taller simple columnar epithelial cells are viewed in cross section showing several nuclei appearing at different heights, they can be confused with stratified epithelia. This kind of epithelium is therefore described as pseudostratified columnar epithelium.
+Transitional epithelium has cells that can change from squamous to cuboidal, depending on the amount of tension on the epithelium.
+
+
+=== Mucosa ===
+A mucous membrane or mucosa is a membrane that lines various cavities in the body and covers the surface of internal organs. It consists of one or more layers of epithelial cells overlying a layer of loose connective tissue. It is mostly of endodermal origin and is continuous with the skin at various body openings such as the eyes, ears, inside the nose, inside the mouth, lip, the urethral opening and the anus. Some mucous membranes secrete mucus, a thick protective fluid. The function of the membrane is to stop pathogens and dirt from entering the body and to prevent bodily tissues from becoming dehydrated.
+
+
+=== Submucosal and muscular layers ===
+The submucosa consists of a dense and irregular layer of connective tissue with blood vessels, lymphatics, and nerves branching into the mucosa and muscular layer. It contains the submucous plexus, and enteric nervous plexus, situated on the inner surface of the muscular layer.
+The muscular layer (also known as the muscularis propria ) consists of two layers of muscle, the inner and outer layer. The muscle of the inner layer is arranged in circular rings around the tract, whereas the muscle of the outer layer is arranged longitudinally. The stomach has an extra layer, an inner oblique muscular layer.  Between the two muscle layers are the myenteric or Auerbach's plexus. This controls peristalsis. Activity is initiated by the pacemaker cells (interstitial cells of Cajal). The gut has intrinsic peristaltic activity (basal electrical rhythm) due to its self-contained enteric nervous system. The rate can of course be modulated by the rest of the autonomic nervous system.
+The layers are not truly longitudinal or circular, rather the layers of muscle are helical with different pitches. The inner circular is helical with a steep pitch and the outer longitudinal is helical with a much shallower pitch.
+
+
+=== Serosa and adventitia ===
+Serosa (if the tissue is intraperitoneal) / Adventitia (if the tissue is retroperitoneal) -- these last two tissue types differ slightly in form and function according to the part of the gastrointestinal tract they belong to.
+
+
+== Position on the cell membrane ==
+The hollow inner part of a body organ (such as the gastrointestinal tract) or tube (such as an artery) is called the lumen. The side of a cell facing the lumen is called the apical surface; the opposite side, facing away from the lumen is the basolateral surface, which faces instead  towards the interstitium, and away from the lumen.
+
+
+== References ==

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+---
+title: "Anatomical terms of muscle"
+chunk: 1/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terms_of_muscle"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:35.226075+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Anatomical terminology is used to uniquely describe aspects of skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and smooth muscle such as their actions, structure, size, and location.
+
+== Types ==
+There are three types of muscle tissue in the body: skeletal, smooth, and cardiac.
+
+=== Skeletal muscle ===
+Skeletal muscle, or "voluntary muscle", is a striated muscle tissue that primarily joins to bone with tendons. Skeletal muscle enables movement of bones, and maintains posture. The widest part of a muscle that pulls on the tendons is known as the belly.
+
+==== Muscle slip ====
+A muscle slip is a slip of muscle that can either be an anatomical variant, or a branching of a muscle as in rib connections of the serratus anterior muscle.
+
+=== Smooth muscle ===
+Smooth muscle is involuntary and found in parts of the body where it conveys action without conscious intent. The majority of this type of muscle tissue is found in the digestive and urinary systems where it acts by propelling forward food, chyme, and feces in the former and urine in the latter. Other places smooth muscle can be found are within the uterus, where it helps facilitate birth, and the eye, where the pupillary sphincter controls pupil size.
+
+=== Cardiac muscle ===
+Cardiac muscle is specific to the heart. It is also involuntary in its movement, and is additionally self-excitatory, contracting without outside stimuli.
+
+== Actions of skeletal muscle ==
+ 
+As well as anatomical terms of motion, which describe the motion made by a muscle, unique terminology is used to describe the action of a set of muscles.
+
+=== Agonists and antagonists ===
+
+Agonist muscles and antagonist muscles are muscles that cause or inhibit a movement.
+Agonist muscles are also called prime movers since they produce most of the force, and control of an action. Agonists cause a movement to occur through their own activation. For example, the triceps brachii contracts, producing a shortening (concentric) contraction, during the up phase of a push-up (elbow extension). During the down phase of a push-up, the same triceps brachii actively controls elbow flexion while producing a lengthening (eccentric) contraction. It is still the agonist, because while resisting gravity during relaxing, the triceps brachii continues to be the prime mover, or controller, of the joint action.
+Another example is the dumb-bell curl at the elbow. The elbow flexor group is the agonist, shortening during the lifting phase (elbow flexion). During the lowering phase the elbow flexor muscles lengthen, remaining the agonists because they are controlling the load and the movement (elbow extension). For both the lifting and lowering phase, the "elbow extensor" muscles are the antagonists (see below). They lengthen during the dumbbell lifting phase and shorten during the dumbbell lowering phase. Here it is important to understand that it is common practice to give a name to a muscle group (e.g. elbow flexors) based on the joint action they produce during a shortening contraction. However, this naming convention does not mean they are only agonists during shortening. This term typically describes the function of skeletal muscles.
+Antagonist muscles are simply the muscles that produce an opposing joint torque to the agonist muscles. This torque can aid in controlling a motion. The opposing torque can slow movement down - especially in the case of a ballistic movement. For example, during a very rapid (ballistic) discrete movement of the elbow, such as throwing a dart, the triceps muscles will be activated very briefly and strongly (in a "burst") to rapidly accelerate the extension movement at the elbow, followed almost immediately by a "burst" of activation to the elbow flexor muscles that decelerates the elbow movement to arrive at a quick stop. To use an automotive analogy, this would be similar to pressing the accelerator pedal rapidly and then immediately pressing the brake. Antagonism is not an intrinsic property of a particular muscle or muscle group; it is a role that a muscle plays depending on which muscle is currently the agonist. During slower joint actions that involve gravity, just as with the agonist muscle, the antagonist muscle can shorten and lengthen. Using the example of the triceps brachii during a push-up, the elbow flexor muscles are the antagonists at the elbow during both the up phase and down phase of the movement. During the dumbbell curl, the elbow extensors are the antagonists for both the lifting and lowering phases.
+
+=== Antagonistic pairs ===
+
+Antagonist and agonist muscles often occur in pairs, called antagonistic pairs. As one muscle contracts, the other relaxes. An example of an antagonistic pair is the biceps and triceps; to contract, the triceps relaxes while the biceps contracts to lift the arm. "Reverse motions" need antagonistic pairs located in opposite sides of a joint or bone, including abductor-adductor pairs and flexor-extensor pairs. These consist of an extensor muscle, which "opens" the joint (by increasing the angle between the two bones) and a flexor muscle, which does the opposite by decreasing the angle between two bones.
+However, muscles do not always work this way; sometimes agonists and antagonists contract at the same time to produce force, as per Lombard's paradox. Also, sometimes during a joint action controlled by an agonist muscle, the antagonist will be slightly activated, naturally. This occurs normally and is not considered to be a problem unless it is excessive or uncontrolled and disturbs the control of the joint action. This is called agonist/antagonist co-activation and serves to mechanically stiffen the joint.
+Not all muscles are paired in this way. An example of an exception is the deltoid.
+
+=== Synergists ===

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+title: "Anatomical terms of muscle"
+chunk: 2/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terms_of_muscle"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:35.226075+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Synergist muscles also called fixators, act around a joint to help the action of an agonist muscle. Synergist muscles can also act to counter or neutralize the force of an agonist and are also known as neutralizers when they do this. As neutralizers they help to cancel out or neutralize extra motion produced from the agonists to ensure that the force generated works within the desired plane of motion.
+Muscle fibers can only contract up to 40% of their fully stretched length.  Thus the short fibers of pennate muscles are more suitable where power rather than range of contraction is required. This limitation in the range of contraction affects all muscles, and those that act over several joints may be unable to shorten sufficiently to produce the full range of movement at all of them simultaneously (active insufficiency, e.g., the fingers cannot be fully flexed when the wrist is also flexed). Likewise, the opposing muscles may be unable to stretch sufficiently to allow such movement to take place (passive insufficiency). For both these reasons, it is often essential to use other synergists, in this type of action to fix certain of the joints so that others can be moved effectively, e.g., fixation of the wrist during full flexion of the fingers in clenching the fist. Synergists are muscles that facilitate the fixation action.
+There is an important difference between a helping synergist muscle and a true synergist muscle. A true synergist muscle is one that only neutralizes an undesired joint action, whereas a helping synergist is one that neutralizes an undesired action but also assists with the desired action. 
+
+=== Neutralizer action ===
+A muscle that fixes or holds a bone so that the agonist can carry out the intended movement is said to have a neutralizing action. A good famous example of this are the hamstrings; the semitendinosus and semimembranosus muscles perform knee flexion and knee internal rotation whereas the biceps femoris carries out knee flexion and knee external rotation. For the knee to flex while not rotating in either direction, all three muscles contract to stabilize the knee while it moves in the desired way.
+
+==== Composite muscle ====
+Composite or hybrid muscles have more than one set of fibers that perform the same function, and are usually supplied by different nerves for different set of fibers. For example, the tongue itself is a composite muscle made up of various components like longitudinal, transverse, horizontal muscles with different parts innervated from a different nerve supply.
+
+== Muscle naming ==
+
+There are a number of terms used in the naming of muscles including those relating to size, shape, action, location, their orientation, and their number of heads.
+
+By size
+brevis means short; longus means long; major means large; maximus means largest; minor means small, and minimus smallest. These terms are often used after the particular muscle such as gluteus maximus, and gluteus minimus.
+By shape
+deltoid means triangular; quadratus means having four sides; rhomboideus means having a rhomboid shape; teres means round or cylindrical, trapezius means having a trapezoid shape, rectus means straight. Examples are the pronator teres, the pronator quadratus and the rectus abdominis.
+By action
+abductor moving away from the midline; adductor moving towards the midline; depressor moving downwards; elevator moving upwards; flexor moving that decreases an angle; extensor moving that increase an angle or straightens; pronator moving to face down; supinator moving to face upwards; Internal rotator rotating towards the body; external rotator rotating away from the body.
+
+== Form ==
+
+=== Insertion and origin ===
+The insertion and origin of a muscle are the two places where it is anchored, one at each end. The connective tissue of the attachment is called an enthesis.
+
+==== Origin ====
+The origin of a muscle is the bone, typically proximal, which has greater mass and is more stable during a contraction than a muscle's insertion. For example, with the latissimus dorsi muscle, the origin site is the torso, and the insertion is the arm. When this muscle contracts, normally the arm moves due to having less mass than the torso. This is the case when grabbing objects lighter than the body, as in the typical use of a lat pull down machine. This can be reversed however, such as in a chin up where the torso moves up to meet the arm.
+The head of a muscle, also called caput musculi is the part at the end of a muscle at its origin, where it attaches to a fixed bone. Some muscles such as the biceps have more than one head.
+
+==== Insertion ====
+The insertion of a muscle is the structure that it attaches to and tends to be moved by the contraction of the muscle. This may be a bone, a tendon or the subcutaneous dermal connective tissue. Insertions are usually connections of muscle via tendon to bone. The insertion is a bone that tends to be distal, have less mass, and greater motion than the origin during a contraction.
+
+==== Intrinsic and extrinsic muscles ====
+Intrinsic muscles have their origin in the part of the body that they act on, and are contained within that part. Extrinsic muscles have their origin outside of the part of the body that they act on. Examples are the intrinsic and extrinsic muscles of the tongue, and those of the hand.
+
+=== Muscle fibres ===
+
+Muscles may also be described by the direction that the muscle fibres run, in their muscle architecture.

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+---
+title: "Anatomical terms of muscle"
+chunk: 3/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terms_of_muscle"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:35.226075+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Fusiform muscles have fibres that run parallel to the length of the muscle, and are spindle-shaped. For example, the pronator teres muscle of the forearm.
+Unipennate muscles have fibres that run the entire length of only one side of a muscle, like a quill pen. For example, the fibularis muscles.
+Bipennate muscles consist of two rows of oblique muscle fibres, facing in opposite diagonal directions, converging on a central tendon. Bipennate muscle is stronger than both unipennate muscle and fusiform muscle, due to a larger physiological cross-sectional area. Bipennate muscle shortens less than unipennate muscle but develops greater tension when it does, translated into greater power but less range of motion. Pennate muscles generally also tire easily. Examples of bipennate muscles are the rectus femoris muscle of the thigh, and the stapedius muscle of the middle ear.
+
+== State ==
+
+=== Hypertrophy and atrophy ===
+
+Hypertrophy is increase in muscle size from an increase in size of individual muscle cells. This usually occurs as a result of exercise.
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==
+ This article incorporates text in the public domain from the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)
+
+Books
+Taber, Clarence Wilbur; Thomas, Clayton L.; Venes, Donald (2001). Taber's cyclopedic medical dictionary (Ed. 19, illustrated in full color ed.). Philadelphia: F.A.Davis Co. ISBN 0-8036-0655-9. ISSN 1065-1357.
+J. A. Simpson, ed. (1989). The Oxford English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780198611868.

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+---
+title: "Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terms_of_neuroanatomy"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:49.992851+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+This article describes anatomical terminology that is used to describe the central and peripheral nervous systems - including the brain, brainstem, spinal cord, and nerves.
+
+== Anatomical terminology in neuroanatomy ==
+Neuroanatomy, like other aspects of anatomy, uses specific terminology to describe anatomical structures. This terminology helps ensure that a structure is described accurately, with minimal ambiguity. Terms also help ensure that structures are described consistently, depending on their structure or function. Terms are often derived from Latin and Greek, and like other areas of anatomy are generally standardised based on internationally accepted lexicons such as Terminologia Anatomica.
+To help with consistency, humans and other species are assumed when described to be in standard anatomical position, with the body standing erect and facing observer, arms at sides, palms forward.
+
+=== Location ===
+
+Anatomical terms of location depend on the location and species that is being described.
+To understand the terms used for anatomical localisation, consider an animal with a straight CNS, such as a fish or lizard. In such animals the terms "rostral", "caudal", "ventral" and "dorsal" mean respectively towards the rostrum, towards the tail, towards the belly and towards the back. For a full discussion of those terms, see anatomical terms of location.
+For many purposes of anatomical description, positions and directions are relative to the standard anatomical planes and axes. Such reference to the anatomical planes and axes is called the stereotactic approach.
+Standard terms used throughout anatomy include anterior / posterior for the front and back of a structure, superior / inferior for above and below, medial / lateral for structures close to and away from the midline respectively, and proximal / distal for structures close to and far away from a set point.
+Some terms are used more commonly in neuroanatomy, particularly:
+
+Rostral and caudal: In animals with linear nervous systems, the term rostral (from the Latin rostrum, meaning "beak") is synonymous with anterior and the term caudal (from the Latin cauda, meaning "tail") is synonymous with posterior. Due to humans having an upright posture, however, our nervous system is considered to bend about 90°. This is considered to occur at the junction of the midbrain and diencephalon (the midbrain-diencephalic junction). Thus, the terminology changes at either side of the midbrain-diencephalic junction. Superior to the junction, the terminology is the same as in animals with linear nervous systems; rostral is synonymous with anterior and caudal is synonymous with posterior. Inferior to the midbrain-diencephalic junction the term rostral is synonymous with superior and caudal is synonymous with inferior.
+Dorsal and ventral: In animals with linear nervous systems, the term dorsal (from the Latin dorsum, meaning "back") is synonymous with superior and the term ventral (from the Latin venter, meaning "belly") is synonymous with inferior. In humans, however, the terminology differs on either side of the midbrain-diencephalic junction. Superior to the junction, the terminology is the same as in animals with linear nervous systems; dorsal is synonymous with superior and ventral is synonymous with inferior. However, inferior to the midbrain-diencephalic junction the term dorsal is synonymous with posterior and ventral is synonymous with anterior.
+Contralateral and ipsilateral referring to a corresponding position on the opposite left or right side (the sagittal plane) and on the same side (ipsilateral) respectively.
+
+=== Planes and axes ===
+
+Standard anatomical planes and anatomical axes are used to describe structures in animals. In humans and many other primates the axis of the central nervous system is not straight, but bent to allow for forward vision when the body is vertical. This means that differences in terminology are needed to reflect the differences between the brains of primates and the brains of nearly all other vertebrates. For example, to describe the human brain, "rostral" still means "towards the beak or snout (Latin rostrum)", or at any rate, the interior of the cranial cavity just behind the face. "Caudal" means "towards the tail (Latin cauda"), but not "towards the back of the cranial cavity", which is "posterior" (behind, in ordinary motion). The rostro-caudal axis of the human central nervous system (magenta in the diagram) makes a near 90° bend at the level of the midbrain and continues through the brain-stem and spinal cord. In human anatomy, the occipital lobes and the back of the head are posterior but not caudal to the frontal lobes and the face. 
+"Superior" and "inferior" are adjectives from human anatomy, respectively meaning towards to top of the head or the soles of the feet when standing. The brain is superior to the spinal cord in people, but in quadrupeds the brain is anterior (forward in motion) to the spinal cord.  
+"Dorsal" means "in the direction away from the ridge of the human back or its equivalent in other animals. In human neuroanatomy the word is somewhat distorted, becoming synonymous with "superior" in the forebrain, i.e. in the direction of the roof of the cranial cavity"cranial cavity and thence to the body. "Ventral" in the central nervous system also refers to the rostro-caudal axis, which changes within the head.
+These three axes of the human brain match the three planes within which they lie, even though the terms for the planes have not been changed from the terms for the bodily planes. The most commonly used reference planes are: 

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+title: "Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terms_of_neuroanatomy"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:49.992851+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Axial or "transverse" or "horizontal", the plane that is horizontal and parallel to the ground with the body standing in the standard anatomical position. It contains (and thus is defined by) the lateral and the medial axes of the brain.
+Coronal, a vertical plane that passes through the coronal suture of the skull (or through both ears), or any plane parallel to this. There is no term "paracoronal" comparable to the commonly used "parasagittal".
+Sagittal, a vertical plane that passes from between the nostrils, and between the cerebral hemispheres, dividing the brain into left and right halves. "Median plane" specifically defines the midline between left and right sides of the body. It contains the dorsoventral and medial axes of the brain. A parasagittal plane is any plane parallel to the sagittal plane.
+
+== Nerves ==
+
+=== Function ===
+Specific terms are used for peripheral nerves that originate from, or arrive at, a specific point.
+An afferent nerve fiber is a fibre originating at the present point. For example, a striatal afferent is an afferent originating at the striatum.
+An efferent nerve fiber is one that arrives at the present point. For example, a cortical efferent is a fibre coming from elsewhere, and arriving to the cortex. That is the opposite of the direction in which the nerve fibre conducts signals.
+
+=== Nerve fibre crossings ===
+Specific terms are also used to describe the route of a nerve or nerve fibre:
+A chiasm (from Greek  Chi) is used to describe different types of crossings of or within peripheral nerve fibres between the cerebral hemispheres. The major example in the human brain is the Optic chiasm. 
+A decussation (from Latin  decussis 'ten', written as a capital X) refers to nerve fibers that cross the sagittal plane from one side of the central nervous system to the other, and connect different brain regions. There are two kinds: 
+
+Type 1 crosses the sagittal plane in the same brain region or spinal segment where the cell body is located. Examples are Mauthner cells in fish and amphibians.
+Type 2 crosses the sagittal plane in a different brain region. Example: pyramidal decussations.
+The first type is known also for invertebrates, whereas the second type only occurs in vertebrates. The second type is thought to be due to an axial twist, such that each hemisphere of the forebrain represents predominantly the contralateral side of the body.
+A commissure is a bilateral connection of axons connecting the left and right side of the same brain region. For example, nerve fibre tracts that cross between the two cerebral hemispheres, are the anterior commissure, posterior commissure, corpus callosum, hippocampal commissure, and habenular commissure. The spinal cord contains a commissure as well: the anterior white commissure.
+A ganglion can also have the form of crossing nerves, but a ganglion always contains synapses between neurons as well as their cell bodies. The other kinds of nerve crossings never contain synapses of cell bodies of neurons.
+The difference between a chiasm and a decussation is that the first refers to peripheral nerves whereas the latter refers to crossings inside central nervous system. A commissure connects the same brain region of each side whereas a decussation connects different brain regions.
+
+== Brain ==
+
+Specific terms are used to represent the gross anatomy of the brain:
+A gyrus is an outward folding of the brain, for example the precentral gyrus. A sulcus is an inward fold, or valley in the brain's surface - for example the central sulcus. Additional terms used to describe these may include:
+
+Annectent gyrus, for a small gyrus hidden in the depth of a sulcus
+sulcal fundus, for the bottom of a sulcus, an inward fold
+A fissure is used to describe:
+
+A deep groove produced by opercularisation. An example is the Sylvian Fissure.
+A deep groove produced by the differentiation of the telencephalic vesicles. An example is the longitudinal fissure, also known as the interhemispheric fissure.
+
+== Imaging ==
+Specific acronyms are used to represent imaging. Some common acronyms include MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and CT (Computed tomography).
+
+== See also ==
+Anatomical terms of muscle
+Anatomical terms of motion
+
+== References ==

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+---
+title: "Anatomy"
+chunk: 1/8
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:36.446370+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Anatomy (from Ancient Greek  ἀνατομή (anatomḗ) 'dissection') is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal and external structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its beginnings in prehistoric times. 
+Anatomy is inherently tied to developmental biology, embryology, comparative anatomy, evolutionary biology, and phylogeny, as these are the processes by which anatomy is generated, both over immediate and long-term timescales. Anatomy and physiology, which study the structure and function of organisms and their parts respectively, make a natural pair of related disciplines, and are often studied together. Human anatomy is one of the essential basic sciences that are applied in medicine, and is often studied alongside physiology.
+Anatomy is a complex and dynamic field that is constantly evolving as discoveries are made. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the use of advanced imaging techniques, such as MRI and CT scans, which allow for more detailed and accurate visualizations of the body's structures.
+The discipline of anatomy is divided into macroscopic and microscopic parts. Macroscopic anatomy, or gross anatomy, is the examination of an animal's body parts using unaided eyesight. Gross anatomy also includes the branch of superficial anatomy. Microscopic anatomy involves the use of optical instruments in the study of the tissues of various structures, known as histology, and also in the study of cells.
+The history of anatomy is characterized by a progressive understanding of the functions of the organs and structures of the human body. Methods have also improved dramatically, advancing from the examination of animals by dissection of carcasses and cadavers (corpses) to 20th-century medical imaging techniques, including X-ray, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging.
+
+== Etymology and definition ==
+
+Derived from the Greek ἀνατομή anatomē "dissection" (from ἀνατέμνω anatémnō "I cut up, cut open" from ἀνά aná "up", and τέμνω témnō "I cut"), anatomy is the scientific study of the structure of organisms including their systems, organs and tissues. It includes the appearance and position of the various parts, the materials from which they are composed, and their relationships with other parts. Anatomy is quite distinct from physiology and biochemistry, which deal respectively with the functions of those parts and the chemical processes involved. For example, an anatomist is concerned with the shape, size, position, structure, blood supply and innervation of an organ such as the liver; while a physiologist is interested in the production of bile, the role of the liver in nutrition and the regulation of bodily functions.
+The discipline of anatomy can be subdivided into a number of branches, including gross or macroscopic anatomy and microscopic anatomy. Gross anatomy is the study of structures large enough to be seen with the naked eye, and also includes superficial anatomy or surface anatomy, the study by sight of the external body features. Microscopic anatomy is the study of structures on a microscopic scale, along with histology (the study of tissues), and embryology (the study of an organism in its immature condition). Regional anatomy is the study of the interrelationships of all of the structures in a specific body region, such as the abdomen. In contrast, systemic anatomy is the study of the structures that make up a discrete body system—that is, a group of structures that work together to perform a unique body function, such as the digestive system.
+Anatomy can be studied using both invasive and non-invasive methods with the goal of obtaining information about the structure and organization of organs and systems. Methods used include dissection, in which a body is opened and its organs studied, and endoscopy, in which a video camera-equipped instrument is inserted through a small incision in the body wall and used to explore the internal organs and other structures. Angiography, using X-rays or magnetic resonance angiography, is a method to visualize blood vessels.
+The term "anatomy" is commonly taken to refer to human anatomy. However, substantially similar structures and tissues are found throughout the rest of the animal kingdom, and the term also includes the anatomy of other animals. The term zootomy is also sometimes used to specifically refer to non-human animals. The structure and tissues of plants are of a dissimilar nature and they are studied in plant anatomy.
+
+== Animal tissues ==
+
+The animal kingdom (Animalia) contains multicellular organisms that are heterotrophic and motile (although some have secondarily adopted a sessile lifestyle). Most animals have bodies differentiated into separate tissues and these animals are also known as eumetazoans. They have an internal digestive chamber, with one or two openings; the gametes are produced in multicellular sex organs, and the zygotes include a blastula stage in their embryonic development. Metazoans do not include the sponges, which have undifferentiated cells.
+Unlike plant cells, animal cells have neither a cell wall nor chloroplasts. Vacuoles, when present, are more numerous and much smaller than those in the plant cell. The body tissues are composed of numerous types of cells, including those found in muscles, nerves and skin. Each typically has a cell membrane formed of phospholipids, cytoplasm and a nucleus. All of the different cells of an animal are derived from the embryonic germ layers. Those simpler invertebrates which are formed from two germ layers of ectoderm and endoderm are called diploblastic and the more developed animals whose structures and organs are formed from three germ layers are called triploblastic. All of a triploblastic animal's tissues and organs are derived from the three germ layers of the embryo, the ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm.
+Animal tissues can be grouped into four basic types: connective, epithelial, muscle and nervous tissue.

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+title: "Anatomy"
+chunk: 2/8
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:36.446370+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Connective tissue ===
+Connective tissues are fibrous and made up of cells scattered among inorganic material called the extracellular matrix. Often called fascia (from the Latin "fascia," meaning "band" or "bandage"), connective tissues give shape to organs and hold them in place. The main types are loose connective tissue, adipose tissue, fibrous connective tissue, cartilage and bone. The extracellular matrix contains proteins, the chief and most abundant of which is collagen. Collagen plays a major part in organizing and maintaining tissues. The matrix can be modified to form a skeleton to support or protect the body. An exoskeleton is a thickened, rigid cuticle which is stiffened by mineralization, as in crustaceans or by the cross-linking of its proteins as in insects. An endoskeleton is internal and present in all developed animals, as well as in many of those less developed.
+
+=== Epithelium ===
+
+Epithelial tissue is composed of closely packed cells, bound to each other by cell adhesion molecules, with little intercellular space. Epithelial cells can be squamous (flat), cuboidal or columnar and rest on a basal lamina, the upper layer of the basement membrane, the lower layer is the reticular lamina lying next to the connective tissue in the extracellular matrix secreted by the epithelial cells. There are many different types of epithelium, modified to suit a particular function. In the respiratory tract there is a type of ciliated epithelial lining; in the small intestine there are microvilli on the epithelial lining and in the large intestine there are intestinal villi. Skin consists of an outer layer of keratinized stratified squamous epithelium that covers the exterior of the vertebrate body. Keratinocytes make up to 95% of the cells in the skin. The epithelial cells on the external surface of the body typically secrete an extracellular matrix in the form of a cuticle. In simple animals this may just be a coat of glycoproteins. In more advanced animals, many glands are formed of epithelial cells.
+
+=== Muscle tissue ===
+
+Muscle cells (myocytes) form the active contractile tissue of the body. Muscle tissue functions to produce force and cause motion, either locomotion or movement within internal organs. Muscle is formed of contractile filaments and is separated into three main types; smooth muscle, skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle. 
+Smooth muscle has no striations when examined microscopically. It contracts slowly but maintains contractility over a wide range of stretch lengths. It is found in such organs as sea anemone tentacles and the body wall of sea cucumbers. Skeletal muscle contracts rapidly but has a limited range of extension. It is found in the movement of appendages and jaws. Obliquely striated muscle is intermediate between the other two. The filaments are staggered and this is the type of muscle found in earthworms that can extend slowly or make rapid contractions. In higher animals striated muscles occur in bundles attached to bone to provide movement and are often arranged in antagonistic sets. Smooth muscle is found in the walls of the uterus, bladder, intestines, stomach, oesophagus, respiratory airways, and blood vessels. Cardiac muscle is found only in the heart, allowing it to contract and pump blood round the body.
+
+=== Nervous tissue ===
+
+Nervous tissue is composed of many nerve cells known as neurons which transmit information. In some slow-moving radially symmetrical marine animals such as ctenophores and cnidarians (including sea anemones and jellyfish), the nerves form a nerve net, but in most animals they are organized longitudinally into bundles. In simple animals, receptor neurons in the body wall cause a local reaction to a stimulus. In more complex animals, specialized receptor cells such as chemoreceptors and photoreceptors are found in groups and send messages along neural networks to other parts of the organism. Neurons can be connected together in ganglia. In higher animals, specialized receptors are the basis of sense organs and there is a central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and a peripheral nervous system. The latter consists of sensory nerves that transmit information from sense organs and motor nerves that influence target organs. The peripheral nervous system is divided into the somatic nervous system which conveys sensation and controls voluntary muscle, and the autonomic nervous system which involuntarily controls smooth muscle, certain glands and internal organs, including the stomach.
+
+== Vertebrate anatomy ==
+
+All vertebrates have a similar basic body plan and at some point in their lives, mostly in the embryonic stage, share the major chordate characteristics: a stiffening rod, the notochord; a dorsal hollow tube of nervous material, the neural tube; pharyngeal arches; and a tail posterior to the anus. The spinal cord is protected by the vertebral column and is above the notochord, and the gastrointestinal tract is below it. Nervous tissue is derived from the ectoderm, connective tissues are derived from mesoderm, and gut is derived from the endoderm. At the posterior end is a tail which continues the spinal cord and vertebrae but not the gut. The mouth is found at the anterior end of the animal, and the anus at the base of the tail. 
+The defining characteristic of a vertebrate is the vertebral column, formed in the development of the segmented series of vertebrae. In most vertebrates the notochord becomes the nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral discs. However, a few vertebrates, such as the sturgeon and the coelacanth, retain the notochord into adulthood. Jawed vertebrates are typified by paired appendages, fins or legs, which may be secondarily lost. The limbs of vertebrates are considered to be homologous because the same underlying skeletal structure was inherited from their last common ancestor. This is one of the arguments put forward by Charles Darwin to support his theory of evolution.
+
+=== Fish anatomy ===

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+
+The body of a fish is divided into a head, trunk and tail, although the divisions between the three are not always externally visible. The skeleton, which forms the support structure inside the fish, is either made of cartilage, in cartilaginous fish, or bone in bony fish. The main skeletal element is the vertebral column, composed of articulating vertebrae which are lightweight yet strong. The ribs attach to the spine and there are no limbs or limb girdles. The main external features of the fish, the fins, are composed of either bony or soft spines called rays, which with the exception of the caudal fins, have no direct connection with the spine. They are supported by the muscles which compose the main part of the trunk. The heart has two chambers and pumps the blood through the respiratory surfaces of the gills and on round the body in a single circulatory loop. The eyes are adapted for seeing underwater and have only local vision. There is an inner ear but no external or middle ear. Low frequency vibrations are detected by the lateral line system of sense organs that run along the length of the sides of fish, and these respond to nearby movements and to changes in water pressure.
+Sharks and rays are basal fish with numerous primitive anatomical features similar to those of ancient fish, including skeletons composed of cartilage. Their bodies tend to be dorso-ventrally flattened, they usually have five pairs of gill slits and a large mouth set on the underside of the head. The dermis is covered with separate dermal placoid scales. They have a cloaca into which the urinary and genital passages open, but not a swim bladder. Cartilaginous fish produce a small number of large, yolky eggs. Some species are ovoviviparous and the young develop internally but others are oviparous and the larvae develop externally in egg cases.
+The bony fish lineage shows more derived anatomical traits, often with major evolutionary changes from the features of ancient fish. They have a bony skeleton, are generally laterally flattened, have five pairs of gills protected by an operculum, and a mouth at or near the tip of the snout. The dermis is covered with overlapping scales. Bony fish have a swim bladder which helps them maintain a constant depth in the water column, but not a cloaca. They mostly spawn a large number of small eggs with little yolk which they broadcast into the water column.
+
+=== Amphibian anatomy ===
+
+Amphibians are a class of animals comprising frogs, salamanders and caecilians. They are tetrapods, but the caecilians and a few species of salamander have either no limbs or their limbs are much reduced in size. Their main bones are hollow and lightweight and are fully ossified and the vertebrae interlock with each other and have articular processes. Their ribs are usually short and may be fused to the vertebrae. Their skulls are mostly broad and short, and are often incompletely ossified. Their skin contains little keratin and lacks scales, but contains many mucous glands and in some species, poison glands. The hearts of amphibians have three chambers, two atria and one ventricle. They have a urinary bladder and nitrogenous waste products are excreted primarily as urea. Amphibians breathe by means of buccal pumping, a pump action in which air is first drawn into the buccopharyngeal region through the nostrils. These are then closed and the air is forced into the lungs by contraction of the throat. They supplement this with gas exchange through the skin which needs to be kept moist.
+In frogs the pelvic girdle is robust and the hind legs are much longer and stronger than the forelimbs. The feet have four or five digits and the toes are often webbed for swimming or have suction pads for climbing. Frogs have large eyes and no tail. Salamanders resemble lizards in appearance; their short legs project sideways, the belly is close to or in contact with the ground and they have a long tail. Caecilians superficially resemble earthworms and are limbless. They burrow by means of zones of muscle contractions which move along the body and they swim by undulating their body from side to side.
+
+=== Reptile anatomy ===

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+Reptiles are a class of animals comprising turtles, tuataras, lizards, snakes and crocodiles. They are tetrapods, but the snakes and a few species of lizard either have no limbs or their limbs are much reduced in size. Their bones are better ossified and their skeletons stronger than those of amphibians. The teeth are conical and mostly uniform in size. The surface cells of the epidermis are modified into horny scales which create a waterproof layer. Reptiles are unable to use their skin for respiration as amphibians do and have a more efficient respiratory system drawing air into their lungs by expanding their chest walls. The heart resembles that of the amphibian but there is a septum which more completely separates the oxygenated and deoxygenated bloodstreams. The reproductive system has evolved for internal fertilization, with a copulatory organ present in most species. The eggs are surrounded by amniotic membranes which prevents them from drying out and are laid on land, or develop internally in some species. The bladder is small as nitrogenous waste is excreted as uric acid.
+Turtles are notable for their protective shells. They have an inflexible trunk encased in a horny carapace above and a plastron below. These are formed from bony plates embedded in the dermis which are overlain by horny ones and are partially fused with the ribs and spine. The neck is long and flexible and the head and the legs can be drawn back inside the shell. Turtles are vegetarians and the typical reptile teeth have been replaced by sharp, horny plates. In aquatic species, the front legs are modified into flippers.
+Tuataras superficially resemble lizards but the lineages diverged in the Triassic period. There is one living species, Sphenodon punctatus. The skull has two openings (fenestrae) on either side and the jaw is rigidly attached to the skull. There is one row of teeth in the lower jaw and this fits between the two rows in the upper jaw when the animal chews. The teeth are merely projections of bony material from the jaw and eventually wear down. The brain and heart are more primitive than those of other reptiles, and the lungs have a single chamber and lack bronchi. The tuatara has a well-developed parietal eye on its forehead.
+Lizards have skulls with only one fenestra on each side, the lower bar of bone below the second fenestra having been lost. This results in the jaws being less rigidly attached which allows the mouth to open wider. Lizards are mostly quadrupeds, with the trunk held off the ground by short, sideways-facing legs, but a few species have no limbs and resemble snakes. Lizards have moveable eyelids, eardrums are present and some species have a central parietal eye.
+Snakes are closely related to lizards, having branched off from a common ancestral lineage during the Cretaceous period, and they share many of the same features. The skeleton consists of a skull, a hyoid bone, spine and ribs though a few species retain a vestige of the pelvis and rear limbs in the form of pelvic spurs. The bar under the second fenestra has also been lost and the jaws have extreme flexibility allowing the snake to swallow its prey whole. Snakes lack moveable eyelids, the eyes being covered by transparent "spectacle" scales. They do not have eardrums but can detect ground vibrations through the bones of their skull. Their forked tongues are used as organs of taste and smell and some species have sensory pits on their heads enabling them to locate warm-blooded prey.
+Crocodilians are large, low-slung aquatic reptiles with long snouts and large numbers of teeth. The head and trunk are dorso-ventrally flattened and the tail is laterally compressed. It undulates from side to side to force the animal through the water when swimming. The tough keratinized scales provide body armour and some are fused to the skull. The nostrils, eyes and ears are elevated above the top of the flat head enabling them to remain above the surface of the water when the animal is floating. Valves seal the nostrils and ears when it is submerged. Unlike other reptiles, crocodilians have hearts with four chambers allowing complete separation of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood.
+
+=== Bird anatomy ===
+
+Birds are tetrapods but though their hind limbs are used for walking or hopping, their front limbs are wings covered with feathers and adapted for flight. Birds are endothermic, have a high metabolic rate, a light skeletal system and powerful muscles. The long bones are thin, hollow and very light. Air sac extensions from the lungs occupy the centre of some bones. The sternum is wide and usually has a keel and the caudal vertebrae are fused. There are no teeth and the narrow jaws are adapted into a horn-covered beak. The eyes are relatively large, particularly in nocturnal species such as owls. They face forwards in predators and sideways in ducks.
+The feathers are outgrowths of the epidermis and are found in localized bands from where they fan out over the skin. Large flight feathers are found on the wings and tail, contour feathers cover the bird's surface and fine down occurs on young birds and under the contour feathers of water birds. The only cutaneous gland is the single uropygial gland near the base of the tail. This produces an oily secretion that waterproofs the feathers when the bird preens. There are scales on the legs, feet and claws on the tips of the toes.
+
+=== Mammal anatomy ===

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+
+Mammals are a diverse class of animals, mostly terrestrial but some are aquatic and others have evolved flapping or gliding flight. They mostly have four limbs, but some aquatic mammals have no limbs or limbs modified into fins, and the forelimbs of bats are modified into wings. The legs of most mammals are situated below the trunk, which is held well clear of the ground. The bones of mammals are well ossified and their teeth, which are usually differentiated, are coated in a layer of prismatic enamel. The teeth are shed once (milk teeth) during the animal's lifetime or not at all, as is the case in cetaceans. Mammals have three bones in the middle ear and a cochlea in the inner ear. They are clothed in hair and their skin contains glands which secrete sweat. Some of these glands are specialized as mammary glands, producing milk to feed the young. Mammals breathe with lungs and have a muscular diaphragm separating the thorax from the abdomen which helps them draw air into the lungs. The mammalian heart has four chambers, and oxygenated and deoxygenated blood are kept entirely separate. Nitrogenous waste is excreted primarily as urea.
+Mammals are amniotes, and most are viviparous, giving birth to live young. Exceptions to this are the egg-laying monotremes, the platypus and the echidnas of Australia. Most other mammals have a placenta through which the developing foetus obtains nourishment, but in marsupials, the foetal stage is very short and the immature young is born and finds its way to its mother's pouch where it latches on to a teat and completes its development.
+
+==== Human anatomy ====
+
+Humans have the overall body plan of a mammal. Humans have a head, neck, trunk (which includes the thorax and abdomen), two arms and hands, and two legs and feet.
+Generally, students of certain biological sciences, paramedics, prosthetists and orthotists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurses, podiatrists, and medical students learn gross anatomy and microscopic anatomy from anatomical models, skeletons, textbooks, diagrams, photographs, lectures and tutorials and in addition, medical students generally also learn gross anatomy through practical experience of dissection and inspection of cadavers. The study of microscopic anatomy (or histology) can be aided by practical experience examining histological preparations (or slides) under a microscope.
+Human anatomy, physiology and biochemistry are complementary basic medical sciences, which are generally taught to medical students in their first year at medical school. Human anatomy can be taught regionally or systemically; that is, respectively, studying anatomy by bodily regions such as the head and chest, or studying by specific systems, such as the nervous or respiratory systems. The major anatomy textbook, Gray's Anatomy, has been reorganized from a systems format to a regional format, in line with modern teaching methods. A thorough working knowledge of anatomy is required by physicians, especially surgeons and doctors working in some diagnostic specialties, such as histopathology and radiology.
+Academic anatomists are usually employed by universities, medical schools or teaching hospitals. They are often involved in teaching anatomy, and research into certain systems, organs, tissues or cells.
+
+== Invertebrate anatomy ==
+
+Invertebrates constitute a vast array of living organisms ranging from the simplest unicellular eukaryotes such as Paramecium to such complex multicellular animals as the octopus, lobster and dragonfly. They constitute about 95% of the animal species. By definition, none of these creatures has a backbone. The cells of single-cell protozoans have the same basic structure as those of multicellular animals but some parts are specialized into the equivalent of tissues and organs. Locomotion is often provided by cilia or flagella or may proceed via the advance of pseudopodia, food may be gathered by phagocytosis, energy needs may be supplied by photosynthesis and the cell may be supported by an endoskeleton or an exoskeleton. Some protozoans can form multicellular colonies.
+Metazoans are a multicellular organism, with different groups of cells serving different functions. The most basic types of metazoan tissues are epithelium and connective tissue, both of which are present in nearly all invertebrates. The outer surface of the epidermis is normally formed of epithelial cells and secretes an extracellular matrix which provides support to the organism. An endoskeleton derived from the mesoderm is present in echinoderms, sponges and some cephalopods. Exoskeletons are derived from the epidermis and is composed of chitin in arthropods (insects, spiders, ticks, shrimps, crabs, lobsters). Calcium carbonate constitutes the shells of molluscs, brachiopods and some tube-building polychaete worms and silica forms the exoskeleton of the microscopic diatoms and radiolaria. Other invertebrates may have no rigid structures but the epidermis may secrete a variety of surface coatings such as the pinacoderm of sponges, the gelatinous cuticle of cnidarians (polyps, sea anemones, jellyfish) and the collagenous cuticle of annelids. The outer epithelial layer may include cells of several types including sensory cells, gland cells and stinging cells. There may also be protrusions such as microvilli, cilia, bristles, spines and tubercles.
+Marcello Malpighi, the father of microscopical anatomy, discovered that plants had tubules similar to those he saw in insects like the silk worm. He observed that when a ring-like portion of bark was removed on a trunk a swelling occurred in the tissues above the ring, and he unmistakably interpreted this as growth stimulated by food coming down from the leaves, and being captured above the ring.
+
+=== Arthropod anatomy ===

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+Arthropods comprise the largest phylum of invertebrates in the animal kingdom with over a million known species.
+Insects possess segmented bodies supported by a hard-jointed outer covering, the exoskeleton, made mostly of chitin. The segments of the body are organized into three distinct parts, a head, a thorax and an abdomen. The head typically bears a pair of sensory antennae, a pair of compound eyes, one to three simple eyes (ocelli) and three sets of modified appendages that form the mouthparts. The thorax has three pairs of segmented legs, one pair each for the three segments that compose the thorax and one or two pairs of wings. The abdomen is composed of eleven segments, some of which may be fused and houses the digestive, respiratory, excretory and reproductive systems. There is considerable variation between species and many adaptations to the body parts, especially wings, legs, antennae and mouthparts.
+Spiders a class of arachnids have four pairs of legs; a body of two segments—a cephalothorax and an abdomen. Spiders have no wings and no antennae. They have mouthparts called chelicerae which are often connected to venom glands as most spiders are venomous. They have a second pair of appendages called pedipalps attached to the cephalothorax. These have similar segmentation to the legs and function as taste and smell organs. At the end of each male pedipalp is a spoon-shaped cymbium that acts to support the copulatory organ.
+
+== Other branches of anatomy ==
+Surface anatomy is important as the study of anatomical landmarks that can be readily seen from the exterior contours of the body. It enables medics and veterinarians to gauge the position and anatomy of the associated deeper structures. Superficial is a directional term that indicates that structures are located relatively close to the surface of the body.
+Comparative anatomy relates to the comparison of anatomical structures (both gross and microscopic) in different animals.
+Artistic anatomy relates to anatomic studies of body proportions for artistic reasons.
+
+== History ==
+
+=== Ancient ===
+
+In 1600 BCE, the Edwin Smith Papyrus, an Ancient Egyptian medical text, described the heart and its vessels, as well as the brain and its meninges and cerebrospinal fluid, and the liver, spleen, kidneys, uterus and bladder. It showed the blood vessels diverging from the heart. The Ebers Papyrus (c. 1550 BCE) features a "treatise on the heart", with vessels carrying all the body's fluids to or from every member of the body.
+Ancient Greek anatomy and physiology underwent great changes and advances throughout the early medieval world. Over time, this medical practice expanded due to a continually developing understanding of the functions of organs and structures in the body. Phenomenal anatomical observations of the human body were made, which contributed to the understanding of the brain, eye, liver, reproductive organs, and nervous system.
+The Hellenistic Egyptian city of Alexandria was the stepping-stone for Greek anatomy and physiology. Alexandria not only housed the biggest library for medical records and books of the liberal arts in the world during the time of the Greeks but was also home to many medical practitioners and philosophers. Great patronage of the arts and sciences from the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt helped raise Alexandria up, further rivalling other Greek states' cultural and scientific achievements.
+
+Some of the most striking advances in early anatomy and physiology took place in Hellenistic Alexandria. Two of the most famous anatomists and physiologists of the third century were Herophilus and Erasistratus. These two physicians helped pioneer human dissection for medical research, using the cadavers of condemned criminals, which was considered taboo until the Renaissance—Herophilus was recognized as the first person to perform systematic dissections. Herophilus became known for his anatomical works, making impressive contributions to many branches of anatomy and many other aspects of medicine. Some of the works included classifying the system of the pulse, the discovery that human arteries had thicker walls than veins, and that the atria were parts of the heart. Herophilus's knowledge of the human body has provided vital input towards understanding the brain, eye, liver, reproductive organs, and nervous system and characterizing the course of the disease. Erasistratus accurately described the structure of the brain, including the cavities and membranes, and made a distinction between its cerebrum and cerebellum. During his study in Alexandria, Erasistratus was particularly concerned with studies of the circulatory and nervous systems. He could distinguish the human body's sensory and motor nerves and believed air entered the lungs and heart, which was then carried throughout the body. His distinction between the arteries and veins—the arteries carrying the air through the body, while the veins carry the blood from the heart was a great anatomical discovery. Erasistratus was also responsible for naming and describing the function of the epiglottis and the heart's valves, including the tricuspid. During the third century, Greek physicians were able to differentiate nerves from blood vessels and tendons and to realize that the nerves convey neural impulses. It was Herophilus who made the point that damage to motor nerves induced paralysis. Herophilus named the meninges and ventricles in the brain, appreciated the division between cerebellum and cerebrum and recognized that the brain was the "seat of intellect" and not a "cooling chamber" as propounded by Aristotle. Herophilus is also credited with describing the optic, oculomotor, motor division of the trigeminal, facial, vestibulocochlear and hypoglossal nerves.

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+Incredible feats were made during the third century BCE in both the digestive and reproductive systems. Herophilus discovered and described not only the salivary glands but also the small intestine and liver. He showed that the uterus is a hollow organ and described the ovaries and uterine tubes. He recognized that spermatozoa were produced by the testes and was the first to identify the prostate gland.
+The anatomy of the muscles and skeleton is described in the Hippocratic Corpus, an Ancient Greek medical work written by unknown authors. Aristotle described vertebrate anatomy based on animal dissection. Praxagoras identified the difference between arteries and veins. Also in the 4th century BCE, Herophilos and Erasistratus produced more accurate anatomical descriptions based on vivisection of criminals in Alexandria during the Ptolemaic period.
+In the 2nd century, Galen of Pergamum, an anatomist, clinician, writer, and philosopher, wrote the final and highly influential anatomy treatise of ancient times. He compiled existing knowledge and studied anatomy through the dissection of animals. He was one of the first experimental physiologists through his vivisection experiments on animals. Galen's drawings, based mostly on dog anatomy, became effectively the only anatomical textbook for the next thousand years. His work was known to Renaissance doctors only through Islamic Golden Age medicine until it was translated from Greek sometime in the 15th century.
+
+=== Medieval to early modern ===
+
+Anatomy developed little from classical times until the sixteenth century; as the historian Marie Boas writes, "Progress in anatomy before the sixteenth century is as mysteriously slow as its development after 1500 is startlingly rapid". Between 1275 and 1326, the anatomists Mondino de Luzzi, Alessandro Achillini and Antonio Benivieni at Bologna carried out the first systematic human dissections since ancient times. Mondino's Anatomy of 1316 was the first textbook in the medieval rediscovery of human anatomy. It describes the body in the order followed in Mondino's dissections, starting with the abdomen, thorax, head, and limbs. It was the standard anatomy textbook for the next century.
+Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was trained in anatomy by Andrea del Verrocchio. He made use of his anatomical knowledge in his artwork, making many sketches of skeletal structures, muscles and organs of humans and other vertebrates that he dissected.
+Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564), professor of anatomy at the University of Padua, is considered the founder of modern human anatomy. Originally from Brabant, Vesalius published the influential book De humani corporis fabrica ("the structure of the human body"), a large format book in seven volumes, in 1543. The accurate and intricately detailed illustrations, often in allegorical poses against Italianate landscapes, are thought to have been made by the artist Jan van Calcar, a pupil of Titian.
+In England, anatomy was the subject of the first public lectures given in any science; these were provided by the Company of Barbers and Surgeons in the 16th century, joined in 1583 by the Lumleian lectures in surgery at the Royal College of Physicians.
+
+=== Late modern ===
+
+Medical schools began to be set up in the United States towards the end of the 18th century. Classes in anatomy needed a continual stream of cadavers for dissection, and these were difficult to obtain. Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York were all renowned for body snatching activity as criminals raided graveyards at night, removing newly buried corpses from their coffins. A similar problem existed in Britain where demand for bodies became so great that grave-raiding and even anatomy murder were practised to obtain cadavers. Some graveyards were, in consequence, protected with watchtowers. The practice was halted in Britain by the Anatomy Act of 1832, while in the United States, similar legislation was enacted after the physician William S. Forbes of Jefferson Medical College was found guilty in 1882 of "complicity with resurrectionists in the despoliation of graves in Lebanon Cemetery".
+The teaching of anatomy in Britain was transformed by Sir John Struthers, Regius Professor of Anatomy at the University of Aberdeen from 1863 to 1889. He was responsible for setting up the system of three years of "pre-clinical" academic teaching in the sciences underlying medicine, including especially anatomy. This system lasted until the reform of medical training in 1993 and 2003. As well as teaching, he collected many vertebrate skeletons for his museum of comparative anatomy, published over 70 research papers, and became famous for his public dissection of the Tay Whale. From 1822 the Royal College of Surgeons regulated the teaching of anatomy in medical schools. Medical museums provided examples in comparative anatomy, and were often used in teaching. Ignaz Semmelweis investigated puerperal fever and he discovered how it was caused. He noticed that the frequently fatal fever occurred more often in mothers examined by medical students than by midwives. The students went from the dissecting room to the hospital ward and examined women in childbirth. Semmelweis showed that when the trainees washed their hands in chlorinated lime before each clinical examination, the incidence of puerperal fever among the mothers could be reduced dramatically.

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+Before the modern medical era, the primary means for studying the internal structures of the body were dissection of the dead and inspection, palpation, and auscultation of the living. The advent of microscopy opened up an understanding of the building blocks that constituted living tissues. Technical advances in the development of achromatic lenses increased the resolving power of the microscope, and around 1839, Matthias Jakob Schleiden and Theodor Schwann identified that cells were the fundamental unit of organization of all living things. The study of small structures involved passing light through them, and the microtome was invented to provide sufficiently thin slices of tissue to examine. Staining techniques using artificial dyes were established to help distinguish between different tissue types. Advances in the fields of histology and cytology began in the late 19th century along with advances in surgical techniques allowing for the painless and safe removal of biopsy specimens. The invention of the electron microscope brought a significant advance in resolution power and allowed research into the ultrastructure of cells and the organelles and other structures within them. About the same time, in the 1950s, the use of X-ray diffraction for studying the crystal structures of proteins, nucleic acids, and other biological molecules gave rise to a new field of molecular anatomy.
+Equally important advances have occurred in  non-invasive techniques for examining the body's interior structures. X-rays can be passed through the body and used in medical radiography and fluoroscopy to differentiate interior structures that have varying degrees of opaqueness. Magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, and ultrasound imaging have all enabled the examination of internal structures in unprecedented detail to a degree far beyond the imagination of earlier generations. Infrared and ultraviolet analysis, computer image processing, fractal analysis, metrological analysis using image analysis methods are modern methods useful especially in neuroanatomical research.
+
+== See also ==
+Anatomical model – Three-dimensional representation of human or animal anatomy
+ Anatomy portal
+Bibliography of biology § Anatomy
+Evelyn tables – 17th century anatomical preparations
+Outline of human anatomy – Overview of and topical guide to human anatomy
+Plastination – Technique used in anatomy to preserve bodies or body parts
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+
+Anatomy, In Our Time. BBC Radio 4. Melvyn Bragg with guests Ruth Richardson, Andrew Cunningham and Harold Ellis.
+"Anatomy of the Human Body". 20th edition. 1918. Henry Gray
+Parsons, Frederick Gymer (1911). "Anatomy" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). pp. 920–943.
+Anatomia Collection: anatomical plates 1522 to 1867 (digitized books and images)
+Lyman, Henry Munson. The Book of Health (1898). Science History Institute Digital Collections Archived 2 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine.
+Gunther von Hagens True Anatomy for New Ways of Teaching.
+
+== Sources ==
+ This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Text taken from Openstax Anatomy and Physiology​, J. Gordon Betts et al, Openstax.

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+title: "Anthropic units"
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+
+The term anthropic unit (from Greek άνθρωπος, 'human') is used with different meanings in archaeology, in measurement and in social studies.
+
+
+== In archaeology ==
+In archaeology, anthropic units are strata or deposits of material containing a high proportion of man-made detritus. For example: "… 'degraded anthropic units', i.e., deposits produced by weathering and decay of fired bricks and mixed fill with non-selected inclusions …"
+
+
+== In measurement ==
+Following the coinage of the term "anthropic principle" by Brandon Carter in 1973–1974, units of measurement that are on a human scale are occasionally referred to as "anthropic units", as the example here: "… the metre and kilogram occupy a reasonably central position as far as symmetry in positive and negative powers of ten is concerned, emphasising that the SI units are natural anthropic units …"
+
+
+== In social studies ==
+In fields of study such as sociology and ethnography, anthropic units are identifiable groupings of people. For example: "Ethnographers have been accustomed to deal with the 'race', the 'tribe' and the 'nation' as social or anthropic units …"
+and: "... among the more primitive anthropic units it seems a grave ineptitude for the Chukchees not to adopt the snowhouse building complex from the neighboring Eskimos"
+
+
+== References ==

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+title: "Artifact (archaeology)"
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+---
+
+An artifact or artefact (British English) is a general term for an item made or given shape by humans, such as a tool or a work of art, especially an object of archaeological interest. In archaeology, the word has become a term of particular nuance; it is defined as an object recovered by archaeological endeavor, including cultural artifacts (of cultural interest).
+"Artefact" is the general term used in archaeology, while in museums the equivalent general term is normally "object", and in art history perhaps artwork or a more specific term such as "carving". The same item may be called all or any of these in different contexts, and more specific terms will be used when talking about individual objects, or groups of similar ones.
+Artefacts exist in many different forms and can sometimes be confused with ecofacts and features; all three of these can sometimes be found together at archaeological sites. They can also exist in different types of context depending on the processes that have acted on them over time. A wide variety of analyses take place to analyze artefacts and provide information on them. However, the process of analyzing artefacts through scientific archaeology can be hindered by the looting and collecting of artefacts, which sparks ethical debate.
+
+== History ==
+From the emergence of the Hominids in the Stone Age, humanity has developed a handful of artifacts through time and place. There are archaeological sites and museums that obtain artifacts for physical evidence through past traces of civilizations, as well as norms and rituals, where objects attested a part of material culture.
+
+== Context ==
+Artifacts can come from any archaeological context or source such as:
+
+Buried along with a body
+From any feature such as a midden or other domestic setting
+Votive offerings
+Hoards, such as in wells
+Examples include stone tools, pottery vessels, metal objects such as weapons and items of personal adornment such as buttons, jewelry and clothing. Bones that show signs of human modification are also examples. Natural objects, such as fire cracked rocks from a hearth or plant material used for food, are classified by archaeologists as ecofacts rather than as artifacts.
+
+Artifacts exist as a result of behavioral and transformational processes. A behavioral process involves acquiring raw materials, manufacturing these for a specific purpose and then discarding after use. Transformational processes begin at the end of behavioral processes; this is when the artifact is changed by nature and/or humans after it has been deposited. Both of these processes are significant factors in evaluating the context of an artifact. 
+The context of an artifact can be broken into two categories: primary context and secondary context. A matrix is a physical setting within which an artifact exists, and a provenience refers to a specific location within a matrix. When an artifact is found in the realm of primary context, the matrix and provenience have not been changed by transformational processes. However, the matrix and provenience are changed by transformational processes when referring to secondary context. Artifacts exist in both contexts, and this is taken into account during the analysis of them. Another important type of context for archeologists, particularly from an art history perspective, is the term provenance, or the more general history of an artifact's ownership, location, and importance.
+Artifacts are distinguished from stratigraphic features and ecofacts. Stratigraphic features are non-portable remains of human activity that include hearths, roads, deposits, trenches and similar remains. Ecofacts, also referred to as biofacts, are objects of archaeological interest made by other organisms, such as seeds or animal bone.
+Natural objects that humans have moved but not changed are called manuports. Examples include seashells moved inland or rounded pebbles placed away from the water action that made them.
+
+These distinctions are often blurred; a bone removed from an animal carcass is a biofact but a bone carved into a useful implement is an artifact. Similarly there can be debate over early stone objects that could be either crude artifact or naturally occurring and happen to resemble early objects made by early humans or Homo sapiens. It can be difficult to distinguish the differences between actual human-made lithic artifact and geofacts – naturally occurring lithics  that resemble human-made tools. It is possible to authenticate artifacts by examining the general characteristics attributed to human-made tools and local characteristics of the site.
+Artifacts, features and ecofacts can all be located together at sites. Sites may include different arrangements of the three; some might include all of them while others might only include one or two. Sites can have clear boundaries in the form of walls and moats, but this is not always the case. Sites can be distinguished through categories, such as location and past functions. How artifacts exist at these sites can provide archaeological insight. An example of this would be utilizing the position and depth of buried artifacts to determine a chronological timeline for past occurrences at the site.
+Modern archaeologists take care to distinguish material culture from ethnicity, which is often more complex, as expressed by Carol Kramer in the dictum "pots are not people."

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artifact_(archaeology)-1.md

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+---
+title: "Artifact (archaeology)"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artifact_(archaeology)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:18.953802+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Analysis ==
+Artifact analysis is determined by what type of artifact is being examined, the best.
+Lithic analysis refers to analyzing artifacts that are created with stones and are often in the form of tools. Stone artifacts occur often throughout prehistoric times and are, therefore, a crucial aspect in answering archaeological questions about the past. On the surface, lithic artifacts can help archaeologists study how technology has developed throughout history by showing a variety of tools and manufacturing techniques from different periods of time. However, even deeper questions can be answered through this type of analysis; these questions can revolve around topics that include how societies were organized and structured in terms of socialization and the distribution of goods. The following lab techniques all contribute to the process of lithic analysis: petrographic analysis, neutron activation, x-ray fluorescence, particle-induced x-ray emission, individual flake analysis and mass analysis.
+Another type of artifact analysis is ceramic analysis, which is based around the archaeological study of pottery. This type of analysis can help archaeologists gain information on the raw materials that were used and how they were utilized in the creation of pottery. Laboratory techniques that allow for this are mainly based around spectroscopy. The different types of spectroscopy used include atomic absorption, electrothermal atomic absorption, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission and x-ray fluorescence. Ceramic analysis does more than just provide information on raw materials and pottery production; it helps provide insight to past societies in terms of their technology, economy and social structure.
+Additionally, faunal analysis exists to study artifacts in the form of animal remains. Just as with lithic artifacts, faunal remains are extremely common within the field of archaeology. Faunal analysis provides insight to trade due to animals being exchanged in different markets over time and being traded over long distances. Faunal remains can also provide information on social status, ethnic distinctions and dieting from previous complex societies.
+Dating artifacts and providing them with a chronological timeline is a crucial part of artifact analysis. The different types of analyses above can all assist in the process of artifact dating. The major types of dating include relative dating, historical dating and typology. Relative dating occurs when artifacts are placed in a specific order in relation to one another while historical dating occurs for periods of written evidence; relative dating was the only form of dating for prehistoric periods of time. Typology is the process that groups together artifacts that are similar in material and shape. This strategy is based around the ideas that styles of objects match certain time periods and that these styles change slowly over time.
+
+== Ethics ==
+
+Artifact collecting and looting has sparked heavy debate in the archaeological realm. Looting in archaeological terms is when artifacts are dug up from sites and collected in private or sold before they are able to be excavated and analyzed through formal scientific archaeology. The debate is centered around the difference in beliefs between collectors and archaeologists. Archaeologists are focused on excavation, context and lab work when it comes to artifacts, while collectors are motivated by varying personal desires. This brings many to ask themselves the archaeological question, "Who owns the past?"
+There are also ethical issues over the display of artifacts in museums which have been taken from other countries in questionable circumstances, for example the display of the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles by the British Museum. The display of objects belonging to indigenous peoples of non-European countries by European museums – particularly those taken during the European conquest of Africa – has also raised ethical questions. Pan-African activists such as Mwazulu Diyabanza and the Front Multi Culturel Anti-Spoliation (Multicultural Front Against Pillaging) have taken direct action against European museums, aiming to restitute items they believe to belong to Africa.
+
+== See also ==
+Antiquities
+Biofact (archaeology)
+Chronological dating
+Excavation
+Out-of-place artifact
+Seriation
+Small finds
+
+== Notes ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+
+Artifact Collection at the Royal Military College of Canada Museum in Kingston, Ontario

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_line_(dermatomes)-0.md

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+---
+title: "Axial line (dermatomes)"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_line_(dermatomes)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:37.756459+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The axial line is the line between two adjacent dermatomes that are not represented by immediately adjacent spinal levels. Although dermatomes are shown to be discrete segments on dermatomal maps (like in the image opposite), they are in fact not; adjacent dermatomes overlap with one another. This is one of the reasons for the variety of different dermatomal maps proposed. However, at axial lines, adjacent dermatomes do not overlap. An example of an axial line would be the line between the S2 and L4 dermatomes on the calf.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axillary_joints-0.md

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+---
+title: "Axillary joints"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axillary_joints"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:39.059857+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The axillary joints are two joints in the axillary region of the body, and include the shoulder joint and the acromioclavicular joint.
+
+
+== Shoulder joint ==
+
+The shoulder joint also known as the glenohumeral joint is a synovial ball and socket joint. The shoulder joint involves articulation between the glenoid cavity of the scapula (shoulder blade) and the head of the upper arm bone (humerus) and functions as a diarthrosis and multiaxial joint.
+Due to the very loose joint capsule that gives a limited interface of the humerus and scapula, it is the most mobile joint of the human body.
+
+
+== Acromioclavicular joint ==
+
+The acromioclavicular joint, is the joint at the top of the shoulder. It is the junction between the acromion (part of the scapula that forms the highest point of the shoulder) and the clavicle. It is a plane synovial joint.
+The acromioclavicular joint allows the arm to be raised above the head. This joint functions as a pivot point (although technically it is a gliding synovial joint), acting like a strut to help with movement of the scapula resulting in a greater degree of arm rotation.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofact_(archaeology)-0.md

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+---
+title: "Biofact (archaeology)"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofact_(archaeology)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:20.214138+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In archaeology, a biofact (or ecofact) is any organic material including flora or fauna material found at an archaeological site that has not been technologically altered by humans yet still has cultural relevance. Biofacts can include but are not limited to plants, seeds, pollen, animal bones, insects, fish bones and mollusks. The study of biofacts, alongside other archaeological remains such as artifacts are a key element to understanding how past societies interacted with their surrounding environment and with each other. Biofacts also play a role in helping archaeologists understand questions of subsistence and reveals information about the domestication of certain plant species and animals which demonstrates, for example, the transition from a hunter-gatherer society to a farming society.
+Biofacts are differentiated from artifacts in that artifacts are typically considered anything purposefully manipulated or made by human art and workmanship, whereas ecofacts represent matter that has not been made or deliberately influenced by humans yet still has cultural relevance. Biofacts reveal how people respond to their surroundings.
+There are many different ways that biofacts can be preserved, including through carbonisation, waterlogging, desiccation and mineralization. There are also varying methods of recovering them depending on the location in which they were found.
+
+== Types ==
+There are a large variety of biofacts that have the potential to give insight into how civilisations operated in the past. Plant remains are a common and key ecofact that provide an important source of information because they can be used to reconstruct the way past societies have interacted with their environment. By studying plant remains, especially those that were used in the economy and the changes in their use over time, researchers known as archaeobotanists can understand what changes occurred in activities such as cultivation, consumption and trade from the past. Due to their ability to reflect the environmental conditions of the past, plant remains are also used to be able to determine the increase or loss of biodiversity in the studied area and understand environmental factors such as the types of soil that were present during the studied time period.
+
+Ecofacts include both flora and fauna that provide insight into the way humans interacted with their surroundings and as such, animal remains such as bones represent another type of ecofact. Animal remains have the potential to be both an ecofact and artifact and their classification is dependent on the context in which they may have been used. If not deliberately altered, animal remains can be classified as an ecofact, and can often reveal the dietary habits of a past group of people. After people would have eaten the edible parts of an animal, inedible parts were disposed of into pits and flat layers of garbage known as sheet middens. Another method of analysing the animal remains is to investigate the techniques and methods of butchering that would have been used on the ecofact. For example, if the faunal remains appear to have been butchered or sawn by hand, it is possible to link the remains to the 19th and early 20th century where this method of butchering animals for food was common. The size of the ecofact can also reveal information as to whether the food was locally grown or imported.
+Zooarchaeology which is the study of animal remains from archaeological sites is able to provide insight into the diet of both humans and animals, resource use, the economy, climate, technological adaptations, human demography, urbanisation and a wide variety of information about how humans operated within their environment.
+Seeds represent another ecofact that are commonly found at archaeological sites due to their large population. Seeds can be studied to reveal elements of the past such as the dietary patterns or clothing of a past civilisation. They are often preserved and able to be studied due to accidents in the processing of seeds or burning of debris or stored materials.
+
+Charcoal is another form of ecofact that is one of the most common plant material recovered from archaeology sites yet one of the least analysed. Charcoal is defined as the charred remains of a plant's wooden structures and is predominately derived from bushes and trees. Charcoal is frequently utilised for radiocarbon dating but also serves a purpose as it provides evidence of how a past civilisation selected and used different forms of wood at an archaeology site, and also gives insight into ancient forms of vegetation and the surrounding environment.
+Pollen is another ecofact found at archaeology sites where Palynology which is the study of pollen/dust can be used to reveal information about the site environment, the identity of plants used and also be used to reveal whether plants were wild or domesticated.
+
+== Preservation ==
+As a piece of organic material, ecofacts are subject to decay over time as they break down into simpler organic or inorganic matter such as water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Therefore, there a particular environmental conditions that must occur in order for ecofacts to be adequately preserved in the archaeological record. The four main types of preservation for organic matter such as ecofacts are carbonization, waterlogging, desiccation and mineralization.
+
+=== Charring/carbonisation ===
+
+Charred remains are the most frequently occurring source of organic material found in archaeological excavations that provide useful information for analysis. Carbonization occurs when the organic matter is exposed to high temperatures, most frequently as a result of fires. The heat outputted converts the plant's organic compounds into charcoal, and as the bacteria that is responsible for the decay of organic material cannot affect charcoal, carbonized ecofacts are able to survive in most environments. Plant remains are the most common ecofact that are preserved through the method of carbonisation as it is likely for these remains to have been charred whilst being used as a means of fuel or as their preparation often involved the use of fire. Other ecofacts when slowly charred, such as wood, seeds and nuts can also retain the majority of their morphological and anatomical features, allowing for further study.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofact_(archaeology)-1.md

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+---
+title: "Biofact (archaeology)"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofact_(archaeology)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:20.214138+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Waterlogging ===
+Waterlogging is another form of preservation that occurs when an ecofact or similar archaeological deposit is preserved under the groundwater table, where a reduction in oxygen allows for preservation. Ecofacts found in most waterlogged archaeology sites are often well preserved yet delicate. To result in a high quality preservation, the groundwater level should remain consistent which ensures anaerobic conditions that ultimately prevent the decay of the organic matter. It is possible that both waterlogged and charred ecofacts can be found at the same archaeological site.
+
+=== Desiccation ===
+Desiccation is another type of preservation that only occurs in highly arid environments where there is a lack of water, such as a desert. Under these conditions, organic materials gain a resistance to high or low temperatures and UV exposure and retain their key biological structures such as their membranes, nucleic acids and proteins. Where an ecofact experiences this type of preservation, it is possible to rehydrate the tissue of the organism to cause it to resume physiological activity. Whilst rare, desiccation is another form of preservation that allows for the study of ecofacts.
+
+=== Mineralization ===
+Mineralized ecofacts require a specific set of conditions for correct preservation. Mineralization occurs when dissolved minerals replace the cellular structure of the ecofact or encase the ecofact in places such as caves, rock shelters or cesspits. The Roman latrines found at Sagalassos in Turkey are an example of mineralized ecofacts that have occurred due to the plant remains absorbing minerals that were present in the organic matter in which they were buried.
+
+== Methods of recovery ==
+
+There are numerous methods of sampling methods that can be utilised to recover ecofacts from an archaeological site:
+The most basic form of probabilistic sampling is a simple random sample in which quadrats within the archaeological site are chosen through a random number table to be sampled until a set number or percentage of areas are sampled.
+Systematic random sampling is another method of recovering ecofacts and involves the site being sectioned out into a predetermined number of quadrats and from there, quadrats are randomly selection from within each section.
+There is also stratified random sampling which involves the site being divided into its natural zones and then these zones selected through random numbers.
+Judgemental sampling is another form of recovering ecofacts that has a large degree of bias. In this method, samples are selected by a researcher looking at all elements within the archaeological site and deciding whether to sample from certain areas whilst excluding others.
+
+== See also ==
+Biofact (biology)
+Biofact (philosophy)
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonwill_Triangle-0.md

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+---
+title: "Bonwill Triangle"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonwill_Triangle"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:40.277512+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Bonwill Triangle is a triangle formed by the contact point of the mandibular central incisors and the right and left mandibular condyles. 
+
+
+== Description ==
+The distance between those points is equal in most humans and amounts on average to about 10 cm. The triangle is therefore an equilateral triangle in those cases. William Gibson Arlington Bonwill (1833–1899) was the first to describe this.
+Two variants of the Bonwill Triangle have been described that differ in the exact location of the points on the condyles. In one the points are located on the articulating surfaces of the condyles whilst in the other they are located centrally within the heads of the mandible.
+
+
+== Application ==
+In terms of practical application, the Bonwill Triangle is utilized in the construction and correct application of fixed articulators, which (in contrast to fully- and semi-adjustable articulators) are a type of articulator that does not allow for adjustments to imitate the specific movements of an individual's jaw. Instead, these articulators are designed to replicate the average movements of the jaw, and among others the Bonwill Triangle relationship is used to achieve this result.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Frankfurt plane
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+Jawline enhancement

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botija_(container)-0.md

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+---
+title: "Botija (container)"
+chunk: 1/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botija_(container)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:21.533021+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Botija is a term used by archaeologists for a style of ceramic vessel produced in Seville, Spain from early in the 16th-century through the middle of the 19th century. It was radially symmetrical, widest near the top, tapering down to a rounded or nearly pointed bottom. It had a fairly small mouth, and did not have any handles or protusions. While the measurements of individual botijas vary, they tend to cluster around roughly standard sizes. They were sealed with cork stoppers. Botijas were widely used for shipping and storing liquids and some solids, and whole or broken botijas are found almost everywhere the Spanish Empire reached, as well as areas that the Spanish never controlled. Changes to certain elements of botijas over time, documented from jars found in shipwrecks of known date, allow whole jars and sherds found in archaeological sites to be roughly dated.
+
+== Names ==
+Spanish records refer to botijas peruleras, botijas medias, botijuelas, botijuelas peruleras, and botixuelas. In colonial Guatemala, the terms botija de vino (wine), botija da aceite (oil), and botija de aceitunas (olives) are attested. Larger jars were commonly called botijas perulera or just peruleras, while the smaller ones were often called botijuellas. Perulera may derive from "Peru" or from the perula, a glazed pitcher. (Perulera was also used for boxes, crates, and bundles.) The term botijuella was not used consistently. It might have sometimes been used for larger jars, but when used in the same context with botija, it always meant the smaller jar.
+American archaeologists have generally called bojitas found at archaeological sites "olive jars" or "Spanish olive jars". Archaeologists have been inconsistent in use of "olive jar", varying between "olive jar" as a name for all Spanish ceramics, and as name for the most common type, the botija. Other types of Spanish ceramics that are sometimes called "olive jars", and sometimes "Spanish storage jars", include the cantimplora, tinaja, and orza. American archaeologists recognize that olive jars were used to transport and store many products other than olives, but the term is in wide-spread use, and not easily replaced.
+
+== Form ==
+Botijas were widest near the top with a rounded to pointed bottom and a narrow neck, resembling amphorae, from which they are believed to have been derived. Botijas are a continuation of classic Mediterranean traditions. Another theory is that Botijas evolved out of the dolium, an ancient storage vessel, in the first half of the 16th century. (Dolia were used in the construction of the Seville Cathedral, in the way botijas were later used in construction.) Most of Europe used wooden casks for storing and transporting goods while Spain continued to also use ceramic jars, probably because it lacked sufficient supplies of timber suitable for making large quantities of casks.
+
+Many botijas were egg-shaped, while others were globular, carrot-shaped, or had long, more or less tubular bottoms. Rims around the mouths of early botijas were thin, but in the 1560s to the 1580s the rims became thicker, with a "donut" shape. Rim forms changed gradually from a triangular cross-section in the late-16th and early 17th centuries to more rounded in the mid-17th century to very rounded with a protruding lip by the early 18th century. Those changes can help date archaeological sites, although not precisely.
+
+== Sealing ==
+The small size of mouths of botijas allowed them to be closed with cork stoppers. Cork has been found associated with jars. Jar rims found in the wrecks of the Santa Margarita and Nuestra Senora de Atocha still had cork stoppers in place, including two that had pitch attaching the cork to the rim. Many of the jars found in the Conde de Tolosa and Neustra Senora de Guadalupe, which wrecked in Samana Bay in 1774, had corks inside them, even if the jars were otherwise empty. One jar from those wrecks, containing pitch, had a thin piece of leather placed over the opening with a cork stopper inserted over it, so that the leather may have acted as a gasket. Other ways of sealing jars are known. Discs of flattened, unglazed clay were found with jars at the Fortress of Louisbourg, and a jar dredged from the River Rance in Brittany contained two ceramic stoppers, both with tapered sides, one of which had a handle.
+
+== Classification ==
+
+=== Goggin ===
+John Mann Goggin created a typology in the mid-20th century for the ceramic containers found at archaeological sites associated with Spanish presence which are commonly called "olive jars" or "Spanish olive jars". He recognized Early, Middle, and Late styles based primarily on the stratigraphic sequence of styles and of the paste used in jars found at several archaeological sites. While all three of Goggin's styles were made with very similar pastes, the Early Style differed considerably from the later styles, being round in profile and somewhat flattened in cross section, and having two handles at the top. Goggin's Early Style is now recognized as the cantimplora. The cantimplora was not used past the 16th-century for shipping to the Americas. Goggin's Middle and Late styles are botijas, which appeared early in the 16th-century, overlapping with the cantimplora.
+Goggin recognized three forms in the Middle Style, and four forms in the Late Style. Form A is egg shaped, long, tapering slowly from the widest point just below the rim to a rounded bottom. Form B is nearly globular. Form C is widest further below the rim than form A, and tapers down to a narrower bottom than form A. Form C is rare, and documented only from Santo Domingo. Form D, known only from the Late Style, is widest somewhat below the rim, tapers in quickly, and has a long narrow, tubular bottom.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botija_(container)-1.md

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+---
+title: "Botija (container)"
+chunk: 2/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botija_(container)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:21.533021+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== James ===
+In 1988, Stephen James described more than 1,000 intact ceramic jars recoved from two ships, the Conde de Tolosa and Neustra Senora de Guadalupe, which sank in 1724 in Samana Bay on the north coast of Hispaniola after sailing from Cádiz, Spain. He recognized four forms among the intact jars. They were variously unglazed, glazed only on the interior, or glazed on the interior and exterior. Intact jars from the wrecks were measured, including the volume of water held for jars with interior glazing. Interior glazing is believed to indicate the jar was intended to hold liquids that could be readily absorbed by unglazed ceramics. Sherds from broken jars were examined for paste composition, and were found similar enough to suggest that all of the jars were made from the same source of clay.
+Form I jars from the wrecks are egg-shaped and the largest found in the shipwrecks, ranging from 47 to 52 cm in height, 29.3 to 32.8 cm diameter at the widest part, and 15 to 20.1 liters in volume. They correspond to Goggin's Middle Style Shape A. Most of the jars have an empty weight of 8.5 to 9.5 kg. The jars have openings or mouths with an external diameter between 10 and 10.2 cm and a somewhat flattened rim with a lip. About 66% of these large jars were glazed on the interior, or on both the interior and the exterior.
+Form II jars are about half the height of Form I, and resemble Goggin's Middle Style shape B, globular in shape, with a conical shoulder meeting the body of the jar at an angle. The Form II jars range from 23.5 to 29.5 cm in height, are 22 to 27 mm in width, and range from 3.3 to 7.2 litres in volume. Almost 85% of the Form II jars are glazed on the interior or both the interior and exterior. The openings vary in size, and, unlike the other forms, do not have lips on the rim.
+Form IV jars are "carrot-shaped", with a rounded top and a long body tapering to a point. The sides of the body are either straight or incurved. These jars are also relatively rare, making up 2.2% of the jars found in the wrecks. They are 36 to 45 cm tall, with a maximum diameter of 18.2 to 19.2 cm, and a Volume of 3.01 to 3.8 litres. None of these jars were glazed. Two of the Form IV jars contained olive pits.
+Form III jars have a concave bottom, which allows them to sit upright on a level surface, unlike the other jars discussed. There were only 11 of the Form III jars out of the more than 1,000 intect jars in the collection. Form I, III, and IV jars all have lipped rims, and probably all took the same type of cork stopper.
+
+=== Escribano and Mederos ===
+G. Escribano Cobo and A. Mederos Martín published a classification in 1999, recognizing four types, Botijuela Type A (1475–1800), Botijuela Type B (1550-1800), Botijuela Type C, (1600–1725), and Botijuela Type D (1775–1850).
+
+=== Busto-Zapico ===
+In a paper published in 2020, Miguel Busto-Zapico analysed 40 jars found in Spain, all made in Seville. He described four types of botijas: C1, a compact jar with a circular profile, similar to Escribano and Mederos's Botijuela Type B, which held an average capacity of about six litres; C2, a jar of small size and capacity with a thin lower body, similar to Escribano and Mederos's Botijuela Type D, with a capacity of 1.3 litres; C3, of large size and capacity, tending to piriform (wide top, reduced waist, "pear-shaped"), similar to Escribano and Mederos's Botijuela Type C, with a capacity of 22.5 litres; and C4, with a capacity of 37 litres, similar to Escribano and Mederos's Botijuela Type A. He proposed that C1 jars were used for both liquids and solids, C2 jars were probably used primarily for wine, C3 may have been used for either wine or oil, while C4 may have been restricted to transporting oil.

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+---
+title: "Botija (container)"
+chunk: 3/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botija_(container)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:21.533021+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Production ==
+The production of botijas was concentrated in Andalusia, with Seville being the most important center of ceramic production in the Iberian Peninsula during the Early modern period. The Casa de Contratación de Indias (the institution that controlled trade with the New World) was established in Seville in 1503, where it remained until it was transferred to Cádiz in 1717. The need for ceramic containers to hold merchandise sent to the New World led to development of potters' neighborhoods in Seville and Cádiz. Ceramic containers similar to botijas were produced in Portuguese centers such as Aveiro and in Spanish possessions in the Americas, but did not necessarily match the standards of jars produced in Seville. Colin Martin suggested that there were "official" and "civilian" botijas, with the official jars being Goggin's Form B (globular) in two sizes, while civilian jars varied considerable in shape.
+The jars were thrown in two parts. The body of the jars from the base up to the widest part was thrown as one part, and the top was thrown as another. The two parts were then joined with a slip while being turned on a wheel. Busto-Zapico surmises that the potter throwing the base did not throw the top and did not know what the final size of the jars would be. Production of botijas was probably seasonal, with individual potters producing about 6,000 jars a year. New large bojitas cost just under one Spanish real in the 16th century, the price of a liter of olive oil, almost two pounds of meat or fish, or more than four pounds of corn.
+Some jars with a distinctive red paste and a different style of rim marks may have been produced in Cazalla de la Sierra, 75 km north-northeast of Seville. Cazalla was an important wine-producing area, and botijas of wine from Cazalla were listed on several manifests of shipments to the New World. Such jars have been found at the Santo Domingo Monastery in Antigua Guatemala, the Huaco Palomin site in Peru, and Santa Elena (in South Carolina), in wrecks of ships in the Spanish Armada of 1588 and, possibly, in the Nuestra Señora de Atocha wreck in the Florida Keys.
+
+== Sizes ==
+Botijas of all styles varied in all dimensions, indicating that the jars were thrown free-hand without the use of a template. Jar sizes tend to cluster around small fractions or multiples of traditional Spanish measures, which may indicate that potters used some sort of device like a rope or a piece of wood to roughly gauge the size of the jars. The jars predominantly were made in two sizes, one arroba or a bit more, and one-half arroba or more. 
+In the 16th century, large botijas were at least one arroba, and commonly about 11⁄4 arrobas. By early in the 17th century a 11⁄4 arrobas jar was described as "ordinary" compared to a "large" jar of 11⁄2 arrobas. The half-arroba jars were based on an oil arroba, used to measure olive oil because it is less dense than water (and wine and vinegar). A water arroba weighed 34 Spanish libras, while an oil arroba weighed 25 Spanish libras. An oil arroba held 79% of the volume of a water arroba. Traditional units of measure in Spain during the period varied between regions, but a 11⁄4 (water) arroba jar held about 20 litres of wine or water.
+An oil arroba was just over 12.5 litres, so that a half-arroba jar held close to 6.3 litres of oil, 31% of the capacity of a 11⁄4 arroba jar. A detailed inventory of jars of pork lard stored at St Augustine in 1599 noted that each perulera (large jar) held as much lard as three of the botijuellas (small jars). While jars of other sizes are occasionally listed in records, the large jars of about 11⁄4 water arrobas and small jars of 1⁄2 oil arrobas predominated in ceramic vessels.
+When production of botijas began in America in the late 16th century, the walls of the jars were frequently much thicker than the ones from Spain, so that an American-made jar full of wine or oil might weight as much as a Spanish-made one, but contain less wine or oil. Authorities in Chile instituted fines on potters who consistently produced under-capacity botijas.
+
+== Rim marks ==
+Rim marks have been found on Goggin's Middle Style jars, but not Early or Late style jars. The marks appear to represent the merchant shipping the jars or the intended recipient of the jar. Some ship manifests have been found on which the merchant or purchaser and the mark on the jars are listed. Most marks were applied before the jars were fired, usually with a device like a branding iron, leaving an indented mark, or, in a few cases, a raised mark produced by a stamp with an indented design. Some marks were made free-hand with a pointed instrument. A few jars were marked after firing by scratching or filing a design on the rim. Rim shapes and marks can be used for approximately dating jars. No marked rims have been reliably dated to before 1583 or after 1641.

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+---
+title: "Botija (container)"
+chunk: 4/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botija_(container)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:21.533021+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Uses ==
+Botijas were used to store, conserve, and transport solid and liquid goods. The botija was designed for liquid foods, and was used primarily for shipping wine, olive oil, and vinegar. Botijas were also used for solid items that would fit through the mouth of the jar. The ovoid to elongated top-heavy design of botijas, with pointed or rounded bottoms, is evidence they were not intended for long-term storage of liquids while sitting on the ground. Vessels with flat bottoms and wider mouths, such as tinajas and orzas were more suitable for storing liquids. Orzas were usually made with the same paste as ''botijas, making it difficult to assign many sherds to a particular style of container. 
+Worth suggests that botijas intended for oil were lead-glazed to prevent the oil being absorbed by the walls of the botijas and becoming rancid. Botijas carrying wine were lined with pez (colofonia), a resin which sealed the ceramic from the wine. Pez could be removed and reapplied to the interior of botijas as needed. Spices and herbs could be added to the pez to help disguise the taste of the pez, and the botijas were rinsed with vinegar and water to remove some of taste before wine was added to the botijas.
+Warehouse records from the early 1590s in St. Augustine show botijas were used to store olive oil, wine, vinegar, and turpentine. Botijas sometimes also held almonds, capers, honey, medicinals, lard, hazelnuts, and syrup, with one botija of salt pork reported in the early 17th century in St. Augustine. Botijas were often re-used. Empty botijas and other containers were given to members of the presidio garrison and other residents in St. Augustine for their personal use.
+Botijas were also used to fill in domes over large spaces for acoustic enhancement, incorporated into roof vaults, walls, and gate arches, in drainage structures, and as finials on granaries, the last particularly in Asturias, Galicia, and Santiago de Cuba. Sherds were used as roof tiles and pavers.
+
+== Tranportation ==
+In the Spanish Empire, goods were shipped in crates, barrels, bundles, baskets, and other containers, but ceramic jars were usually the most numerous containers used for shipping. Botijas were wrapped with wicker or matting, which cushioned the jars and gave a means of handing the jars with attached handles of rope. They could be transported on land in carts, on horses, or by human porters. Botijas could be stacked to fit into irregular spaces in the holds of ships. Olive jars on the Conde de Tolosa and Neustra Senora de Guadalupe were often found chocked with wood, variously described as tree branches and firewood. Olive jars were often stacked in tiers, with large jars below and small jars above. Large jars on the bottom were often resting on hempline, while smaller jars were found resting on straw or plant matter, with hempline separating them.
+In the 16th-century the most common shipping containers on Spanish ships were botijas, but other types of containers generally had larger capacities than did botijas. For instance, most wine was transported in pipas (a wooden cask equivalent to the English pipe), which held 480 litres, equivalent to 22 large botijas. One ship that sailed in 1557 carried almost 3,500 botijas. In 1567, a ship passing through Havana to Florida carried 2,939 half-arroba jars of olive oil.
+Lists of contents of botijas shipped from Seville to the New World included wine, olive oil, olives, vinegar, chickpeas, capers, beans, honey, fish, rice, flour, soap, and pitch. Botijas have been found in shipwrecks that still contained olive pits, pitch, and soap. Based on records for seven ships that sailed in the 16th century, 51% of botijas held wine, 38% held olive oil, 9% held olives, 1% held vinegar, and 1% held other goods. Wine was primarily shipped in pipas, while olive oil was primarily shipped in botijas. Olives were mostly shipped in barrels, while vinegar was always shipped in botijas. Empty botijas were also shipped from Spain to the colonies. One ship carried 1,659 empty botijas to Honduras in 1557. The Tristán de Luna expedition acquired almost 1,000 empty botijas in Veracruz in 1559 while provisioning for the expedition to Ochuse.
+
+== Notes ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== Sources ==
+Beaman, Thomas E., Jr.; Mintz, John J. (Summer 1998). "Iberian Olive Jars at Brunswick Town and Other British Colonial Sites: Three Models for Consideration". Southeastern Archaeology. 17 (1): 92–102. JSTOR 41890392.{{cite journal}}:  CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
+Busto-Zapico, Miguel (2020). "Standardization and units of measurement used in pottery production: the case of the post-medieval botijuella or Spanish olive jat made in Seville". Post-Medieval Archaeology. 54 (1): 42–59. doi:10.1080/00794236.2020.1750145.
+Carruthers, Clive (2003). "Spanish Botijas or Olive Jars from the Santo Domingo Monastery, La Antigua Guatemala". Historical Archaeology. 37 (4): 40–45. doi:10.1007/BF03376622.
+James, Stephen R., Jr. (1988). "A reassessment of the Chronological and Typological Framework of the Spanish Olive Jar". Historical Archaeology. 22 (1): 44–66. doi:10.1007/BF03374500 – via Springer Link.{{cite journal}}:  CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
+Worth, John E. (2023). "Spanish Olive Jar and other shipping containers of sixteenth-century Florida: quantifying the documentary record". Southeastern Archaeology. 42 (4): 252–271. doi:10.1080/0734578X.2023.2240600.
+
+== Further reading ==
+Avery, George (1997). Pots as Packaging: The Spanish Olive Jar and Andalusian Transatlantic Commercial Activity, 16th to 18th Centuries (PhD thesis). University of Florida. Retrieved August 30, 2024.
+Escribano Cobo, G.; Mederos Martín, A. (1999). "Distribución y chronología de Las botijas en yacimientos aqueológicos subarticuáticos de la Península Ibérica, Baleares, y Canarias". Cuadernos de Aqueológico Marítima. 5: 177–221.
+Goggin, John M. (1960). The Spanish Olive Jar. An Introductory Study. Publications in Anthropology, No. 62. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University.
+Marken, Mitchell W. (1994). Pottery from Spanish Shipwrecks 1500-1800. Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida Press. ISBN 0-8130-2299-1.
+
+== External links ==
+Rotatable 3-D view of botija
+Report on olive jars (botijas and orzas) found in a 1622 Spanish shipwreck in the Straits of Florida

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+---
+title: "Clausurae"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clausurae"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:22.853525+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Clausurae (sing. clausura) are short, linear cut-off walls—a term modern scholars apply to masonry or earthen barriers erected across valleys, gorges or road corridors in Late Antiquity.
+
+
+== Etymology and definition ==
+The word derives from late-Latin clausura “a closing, barrier,” but philological studies have shown that in military contexts it denoted a discrete obstacle rather than a continuous frontier line. Because contemporary texts used the term variably—sometimes for a gate or fortified town—today’s historians reserve clausurae for short walls, normally a few hundred metres to several kilometres long, that seal natural bottlenecks.
+
+
+== Historical context ==
+An imperial rescript of 443 CE required the magister officiorum to report annually “on the state of the camps and of the clausurae along every frontier,” confirming their recognised role in the late-Roman defence-in-depth system. While earlier scholarship misread clausurae as grand linear ramparts, current consensus treats them instead as tactical choke-points manned by modest detachments and supported by nearby forts or watch-towers.
+
+
+== Construction and typology ==
+Most clausurae were stone walls 1–3 m thick and up to 5 m high, sometimes reinforced with towers and a frontal ditch; lighter barriers of timber and earth are also attested. Their alignments exploit steep valley flanks so that the artificial obstacle blocks the only practicable passage, minimising labour yet achieving effective control.
+Excavations along Alpine examples reveal coursed limestone facings with rubble cores, gates set between projecting bastions and evidence of hurried repairs during the fifth-century crises.
+Landscape studies now integrate LiDAR and aerial photography to map previously unknown barriers, showing that Roman engineers chose locations primarily for traffic interception rather than maximal length or height.
+
+
+== Geographic distribution ==
+The best-studied concentration is the Claustra Alpium Iuliarum, a chain of walls, towers and forts stretching from the Karst Plateau to the Soča Valley that screened north-eastern Italy after c. 270 CE. North-African parallels include the 17 km Tebaga Gap wall in southern Tunisia, which blocked the main route between the Dahar uplands and the Gulf of Gabès.
+
+
+== References ==

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+---
+title: "Collective action"
+chunk: 1/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_action"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:09.558887+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Collective action  refers to action taken together by a group of people whose goal is to enhance their condition and achieve a common objective. It is a term that has formulations and theories in many areas of the social sciences including psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science and economics.
+
+== The social identity model ==
+Researchers Martijn van Zomeren, Tom Postmes, and Russell Spears conducted a meta-analysis of over 180 studies of collective action, in an attempt to integrate three dominant socio-psychological perspectives explaining antecedent conditions to this phenomenon – injustice, efficacy, and identity. In their resultant 2008 review article, an integrative Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA) was proposed which accounts for interrelationships among the three predictors as well as their predictive capacities for collective action. An important assumption of this approach is that people tend to respond to subjective states of disadvantage, which may or may not flow from objective physical and social reality.
+
+=== Perceived injustice ===
+Examining collective action through perceived injustice was initially guided by relative deprivation theory (RDT). RDT focuses on a subjective state of unjust disadvantage, proposing that engaging in fraternal (group-based) social comparisons with others may result in feelings of relative deprivation that foster collective action. Group-based emotions resulting from perceived injustice, such as anger, are thought to motivate collective action in an attempt to rectify the state of unfair deprivation. The extent to which individuals respond to this deprivation involves several different factors and varies from extremely high to extremely low across different settings.  Meta-analysis results confirm that effects of injustice causally predict collective action, highlighting the theoretical importance of this variable. Similarly, perceived fairness has also been empirically documented to be a significant predictor of sustained collective action.
+
+=== Perceived efficacy ===
+Moving beyond RDT, scholars suggested that in addition to a sense of injustice, people must also have the objective, structural resources necessary to mobilize change through social protest. An important psychological development saw this research instead directed towards subjective expectations and beliefs that unified effort (collective action) is a viable option for achieving group-based goals – this is referred to as perceived collective efficacy. Empirically, collective efficacy is shown to causally affect collective action among a number of populations across varied contexts.
+
+=== Social identity ===
+Social identity theory (SIT) suggests that people strive to achieve and maintain positive social identities associated with their group memberships. Where a group membership is disadvantaged (for example, low status), SIT implicates three variables in the evocation of collective action to improve conditions for the group – permeability of group boundaries, legitimacy of the intergroup structures, and the stability of these relationships. For example, when disadvantaged groups perceive intergroup status relationships as illegitimate and unstable, collective action is predicted to occur, in an attempt to change status structures for the betterment of the disadvantaged group.
+Meta-analysis results also confirm that social identity causally predicts collective action across a number of diverse contexts. Additionally, the integrated SIMCA affords another important role to social identity – that of a psychological bridge forming the collective base from which both collective efficacy and group injustice may be conceived.
+
+=== Model refinement ===
+While there is sound empirical support for the causal importance of SIMCA's key theoretical variables on collective action, more recent literature has addressed the issue of reverse causation, finding support for a related, yet distinct, encapsulation model of social identity in collective action (EMSICA). This model suggests that perceived group efficacy and perceived injustice provide the basis from which social identity emerges, highlighting an alternative causal pathway to collective action. Recent research has sought to integrate SIMCA with intergroup contact theory (see Cakal, Hewstone, Schwär, & Heath) and others have extended SIMCA through bridging morality research with the collective action literature (see van Zomeren, Postmes, & Spears for a review).
+Also, utopian thinking has been proposed as an antecendant to collective action, aside to the route affecting perceived injustice, efficacy, or social identity. Utopian thinking contributes to accessing cognitive alternatives, which are imagined models of societies that are different from the current society. Cognitive alternatives are proposed by many social identity theorists as an effective way to increase collective action. Moreover, utopian thinking has the potential to increase perceived injustice, perceived efficacy, or form new social identities and therefore affect collective action.
+Furthermore, recent longitudinal studies suggest that the outcomes of collective action can create feedback loops that affect future efficacy and trust. For example, a 2026 study of the 2024 UK General Election found that while collective action is often driven by a desire for change, it can backfire psychologically if the desired outcome is not achieved. Supporters of losing parties who had engaged in high levels of collective action experienced a "dampening" effect on their post-election political trust, hindering the restoration of their faith in the political system compared to those who were less active.
+
+== Public good ==
+The economic theory of collective action is concerned with the provision of public goods (and other collective consumption) through the collaboration of two or more individuals, and the impact of externalities on group behavior. It is more commonly referred to as Public Choice.  Mancur Olson's 1965 book The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups, is an important early analysis of the problems of public good cost.
+Besides economics, the theory has found many applications in political science, sociology, communication, anthropology and environmentalism.
+
+=== Collective action problem ===

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+---
+title: "Collective action"
+chunk: 2/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_action"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:09.558887+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The term collective action problem describes the situation in which multiple individuals would all benefit from a certain action, but has an associated cost making it implausible that any individual can or will undertake and solve it alone. The ideal solution is then to undertake this as a collective action, the cost of which is shared. Situations like this include the prisoner's dilemma, a collective action problem in which no communication is allowed, the free rider problem, and the tragedy of the commons, also known as the problem with open access.  An allegorical metaphor often used to describe the problem is "belling the cat".
+Solutions to collective action problems include mutually binding agreements, government regulation, privatisation, and assurance contracts, also known as crowdacting.
+
+=== Exploitation of the great by the small ===
+Mancur Olson made the claim that individual rational choice leads to situations where individuals with more resources will carry a higher burden in the provision of the public good than poorer ones. Poorer individuals will usually have little choice but to opt for the free rider strategy, i.e., they will attempt to benefit from the public good without contributing to its provision. This may also encourage the under-production (inefficient production) of the public good.
+
+=== Institutional design ===
+While public goods are often provided by governments, this is not always the case.  Various institutional designs have been studied with the aim of reducing the collaborative failure.  The best design for a given situation depends on the production costs, the utility function, and the collaborative effects, amongst other things.  Here are only some examples:
+
+==== Joint products ====
+A joint-product model analyzes the collaborative effect of joining a private good to a public good.  For example, a tax deduction (private good) can be tied to a donation to a charity (public good).
+It can be shown that the provision of the public good increases when tied to the private good, as long as the private good is provided by a monopoly (otherwise the private good would be provided by competitors without the link to the public good).
+
+==== Clubs ====
+Some institutional design, e.g., intellectual property rights, can introduce an exclusion mechanism and turn a pure public good into an impure public good artificially.
+If the costs of the exclusion mechanism are not higher than the gain from the collaboration, clubs can emerge.  James M. Buchanan showed in his seminal paper that clubs can be an efficient alternative to government interventions.
+A nation can be seen as a club whose members are its citizens. Government would then be the manager of this club.
+
+==== Federated structure ====
+In some cases, theory shows that collaboration emerges spontaneously in smaller groups rather than in large ones (see e.g. Dunbar's number). This explains why labor unions or charities often have a federated structure.

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+---
+title: "Collective action"
+chunk: 3/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_action"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:09.558887+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== In philosophy ==
+Since the late 20th century, analytic philosophers have been exploring the nature of collective action in the sense of acting together, as when people paint a house together, go for a walk together, or together execute a pass play. These particular examples have been central for three of the philosophers who have made well known contributions to this literature:  Michael Bratman, Margaret Gilbert, and John Searle, respectively.
+In (Gilbert 1989) and subsequent articles and book chapters including Gilbert (2006, chapter 7), whom argues for an account of collective action according to which this rests on a special kind of interpersonal commitment, what Gilbert calls a "joint commitment". A joint commitment in Gilbert's sense is not a matter of a set of personal commitments independently created by each of the participants, as when each makes a personal decision to do something. Rather, it is a single commitment to whose creation each participant makes a contribution. Thus suppose that one person says "Shall we go for a walk?" and the other says "Yes, let's". Gilbert proposes that as a result of this exchange the parties are jointly committed to go for a walk, and thereby obligated to one another to act as if they were parts of a single person taking a walk. Joint commitments can be created less explicitly and through processes that are more extended in time. One merit of a joint commitment account of collective action, in Gilbert's view, is that it explains the fact that those who are out on a walk together, for instance, understand that each of them is in a position to demand corrective action of the other if he or she acts in ways that affect negatively the completion of their walk. In (Gilbert 2006a) she discusses the pertinence of joint commitment to collective actions in the sense of the theory of rational choice.
+In Searle (1990) Searle argues that what lies at the heart of a collective action is the presence in the mind of each participant of a "we-intention". Searle does not give an account of we-intentions or, as he also puts it, "collective intentionality", but insists that they are distinct from the "I-intentions" that animate the actions of persons acting alone.
+In Bratman (1993) Bratman proposed that, roughly, two people "share an intention" to paint a house together when each intends that the house is painted by virtue of the activity of each, and also intends that it is so painted by virtue of the intention of each that it is so painted. That these conditions obtain must also be "common knowledge" between the participants.
+Discussion in this area continues to expand, and has influenced discussions in other disciplines including anthropology, developmental psychology, and economics. One general question is whether it is necessary to think in terms that go beyond the personal intentions of individual human beings properly to characterize what it is to act together. Bratman's account does not go beyond such personal intentions. Gilbert's account, with its invocation of joint commitment, does go beyond them. Searle's account does also, with its invocation of collective intentionality. The question of whether and how one must account for the existence of mutual obligations when there is a collective intention is another of the issues in this area of inquiry.
+
+== Spontaneous consensus ==
+In addition to the psychological mechanisms of collective action as explained by the social identity model, researchers have developed sociological models of why collective action exists and have studied under what conditions collective action emerges. Along this social dimension, a special case of the general collective action problem is one of collective agreement: how does a group of agents (humans, animals, robots, etc.) reach consensus about a decision or belief, in the absence of central organization? Common examples can be found from domains as diverse as biology (flocking, shoaling and schooling, and general collective animal behavior), economics (stock market bubbles), and sociology (social conventions and norms) among others.
+Consensus is distinct from the collective action problem in that there often is not an explicit goal, benefit, or cost of action but rather it concerns itself with a social equilibrium of the individuals involved (and their beliefs). And it can be considered spontaneous when it emerges without the presence of a centralized institution among self-interested individuals.
+
+=== Dimensions ===
+Spontaneous consensus can be considered along 4 dimensions involving the social structure of the individuals participating (local versus global) in the consensus as well as the processes (competitive vs cooperative) involved in reaching consensus:
+
+Competitive
+Cooperative
+Local
+Global
+
+==== Competitive versus cooperative ====
+The underlying processes of spontaneous consensus can be viewed either as cooperation among individuals trying to coordinate themselves through their interactions or as competition between the alternatives or choices to be decided upon. Depending on the dynamics of the individuals involved as well as the context of the alternatives considered for consensus, the process can be wholly cooperative, wholly competitive, or a mix of the two.
+
+==== Local versus global ====
+The distinction between local and global consensus can be viewed in terms of the social structure underlying the network of individuals participating in the consensus making process. Local consensus occurs when there is agreement between groups of neighboring nodes while global consensus refers to the state in which most of the population has reached an agreement. How and why consensus is reached is dependent on both the structure of the social network of individuals as well as the presence (or lack) of centralized institutions.
+
+=== Equilibrium mechanisms ===
+There are many mechanisms (social and psychological) that have been identified to underlie the consensus making process. They have been used to both explain the emergence of spontaneous consensus and understand how to facilitate an equilibrium between individuals and can be grouped according to their role in the process.
+
+Facilitation of Equilibrium
+Communication
+Punishment of Deviants
+Positive Payoffs
+Conformity Bias
+Selection of Alternatives
+Logical Reflection
+Psychological and shared biases
+Chance (when all alternatives are equivalent)

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+---
+title: "Collective action"
+chunk: 4/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_action"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:09.558887+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Methods and techniques ===
+Due to the interdisciplinary nature of both the mechanisms as well as the applications of spontaneous consensus, a variety of techniques have been developed to study the emergence and evolution of spontaneous cooperation. Two of the most widely used are game theory and social network analysis.
+
+==== Game theory ====
+Traditionally game theory has been used to study zero-sum games but has been extended to many different types of games. Relevant to the study of spontaneous consensus are cooperative and non-cooperative games. Since a consensus must be reached without the presence of any external authoritative institution for it to be considered spontaneous, non-cooperative games and Nash equilibrium have been the dominant paradigm for which to study its emergence.
+In the context of non-cooperative games, a consensus is a formal Nash equilibrium that all players tend towards through self-enforcing alliances or agreements.
+An important case study of the underlying mathematical dynamics is the coordination game. Even when coordination is desired, it can be difficult to achieve due to incomplete information and constrained time horizons.
+
+==== Social network analysis ====
+An alternative approach to studying the emergence of spontaneous consensus—that avoids many of the unnatural or overly constrained assumptions of game theoretic models—is the use of network based methods and social network analysis (SNA). These SNA models are theoretically grounded in the communication mechanism of facilitating consensus and describe its emergence through the information propagation processes of the network (behavioral contagion). Through the spread of influence (and ideas) between agents participating in the consensus, local and global consensus can emerge if the agents in the network achieve a shared equilibrium state. Leveraging this model of consensus, researchers have shown that local peer influence can be used to reach a global consensus and cooperation across the entire network. While this model of consensus and cooperation has been shown to be successful in certain contexts, research suggest that communication and social influence cannot be fully captured by simple contagion models and as such a pure contagion based model of consensus may have limits.
+
+== See also ==
+Anti-corruption collective action
+Collaborative innovation network
+Collective intelligence
+Collective intentionality
+Common property resource
+Constitutional economics
+Coordination good
+Free rider problem
+Group action (sociology)
+Mass collaboration
+Nash equilibrium
+Outline of organizational theory
+Pareto efficiency
+Polytely
+Prisoner's dilemma
+Private-collective model of innovation
+Public good
+Social fact
+Tragedy of the commons
+Tragedy of the anticommons
+
+== Footnotes ==
+
+== Bibliography ==
+
+== External links ==

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+title: "Collective action problem"
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+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_action_problem"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:10.731395+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A collective action problem or social dilemma is a situation in which all individuals would be better off cooperating but fail to do so because of conflicting interests between individuals that discourage joint action. The collective action problem has been addressed in political philosophy for centuries, but was more famously interpreted in 1965 in Mancur Olson's The Logic of Collective Action.
+Problems arise when too many group members choose to pursue individual profit and immediate satisfaction rather than behave in the group's best long-term interests. Social dilemmas can take many forms and are studied across disciplines such as psychology, economics, and political science. Examples of phenomena that can be explained using social dilemmas include resource depletion and low voter turnout. The collective action problem can be understood through the analysis of game theory and the free-rider problem, which results from the provision of public goods. Additionally, the collective problem can be applied to numerous public policy concerns that countries across the world currently face.
+
+== Prominent theorists ==
+
+=== Early thought ===
+Although he never used the words "collective action problem", Thomas Hobbes was an early philosopher on the topic of human cooperation. Hobbes believed that people act purely out of self-interest, writing in Leviathan in 1651 that "if any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies." Hobbes believed that the state of nature consists of a perpetual war between people with conflicting interests, causing people to quarrel and seek personal power even in situations where cooperation would be mutually beneficial for both parties. Through his interpretation of humans in the state of nature as selfish and quick to engage in conflict, Hobbes's philosophy laid the foundation for what is now referred to as the collective action problem.
+
+David Hume provided another early and better-known interpretation of what is now called the collective action problem in his 1738 book A Treatise of Human Nature. Hume characterizes a collective action problem through his depiction of neighbors agreeing to drain a meadow:Two neighbours may agree to drain a meadow, which they possess in common; because it is easy for them to know each others mind; and each must perceive, that the immediate consequence of his failing in his part, is, the abandoning the whole project. But it is very difficult, and indeed impossible, that a thousand persons should agree in any such action; it being difficult for them to concert so complicated a design, and still more difficult for them to execute it; while each seeks a pretext to free himself of the trouble and expence, and would lay the whole burden on others.In this passage, Hume establishes the basis for the collective action problem. In a situation in which a thousand people are expected to work together to achieve a common goal, individuals will be likely to free ride, as they assume that each of the other members of the team will put in enough effort to achieve said goal. In smaller groups, the impact one individual has is much greater, so individuals will be less inclined to free ride.
+
+=== Modern thought ===
+The most prominent modern interpretation of the collective action problem can be found in Mancur Olson's 1965 book The Logic of Collective Action. In it, he addressed the accepted belief at the time by sociologists and political scientists that groups were necessary to further the interests of their members. Olson argued that individual rationality does not necessarily result in group rationality, as members of a group may have conflicting interests that do not represent the best interests of the overall group.
+Olson further argued that in the case of a pure public good that is both nonrival and nonexcludable, one contributor tends to reduce their contribution to the public good as others contribute more. Additionally, Olson emphasized the tendency of individuals to pursue economic interests that would be beneficial to themselves and not necessarily the overall public. This contrasts with Adam Smith's theory of the "invisible hand" of the market, where individuals pursuing their own interests should theoretically result in the collective well-being of the overall market.
+Olson's book established the collective action problem as one of the most troubling dilemmas in social science, leaving a profound impression on present-day discussions of human behaviour and its relationship with governmental policy.
+
+== Theories ==
+
+=== Game theory ===
+
+Social dilemmas have attracted a great deal of interest in the social and behavioral sciences. Economists, biologists, psychologists, sociologists, and political scientists alike study behavior in social dilemmas. The most influential theoretical approach is economic game theory (i.e., rational choice theory, expected utility theory). Game theory assumes that individuals are rational actors motivated to maximize their utilities. Utility is often narrowly defined in terms of people's economic self-interest. Game theory thus predicts a non-cooperative outcome in a social dilemma. Although this is a useful starting premise there are many circumstances in which people may deviate from individual rationality.
+Game theory is one of the principal components of economic theory. It addresses the way individuals allocate scarce resources and how scarcity drives human interaction. 
+
+==== Prisoner's dilemma ====

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+title: "Collective action problem"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:10.731395+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The prisoner's dilemma model, one of the most famous examples in game theory, is crucial to understanding the collective problem because it illustrates the consequences of individual interests that conflict with the interests of the group. In simple models such as this one, the problem would have been solved had the two prisoners been able to communicate. In more complex real world situations involving numerous individuals, however, the collective action problem often prevents groups from making decisions that are of collective economic interest.
+The prisoner's dilemma is a simple game that serves as the basis for research on social dilemmas. The premise of the game is that two partners in crime are imprisoned separately and each are offered leniency if they provide evidence against the other. As seen in the table below, the optimal individual outcome is to testify against the other without being testified against. However, the optimal group outcome is for the two prisoners to cooperate with each other.
+
+In iterated games, players may learn to trust one another, or develop strategies like tit-for-tat, cooperating unless the opponent has defected in the previous round.
+Asymmetric prisoner's dilemma games are those in which one prisoner has more to gain and/or lose than the other. In iterated experiments with unequal rewards for co-operation, a goal of maximizing benefit may be overruled by a goal of equalizing benefit. The disadvantaged player may defect a certain proportion of the time without it being in the interest of the advantaged player to defect. In more natural circumstances, there may be better solutions to the bargaining problem.
+Related games include the Snowdrift game, Stag hunt, the Unscrupulous diner's dilemma, and the Centipede game.
+
+=== Evolutionary theories ===
+Biological and evolutionary approaches provide useful complementary insights into decision-making in social dilemmas. According to selfish gene theory, individuals may pursue a seemingly irrational strategy to cooperate if it benefits the survival of their genes. The concept of inclusive fitness delineates that cooperating with family members might pay because of shared genetic interests. It might be profitable for a parent to help their off-spring because doing so facilitates the survival of their genes. Reciprocity theories provide a different account of the evolution of cooperation. In repeated social dilemma games between the same individuals, cooperation might emerge because participants can punish a partner for failing to cooperate. This encourages reciprocal cooperation. Reciprocity serves as an explanation for why participants cooperate in dyads, but fails to account for larger groups. Evolutionary theories of indirect reciprocity and costly signaling may be useful to explain large-scale cooperation. When people can selectively choose partners to play games with, it pays to develop a cooperative reputation. Cooperation communicates kindness and generosity, which combine to make someone an attractive group member.
+
+=== Psychological theories ===
+Psychological models offer additional insights into social dilemmas by questioning the traditional game theory assumption that individuals are confined to their narrow self-interest. Interdependence Theory suggests that people transform a given pay-off matrix into an effective matrix that is more consistent with their social dilemma preferences. A prisoner's dilemma with close kin, for example, changes the pay-off matrix into one in which it is rational to be cooperative. Attribution models offer further support for these transformations. Whether individuals approach a social dilemma selfishly or cooperatively might depend upon whether they believe people are naturally greedy or cooperative. Similarly, goal-expectation theory assumes that people might cooperate under two conditions: They must (1) have a cooperative goal, and (2) expect others to cooperate. Another psychological model, the appropriateness model, questions the game theory assumption that individuals rationally calculate their pay-offs. Instead many people base their decisions on what people around them do and use simple heuristics, like an equality rule, to decide whether or not to cooperate. The logic of appropriateness suggests that people ask themselves the question: "what does a person like me (identity) do (rules/heuristics) in a situation like this (recognition) given this culture (group)?" (Weber et al., 2004) 
+(Kopelman 2009) and that these factors influence cooperation.
+
+== Public goods ==

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+title: "Collective action problem"
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+---
+
+A public goods dilemma is a situation in which the whole group can benefit if some of the members give something for the common good but individuals benefit from "free riding" if enough others contribute. Public goods are defined by two characteristics: non-excludability and non-rivalry—meaning that anyone can benefit from them and one person's use of them does not hinder another person's use of them. An example is public broadcasting that relies on contributions from viewers. Since no single viewer is essential for providing the service, viewers can reap the benefits of the service without paying anything for it. If not enough people contribute, the service cannot be provided. In economics, the literature around public goods dilemmas refers to the phenomenon as the free-rider problem. The economic approach is broadly applicable and can refer to the free-riding that accompanies any sort of public good. In social psychology, the literature refers to this phenomenon as social loafing. Whereas free-riding is generally used to describe public goods, social loafing refers specifically to the tendency for people to exert less effort when in a group than when working alone.
+Public goods are goods that are nonrival and nonexcludable. A good is said to be nonrival if its consumption by one consumer does not in any way impact its consumption by another consumer. Additionally, a good is said to be nonexcludable if those who do not pay for the good cannot be kept from enjoying the benefits of the good. The nonexcludability aspect of public goods is where one facet of the collective action problem, known as the free-rider problem, comes into play. For instance, a company could put on a fireworks display and charge an admittance price of $10, but if community members could all view the fireworks display from their homes, most would choose not to pay the admittance fee. Thus, the majority of individuals would choose to free ride, discouraging the company from putting on another fireworks show in the future. Even though the fireworks display was surely beneficial to each of the individuals, they relied on those paying the admittance fee to finance the show. If everybody had assumed this position, however, the company putting on the show would not have been able to procure the funds necessary to buy the fireworks that provided enjoyment for so many individuals. This situation is indicative of a collective action problem because the individual incentive to free ride conflicts with the collective desire of the group to pay for a fireworks show for all to enjoy.
+Pure public goods include services such as national defense and public parks that are usually provided by governments using taxpayer funds. In return for their tax contribution, taxpayers enjoy the benefits of these public goods. In developing countries where funding for public projects is scarce, however, it often falls on communities to compete for resources and finance projects that benefit the collective group. The ability of communities to successfully contribute to public welfare depends on the size of the group, the power or influence of group members, the tastes and preferences of individuals within the group, and the distribution of benefits among group members. When a group is too large or the benefits of collective action are not tangible to individual members, the collective action problem results in a lack of cooperation that makes the provision of public goods difficult.
+
+== Replenishing resource management ==
+A replenishing resource management dilemma is a situation in which group members share a renewable resource that will continue to produce benefits if group members do not over harvest it but in which any single individual profits from harvesting as much as possible.
+
+=== Tragedy of the commons ===
+
+The tragedy of the commons is a type of replenishing resource management dilemma. The dilemma arises when members of a group share a common good. A common good is rivalrous and non-excludable, meaning that anyone can use the resource but there is a finite amount of the resource available and it is therefore prone to overexploitation.
+The paradigm of the tragedy of the commons first appeared in an 1833 pamphlet by English economist William Forster Lloyd. According to Lloyd, "If a person puts more cattle into his own field, the amount of the subsistence which they consume is all deducted from that which was at the command, of his original stock; and if, before, there was no more than a sufficiency of pasture, he reaps no benefit from the additional cattle, what is gained in one way being lost in another. But if he puts more cattle on a common, the food which they consume forms a deduction which is shared between all the cattle, as well that of others as his own, in proportion to their number, and only a small part of it is taken from his own cattle".
+The template of the tragedy of the commons can be used to understand myriad problems, including various forms of resource depletion. For example, overfishing in the 1960s and 1970s led to depletion of the previously abundant supply of Atlantic Cod. By 1992, the population of cod had completely collapsed because fishers had not left enough fish to repopulate the species. Another example is the higher rates of COVID-19 cases of sickness and deaths in individualistic (vs. collectivists) countries. (Note that more recent research from 2022 suggest that individualistic societies are associated with lower COVID-19-related mortality rates. This finding contradicts previous studies that supported the popular narrative that collectivistic societies with an obedient population are better positioned to manage the pandemic.)
+
+== Social traps ==

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+title: "Collective action problem"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:10.731395+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A social trap occurs when individuals or groups pursue immediate rewards that later prove to have negative or even lethal consequences. This type of dilemma arises when a behavior produces rewards initially but continuing the same behavior produces diminishing returns. Stimuli that cause social traps are called sliding reinforcers, since they reinforce the behavior in small doses and punish it in large doses.
+An example of a social trap is the use of vehicles and the resulting pollution. Viewed individually, vehicles are an adaptive technology that have revolutionized transportation and greatly improved quality of life. But their current widespread use produces high levels of pollution, directly from their energy source or over their lifespan.
+
+== Perceptual dilemma ==
+A perceptual dilemma arises during conflict and is a product of outgroup bias. In this dilemma, the parties to the conflict prefer cooperation while simultaneously believing that the other side would take advantage of conciliatory gestures.
+
+=== In conflict ===
+The prevalence of perceptual dilemmas in conflict has led to the development of two distinct schools of thought on the subject. According to deterrence theory, the best strategy to take in conflict is to show signs of strength and willingness to use force if necessary. This approach is intended to dissuade attacks before they happen. Conversely, the conflict spiral view holds that deterrence strategies increase hostilities and defensiveness and that a clear demonstration of peaceful intentions is the most effective way to avoid escalation.
+An example of the deterrence theory in practice is the Cold War strategy (employed by both the United States and the Soviet Union) of mutually assured destruction (MAD). Because both countries had second strike capability, each side knew that the use of nuclear weapons would result in their own destruction. While controversial, MAD succeeded in its primary purpose of preventing nuclear war and kept the Cold War cold.
+Conciliatory gestures have also been used to great effect, in keeping with conflict spiral theory. For example, Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat's 1977 visit to Israel during a prolonged period of hostilities between the two countries was well-received and ultimately contributed in the Egypt–Israel peace treaty.
+
+== In politics ==
+
+=== Voting ===
+Scholars estimate that, even in a battleground state, there is only a one in ten million chance that one vote could sway the outcome of a United States presidential election. This statistic may discourage individuals from exercising their democratic right to vote, as they believe they could not possibly affect the results of an election. If everybody adopted this view and decided not to vote, however, democracy would collapse. This situation results in a collective action problem, as any single individual is incentivized to choose to stay home from the polls since their vote is very unlikely to make a real difference in the outcome of an election.
+Despite high levels of political apathy in the United States, however, this collective action problem does not decrease voter turnout as much as some political scientists might expect. It turns out that most Americans believe their political efficacy to be higher than it actually is, stopping millions of Americans from believing their vote does not matter and staying home from the polls. Thus, it appears collective action problems can be resolved not just by tangible benefits to individuals participating in group action, but by a mere belief that collective action will also lead to individual benefits.
+
+=== Environmental policy ===
+Environmental problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and waste accumulation can be described as collective action problems. Since these issues are connected to the everyday actions of vast numbers of people, vast numbers of people are also required to mitigate the effects of these environmental problems. Without governmental regulation, however, individual people or businesses are unlikely to take the actions necessary to reduce carbon emissions or cut back on usage of non-renewable resources, as these people and businesses are incentivized to choose the easier and cheaper option, which often differs from the environmentally-friendly option that would benefit the health of the planet.
+Individual self interest has led to over half of Americans believing that government regulation of businesses does more harm than good. Yet, when the same Americans are asked about specific regulations such as standards for food and water quality, most are satisfied with the laws currently in place or favor even more stringent regulations. This illustrates the way the collective problem hinders group action on environmental issues: when an individual is directly affected by an issue such as food and water quality, they will favor regulations, but when an individual cannot see a great impact from their personal carbon emissions or waste accumulation, they will generally tend to disagree with laws that encourage them to cut back on environmentally-harmful activities.
+
+== Factors promoting cooperation in social dilemmas ==
+Studying the conditions under which people cooperate can shed light on how to resolve social dilemmas. The literature distinguishes between three broad classes of solutions—motivational, strategic, and structural—which vary in whether they see actors as motivated purely by self-interest and in whether they change the rules of the social dilemma game.

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+---
+
+=== Motivational solutions ===
+Motivational solutions assume that people have other-regarding preferences. There is a considerable literature on social value orientations which shows that people have stable preferences for how much they value outcomes for self versus others. Research has concentrated on three social motives: (1) individualism—maximizing own outcomes regardless of others; (2) competition—maximizing own outcomes relative to others; and (3) cooperation—maximizing joint outcomes. The first two orientations are referred to as proself orientations and the third as a prosocial orientation. There is much support for the idea that prosocial and proself individuals behave differently when confronted with a social dilemma in the laboratory as well as the field. People with prosocial orientations weigh the moral implications of their decisions more and see cooperation as the most preferable choice in a social dilemma. When there are conditions of scarcity, like a water shortage, prosocials harvest less from a common resource. Similarly prosocials are more concerned about the environmental consequences of, for example, taking the car or public transport.
+Research on the development of social value orientations suggest an influence of factors like family history (prosocials have more sibling sisters), age (older people are more prosocial), culture (more individualists in Western cultures), gender (more women are prosocial), even university course (economics students are less prosocial). However, until we know more about the psychological mechanisms underlying these social value orientations we lack a good basis for interventions.
+Another factor that might affect the weight individuals assign to group outcomes is the possibility of communication. A robust finding in the social dilemma literature is that cooperation increases when people are given a chance to talk to each other. It has been quite a challenge to explain this effect. One motivational reason is that communication reinforces a sense of group identity.
+However, there may be strategic considerations as well. First, communication gives group members a chance to make promises and explicit commitments about what they will do. It is not clear if many people stick to their promises to cooperate. Similarly, through communication people are able to gather information about what others do. On the other hand, this information might produce ambiguous results; an awareness of other people's willingness to cooperate may cause a temptation to take advantage of them.
+Social dilemma theory was applied to study social media communication and knowledge sharing in organizations. Organizational knowledge can be considered a public good where motivation to contribute is key. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are important at individual level and can be addressed through managerial interventions.
+
+=== Strategic solutions ===
+A second category of solutions are primarily strategic. In repeated interactions cooperation might emerge when people adopt a Tit for tat strategy (TFT). TFT is characterized by first making a cooperative move while the next move mimics the decision of the partner. Thus, if a partner does not cooperate, you copy this move until your partner starts to cooperate. Computer tournaments in which different strategies were pitted against each other showed TFT to be the most successful strategy in social dilemmas. TFT is a common strategy in real-world social dilemmas because it is nice but firm. Consider, for instance, that marriage contracts, rental agreements, and international trade policies all use TFT-tactics.
+However, TFT is quite an unforgiving strategy, and in noisy real-world dilemmas a more forgiving strategy has its own advantages. Such a strategy is known as Generous-tit-for-tat (GTFT).  This strategy always reciprocates cooperation with cooperation, and usually replies to defection with defection. However, with some probability GTFT will forgive a defection by the other player and cooperate. In a world of errors in action and perception, such a strategy can be a Nash equilibrium and evolutionarily stable. The more beneficial cooperation is, the more forgiving GTFT can be while still resisting invasion by defectors.
+Even when partners might not meet again it could be strategically wise to cooperate. When people can selectively choose whom to interact with it might pay to be seen as a cooperator. Research shows that cooperators create better opportunities for themselves than non-cooperators: They are selectively preferred as collaborative partners, romantic partners, and group leaders. This only occurs however when people's social dilemma choices are monitored by others. Public acts of altruism and cooperation like charity giving, philanthropy, and bystander intervention are probably manifestations of reputation-based cooperation.

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+title: "Collective action problem"
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+
+=== Structural solutions ===
+Structural solutions change the rules of the game either through modifying the social dilemma or removing the dilemma altogether. Field research on conservation behaviour has shown that selective incentives in the form of monetary rewards are effective in decreasing domestic water and electricity use. Furthermore, numerous experimental and case studies show that cooperation is more likely based on a number of factors, including whether or not individuals have the ability to monitor the situation, to punish or "sanction" defectors, if they are legitimized by external political structures to cooperate and self-organize, can communicate with one another and share information, know one another, have effective arenas for conflict resolution, and are managing social and ecological systems that have well-defined boundaries or are easily monitorable.  Yet implementation of reward and punishment systems can be problematic for various reasons. First, there are significant costs associated with creating and administering sanction systems. Providing selective rewards and punishments requires support institutions to monitor the activities of both cooperators and non-cooperators, which can be quite expensive to maintain. Second, these systems are themselves public goods because one can enjoy the benefits of a sanctioning system without contribution to its existence. The police, army, and judicial system will fail to operate unless people are willing to pay taxes to support them. This raises the question if many people want to contribute to these institutions. Experimental research suggests that particularly low trust individuals are willing to invest money in punishment systems. A considerable portion of people are quite willing to punish non-cooperators even if they personally do not profit. Some researchers even suggest that altruistic punishment is an evolved mechanism for human cooperation. A third limitation is that punishment and reward systems might undermine people's voluntary cooperative intention. Some people get a "warm glow" from cooperation and the provision of selective incentives might crowd out their cooperative intention. Similarly the presence of a negative sanctioning system might undermine voluntary cooperation. Some research has found that punishment systems decrease the trust that people have in others. Other research has found that graduated sanctions, where initial punishments have low severity, make allowances for unusual hardships, and allow the violator to reenter the trust of the collective, have been found to support collective resource management and increase trust in the system.
+Boundary structural solutions modify the social dilemma structure and such strategies are often very effective. Experimental studies on commons dilemmas show that overharvesting groups are more willing to appoint a leader to look after the common resource. There is a preference for a democratically elected prototypical leader with limited power especially when people's group ties are strong.   When ties are weak, groups prefer a stronger leader with a coercive power base. The question remains whether authorities can be trusted in governing social dilemmas and field research shows that legitimacy and fair procedures are extremely important in citizen's willingness to accept authorities. Other research emphasizes a greater motivation for groups to successfully self-organize, without the need for an external authority base, when they do place a high value on the resources in question but, again, before the resources are severely overharvested. An external "authority" is not presumed to be the solution in these cases, however effective self-organization and collective governance and care for the resource base is.
+Another structural solution is reducing group size. Cooperation generally declines when group size increases. In larger groups people often feel less responsible for the common good and believe that their contribution does not matter. Reducing the scale of a problem (such as dividing a large scale dilemma into smaller more manageable parts) is often an effective tool in raising cooperation under such circumstances. Additional research on governance shows that group size has a curvilinear effect, since at low numbers, governance groups may also not have enough people to effectively research, manage, and administer the resource system or the governance process.
+Another proposed boundary solution is to remove the social from the dilemma, by means of privatization. This restructuring of incentives would remove the temptation to place individual needs above group needs. However, it is not easy to privatize moveable resources such as fish, water, and clean air. Privatization also raises concerns about social justice as not everyone may be able to get an equal share. Privatization might also erode people's intrinsic motivation to cooperate, by externalizing the locus of control.
+In society, social units which face a social dilemma within are typically embedded in interaction with other groups, often competition for resources of different kinds. Once this is modeled the social dilemma is strongly attenuated.
+There are many additional structural solutions which modify the social dilemma, both from the inside and from the outside. The likelihood of successfully co-managing a shared resource, successfully organizing to self-govern, or successfully cooperating in a social dilemma depends on many variables, from the nature of the resource system, to the nature of the social system the actors are a part of, to the political position of external authorities, to the ability to communicate effectively, to the rules-in-place regarding the management of the commons.   However, sub-optimal or failed results in a social dilemma (and perhaps the need for privatization or an external authority) tend to occur "when resource users do not know who all is involved, do not have a foundation of trust and reciprocity, cannot communicate, have no established rules, and lack effective monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms."
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+
+== External links ==
+Homepage of the social-dilemma network

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+title: "Commissure"
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+
+A commissure () is the location at which two objects abut or are joined. The term is used especially in the fields of anatomy and biology.
+
+The most common usage of the term refers to the brain's commissures, of which there are at least nine. Such a commissure is a bundle of commissural fibers as a tract that crosses the midline at its level of origin or entry (as opposed to a decussation of fibers that cross obliquely). The nine are the anterior commissure, posterior commissure, corpus callosum, commissure of fornix (hippocampal commissure), habenular commissure, ventral supraoptic decussation, Meynert's commissure, anterior hypothalamic commissure of Gasner, and the interthalamic adhesion. They consist of fibre tracts that connect the two cerebral hemispheres and span the longitudinal fissure. In the spinal cord, there are the anterior white commissure, and the gray commissure. Commissural neurons refer to neuronal cells that grow their axons across the midline of the nervous system within the brain and the spinal cord.
+Commissure also often refers to cardiac anatomy of heart valves. In the heart, a commissure is the area where the valve leaflets abut. When such an abutment is abnormally stiffened or even fused, valvular stenosis results, sometimes requiring commissurotomy.
+The term may also refer to the junction of the upper and lower lips (see labial commissure of mouth).
+It may refer to the junction of the upper and lower mandibles of a bird's beak, or alternately, to the full-length apposition of the closed mandibles, from the corners of the mouth to the tip of the beak.
+It may refer to the nasal and temporal meeting points of the upper and lower eyelids (the medial and lateral canthi).
+In the vulva, the joining points of the two folds of the labia majora create two commissures—the anterior commissure just anterior to the prepuce of the clitoris, and the posterior commissure of the labia majora, directly posterior to the frenulum of the labia minora and anterior to the perineal raphe.
+In biology, the meeting of the two valves of a brachiopod or clam is a commissure; in botany, the term is used to denote the place where a fern's laterally expanded vein endings come together in a continuous marginal sorus.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Decussation
+
+
+== References ==

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+title: "Cradle of civilization"
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+
+A cradle of civilization is a location and a culture where civilization was developed independently of other civilizations in other locations. A civilization is any complex society characterized by the development of the state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond signed or spoken languages (namely, writing systems and graphic arts).
+Scholars generally acknowledge six cradles of civilization: Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient India and Ancient China are believed to be the earliest in Afro-Eurasia, while the Caral–Supe civilization of coastal Peru and the Olmec civilization of Mexico are believed to be the earliest in the Americas. All of the cradles of civilization depended upon agriculture for sustenance (except possibly Caral–Supe which may have depended initially on marine resources). All depended upon farmers producing an agricultural surplus to support the centralized government, political leaders, religious leaders, and public works of the urban centers of the early civilizations.
+
+== Rise of civilization ==
+
+The earliest signs of a process leading to sedentary culture can be seen in the Levant to as early as 12,000 BC, when the Natufian culture became sedentary; it evolved into an agricultural society by 10,000 BC. The importance of water to safeguard an abundant and stable food supply, due to favourable conditions for hunting, fishing and gathering resources including cereals, provided an initial wide spectrum economy that triggered the creation of permanent villages.
+The earliest proto-urban settlements with several thousand inhabitants emerged in the Neolithic which began in Western Asia in 10,000 BC. The first cities to house several tens of thousands were Uruk, Ur, Kish and Eridu in Mesopotamia, followed by Susa in Elam and Memphis in Egypt, all by the 31st century BC (see Historical urban community sizes).
+Historic times are marked apart from prehistoric times when "records of the past begin to be kept for the benefit of future generations"—in written or oral form. If the rise of civilization is taken to coincide with the development of writing out of proto-writing, then the Near Eastern Chalcolithic (the transitional period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age during the 4th millennium BC) and the development of proto-writing in Harappa in the Indus Valley of South Asia around 3,300 BC are the earliest instances, followed by Chinese proto-writing evolving into the oracle bone script, and again by the emergence of Mesoamerican writing systems from about 900 BC.
+In the absence of written documents, most aspects of the rise of early civilizations are contained in archaeological assessments that document the development of formal institutions and the material culture. A "civilized" way of life is ultimately linked to conditions coming almost exclusively from agriculture. Gordon Childe defined the development of civilization as the result of two successive revolutions: the Neolithic Revolution of Western Asia, triggering the development of settled communities, and the urban revolution which also first emerged in Western Asia, which enhanced tendencies towards dense settlements, specialized occupational groups, social classes, exploitation of surpluses, monumental public buildings and writing. Few of those conditions, however, are unchallenged by the records: dense cities were not attested in Egypt's Old Kingdom (unlike Mesopotamia) and cities had a dispersed population in the Maya area; the Incas lacked writing although they could keep records with Quipus which might also have had literary uses; and often monumental architecture preceded any indication of village settlement. For instance, in present-day Louisiana, researchers have determined that cultures that were primarily nomadic organized over generations to build earthwork mounds at seasonal settlements as early as 3400 BC. Rather than a succession of events and preconditions, the rise of civilization could equally be hypothesized as an accelerated process that started with incipient agriculture and culminated in the Oriental Bronze Age.
+
+== Single or multiple cradles ==
+Scholars once thought that civilization began in the Fertile Crescent and spread out from there by influence. Scholars now believe that civilizations arose independently at several locations in both hemispheres. They have observed that sociocultural developments occurred along different timeframes. "Sedentary" and "nomadic" communities continued to interact considerably; they were not strictly divided among widely different cultural groups. The concept of a cradle of civilization has a focus where the inhabitants came to build cities, to create writing systems, to experiment in techniques for making pottery and using metals, to domesticate animals, and to develop complex social structures involving class systems.
+Today, scholarship generally identifies six areas where civilization emerged independently: the Fertile Crescent, including Mesopotamia and the Levant; the Nile Valley in Northeast Africa; the Indo-Gangetic Plain; the North China Plain; the Andean Coast; and the Mesoamerican Gulf Coast.
+
+== Cradles of civilization ==
+
+=== Fertile Crescent ===
+
+The Fertile Crescent comprises a crescent-shaped region of elevated terrain in West Asia, encompassing regions of modern-day Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq, extending to the Zagros Mountains in Iran. It stands as one of the earliest regions globally where agricultural practices emerged, marking the advent of sedentary farming communities.
+By 10,200 BC, fully developed Neolithic cultures, characterized by the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (7600 to 6000 BC) phases, emerged within the Fertile Crescent. These cultures diffused eastward into South Asia and westward into Europe and North Africa. Among the notable PPNA settlements is Jericho, located in the Jordan Valley, believed to be the world's earliest established city, with initial settlement dating back to around 9600 BC and fortification occurring around 6800 BC.
+Current theories and findings identify the Fertile Crescent as the first and oldest cradle of civilization. Examples of sites in this area are the early Neolithic site of Göbekli Tepe (9500–8000 BC) and Çatalhöyük (7500–5700 BC).
+
+==== Mesopotamia ====

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+In Mesopotamia (a region encompassing modern Iraq and bordering regions of Southeast Turkey, Northeast Syria and Northwest Iran), the convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers produced rich fertile soil and a supply of water for irrigation. Neolithic cultures emerged in the region from 8000 BC onwards. The civilizations that emerged around these rivers are the earliest known non-nomadic agrarian societies. It is because of this that the Fertile Crescent region, and Mesopotamia in particular, are often referred to as the cradle of civilization. The period known as the Ubaid period (c. 6500 to 3800 BC) is the earliest known period on the alluvial plain, although it is likely earlier periods exist obscured under the alluvium. It was during the Ubaid period that the movement toward urbanization began. Agriculture and animal husbandry were widely practiced in sedentary communities, particularly in Northern Mesopotamia (later Assyria), and intensive irrigated hydraulic agriculture began to be practiced in the south.
+Around 6000 BC, Neolithic settlements began to appear all over Egypt. Studies based on morphological, genetic, and archaeological data have attributed these settlements to migrants from the Fertile Crescent in the Near East arriving in Egypt and North Africa during the Egyptian and North African Neolithic Revolution and bringing agriculture to the region. Tell el-'Oueili is the oldest Sumerian site settled during this period, around 5400 BC, and the city of Ur also first dates to the end of this period. In the south, the Ubaid period lasted from around 6500 to 3800 BC.
+Sumerian civilization coalesced in the subsequent Uruk period (4000 to 3100 BC). Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia and, during its later phase, the gradual emergence of the cuneiform script. Proto-writing in the region dates to around 3800 BC, with the earliest texts dating to 3300 BC; early cuneiform writing emerged in 3000 BC. It was also during this period that pottery painting declined as copper started to become popular, along with cylinder seals. Sumerian cities during the Uruk period were probably theocratic and were most likely headed by a priest-king (ensi), assisted by a council of elders, including both men and women. It is quite possible that the later Sumerian pantheon was modeled upon this political structure.
+The Jemdet Nasr period, which is generally dated from 3100 to 2900 BC and succeeds the Uruk period, is known as one of the formative stages in the development of the cuneiform script. The oldest clay tablets come from Uruk and date to the late fourth millennium BC, slightly earlier than the Jemdet Nasr Period. By the time of the Jemdet Nasr Period, the script had already undergone a number of significant changes. It originally consisted of pictographs, but by the time of the Jemdet Nasr Period it was already adopting simpler and more abstract designs. It is also during this period that the script acquired its iconic wedge-shaped appearance.
+Uruk trade networks started to expand to other parts of Mesopotamia and as far as North Caucasus, and strong signs of governmental organization and social stratification began to emerge, leading to the Early Dynastic Period (c. 2900 BC). After the Early Dynastic period began, there was a shift in control of the city-states from the temple establishment headed by council of elders led by a priestly "En" (a male figure when it was a temple for a goddess, or a female figure when headed by a male god) towards a more secular Lugal (Lu = man, Gal = great). The Lugals included such legendary patriarchal figures as Enmerkar, Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh, who supposedly reigned shortly before the historic record opens around 2700 BC, when syllabic writing started to develop from the early pictograms. The center of Sumerian culture remained in southern Mesopotamia, even though rulers soon began expanding into neighboring areas. Neighboring Semitic groups, including the Akkadian speaking Semites (Assyrians, Babylonians) who lived alongside the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, adopted much of Sumerian culture for their own. The earliest ziggurats began near the end of the Early Dynastic Period, although architectural precursors in the form of raised platforms date back to the Ubaid period. The Sumerian King List dates to the early second millennium BC. It consists of a succession of royal dynasties from different Sumerian cities, ranging back into the Early Dynastic Period. Each dynasty rises to prominence and dominates the region, only to be replaced by the next. The document was used by later Mesopotamian kings to legitimize their rule. While some of the information in the list can be checked against other texts such as economic documents, much of it is probably purely fictional, and its use as a historical document is limited.
+Eannatum, the Sumerian king of Lagash, established the first verifiable empire in history in 2500 BC. The neighboring Elam, in modern Iran, was also part of the early urbanization during the Chalcolithic period. Elamite states were among the leading political forces of the Ancient Near East. The emergence of Elamite written records from around 3200 BC also parallels Sumerian history, where slightly earlier records have been found. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians. Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC. The Semitic-speaking Akkadian empire emerged around 2350 BC under Sargon the Great. The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC. Under Sargon and his successors, the Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam and Gutium. After the fall of the Akkadian Empire and the overthrow of the Gutians, there was a brief reassertion of Sumerian dominance in Mesopotamia under the Third Dynasty of Ur. After the final collapse of Sumerian hegemony in Mesopotamia around 2004 BC, the Semitic Akkadian people of Mesopotamia eventually coalesced into two major Akkadian-speaking nations: Assyria in the north (whose earliest kings date to the 25th century BC), and, a few centuries later, Babylonia in the south, both of which (Assyria in particular) would go on to form powerful empires between the 20th and 6th centuries BC. The Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Semitic Assyrian-Babylonian population.

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+
+=== Northeastern Africa ===
+
+The region is intermediate between North Africa and East Africa, and encompasses the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia), as well as Sudan, South Sudan, Libya, and Egypt. The region has a very long history of habitation with fossil finds from the early hominids to modern human and is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse regions of the world, being the home to many civilizations and located on an important trade route that connects multiple continents.
+A range of linguistic, biological anthropological,
+archaeological and genetic data have identified shared affinities between early Egypt and northeastern African populations. Genetic evidence has identified the Horn of Africa as a source of a genetic marker "M35/215" Y-chromosome lineage for a significant population component which moved north from that region into Egypt and the Levant. This genetic distribution paralleled the spread of the Afrasian language family with the movement of people from the Horn of Africa into Egypt and added a new demic component to the existing population of Egypt 17,000 years ago.
+Mainstream scholars have situated the ethnicity and the origins of predynastic, southern Egypt as a foundational community primarily in northeast Africa which included the Sudan, tropical Africa and the Sahara whilst recognising the population variability that became characteristic of the pharaonic period. Pharaonic Egypt featured a physical gradation across the regional populations, with Upper Egyptians having shared more biological affinities with Sudanese and southernly African populations, whereas Lower Egyptians had closer genetic links with Levantine and Mediterranean populations.
+Archaeological evidence has suggested that the Ancient Egyptian counting system had origins in Sub-Saharan Africa. Also, fractal geometry designs which are widespread among Sub-Saharan African cultures are also found in Egyptian architecture and cosmological signs. The Ishango bone, according to scholar Alexander Marshack, may have influenced the later development of mathematics in Egypt as, like some entries on the Ishango bone, Egyptian arithmetic also made use of multiplication by 2; this however, is disputed. Megalithic structures located in Nabta Playa, Upper Egypt featured astronomy, calendar arrangements in alignment with the heliacal rising of Sirius and supported calibration the yearly calendar for the annual Nile flood. These practices have been linked with the emergence of cosmology in Old Kingdom Egypt.
+Ancient Nubians pioneered early antibiotics  and established a system of geometrics which served as the basis for initial sunclocks. Nubians also exercised a trigonometric methodology comparable to their Egyptian counterparts.
+The area comprising Somaliland, Somalia, Djibouti, the Red Sea coast of Eritrea and Sudan is considered the most likely location of the land known to the ancient Egyptians as Punt (or "Ta Netjeru", meaning god's land), whose first mention dates to the 25th century BC. The Puntites traded myrrh, spices, gold, ebony, short-horned cattle, ivory and frankincense with the Ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Babylonians, Indians, Chinese and Romans through their commercial ports. An Ancient Egyptian expedition sent to Punt by the 18th dynasty Queen Hatshepsut is recorded on the temple reliefs at Deir el-Bahari, during the reign of the Puntite King Parahu and Queen Ati. According to Christiane Noblecourt, these expeditions were further facilitated by the existence of a common language between Egypt and Punt.
+
+==== Ancient Egypt ====

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+
+	
+The developed Neolithic cultures belonging to the phases Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (10,200 BC) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (7600 to 6000 BC) appeared in the Fertile Crescent and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Contemporaneously, a grain-grinding culture using the earliest type of sickle blades had replaced the culture of hunters, fishers, and gathering people using stone tools along the Nile. Geological evidence and computer climate modeling studies also suggest that natural climate changes around 8000 BC began to desiccate the extensive pastoral lands of northern Africa, eventually forming the Sahara. Continued desiccation forced the early ancestors of the Egyptians to settle around the Nile more permanently and to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. The oldest fully developed neolithic culture in Egypt is Fayum A culture that began around 5500 BC.
+By about 5500 BC, small tribes living in the Nile valley had developed into a series of inter-related cultures as far south as Sudan, demonstrating firm control of agriculture and animal husbandry, and identifiable by their pottery and personal items, such as combs, bracelets, and beads. The largest of these early cultures in northern Upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert; it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools, and use of copper. The oldest known domesticated bovine in Africa are from Fayum dating to around 4400 BC. The Badari cultures was followed by the Naqada culture, which brought a number of technological improvements. As early as the first Naqada Period, Amratia, Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. By 3300 BC, just before the first Egyptian dynasty, Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper Egypt to the south, and Lower Egypt to the north.
+Egyptian civilization begins during the second phase of the Naqada culture, known as the Gerzeh period, around 3500 BC and coalesces with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt around 3150 BC. Farming produced the vast majority of food; with increased food supplies, the populace adopted a much more sedentary lifestyle, and the larger settlements grew to cities of about 5,000 residents. It was in this time that the city dwellers started using mud brick to build their cities, and the use of the arch and recessed walls for decorative effect became popular. Copper instead of stone was increasingly used to make tools and weaponry. Symbols on Gerzean pottery also resemble nascent Egyptian hieroglyphs. Early evidence also exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan and the Byblos coast, during this time. Concurrent with these cultural advances, a process of unification of the societies and towns of the upper Nile River, or Upper Egypt, occurred. At the same time the societies of the Nile Delta, or Lower Egypt, also underwent a unification process. During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeated his enemies on the Delta and merged both the Kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt under his single rule.
+The Early Dynastic Period of Egypt immediately followed the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. It is generally taken to include the First and Second Dynasties, lasting from the Naqada III archaeological period until about the beginning of the Old Kingdom, c. 2686 BC. With the First Dynasty, the capital moved from Thinis to Memphis with a unified Egypt ruled by a god-king. The hallmarks of ancient Egyptian civilization, such as art, architecture and many aspects of religion, took shape during the Early Dynastic period. The strong institution of kingship developed by the pharaohs served to legitimize state control over the land, labor, and resources that were essential to the survival and growth of ancient Egyptian civilization.
+Major advances in architecture, art, and technology were made during the subsequent Old Kingdom, fueled by the increased agricultural productivity and resulting population, made possible by a well-developed central administration. Some of ancient Egypt's crowning achievements, the Giza pyramids and Great Sphinx, were constructed during the Old Kingdom. Under the direction of the vizier, state officials collected taxes, coordinated irrigation projects to improve crop yield, drafted peasants to work on construction projects, and established a justice system to maintain peace and order. Along with the rising importance of a central administration there arose a new class of educated scribes and officials who were granted estates by the pharaoh in payment for their services. Pharaohs also made land grants to their mortuary cults and local temples, to ensure that these institutions had the resources to worship the pharaoh after his death. Scholars believe that five centuries of these practices slowly eroded the economic power of the pharaoh, and that the economy could no longer afford to support a large centralized administration. As the power of the pharaoh diminished, regional governors called nomarchs began to challenge the supremacy of the pharaoh. This, coupled with severe droughts between 2200 and 2150 BC, is assumed to have caused the country to enter the 140-year period of famine and strife known as the First Intermediate Period.
+
+=== Ancient India ===

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+
+The earliest reliably-dated Neolithic site in South Asia is Mehrgarh in the Kacchi Plain of present-day Pakistan dating from 7000 BC.
+The aceramic Neolithic at Mehrgarh in present-day Pakistan lasts from 7000 to 5500 BC, with the ceramic Neolithic at Mehrgarh lasting up to 3300 BC; blending into the Early Bronze Age. Mehrgarh is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in the Indian subcontinent.  It is likely that the culture centered around Mehrgarh migrated into the Indus Valley in present-day Pakistan and became the Indus Valley Civilisation. The earliest fortified town in the region is found at Rehman Dheri, dated 4000 BC in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa close to River Zhob Valley in present-day Pakistan. Other fortified towns found to date are at Amri (3600–3300 BC), Kot Diji in Sindh, and at Kalibangan (3000 BC) at the Hakra River.
+The Indus Valley Civilization starts around 3300 BC with what is referred to as the Early Harappan Phase (3300 to 2600 BC), although at the start this was still a village-based culture, leaving mostly pottery for archaeologists. The earliest examples of the Indus script date to this period, as well as the emergence of citadels representing centralised authority and an increasingly urban quality of life. Trade networks linked this culture with related regional cultures and distant sources of raw materials, including lapis lazuli and other materials for bead-making. By around 2600 BC, villagers had domesticated numerous crops, including peas, sesame seeds, dates, and cotton, as well as animals, including the water buffalo.
+2600 to 1900 BC marks the Mature Harappan Phase during which Early Harappan communities turned into large urban centers including Harappa, Dholavira, Mohenjo-daro, Lothal, Rupar, and Rakhigarhi, and more than 1,000 towns and villages, often of relatively small size. Mature Harappans evolved new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper, bronze, lead, and tin and displayed advanced levels of engineering. As seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and the recently partially excavated Rakhigarhi, this urban plan included the world's first known urban sanitation systems: see hydraulic engineering of the Indus Valley civilization. Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells. From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets. Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes. The housebuilding in some villages in the region still resembles in some respects the housebuilding of the Harappans. The advanced architecture of the Harappans is shown by their impressive dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms, and protective walls. The massive walls of Indus cities most likely protected the Harappans from floods and may have dissuaded military conflicts.
+The people of the Indus Civilization achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and time. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures. A comparison of available objects indicates large scale variation across the Indus territories. Their smallest division, which is marked on an ivory scale found in Lothal in Gujarat, was approximately 1.704 mm, the smallest division ever recorded on a scale of the Bronze Age. Harappan engineers followed the decimal division of measurement for all practical purposes, including the measurement of mass as revealed by their hexahedron weights. These chert weights were in a ratio of 5:2:1 with weights of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 units, with each unit weighing approximately 28 grams, similar to the English Imperial ounce or Greek uncia, and smaller objects were weighed in similar ratios with the units of 0.871. However, as in other cultures, actual weights were not uniform throughout the area. The weights and measures later used in Kautilya's Arthashastra (4th century BC) are the same as those used in Lothal.
+Around 1800 BC, signs of a gradual decline began to emerge, and by around 1700 BC most of the cities had been abandoned. Suggested contributory causes for the localisation of the IVC include changes in the course of the river, and climate change that is also signalled for the neighbouring areas of the Middle East. As of 2016 many scholars believe that drought led to a decline in trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia contributing to the collapse of the Indus Civilization. The Ghaggar-Hakra system was rain-fed, and water-supply depended on the monsoons. The Indus Valley climate grew significantly cooler and drier from about 1800 BC, linked to a general weakening of the monsoon at that time. The Indian monsoon declined and aridity increased, with the Ghaggar-Hakra retracting its reach towards the foothills of the Himalaya, leading to erratic and less extensive floods that made inundation agriculture less sustainable. Aridification reduced the water supply enough to cause the civilization's demise, and to scatter its population eastward. As the monsoons kept shifting south, the floods grew too erratic for sustainable agricultural activities. The residents then migrated away into smaller communities. However trade with the old cities did not flourish. The small surplus produced in these small communities did not allow development of trade, and the cities died out. According to Aryan Migration Theory,
+The Indo-Aryan peoples migrated into the Indus River Valley during this period and began the Vedic age of India. The Indus Valley Civilization did not disappear suddenly and many elements of the civilization continued in later Indian subcontinent and Vedic cultures.
+
+=== Ancient China ===

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+Drawing on archaeology, geology and anthropology, modern scholars do not see the origins of the Chinese civilization or history as a linear story but rather the history of the interactions of different and distinct cultures and ethnic groups that influenced each other's development. The specific cultural regions that developed Chinese civilization were the Yellow River civilization, the Yangtze civilization, and Liao civilization. Early evidence for Chinese millet agriculture is dated to around 7000 BC, with the earliest evidence of cultivated rice found at Chengtoushan near the Yangtze River, dated to 6500 BC. Chengtoushan may also be the site of the first walled city in China. By the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution, the Yellow River valley began to establish itself as a center of the Peiligang culture, which flourished from 7000 to 5000 BC, with evidence of agriculture, constructed buildings, pottery, and burial of the dead. With agriculture came increased population, the ability to store and redistribute crops, and the potential to support specialist craftsmen and administrators. Its most prominent site is Jiahu. Some scholars have suggested that the Jiahu symbols (6600 BC) are the earliest form of proto-writing in China. However, it is likely that they should not be understood as writing itself, but as features of a lengthy period of sign-use, which led eventually to a fully-fledged system of writing. Archaeologists believe that the Peiligang culture was egalitarian, with little political organization.
+It eventually evolved into the Yangshao culture (5000 to 3000 BC), and their stone tools were polished and highly specialized. They may also have practiced an early form of silkworm cultivation. The main food of the Yangshao people was millet, with some sites using foxtail millet and others broomcorn millet, though some evidence of rice has been found.  The exact nature of Yangshao agriculture, small-scale slash-and-burn cultivation versus intensive agriculture in permanent fields, is currently a matter of debate. Once the soil was exhausted, residents picked up their belongings, moved to new lands, and constructed new villages. However, Middle Yangshao settlements such as Jiangzhi contain raised-floor buildings that may have been used for the storage of surplus grains. Grinding stones for making flour were also found.
+Later, Yangshao culture was superseded by the Longshan culture, which was also centered on the Yellow River from about 3000 to 1900 BC, its most prominent site being Taosi. The population expanded dramatically during the 3rd millennium BC, with many settlements having rammed earth walls.  It decreased in most areas around 2000 BC until the central area evolved into the Bronze Age Erlitou culture. The earliest bronze artifacts have been found in the Majiayao culture site (3100 to 2700 BC).
+Contemporary Chinese civilization begins during the second phase of the Erlitou period (1900 to 1500 BC), with Erlitou considered the first state level society of East Asia. There is considerable debate whether Erlitou sites correlate to the semi-legendary Xia dynasty. The Xia dynasty (2070 to 1600 BC) is the first dynasty to be described in ancient Chinese historical records such as the Bamboo Annals, first published more than a millennium later during the Western Zhou period. Although Xia is an important element in Chinese historiography, there is to date no contemporary written evidence to corroborate the dynasty. Erlitou saw an increase in bronze metallurgy and urbanization and was a rapidly growing regional center with palatial complexes that provide evidence for social stratification. The Erlitou civilization is divided into four phases, each of roughly 50 years. During Phase I, covering 100 hectares (250 acres), Erlitou was a rapidly growing regional center with estimated population of several thousand but not yet an urban civilization or capital. Urbanization began in Phase II, expanding to 300 ha (740 acres) with a population around 11,000.  A palace area of 12 ha (30 acres) was demarcated by four roads. It contained the 150x50 m Palace 3, composed of three courtyards along a 150-meter axis, and Palace 5.  A bronze foundry was established to the south of the palatial complex that was controlled by the elite who lived in palaces. The city reached its peak in Phase III, and may have had a population of around 24,000. The palatial complex was surrounded by a two-meter-thick rammed-earth wall, and Palaces 1, 7, 8, 9 were built.  The earthwork volume of rammed earth for the base of largest Palace 1 is 20,000 m3 at least. Palaces 3 and 5 were abandoned and replaced by 4,200-square-meter (45,000 sq ft) Palace 2 and Palace 4. In Phase IV, the population decreased to around 20,000, but building continued. Palace 6 was built as an extension of Palace 2, and Palaces 10 and 11 were built.  Phase IV overlaps with the Lower phase of the Erligang culture (1600–1450 BC). Around 1600 to 1560 BC, about 6 km northeast of Erlitou, a culturally Erligang walled city was built at Yanshi, which coincides with an increase in production of arrowheads at Erlitou. This situation might indicate that the Yanshi city was competing for power and dominance with Erlitou. Production of bronzes and other elite goods ceased at the end of Phase IV, at the same time as the Erligang city of Zhengzhou was established 85 km (53 mi) to the east. There is no evidence of destruction by fire or war, but, during the Upper Erligang phase (1450–1300 BC), all the palaces were abandoned, and Erlitou was reduced to a village of 30 ha (74 acres).
+The earliest traditional Chinese dynasty for which there is both archeological and written evidence is the Shang dynasty (1600 to 1046 BC). Shang sites have yielded the earliest known body of Chinese writing, the oracle bone script, mostly divinations inscribed on bones. These inscriptions provide critical insight into many topics from the politics, economy, and religious practices to the art and medicine of this early stage of Chinese civilization. Some historians argue that Erlitou should be considered an early phase of the Shang dynasty. The U.S. National Gallery of Art defines the Chinese Bronze Age as the period between about 2000 and 771 BC; a period that begins with the Erlitou culture and ends abruptly with the disintegration of Western Zhou rule. The Sanxingdui culture is another Chinese Bronze Age society, contemporaneous to the Shang dynasty, however they developed a different method of bronze-making from the Shang.

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+---
+title: "Cradle of civilization"
+chunk: 7/9
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_of_civilization"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:24.048097+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Ancient Peru ===
+
+The earliest evidence of agriculture in the Andean region dates to around 9000 BC in Ecuador at sites of the Las Vegas culture. The bottle gourd may have been the first plant cultivated. The oldest evidence of canal irrigation in South America dates to 4700 to 2500 BC in the Zaña Valley of northern Peru. The earliest urban settlements of the Andes, as well as North and South America, are dated to 3500 BC at Huaricanga, in the Fortaleza area, and Sechin Bajo near the Sechin River. Both sites are in Peru.
+The Caral–Supe or Norte Chico civilization is understood to have emerged around 3200 BC, as it is at that point that large-scale human settlement and communal construction across multiple sites becomes clearly apparent. In the early 21st century, Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady established Caral–Supe as the oldest known civilization in the Americas. The civilization flourished near the Pacific coast in the valleys of three small rivers, the Fortaleza, the Pativilca, and the Supe. These river valleys each have large clusters of sites. Further south, there are several associated sites along the Huaura River. Notable settlements include the cities of Caral, the largest and most complex Preceramic site, and Aspero. Norte Chico is distinguished by its density of large sites with immense architecture. Haas argues that the density of sites in such a small area is globally unique for a nascent civilization. During the third millennium BC, Norte Chico may have been the most densely populated area of the world (excepting, possibly, northern China). The Supe, Pativilca, Fortaleza, and Huaura River valleys each have several related sites.
+Norte Chico is unusual in that it completely lacked ceramics and apparently had almost no visual art. Nevertheless, the civilization exhibited impressive architectural feats, including large earthwork platform mounds and sunken circular plazas, and an advanced textile industry. The platform mounds, as well as large stone warehouses, provide evidence for a stratified society and a centralized authority necessary to distribute resources such as cotton. However, there is no evidence of warfare or defensive structures during this period. Originally, it was theorized that, unlike other early civilizations, Norte Chico developed by relying on maritime food sources in place of a staple cereal. This hypothesis, the Maritime Foundation of Andean Civilization, is still hotly debated; however, most researches now agree that agriculture played a central role in the civilization's development while still acknowledging a strong supplemental reliance on maritime proteins.
+The Norte Chico chiefdoms were "...almost certainly theocratic, though not brutally so," according to Mann. Construction areas show possible evidence of feasting, which would have included music and likely alcohol, suggesting an elite able to both mobilize and reward the population. The degree of centralized authority is difficult to ascertain, but architectural construction patterns are indicative of an elite that, at least in certain places at certain times, wielded considerable power: while some of the monumental architecture was constructed incrementally, other buildings, such as the two main platform mounds at Caral, appear to have been constructed in one or two intense construction phases. As further evidence of centralized control, Haas points to remains of large stone warehouses found at Upaca, on the Pativilca, as emblematic of authorities able to control vital resources such as cotton. Economic authority would have rested on the control of cotton and edible plants and associated trade relationships, with power centered on the inland sites. Haas tentatively suggests that the scope of this economic power base may have extended widely: there are only two confirmed shore sites in the Norte Chico (Aspero and Bandurria) and possibly two more, but cotton fishing nets and domesticated plants have been found up and down the Peruvian coast. It is possible that the major inland centers of Norte Chico were at the center of a broad regional trade network centered on these resources.
+Discover magazine, citing Shady, suggests a rich and varied trade life: "[Caral] exported its own products and those of Aspero to distant communities in exchange for exotic imports: Spondylus shells from the coast of Ecuador, rich dyes from the Andean highlands, hallucinogenic snuff from the Amazon." (Given the still limited extent of Norte Chico research, such claims should be treated circumspectly.) Other reports on Shady's work indicate Caral traded with communities in the Andes and in the jungles of the Amazon basin on the opposite side of the Andes.
+Leaders' ideological power was based on apparent access to deities and the supernatural. Evidence regarding Norte Chico religion is limited: an image of the Staff God, a leering figure with a hood and fangs, has been found on a gourd dated to 2250 BC. The Staff God is a major deity of later Andean cultures, and Winifred Creamer suggests the find points to worship of common symbols of gods. As with much other research at Norte Chico, the nature and significance of the find has been disputed by other researchers. The act of architectural construction and maintenance may also have been a spiritual or religious experience: a process of communal exaltation and ceremony. Shady has called Caral "the sacred city" (la ciudad sagrada): socio-economic and political focus was on the temples, which were periodically remodeled, with major burnt offerings associated with the remodeling.
+Bundles of strings uncovered at Norte Chico sites have been identified as quipu, a type of pre-writing recording device. Quipu are thought to encode numeric information, but some have conjectured that quipu have been used to encode other forms of data, possibly including literary or musical applications. However, the exact use of quipu by the Norte Chico and later Andean cultures has been widely debated. The presence of quipu and the commonality of religious symbols suggests a cultural link between Norte Chico and later Andean cultures.
+Circa 1800 BC, the Norte Chico civilization began to decline, with more powerful centers appearing to the south and north along the coast and to the east inside the belt of the Andes. Pottery eventually developed in the Amazon Basin and spread to the Andean culture region around 2000 BC. The next major civilization to arise in the Andes would be the Chavín culture at Chavín de Huantar, located in the Andean highlands of the present-day Department of Ancash. It is believed to have been built around 900 BC and was the religious and political center of the Chavín people.

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+---
+title: "Cradle of civilization"
+chunk: 8/9
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_of_civilization"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:24.048097+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Mesoamerica ===
+
+Maize is believed to have been first domesticated in southern Mexico about 7000 BC. The Coxcatlan Caves in the Valley of Tehuacán provide evidence for agriculture in components dated between 5000 and 3400 BC. Similarly, sites such as Sipacate in Guatemala provide maize pollen samples dating to 3500 BC. Around 1900 BC, the Mokaya domesticated one of the dozen species of cacao. A Mokaya archaeological site provides evidence of cacao beverages dating to this time. The Mokaya are also thought to have been among the first cultures in Mesoamerica to develop a hierarchical society. What would become the Olmec civilization had its roots in early farming cultures of Tabasco, which began around 5100 to 4600 BC.
+The emergence of the Olmec civilization has traditionally been dated to around 1600 to 1500 BC. Olmec features first emerged in the city of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, fully coalescing around 1400 BC. The rise of civilization was assisted by the local ecology of well-watered alluvial soil, as well as by the transportation network provided by the Coatzacoalcos River basin. This environment encouraged a densely concentrated population, which in turn triggered the rise of an elite class and an associated demand for the production of the symbolic and sophisticated luxury artifacts that define Olmec culture. Many of these luxury artifacts were made from materials such as jade, obsidian, and magnetite, which came from distant locations and suggest that early Olmec elites had access to an extensive trading network in Mesoamerica. The aspect of Olmec culture perhaps most familiar today is their artwork, particularly the Olmec colossal heads. San Lorenzo was situated in the midst of a large agricultural area. San Lorenzo seems to have been largely a ceremonial site, a town without city walls, centered in the midst of a widespread medium-to-large agricultural population. The ceremonial center and attendant buildings could have housed 5,500 while the entire area, including hinterlands, could have reached 13,000. It is thought that while San Lorenzo controlled much or all of the Coatzacoalcos basin, areas to the east (such as the area where La Venta would rise to prominence) and north-northwest (such as the Tuxtla Mountains) were home to independent polities. San Lorenzo was all but abandoned around 900 BC at about the same time that La Venta rose to prominence. A wholesale destruction of many San Lorenzo monuments also occurred circa 950 BC, which may indicate an internal uprising or, less likely, an invasion. The latest thinking, however, is that environmental changes may have been responsible for this shift in Olmec centers, with certain important rivers changing course.
+La Venta became the cultural capital of the Olmec concentration in the region until its abandonment around 400 BC, constructing monumental architectural achievements such as the Great Pyramid of La Venta. It contained a "concentration of power", as reflected by the sheer enormity of the architecture and the extreme value of the artifacts uncovered. La Venta is perhaps the largest Olmec city and it was controlled and expanded by an extremely complex hierarchical system, with a king as the ruler and the elites below him. Priests had power and influence over life and death and likely great political sway as well. Unfortunately, not much is known about the political or social structure of the Olmec, though new dating techniques might, at some point, reveal more information about this elusive culture. It is possible that the signs of status exist in the artifacts recovered at the site such as depictions of feathered headdresses or of individuals wearing a mirror on their chest or forehead. "High-status objects were a significant source of power in the La Venta polity political power, economic power, and ideological power. They were tools used by the elite to enhance and maintain rights to rulership". It has been estimated that La Venta would need to be supported by a population of at least 18,000 people during its principal occupation. To add to the mystique of La Venta, the alluvial soil did not preserve skeletal remains, so it is difficult to observe differences in burials. However, colossal heads provide proof that the elite had some control over the lower classes, as their construction would have been extremely labor-intensive. "Other features similarly indicate that many laborers were involved". In addition, excavations over the years have discovered that different parts of the site were likely reserved for elites and other parts for non-elites. This segregation of the city indicates that there must have been social classes and therefore social inequality.
+The exact cause of the decline of the Olmec culture is uncertain. Between 400 and 350 BC, the population in the eastern half of the Olmec heartland dropped precipitously. This depopulation was probably the result of serious environmental changes that rendered the region unsuited for large groups of farmers, in particular changes to the riverine environment that the Olmec depended upon for agriculture, hunting and gathering, and transportation. These changes may have been triggered by tectonic upheavals or subsidence, or the silting up of rivers due to agricultural practices. Within a few hundred years of the abandonment of the last Olmec cities, successor cultures became firmly established. The Tres Zapotes site, on the western edge of the Olmec heartland, continued to be occupied well past 400 BC, but without the hallmarks of the Olmec culture. This post-Olmec culture, often labeled Epi-Olmec, has features similar to those found at Izapa, some 550 km (330 miles) to the southeast.
+The Olmecs are sometimes referred to as the mother culture of Mesoamerica, as they were the first Mesoamerican civilization and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed. However, the causes and degree of Olmec influences on Mesoamerican cultures has been a subject of debate over many decades. Practices introduced by the Olmec include ritual bloodletting and the Mesoamerican ballgame, hallmarks of subsequent Mesoamerican societies such as the Maya and Aztec. Although the Mesoamerican writing system would fully develop later, early Olmec ceramics show representations that may be interpreted as codices.

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+---
+title: "Cradle of civilization"
+chunk: 9/9
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_of_civilization"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:24.048097+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Cradle of Western civilization ==
+
+There is academic consensus that Classical Greece was a major culture that provided the foundation of modern Western culture, democracy, art, theatre, philosophy, and science. For this reason, it is known as the cradle of Western Civilization.
+Along with Greece, Rome has sometimes been described as a birthplace or as the cradle of Western Civilization because of the role the city had in politics, republicanism, law, architecture, warfare and Western Christianity.
+
+== Other uses ==
+Because the word civilization can be defined widely, the term "cradle of civilization" has also been used to describe the origin-point of a particular cultural group, or as the basis for a national mysticism or the origin myth of a nation. This is separate from the use of the term in the study of human prehistory and the development of complex, sedentary societies.
+"Cradle of civilization" has been used in Indian nationalism (In Search of the Cradle of Civilization 1995) and Taiwanese nationalism (Taiwan;— The Cradle of Civilization 2002).
+The terms also appear in esoteric pseudohistory, such as the Urantia Book, claiming the title for "the second Eden", or the pseudoarchaeology related to Megalithic Britain (Civilization One 2004,
+Ancient Britain: The Cradle of Civilization 1921).
+
+== See also ==
+
+Chronology of the ancient Near East
+Cradle of Humankind
+Four Great Ancient Civilizations
+River valley civilization
+Human history
+Civilization state
+Skara Brae and Barnhouse Settlement
+Neolithic Revolution
+Old Europe (archaeology)
+
+== Notes ==
+
+== References ==
+
+=== Citations ===
+
+=== Sources ===
+
+== External links ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decussation-0.md

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+---
+title: "Decussation"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decussation"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:42.634474+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Decussation is used in biological contexts to describe a crossing (due to the shape of the Roman numeral for ten, an uppercase 'X' (decussis), from Latin  decem 'ten' and  as 'as'). In Latin anatomical terms, the form decussatio is used, e.g. decussatio pyramidum.
+Similarly, the anatomical term chiasma is named after the Greek uppercase 'Χ' (chi). Whereas a decussation refers to a crossing within the central nervous system, various kinds of crossings in the peripheral nervous system are called chiasma.
+
+Examples include:
+
+In the brain, where nerve fibers obliquely cross from one lateral side of the brain to the other, that is to say they cross at a level other than their origin. See for examples decussation of pyramids and sensory decussation. In neuroanatomy, the term chiasma is reserved for crossing of- or within nerves such as in the optic chiasm.
+In botanical leaf taxology, the word decussate describes an opposite pattern of leaves which has successive pairs at right angles to each other (i.e. rotated 90 degrees along the stem when viewed from above). In effect, successive pairs of leaves cross each other. Basil is a classic example of a decussate leaf pattern.
+In tooth enamel, where bundles of rods cross each other as they travel from the enamel-dentine junction to the outer enamel surface, or near to it.
+In taxonomic description where decussate markings or structures occur, names such as decussatus or decussata or otherwise in part containing "decuss..." are common, especially in the specific epithet.
+
+
+== Evolutionary significance ==
+The origin of the contralateral organization, the optic chiasm and the major decussations on the nervous system of vertebrates has been a long standing puzzle to scientists. The visual map theory of Ramón y Cajal has long been popular but has been criticized for its logical inconsistence. More recently, it has been proposed that the decussations are caused by an axial twist by which the anterior head, along with the forebrain, is turned by 180° with respect to the rest of the body.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Chiasm
+Commissure
+Contralateral brain
+Definition of types of crossings
+Fissure (anatomy)
+Palpebral commissure (of the eye)
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+Why does the nervous system decussate?: Stanford Neuroblog
+Fields, R. Douglas (2023-04-19). "Why the Brain's Connections to the Body Are Crisscrossed". Quanta Magazine.
+
+
+== External links ==
+ Media related to Decussation at Wikimedia Commons

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_kite-0.md

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+---
+title: "Desert kite"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_kite"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:25.325383+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Desert kites (Arabic: مصائد صحراوية, romanized: maṣāʾid ṣaḥrāwiyya, lit. 'desert traps') are dry stone wall structures found in Southwest Asia (Middle East, but also North Africa, Central Asia and Arabia), which were first discovered from the air during the 1920s. There are over 6,000 known desert kites, with sizes ranging from less than a hundred metres to several kilometres. They typically have a kite shape formed by two convergent "antennae" that run towards an enclosure, all formed by walls of dry stone less than one metre high, but variations exist.
+Little is known about their ages, but the few dated examples appear to span the entire Holocene. While the majority view holds that these structures were traps for hunting game animals such as gazelles, which were driven into the kites, a minority view suggests they were used for managing livestock.
+
+== Appearance ==
+
+Desert kites are stone structures with a convergent shape, composed of linear piles of stones. The structures have lengths ranging from less than a hundred metres to several kilometres and heights of less than one metre, even accounting for erosion. There often are gaps in the lines, which were presumably either purposeful (left by the builders) or the consequence of lines being formed by alignments of cairns rather than a continuous row. 
+There are a number of different shapes that are referred to as "desert kites", but common features of all such structures are the lines forming two walls ("antennae") that converge into an enclosure ("head") with attached cells. Different regions have different prevalent kite types. Sometimes the existence of these cells is considered essential for a desert kite to be considered as such.
+Research published in 2022 has shown that pits several metres deep often lie at the margins of enclosures, which have been interpreted as  traps and killing pits. The kites enclose surface areas with a median of 10,000 square metres (110,000 sq ft), but much larger and much smaller sizes are also known.
+
+They are typically found in areas with elevated but flat topography or topographically complex terrain, but are rare or absent from sloping terrain, mountainous regions, or within endorheic basins, although they occur at the margins of mountains. Often, the terrain within the kite is much more open than the outside terrain, lacking vegetation and rocks. In general, the visibility of the kites from their inside is poor, which appears to be a purposeful feature of their construction; for example, the ends and entrances of the kites often coincide with slope breaks (places where the slope changes). Within a given region, the kites tend to have a preferred orientation. They are absent from humid climates and from certain hyperarid areas, and their use may have been influenced by Holocene climate changes.
+Their often enormous size and conspicuousness in arid or semiarid terrain renders them visible in aerial images,  while their construction in rough terrain makes them almost invisible on the ground. Sometimes, natural features like cliffs are used in conjunction with the artificial walls to form a kite. Clearing vegetation around the lines or using rocks with a different colour from the background has been documented in volcanic terrain. In Arabia, cairns and linear stone alignments have been found associated with kites.
+
+== Dating ==
+
+Dating kites is difficult; various dating methods like radiocarbon dating and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) have yielded ages ranging from the early to the late Holocene, and there are sporadic reports of their use in travel records. The early Holocene kites are the most complex man-made structures of that time. Some kites have been overprinted by later archaeological structures, destroyed, eroded or submerged, or built out over time to form more complex shapes. In some places, structures like cairns, tombs or square walls occur alongside kites.
+
+== Occurrence ==
+Kites are known from the Middle East and Central Asia, with examples known mainly from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt and Libya.
+Kites have also been found in Mongolia and South Africa. As of 2018, there were over 6,000 known kites in Asia and the Middle East, and in some parts of Syria there are as many as 1 kite every 2 square kilometres (0.77 sq mi), to the point that they are partially overlapping or form complicated structures. Similar large enclosures that were presumably used as traps have been found in Europe, where they were dated to Mesolithic and Neolithic age; North America, where structures known as drive lines have been used into the 19th century AD; South America; and Japan.
+
+== Function ==

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+---
+title: "Desert kite"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_kite"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:25.325383+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Both archaeological studies and ethnographic accounts from the 19th and 20th century indicate that desert kites in the Middle East and North Africa were used as traps for wild game. A minority viewpoint is that they were used for livestock management. The disagreement stems mainly from a lack of factual evidence to support either hypothesis, from disputes on the interpretation of evidence, and from the extinction of traditions involving desert kites. There is almost no evidence of what happened to animals after they were trapped or which animals were targeted, but ethnographic analyses indicate that kites were used to hunt ungulates like gazelles, which live in groups and form defensive formations when threatened. 
+The usage of traps in catching animals in the steppe is mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The construction of kites would have required coordinated work from multiple people and are thus indicative of social organization, even if the trapping of animals is a comparatively simple hunting technique. The use of kites in trapping animals is depicted in Israeli, Mongolian and Sinai petroglyphs; these drawings may not always be contemporaneous to the actual usage of the kites. Petroglyphs relating to kites have been found on kites.
+Studies show that even low walls or linear structures like pipelines can effectively "guide" animals, which do not attempt to cross the lines even if they are physically able to do so, explaining the effectiveness of desert kites. The low visibility of the kite structures prevents the animals from recognizing the trap. The positioning of pits at the end of convergent enclosures and the presence of small walls delimitating pits from the enclosure would hide the pit from the animals until they are too close to change course in their panic. The entrances often are situated opposite to the direction of animal migration in the region on a wide scale, or of daily animal behaviours on a small scale. The use of desert kites may have had a significant impact on wild animals.
+
+== Research history ==
+The usage of kite-like structures to trap animals is attested in 1831. Desert kites were originally identified in aerial images during the 1920s and were initially interpreted as animal traps, enclosures for domesticated animals or fortresses. They are referred to as "desert kites" or "kites", a name bestowed to them by the Royal Air Force pilot Group Captain Lionel Rees, in reference to their resemblance to toy kites. Given that they are commonly found in desert areas, they later became known as "desert kites", which is now the commonly used term in academic literature.
+The advent of publicly available satellite imagery such as Google Earth and Google Maps during the 2010s, on which desert kites are visible to everyone, has led to a resurgence of interest in these archaeological sites and the realization that they are widespread. However, without fieldwork, it is difficult to gain a full picture of what they were. Only a very few kites have been excavated or subject to dating efforts, and many of these are not representative of the majority of kites.
+Engraved depictions of the layout of desert kites have been found, some of which are schematic and others are like scaled models. Open questions in kite research include what they were used for, when they were used and why the technology is so widespread.
+
+== See also ==
+Buffalo jump
+Fishing weir
+Game drive system
+Hartashen Megalithic Avenue
+Jawa, Jordan
+Mustatil, similar formations in Arabia
+Petroform
+
+== References ==
+
+=== Sources ===
+
+== External links ==
+
+Globalkites, worldwide database of kites

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_layer-0.md

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+---
+title: "Destruction layer"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_layer"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:26.527421+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A destruction layer is an archaeological stratum showing clear evidence of widespread burning, structural collapse, weapon finds, human remains, or other signs of violent or catastrophic events. Such layers may result from warfare, seismic activity, accidental fires, or other disasters. 
+In archaeological interpretation, destruction horizons provide chronological anchors for cultural sequences and may indicate major historical turning points, such as the fall of cities, regional crises, or the collapse of polities. Finding comparable destruction layers across several sites in a region can signal a broader episode of unrest or transition, as in the case of the Late Bronze Age collapse. 
+The archaeologist Sharon Zuckerman emphasized that destruction contexts should be analyzed together with the occupational phases preceding and following them, as part of a long-term cultural process rather than isolated events.
+
+
+== Examples ==
+The city of Troy shows several destruction layers, notably Troy II (c. 2200 BC) and Troy VIIa (c. 1200 BC), the latter often associated with the end of the Late Bronze Age and possibly reflecting conflict in the region.
+The volcanic eruption of Thera (Santorini) produced a well-preserved destruction layer at Akrotiri, dated to the late 17th century BC.
+The Late Bronze Age cities of the Levant, including Hazor, Megiddo, and Lachish, exhibit destruction horizons dated to the 13th–12th centuries BC, often linked to regional instability and the decline of Canaanite urban culture.
+In Anatolia, the Hittite capital of Hattusa was destroyed around 1200 BC, marking the end of the Hittite Empire.
+Destruction layers are also prominent in the Biblical archaeology of the southern Levant, serving as chronological markers for periods of urban transition and political upheaval.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Stratigraphy (archaeology)
+Archaeological horizon
+Cultural layer
+Bronze Age collapse
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disjecta_membra-0.md

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+---
+title: "Disjecta membra"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disjecta_membra"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:27.707953+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Disjecta membra, also written disiecta membra, is Latin for "scattered fragments" (also scattered limbs, members, or remains) and is used to refer to surviving fragments of ancient poetry, manuscripts, and other literary or cultural objects, including even fragments of ancient pottery.  It is derived from disiecti membra poetae, a phrase used by Horace, a Roman poet.
+
+
+== Ancient and medieval poetry, literature, and manuscripts ==
+
+Fragments of ancient writing, especially ancient Latin poetry found in other works, are commonly referred to as disjecta membra. The terms disiecta membra and disjecta membra are paraphrased from the Roman lyric poet Horace (65 BC  – 8 BC), who wrote of disiecti membra poetae in his Satires, 1.4.62, referring to the "limbs of a dismembered poet".  In full, the term originally appeared as Invenias etiam disiecti membra poetae, in reference to the earlier Roman poet Ennius.
+Although Horace's intended meaning remains the subject of speculation and debate, the passage is often taken to imply that if a line from poetry were torn apart and rearranged, the dismembered parts of the poet would still be recognisable. In this sense, in the study of literature, disjecta membra is often used to describe the piecing together of ancient fragments of an identifiable literary source. Similarly, isolated leaves or parts of leaves from ancient or medieval manuscripts may also be termed disjecta membra.  Scholars have been able to identify fragments now held in different libraries that originally belonged to the same manuscript.
+
+
+== Pottery ==
+Scholars have long referred to sherds of ancient Greek pottery as disjecta membra.  They have studied fragments of ancient Greek pottery in institutional collections, and have attributed many such pieces to the artists who made them.  In a number of instances, they have been able to identify fragments now in different collections that belong to the same vase.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Fragmentology (manuscripts)
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disturbance_(archaeology)-0.md

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+---
+title: "Disturbance (archaeology)"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disturbance_(archaeology)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:28.951367+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A disturbance is any change to an archaeological site due to events which occurred after the site was laid down. Disturbances may be caused by natural events or human activity, and may result in loss of archaeological value. In some cases, it can be difficult to distinguish between features caused by human activity in the period of interest, and features caused by later human activity or natural processes.
+
+
+== Causes ==
+
+
+=== Natural causes ===
+
+The soil scientist Francis D. Hole identified nine natural processes resulting in soil disturbance, including the movements of animals and plants (known as bioturbation, and including burrowing, root growth and treefalls); freezing and thawing; movement under gravity (including earthflow and rockslides); swelling and shrinking of clays; the actions of wind and water; the growth and dissolution of salt crystals; and movement caused by earthquakes. Different sites are subject to different degrees, combinations, and interactions of these processes, and archaeologists working with a given site must be familiar with the processes in play at that site to avoid the risk of misinterpretation.
+In some environments, animal activity can completely turn over the surface soil in as few as five to six years. The activity of earthworms, in particular, can contribute to the burial, and thus preservation, of artifacts dropped on the ground – but it also frequently blurs boundaries between natural and culturally disturbed soils, and can erase vertical stratification used for dating.
+Frost heaving may cause artifacts to rise or fall, depending on their heat conductivity, which is a function of material. Freeze-thaw cycles can also disturb soils in several other ways, collectively called cryoturbation. Downhill creep may sort artifacts by mass or density, as may flooding. Drying of clays may cause deep cracks that are subsequently filled with surface material. Wetting and drying of clay may cause rocks to migrate to the surface. The action of winds on soil is especially common in desert environments.
+
+
+==== Climate change ====
+Anthropogenic climate change is altering, and in some cases accelerating, natural disturbance processes. At Nunalleq on the southwest coast of Alaska, a four-century-old Yup'ik site is under threat from the thawing of permafrost and rising storm surges of the Bering Sea. The permafrost had preserved items normally subject to rapid decomposition, including wooden objects and grass-woven baskets and mats. Since excavation at Nunalleq began in 2009, the permafrost layer has receded 1.5 feet (0.46 m), and storm waves have torn away 35 feet (11 m) of the site. Throughout the northern latitudes, the warming climate is revealing previously unknown archaeology, while simultaneously threatening to destroy it. These sites must be prioritized for rescue archaeology.
+
+
+=== Human causes ===
+
+Farming, construction, habitation, and resource extraction are leading causes of site disruption.
+In the UK, according to English Heritage, ploughing with powerful modern tractors had done as much damage in the last six decades of the twentieth century as traditional farming did in the previous six centuries.
+Recreational activity on a site may damage archaeology in a number of ways. Amateur metal detectorists may disturb or remove artifacts. Travel over the ground surface, whether by foot, animal, bicycle, or motorized vehicle, can cause artifacts to be broken, crushed, or moved. Campfires can contaminate sites and cause smoke damage to rock art, and the heat of a fire can cause rock to spall. Visitors may intentionally move artifacts, either to examine and share them with others, or in an attempt to protect them; this results in a loss of archaeological context which could provide insight into when, where, and how items were used.
+
+Vandalism may include defacing rock art, sculpture, or structures; digging; and removing artifacts. In some cases, later civilizations have chosen to modify, deface, or destroy relics of older peoples, particularly when these objects honor political or religious figures that the later society has denounced. At burial sites, notably including the tombs of Ancient Egyptian royals, grave robbers have often removed valuable artifacts and otherwise disturbed sites in the process.
+Improper archaeological practices can also damage artifacts and context.
+In many cases, disturbance created by later human activity on a site will have its own archaeological value. Some sites have been used, abandoned, and re-used many times, often for different purposes, with layers from more recent periods of use sometimes cutting through or obscuring those of older periods. Building materials may be scavenged and reused as well.
+
+
+== Mitigation ==
+
+Recognized archaeological sites are generally legally protected against human disruption. In the US, removal of artifacts from federal and state lands without a permit is a crime, regardless of whether the artifacts are dug up or found on the surface. Collecting on private land requires written permission of the landowner, and may be subject to additional state and federal laws governing historic preservation. Disturbing human remains, including ancient skeletal remains, is a crime, as is the possession or disposal of remains that were retrieved illegally.
+Sites may also be physically protected from natural and human disruption.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephyraean_style-0.md

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+---
+title: "Ephyraean style"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephyraean_style"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:30.128916+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Ephyraean style is a distinctive type of Mycenaean pottery defined by a specific vessel, the Ephyraean goblet. This ware was first identified by archaeologist Carl Blegen during his excavations at Korakou, a site near Corinth. Blegen named the ware after Ephyra (Ancient Corinth), that he thought he was excavating.
+The style's stratigraphic position places it firmly in the Late Helladic II (LH II) period (approx. 1450–1350 BC), and it is considered a key "date-mark" for this phase of the Mycenaean era. While other shapes, such as jugs, were sometimes decorated in the Ephyraean manner, the goblet is its most characteristic form.
+
+
+== Goblets ==
+
+
+=== Shape, origin, and fabric ===
+The Ephyraean goblet is a decorated subdivision of Yellow Minyan ware, which itself is a refined development of Middle Helladic Grey Minyan ware.
+Its characteristic shape—a one- or two-handled goblet with a short stem—is thought to be a direct imitation of metal vessels. This Helladic origin, derived from Minyan goblets, was emphasized by scholars like Persson and Wace, who refuted earlier theories by Arthur Evans that the shape had a Minoan origin.
+The classic goblet has a specific shape:
+
+A short stem with a hollowed foot.
+A deep bowl with an everted (out-turned) lip.
+Two wide strap-handles.
+The average rim diameter is 16 cm, and the average height is 14 cm.
+A less common variation exists, featuring a shallower bowl and a raised, concave base, which may be a later development within the LH IIB period.
+The fabric is a key identifier. The clay, which varies from pinkish-buff to greenish-yellow, is hard-baked. The surface is smoothed, beautifully finished with a good polish, and covered with a slip of the same color. The lustrous paint varies from an orangey-red to a purple-brown or almost black, with variations in tone often appearing on a single vase due to the firing process.
+
+
+=== Proportions and aesthetics ===
+A primary feature of the Ephyraean goblet is its harmonious proportions, which Wace described as its "greatest attraction." The design is marked by a sophisticated sense of balance:
+
+The body and foot are "wonderfully adjusted" in size and shape to each other.
+The handles are "exactly calculated" in length and width to suit the body and lip.
+The everted lip has the precise width and curve to fit the size of the bowl.
+This formal balance is matched by the decoration. The style avoids the horror vacui (fear of empty space) common in other prehistoric pottery. The decorative motifs are restrained, and the "pattern does not overload the field." This "limitation, simplicity, and admirable drawing" is beautifully adapted to the form, giving the entire vessel a sense of "true fitness and breeding."
+
+
+=== Decoration ===
+The decorative scheme is precise and minimal. On a Mainland Ephyraean goblet, decoration is confined to the two fields on either side of the vessel, between the handles.
+A single, central motif is painted in each field. 
+A small subsidiary motif — such as a small quirk, chevron, or curl—is sometimes placed at the very bottom of the handles where they join the body. The rest of the vase is left unpainted. The lip is "practically never" painted, and the inside is "rarely" painted.
+The motifs are stylized and typically divide into two main classes: Floral and Marine. FM designations refer to Furumark's classification:
+
+Marine: The favorite and most common motif is the Argonaut (FM 22).
+Floral: This class includes the Rosette (FM 17), Lily (FM 9), Palm (FM 14), Crocus, and Iris.
+Rarer motifs include the Group Spiral (FM 47) and the Running Spiral (FM 46).
+
+
+=== Mainland vs. Cretan Style ===
+The Ephyraean goblet originated on the Greek mainland, and its appearance on Crete in the Late Minoan II (LM II) period was an imitation of the mainland style, which Wace argued was artistically superior.
+The Cretan-made versions, dated to LM II by finds at Knossos and Katsambas (Heraklion), can be distinguished from the mainland originals in several key ways:
+
+Fabric: The Cretan fabric is "less good," and the clay and surface "tend to be softer."
+Proportions: The proportions are "less well planned."
+Paint: Cretan goblets are often painted on the inside with a brown-black paint, and the lip frequently has a painted band—features "practically never" seen on mainland examples.
+Decoration: The decorative motifs on Cretan versions are "larger in proportion" and "nearly always appear too big for the goblet," in contrast to the restrained, balanced mainland style.
+
+
+=== Chronology and distribution ===
+The Ephyraean goblet is a key chronological marker for the LH IIB period. Evidence suggests it originated on the mainland during the LM IB period on Crete and was no longer being manufactured by the end of LH IIB. This is supported by the deposit from the Atreus Bothros at Mycenae, which dates to the subsequent LH IIIA1 period and contained very few Ephyraean sherds, suggesting they were already out of production.
+The style had a wide distribution. It has been found throughout the Peloponnese (Argolis, Corinthia, Laconia, Messenia), in central Greece (Attica, Boeotia), and as an import on numerous islands, including Phylakopi on Melos, Ialysos on Rhodes, Kea, and Kythera.
+
+
+== Other vessel shapes ==
+
+In addition to the Ephyraean goblets, jugs with corresponding decoration are also considered part of the Ephyraean style. These are bulbous jugs with a beak-shaped spout and one handle. They usually bear similar motifs on three sides, much like the goblets. The neck and shoulder of the vessel are also decorated, while the foot is kept dark.
+Ephyraean jugs have been found in the settlements of Mycenae and Korakou and in the tombs of Athens, Chalkida, Iolkos, Pylos, and Ialysos.
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Sources ==
+Mountjoy, P. A. (1983). "The Ephyraean Goblet Reviewed". The Annual of the British School at Athens. 78: 265–271. doi:10.1017/S0068245400019717.{{cite journal}}:  CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
+Taylour, William (1983). The Mycenaeans. Ancient Peoples and Places. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 9780500021033.{{cite book}}:  CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
+Evans, Arthur (1935). The Palace of Minos. Vol. 4, Part 1. London: Macmillan and Co.{{cite book}}:  CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
+Wace, Alan (1956). "Part II. Ephyraean Ware". The Annual of the British School at Athens. 51: 123–127. doi:10.1017/S0068245400018815.{{cite journal}}:  CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+Blegen, Carl (1921). Korakou: a prehistoric settlement near Corinth. Boston and New York: American School of Classical Studies at Athens. pp. 54–57.
+
+
+== External links ==
+
+Corinth Monument: Korakou at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favissa-0.md

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+---
+title: "Favissa"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favissa"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:31.628120+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A favissa is a cultic storage place, usually a pit or an underground cellar, for sacred utensils and votive objects no longer in use. Favissae were located within the sacred temple precincts of the various ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Archaeologists have found such pits in Ancient Egypt, the Roman world and in the Phoenician and Punic world. 
+
+
+== Etymology ==
+The term is derived from the Etruscan or related to the Latin fovea "pit".
+During the time of ancient Rome, the term favissa referred to a cylindrical underground storage space, specifically designed to house votive objects. These repositories were typically located outside the main sanctuary but within the sacred grounds known as temenos. The Roman favissa served a similar purpose as the Greek treasury, functioning as a dedicated space for storing valuable offerings and dedicatory items.
+
+
+== Roman favissae ==
+
+Similar to other ancient religions, the Romans had a tradition of offering relatively inexpensive objects made of materials like bronze, lead, tin, or common clay as votive offerings to the temple deities. Over time, the quantity of these votive objects became excessive, necessitating their removal. However, it was crucial for priests to ensure these offerings remained within consecrated ground and were not profaned. To address this, temple priests took charge of removing the objects; they deliberately broke intact items before burying them within the temple grounds. Care was taken to choose locations which were not easily accessible, thus minimizing the risk of profanation.
+An example of such a structure is found in the Favissae Capitolinae, designed to house all the votive objects from the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus located on Rome's Capitoline Hill. The prevalence of "favissae" is particularly notable in Magna Graecia, where they were commonly found in significant places of worship. One notable example is the favissa discovered on the Mannella hill in Locri Epizefiri in Reggio Calabria. Although devoid of its contents, this favissa can be dated back to the fifth century BC. As time passed, the use of favissae gradually diminished, to the extent that their significance had been completely forgotten by the imperial era.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Bothros – Artificial depression in the ground for washing and libations
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Sources ==
+Daremberg, Charles Victor; Saglio, Edmond (1873). Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, d'après les textes et les monuments (in French). Vol. 2 part 2. University of Ottawa. Paris : Hachette. p. 1024.{{cite book}}:  CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
+Lacovara, Peter (2016). The World of Ancient Egypt: A Daily Life Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: A Daily Life Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-61069-230-4.
+Lipinski, Edouard (2003), "Phoenician Cult Expressions in the Persian Period", Symbiosis, Symbolism, and the Power of the Past, Penn State University Press, pp. 297–308, doi:10.1515/9781575065458-022, ISBN 978-1-57506-545-8, S2CID 239182184, retrieved 2023-07-16
+Walde, Alois; Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1938). Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German). Heidelberg: Carl Winter. p. 467.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federative_International_Programme_on_Anatomical_Terminology-0.md

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+---
+title: "Federative International Programme on Anatomical Terminology"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federative_International_Programme_on_Anatomical_Terminology"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:43.862158+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Federative International Programme for Anatomical Terminology (FIPAT) is a group of experts who review, analyze, and discuss the terms of the morphological structures of the human body. It was created by the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA) and was previously known as the Federative Committee on Anatomical Terminology (FCAT) and the Federative International Committee on Anatomical Terminology (FICAT).
+
+
+== Origins and history ==
+This committee was created in 1989, at the XIII International Congress of Anatomists, held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). It followed the old International Anatomical Nomenclature Committee (IANC).
+The professionals involved are renowned professors and researchers with knowledge of medical terminology.
+They hold periodic meetings in different countries on a rotating basis, where they study morphological terminology: anatomical, histological and embryology of the human being.
+The results of this committee were published in 1998 in the anatomical area and in 2008 in the histological area. It is currently working in the embryologist area.
+
+
+== Objectives and scope ==
+The main objective is to study the problem of morphological terms and its possible solutions.
+The aim is to achieve a common scientific language that allows international integration, facilitating scientific exchange and progress in the various medical specialties.
+This impacts on research, teaching and medical care worldwide.
+
+
+== See also ==
+International Morphological Terminology
+Terminologia Anatomica
+Nomina Anatomica
+Terminologia Histologica
+Terminologia Embryologica
+
+
+== References ==
+
+"Federative International Programme for Anatomical Terminology (FIPAT)". Global Civil Society Database. Union of International Associations. 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
+Federative Committee on Anatomical Terminology (1998). Terminologia Anatomica – International Anatomical Terminology. Stuttgart: Thieme. ISBN 3-13-115251-6. OCLC 43947698.
+Federative Committee on Anatomical Terminology (2008). Terminologia Histologica – International Terms for Human Cytology and Histology. Cardiff: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN 978-0-7817-6610-4. OCLC 63680504.
+Cruz Gutiérrez, Rolando; Rodríguez Torres, Alberto; Prates, José Carlos; Losardo, Ricardo Jorge; Valverde Barbato, Nadir (2010). "Ibero Latin American Symposia Terminology: Anatomy, Histology y Embriology". Int J Morphol. 28 (1): 337–340. ISSN 0717-9367.
+Losardo, Ricardo J. (2009). "Pan American Association of Anatomy: history and relevant regulations". Int J Morphol. 27 (4): 1345–52. ISSN 0717-9367.
+
+
+== External links ==
+Official website

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_piety-0.md

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+---
+title: "Filial piety"
+chunk: 1/6
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_piety"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:12.177574+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Filial piety is the virtue of exhibiting love and respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors within the context of Confucian, Chinese Buddhist, and Daoist ethics. The Confucian Classic of Filial Piety, thought to be written around the late Warring States-Qin-Han period, has historically been the authoritative source on the Confucian tenet of filial piety. The book—a purported dialogue between Confucius and his student Zengzi—is about how to set up a good society using the principle of filial piety. Filial piety is central to Confucian role ethics.
+In more general terms, filial piety means to be good to one's parents; to take care of one's parents; to engage in good conduct, not just towards parents but also outside the home so as to bring a good name to one's parents and ancestors; to show love, respect, and support; to display courtesy; to ensure male heirs; to uphold fraternity among brothers; to wisely advise one's parents, including dissuading them from moral unrighteousness; to display sorrow for their sickness and death; and to bury them and carry out sacrifices after their death.
+Filial piety is considered a key virtue in Chinese and other East Asian cultures, and it is the main subject of many stories. One of the most famous collections of such stories is The Twenty-four Cases of Filial Piety. These stories depict how children exercised their filial piety customs in the past. While China has always had a diversity of religious beliefs, the custom of filial piety has been common to almost all of them; historian Hugh D.R. Baker calls respect for the family the one element common to almost all Chinese people.
+
+== Terminology ==
+The western term filial piety was originally derived from studies of Western societies, based on Mediterranean cultures. However, filial piety among the ancient Romans, for example, was largely different from the Chinese in its logic and enactment. Filial piety is illustrated by the Chinese character xiao (孝). The character is a combination of the character lao (old) above the character zi (son), i.e. an elder being carried by a son. This indicates that the older generation should be supported by the younger generation.
+In Korean Confucianism, the character 孝 is pronounced hyo (효). In Vietnamese, the character 孝 is written in the Vietnamese alphabet as hiếu. In Japanese, the term is generally rendered in spoken and written language as 親孝行 (oyakōkō) adding the characters for parent and conduct to the Chinese character to make the word more specific.
+
+== In traditional texts ==
+
+=== Definitions ===
+Confucian teachings about filial piety can be found in numerous texts, including the Four Books, that is the Great Learning (大學), the Doctrine of the Mean (中庸), Analects (論語), and the book Mencius, as well as the works Classic of Filial Piety (孝經) and the Book of Rites (禮記). In the Classic of Filial Piety, Confucius (551–479 BCE) says that "filial piety is the root of virtue and the basis of philosophy" and modern philosopher Fung Yu-lan describes filial piety as "the ideological basis for traditional [Chinese] society".
+For Confucius, filial piety is not merely a ritual outside respect to one's parents, but an inward attitude as well. Filial piety consists of several aspects. Filial piety is an awareness of repaying the burden borne by one's parents. As such, filial piety is done to reciprocate the care one's parents have given. However, it is also practiced because of an obligation towards one's ancestors.
+According to some modern scholars, xiào is the root of rén (仁; "benevolence, humaneness"), but other scholars state that rén, as well as yì (義; "righteousness") and li (禮; "propriety") should be interpreted as the roots of xiào. Rén means favorable behavior to those whom we are close to. Yì refers to respect to those considered worthy of respect, such as parents and superiors. Li is defined as behaving according to social norms and cultural values. Moreover, it is defined in the texts as deference, which is respectful submission, and reverence, meaning deep respect and awe. Filial piety was taught by Confucius as part of a broad ideal of self-cultivation (君子; jūnzǐ) toward being a perfect human being.
+Modern philosopher Hu Shih argued that filial piety gained its central role in Confucian ideology only among later Confucianists. He proposed that Confucius originally taught the quality of rén in general, and did not yet emphasize xiào as much. Only later Confucianists such as Tseng Tzu focused on xiào as the single most important Confucianist quality.
+
+=== Detailed descriptions ===

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_piety-1.md

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+---
+title: "Filial piety"
+chunk: 2/6
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_piety"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:12.177574+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Confucian ethics does not regard filial piety as a choice, but rather as an unconditional obligation of the child. The relationship between parents and children is the most fundamental of the five cardinal relationships (五倫; wǔlún) described by Confucius in his role ethics. Filial piety, together with fraternal love, underlies this system. It is the fundamental principle of Confucian morality: Filial piety was seen as the basis for an orderly society, together with loyalty of the ministers toward the ruler, and servitude of the wife toward the husband. In short, filial piety is central to Confucian role ethics and is the cardinal virtue that defines, limits, or even overrides all other virtues.
+According to the traditional texts, filial piety consists of physical care, love, service, respect, and obedience. Children should attempt not to bring disgrace upon their parents. Confucian texts such as Book of Rites give details on how filial piety should be practiced. Respect is envisioned by detailed manners such as the way children salute their parents, speak to them (words and tone used), or enter and leave the room in which their parents are, as well as seating arrangements and gifts. Care means making sure parents are comfortable in every single way: this involves food, accommodation, clothes, hygiene, and basically to have them "see and hear pleasurable things" (in Confucius' words) and to have them live without worry. But the most important expressions of, and exercises in, filial piety were the burial and mourning rituals to be held in honor of one's parents.
+Filial piety means to be good to one's parents; to take care of one's parents; to engage in good conduct not just towards parents but also outside the home so as to bring a good name to one's parents and ancestors; to perform the duties of one's job well (preferably the same job as one's parents to fulfill their aspirations); to carry out sacrifices to the ancestors; to not be rebellious; to be polite and well-mannered; to show love, respect, and support; to be near home to serve one's parents; to display courtesy; to ensure male heirs; to uphold fraternity among brothers; to wisely advise one's parents, including dissuading them from moral unrighteousness; to display sorrow for their sickness and death; and to bury them and carry out sacrifices after their death. Furthermore, a filial child should promote the public name of its family, and it should cherish the affection of its parents.
+Traditional texts essentially describe filial piety in terms of a son-father relationship, but in practice, it involves all parent-child relationships, as well as relationships with stepparents, grandparents, and ancestors.
+Filial piety also involves the role of the parent to the child. The father has a duty to provide for the son, to teach him in traditions of ancestor worship, to find a spouse for him, and to leave a good heritage. A father is supposed to be "stern and dignified" to his children, whereas a mother is supposed to be "gentle and compassionate". The parents' virtues are to be practiced, regardless of the child's piety, and vice versa. Nevertheless, filial piety mostly identified the child's duty, and in this, it differed from the Roman concept of patria potestas, which defined mostly the father's authoritative power. Whereas in Roman culture, and later in the Judeo-Christian West, people in authority legitimized their influence by referring to a higher transcending power, in Chinese culture, authority was defined by the roles of the subordinates (son, subject, wife) to their superior (father, emperor, husband) and vice versa. As roles and duties were depersonalized, supremacy became a matter of role and position, rather than person, as it was in the West.
+Anthropologist Francis Hsu argued that a child's obedience from a Confucian perspective was regarded as unconditional, but anthropologist David K. Jordan and psychologist David Yau-fai Ho disagree. Jordan states that in classical Chinese thought, "remonstrance" was part of filial piety, meaning that a pious child needs to dissuade a parent from performing immoral actions. Ho points out in this regard that the Confucian classics do not advocate "foolish filial piety" (愚孝; yúxiào). However, Jordan adds that if the parent does not listen to the child's dissuasion, the child must still obey the parent, and Ho states that "rebellion or outright defiance" is never approved in Confucian ethics.
+Filial piety not only extends to behavior of children toward their parents, but also involves gratitude toward the human body they received from their parents, as the body is seen as an extension of one's parents. This involves prohibitions on damaging or hurting the body, and this doctrine has affected how the Confucianists regarded the shaving of the head by Buddhist monks, but also has created a taboo on suicide, regarded as "unfilial behavior" (不孝; bùxiào).
+
+=== Relation with society at large ===

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+
+Filial piety is regarded as a principle that ordered society, without which chaos would prevail. It is described as "an inevitable fact of nature", as opposed to mere convention, and it is seen to follow naturally out of the father-son relationship. In the Chinese tradition of patriarchy, roles are upheld to maintain the harmony of the whole. According to the Neo-Confucian philosopher Cheng Hao (1032–1085 CE), relationships and their corresponding roles "belong to the eternal principle of the cosmos from which there is no escape between heaven and earth".
+The idea of filial piety became popular in China because of the many functions it had and many roles it undertook, as the traditional Confucian scholars such as Mencius (4th century BCE) regarded the family as a fundamental unit that formed the root of the nation. Though the virtue of xiào was about respect by children toward their parents, it was meant to regulate how the young generation behaved toward elders in the extended family and in society in general. Furthermore, devotion to one's parents was often associated with one's devotion to the state, described as the "parallel conception of society" or the "Model of Two". The Classic of Filial Piety states that an obedient and filial son will grow up to become a loyal official (chung)—filial piety was therefore seen as a truth that shaped the citizens of the state, and the loyalty of the minister to his emperor was regarded as the extension of filial piety. Filial piety was regarded as being a dutiful person in general.
+Nevertheless, the two were not equated. Mencius teaches that ministers should overthrow an immoral tyrant, should he harm the state; the loyalty to the king was considered conditional, not as unconditional as in filial piety towards one parents.
+
+== In East Asian languages and cultures ==
+Confucian teachings about filial piety have left their mark on East Asian languages and culture. In Chinese, there is a saying that "among hundreds of behaviors, filial piety is the most important one" (百善孝为先; bǎi shàn xiào wéi xiān).
+In modern Chinese, filial piety is rendered with the words xiào shùn (孝顺), meaning "respect and obedience". While China has always had a diversity of religious beliefs, filial piety has been common to almost all of them; historian Hugh D.R. Baker calls respect for the family the one element common to almost all Chinese people. Historian Ch'ü T'ung-tsu stated about the codification of patriarchy in Chinese law that "[i]t was all a question of filial piety". Filial piety also forms the basis for the veneration of the aged, for which the Chinese are known. However, filial piety among the Chinese has led them to be mostly focused on taking care of close kin, and be less interested in wider issues of more distant people: nevertheless, this should not be mistaken for individualism.
+In Japan, devotion to kinship relations was and still is much more broadly construed, involving more than just kin.
+In Korean culture, filial piety is also of crucial importance. However, filial piety in the later Joseon dynasty, created a tension for women on marriage, between "filial values" and "filial emotions" during the later Joseon dynasty, since women, on marrying, owed their filial piety to their husband's family and not to their birth family. These tensions and the normative values of this neo-Confucian patrilineal and patriarchal society are evidenced in pansori and the many versions of various moral tales. Books published on filial piety include Hyohaengrok (효행록) first published in late Goryeo times and revised and republished in 1428, and the Register of Loyalty and Filial Piety (1655-1788) (효행등제등록) a register of those receiving government rewards for filial piety from 1655 to 1788.
+In Taiwan, filial piety is considered one of eight important virtues, among which filial piety is considered supreme. It is "central in all thinking about human behavior". Taiwan generally has more traditional values with regard to the parent-child relationship than the People's Republic of China (PRC). This is reflected in attitudes about how desirable it is for the elderly to live independently.
+
+== In behavioral sciences ==
+Social scientists have researched filial piety and related concepts. It is a highly influential factor in studies about Asian families and in intergenerational studies, as well as studies on socialization patterns. Filial piety is defined by several scholars as the recognition by children of the aid and care their parents have given them, and the respect returned by those children. Psychologist K.S. Yang defined it as a "specific, complex syndrome or set of cognition, affects, intentions, and behaviors concerning being good or nice to one's parents". As of 2006, psychologists measured filial piety in inconsistent ways, which makes it difficult to progress.
+Filial piety is defined by behaviors such as daily maintenance, respect, and sickness care offered to the elderly. Although in scholarly literature five forms of reverence have been described, multi-cultural researcher Kyu-taik Sung added eight more to that, to cover the traditional definitions of elder respect in Confucian texts:
+
+These forms of respect are based on qualitative research. Some of these forms involve some action or work, whereas other forms are more symbolic. Female elders tend to receive more care respect, whereas male elders tend to receive more symbolic respect.
+Apart from attempting to define filial piety, psychologists have also attempted to explain its cognitive development. Psychologist R.M. Lee distinguishes a five-fold development, which he bases on Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development. In the first stage, filial piety is comprehended as just the giving of material things, whereas in the second stage this develops into an understanding that emotional and spiritual support is more important. In the third stage, the child realizes that filial piety is crucial in establishing and keeping parent-child relationships; in the fourth stage, this is expanded to include relationships outside of one's family. In the final stage, filial piety is regarded as a means to realize one's ethical ideals.

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+
+Psychologists have found correlations between filial piety and lower socio-economic status, female gender, elders, minorities, and non-westernized cultures. Traditional filial piety beliefs have been connected with positive outcomes for the community and society, care for elder family members, positive family relationships, and solidarity. Filial piety has also been related to an orientation to the past, resistance to cognitive change, superstition and fatalism, dogmatism, authoritarianism, conformism, a belief in the superiority of one's culture, and a lack of active, critical, and creative learning attitudes. Ho connects the value of filial piety with authoritarian moralism and cognitive conservatism in Chinese patterns of socialization, basing this on findings among subjects in Hong Kong and Taiwan. He defines authoritarian moralism as hierarchical authority ranking in family and institutions, and pervasive use of moral precepts as criteria of measuring people. Cognitive moralism he derives from social psychologist Anthony Greenwald, and is a "disposition to preserve existing knowledge structures" and resistance to change. He concludes that filial piety appears to have a negative effect on psychological development, but at the same time, partly explains the high motivation of Chinese people to achieve academic results.
+In family counselling research, filial piety has been seen to help establish bonding with parents. Ho argues that filial piety brings along an obligation to raise one's children in a moral way to prevent disgrace to the family. However, filial piety has also been found to perpetuate dysfunctional family patterns such as child abuse: there may be both positive and negative psychological effects. Francis Hsu argued that pro-family attitudes informed by filial piety, when taken on the level of the family at large, can lead to nepotism and corruption, and are at tension with the good of the state as whole.
+In Chinese parent-child relations, the aspect of authority goes hand-in-hand with the aspect of benevolence. For example, many Chinese parents support their children's education fully and do not allow their children to work during their studies, which allows them to focus on their studies. Because of this combination of benevolence and authoritarianism in such relations, children feel obliged to respond to parents' expectations, and internalize them. Ho found, however, that in Chinese parent-child relations, fear also contributed to meeting parents' filial expectations: children may not internalize their parents' expectations, but rather perform roles as good children in a detached way, through affect-role dissociation. Studying Korean family relations, scholar Dawnhee Yim argues that internalization of parents' obligations by children may lead to guilt, as well as suppression of hostile thoughts toward parents, leading to psychological problems. Jordan found that despite filial piety being asymmetrical in nature, Chinese interviewees felt that filial piety contained an element of reciprocity: "...it is easy to see the parent whom one serves today as the self who is served tomorrow." Furthermore, the practice of filial piety provides the pious child with a sense of adulthood and moral heroism.
+
+== History ==
+
+=== Pre-Confucian history ===
+
+The origins of filial piety in East Asia lie in ancestor worship, and can already be found in the pre-Confucian period. Epigraphical findings such as oracle bones contain references to filial piety. Texts such as the Classic of Changes (10th–4th century BCE) may contain early references to the parallel conception of the filial son and the loyal minister.
+
+=== Early Confucianism ===
+
+In the Tang dynasty (6th–10th century), not performing filial piety was declared illegal, and even earlier, during the Han dynasty (2nd century BCE–3rd century CE), this was punished by beheading. Behavior regarded as unfilial such as mistreating or abandoning one's parents or grandparents, or refusing to complete the mourning period for them, was punished by exile and beating, or worse.
+From the Han dynasty onward, the practice of mourning rites came to be seen as the cornerstone of filial piety and was strictly practiced and enforced. This was a period of unrest, and the state promoted the practice of long-term mourning to reestablish its authority. Filial piety toward one's parents was expected to lead to loyalty to the ruler, expressed in the Han proverb "The Emperor rules all-under-heaven with filial piety". Government officials were expected to take leave for a mourning period of two years after their parents died. Local officials were expected to encourage filial piety to one's parents—and by extension, to the state—by behaving as an example of such piety. The king himself would express filial piety in an exemplary way, through the ritual of "serving the elderly" (yang lao zhi li). Nearly all Han emperors had the word xiào in their temple name. The promotion of filial piety in this manner, as part of the idea of li, was a less confrontational way to create order in society than resorting to law.
+Filial piety was a keystone of Han morality.
+During the early Confucian period, the principles of filial piety were brought back by Japanese and Korean students to their respective homelands, where they became central to the education system. In Japan, rulers gave awards to people deemed to practice exemplary filial conduct.
+During the Mongolian rule in the Yuan dynasty (13th–14th century), the practice of filial piety was perceived to deteriorate. In the Ming dynasty (14th–17th century), emperors and literati attempted to revive the customs of filial piety. Though in that process, filial piety was reinterpreted, as rules and rituals were modified. Even on the grassroots level a revival was seen, as vigilante societies started to promote Confucian values. Members of this vigilance movement composed the book The Twenty-four Cases of Filial Piety.
+
+=== Introduction of Buddhism ===

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+Filial piety has been an important aspect of Buddhist ethics since early Buddhism, and was essential in the apologetics and texts of Chinese Buddhism. In the Early Buddhist Texts such as the Nikāyas and Āgamas, filial piety is prescribed and practiced in three ways: to repay the gratitude toward one's parents; as a good karma or merit; and as a way to contribute to and sustain the social order. Buddhist scriptures portray the Buddha and his disciples practicing filial piety toward their parents, based on the qualities of gratitude and reciprocity.
+Initially, scholars of Buddhism like Kenneth Ch'en saw Buddhist teachings on filial piety as a distinct feature of Chinese Buddhism. Later scholarship, led by people such as John Strong and Gregory Schopen, has come to believe that filial piety was part of Buddhist doctrine since early times. Strong and Schopen provided epigraphical and textual evidence to show that early Buddhist laypeople, monks, and nuns often displayed strong devotion to their parents, and concluded that filial piety was already an important part of the devotional life of early Buddhists.
+When Buddhism was introduced in China, it had no organized celibacy. Confucianism emphasized filial piety to parents and loyalty to the emperor, and Buddhist monastic life was seen to go against its tenets. In the 3rd–5th century CE, as criticism of Buddhism increased, Buddhist monastics and lay authors responded by writing about and translating Buddhist doctrines and narratives that supported filial piety, comparing them to Confucianism and thereby defending Buddhism and its value in society. The Mouzi Lihuolun referred to Confucian and Daoist classics, as well as historical precedents to respond to critics of Buddhism. The Mouzi stated that while on the surface the Buddhist monk seems to reject and abandon his parents, he is actually aiding his parents as well as himself on the path towards enlightenment. Sun Chuo (c. 300–380) further argued that monks were working to ensure the salvation of all people and making their family proud by doing so, and Liu Xie stated that Buddhists practiced filial piety by sharing merit with their departed relatives. Buddhist monks were also criticized for not expressing their respect to the Chinese emperor by prostrating and other devotion, which in Confucianism was associated with the virtue of filial piety. Huiyuan (334–416) responded that although monks did not express such piety, they did pay homage in heart and mind; moreover, their teaching of morality and virtue to the public helped support imperial rule.
+From the 6th century onward, Chinese Buddhists realized they had to stress Buddhism's own particular ideas about filial piety in order for Buddhism to survive. Śyāma, Sujāti, and other Buddhist stories of self-sacrifice spread a belief that a filial child should even be willing to sacrifice its own body. The Ullambana Sūtra introduced the idea of transfer of merit through the story of Mulian Saves His Mother and led to the establishment of the Ghost Festival. By this Buddhists attempted to show that filial piety also meant taking care of one's parents in the next life, not just this life. Furthermore, authors in China—and Tibet, and to some extent Japan—wrote that in Buddhism, all living beings have once been one's parents, and that practicing compassion to all living beings as though they were one's parents is the superior form of filial piety. Another aspect emphasized was the great suffering a mother goes through when giving birth and raising a child. Chinese Buddhists described how difficult it is to repay the goodness of one's mother, and how many sins mothers committed in raising their children. The mother became the primary source of well-being and indebtedness for the son, which was in contrast with pre-Buddhist perspectives emphasizing the father. Nevertheless, although critics of Buddhism did not have much impact during this time, this changed in the period leading up to the Neo-Confucianist revival, when Emperor Wu Zong (841–845) started the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution, citing lack of filial piety as one of his reasons for attacking Buddhist institutions.
+Filial piety is still an important value in some Asian Buddhist cultures. In China, Buddhism continued to uphold a role in state rituals and mourning rites for ancestors until late imperial times (13th–20th century). Sūtras and narratives about filial piety are still widely used. The Ghost Festival is still popular in many Asian countries, especially those countries which are influenced by both Buddhism and Confucianism.
+
+=== Late imperial period ===
+
+During the 17th century, some missionaries tried to prevent Chinese people from worshiping their ancestors. This was regarded as an assault on Chinese culture.
+During the Qing dynasty, however, filial piety was redefined by the Kangxi Emperor, who felt it more important that his officials were loyal to him than that they were filial sons. Civil servants were often not allowed to go on extended leave to perform mourning rituals for their parents. The parallel conception of society therefore disappeared from Chinese society.
+Patriarchalism and its enactment in law grew more strict in late imperial China. The duties of the obedient child were much more precisely and rigidly prescribed, to the extent that legal scholar Hsu Dau-lin argued about this period that it "engendered a highly authoritarian spirit which was entirely alien to Confucius himself". The late imperial Chinese held patriarchalism high as an organizing principle of society, as laws and punishments gradually became more strict and severe.
+During the same time, in Japan, a classic work about filial practices was compiled, called Biographies of Japanese Filial Children (Japanese pronunciation: Fu San Ko Shi Dan).

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+
+=== 19th–20th century ===
+During the rise of progressivism and communism in China in the early 20th century, Confucian values and family-centered living were discouraged by the state and intellectuals. During the New Culture Movement of 1911, Chinese intellectuals and foreign missionaries attacked the principle of filial piety, the latter considering it an obstruction of progress.
+In Japan, filial piety was not regarded as an obstacle to modernization, though scholars disagree about why this was so. Francis Hsu believed that "the human networks through which it found concrete expressions" were different in Japan, and there never was a movement against filial piety as there was in China.
+The late imperial trend of increased patriarchalism made it difficult for the Chinese to build strong patrimonial groups that went beyond kin. Though filial piety was practiced much in both China and Japan, the Chinese way was more limited to close kin than in Japan. When industrialization increased, filial piety was therefore criticized more in China than in Japan, because China felt it limited the way the country could meet the challenges from the West. For this reason, China developed a more critical stance towards filial piety and other aspects of Confucianism than other East Asian countries, including not only Japan, but also Taiwan.
+In the 1950s, Mao Zedong's socialist measures led to the dissolution of family businesses and more dependence on the state; Taiwan's socialism did not go as far in state control.
+Ethnographic evidence from the 19th and early 20th century shows that Chinese people still very much cared for their elders, who very often lived with one or more married sons.
+
+== Developments in modern society ==
+In 21st-century Chinese societies, filial piety expectations and practices have decreased. One cause for this is the rise of the nuclear family without much coresidence with parents. Families are becoming smaller because of family planning and housing shortages. Other causes are individualism, the loss of status of the elderly, emigration of young people to cities, and the independence of young people and women. Amplifying this trend, the number of elderly people has increased quickly.
+The relationship between husband and wife came to be more emphasized, and the extended family less so. Kinship ties between the husband and wife's families have become more bilateral and equal. The way respect to elders is expressed is also changing. Communication with elders tends to become more reciprocal and less one-way, and kindness and courtesy is replacing obedience and subservience.
+
+=== Care-giving ===
+
+In modern Chinese societies, elder care has changed. Studies show a discrepancy between parents' filial expectations and the behaviors of their children. The discrepancy with regard to respect shown by the children makes elderly people especially unhappy. Industrialization and urbanization have affected the practice of filial piety, with care being given more in financial than in personal ways. As of 2009, care-giving of elderly people by the young had not undergone any revolutionary changes in the PRC, and family obligations still remained strong, "almost automatic". Respect to elders remains a central value for East Asian people.
+Comparing data from the 1990s from Taiwan and the PRC, sociologist Martin Whyte concluded that the elderly in Taiwan often received less support from the government, but more assistance from their children, than in China.
+
+=== Work ethos and business practices ===
+In PRC business culture, filial piety is decreasing in influence. As of 2003, western-style business practices and managerial style were promoted by the Chinese government to modernize the country. However in Japan employees usually regard their employer as a sort of father, to which they feel obliged to express filial devotion.
+
+=== Relation with law ===
+
+In some societies with large Chinese communities, legislation has been introduced to establish or uphold filial piety. In the 2000s, Singapore introduced a law that makes it an offense to refuse to support one's elderly parents; Taiwan took similar punitive measures. Hong Kong, on the other hand, attempted to influence its population by providing incentives for fulfilling their obligations. For example, certain tax allowances are given to citizens who live with their elderly parents.
+Some scholars argued that medieval China's reliance on governance by filial piety formed a society that was better able to prevent crime and other misconduct than societies that did so only through legal means.
+
+== See also ==
+Child abuse in China
+Family as a model for the state – Theory of political philosophy
+Honour thy father and thy mother – One of the Ten Commandments
+
+== Notes ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== Bibliography ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+Berezkin, Rostislav (21 February 2015), "Pictorial Versions of the Mulian Story in East Asia (Tenth–Seventeenth Centuries): On the Connections of Religious Painting and Storytelling", Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 8 (1): 95–120, doi:10.1007/s40647-015-0060-4, S2CID 146215342
+Traylor, K.L. (1988), Chinese Filial Piety, Eastern Press
+Xing, G. (2005), "Filial Piety in Early Buddhism", Journal of Buddhist Ethics (12): 82–106
+
+== External links ==
+
+ Media related to Filial piety at Wikimedia Commons
+Xiàojing: The Classic of Filial Piety
+The Filial Piety Sutra, Buddhist discourse about the kindness of parents and the difficulty in repaying it

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+
+In anatomy, a fistula (pl.: fistulas or fistulae ; from Latin fistula, "tube, pipe") is an abnormal connection (i.e. tube) joining two hollow spaces (technically, two epithelialized surfaces), such as blood vessels, intestines, or other hollow organs to each other, often resulting in an abnormal flow of fluid from one space to the other.
+An anal fistula connects the anal canal to the perianal skin. An anovaginal or rectovaginal fistula is a hole joining the anus or rectum to the vagina. A colovaginal fistula joins the  space in the colon to that in the vagina. A urinary tract fistula is an abnormal opening in the urinary tract or an abnormal connection between the urinary tract and another organ. An abnormal communication (i.e. hole or tube) between the bladder and the uterus is called a vesicouterine fistula, while if it is between the bladder and the vagina it is known as a vesicovaginal fistula, and if between the urethra and the vagina: a urethrovaginal fistula. When occurring between two parts of the intestine, it is known as an enteroenteral fistula, between the small intestine and the skin it is known as an enterocutaneous fistula, and between the colon and the skin as a colocutaneous fistula.
+A fistula can result from an infection, inflammation, injury or surgery. Many result from complications during childbirth. Sometimes a fistula is  deliberately surgically created as part of a treatment, for example in the case of an arteriovenous fistula for hemodialysis. The treatment for a fistula varies depending on the type, cause, and severity of the fistula, but often involves surgical intervention combined with antibiotic therapy. In some cases the fistula is temporarily covered using a fibrin glue or plug. A catheter may be required to drain a fistula.
+Globally, every year between 50,000 and 100,000 women are affected by one or more fistulas relating to childbirth. Typically they are vaginal fistulas, between either the bowel or bladder and the vaginal canal, but uterine and bowel fistulas also occur. In botany, the term is most common in its adjectival forms, where it is used in binomial names to refer to a species that is distinguished by one or more hollow or tubular structures. Monarda fistulosa, for example, has tubular flowers. The term was first used in the 14th century.
+
+== Definition ==
+A fistula is an abnormal connection between vessels or organs that do not usually connect. It can be due to a disease or trauma, or purposely surgically created.
+
+== Classification ==
+Various types of fistulas include:
+
+Blind: Only one open end; may also be called sinus tracts.
+Complete: Both internal and external openings.
+Incomplete: An external skin opening that does not connect to any internal organ.
+Although most fistulas are in forms of a tube, some can also have multiple branches.
+
+=== Location ===
+Types of fistula can be described by their location. Anal fistulas connect between the epithelialized surface of the anal canal and the perianal skin. Anovaginal or rectovaginal fistulas occur when a hole develops between the anus or rectum and the vagina. Colovaginal fistulas occur between the colon and the vagina. Urinary tract fistulas are abnormal openings within the urinary tract or an abnormal connection between the urinary tract and another organ such as between the bladder and the uterus in a vesicouterine fistula, between the bladder and the vagina in a vesicovaginal fistula, and between the urethra and the vagina in urethrovaginal fistula. When occurring between two parts of the intestine, it is known as an enteroenteral fistula, between the small intestine and the skin as an enterocutaneous fistula, and between the small intestine and the colon as a colocutaneous fistula.
+The following list is sorted by the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems.
+
+=== H: Diseases of the eye, adnexa, ear, and mastoid process ===
+(H04.6) Lacrimal fistula
+(H05.81) Carotid cavernous fistula
+(H70.1) Mastoid fistula
+Craniosinus fistula: between the intracranial space and a paranasal sinus
+(H83.1) Labyrinthine fistula
+Perilymph fistula: tear between the membranes between the middle and inner ears
+Preauricular fistula
+Preauricular fistula: usually on the top of the cristae helicis of the ears
+
+=== I: Diseases of the circulatory system ===
+(I25.4) Coronary arteriovenous fistula, acquired
+(I28.0) Arteriovenous fistula of pulmonary vessels
+Pulmonary arteriovenous fistula: between an artery and vein of the lungs, resulting in shunting of blood. This results in improperly oxygenated blood.
+(I67.1) Cerebral arteriovenous fistula, acquired
+(I77.0) Arteriovenous fistula, acquired
+(I77.2) Fistula of artery
+
+=== J: Diseases of the respiratory system ===
+(J86.0) Pyothorax with fistula
+(J95.0) Tracheoesophageal fistula, between the trachea and the esophagus.  This may be congenital or acquired, for example as a complication of a tracheostomy.
+
+=== K: Diseases of the digestive system ===
+
+(K11.4) Salivary gland fistula
+(K31.6) Fistula of stomach and duodenum
+(K31.6) Gastrocolic fistula
+(K31.6) Gastrojejunocolic fistula – after a Billroth II a fistula forms between the transverse colon and the upper jejunum (which, post Billroth II, is attached to the remainder of the stomach).  Fecal matter passes improperly from the colon to the stomach and causes halitosis.
+Enterocutaneous fistula: between the intestine and the skin surface, namely from the duodenum or the jejunum or the ileum. This definition excludes the fistulas arising from the colon or the appendix.
+Gastric fistula: from the stomach to the skin surface
+(K38.3) Fistula of appendix
+(K60) Anal and rectal fissures and fistulas
+(K60.3) Anal fistula
+(K60.5) Anorectal fistula (fecal fistula, fistula-in-ano): connecting the rectum or other anorectal area to the skin surface. This results in abnormal discharge of feces through an opening other than the anus.
+(K63.2) Fistula of intestine
+Enteroenteral fistula: between two parts of the intestine
+(K82.3) Fistula of gallbladder
+(K83.3) Fistula of bile duct
+Biliary fistula: connecting the bile ducts to the skin surface, often caused by gallbladder surgery
+Pancreatic fistula: between the pancreas and the exterior via the abdominal wall
+
+=== M: Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue ===
+(M25.1) Fistula of joint

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+title: "Fistula"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fistula"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:45.159599+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== N: Diseases of the urogenital system ===
+(N32.1) Vesicointestinal fistula
+(N36.0) Urethral fistula
+Innora:between the prostatic utricle and the outside of the body
+(N64.0) Fistula of nipple
+(N82) Fistulae involving female genital tract / Obstetric fistula
+(N82.0) Vesicovaginal fistula: between the bladder and the vagina
+(N82.1) Other female urinary-genital tract fistulae
+Cervical fistula: abnormal opening in the cervix
+(N82.2) Fistula of vagina to small intestine
+Enterovaginal fistula: between the intestine and the vagina
+(N82.3) Fistula of vagina to large intestine
+Rectovaginal: between the rectum and the vagina
+(N82.4) Other female intestinal-genital tract fistulae
+(N82.5) Female genital tract-skin fistulae
+(N82.8) Other female genital tract fistulae
+(N82.9) Female genital tract fistula, unspecified
+
+=== Q: Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities ===
+(Q18.0) Sinus, fistula and cyst of branchial cleft
+Congenital preauricular fistula: A small pit in front of the ear. Also known as an ear pit or preauricular sinus.
+(Q26.6) Portal vein-hepatic artery fistula
+(Q38.0) Congenital fistula of lip
+(Q38.4) Congenital fistula of salivary gland
+(Q42.0) Congenital absence, atresia and stenosis of rectum with fistula
+(Q42.2) Congenital absence, atresia and stenosis of anus with fistula
+(Q43.6) Congenital fistula of rectum and anus
+(Q51.7) Congenital fistulae between uterus and digestive and urinary tracts
+(Q52.2) Congenital rectovaginal fistula
+
+=== T: External causes ===
+(T14.5) Traumatic arteriovenous fistula
+(T81.8) Persistent postoperative fistula
+
+== Causes ==
+Disease: Infections including an anorectal abscess and inflammatory diseases including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis can result in fistulas. Fistulas to the anus may occur in hidradenitis suppurativa. In women, fistulas can also occur following pelvic infection and inflammation.
+
+Surgical and medical treatment: Complications from gallbladder surgery can lead to biliary fistulas. As well as being congenital or resulting from trauma, arteriovenous fistulas are created purposefully for hemodialysis. Radiation therapy to the pelvis can lead to vesicovaginal fistulas. Persistent gastrocutaneous fistulas can develop after gastrostomy.
+Trauma: Prolonged childbirth can lead to fistulas in women, in whom abnormal connections may occur between the bladder and vagina, or the rectum and vagina. An obstetric fistula develops when blood supply to the tissues of the vagina and the bladder (and/or rectum) is cut off during prolonged obstructed labor. The tissues die and a hole forms through which urine and/or feces pass uncontrollably. Vesicovaginal and rectovaginal fistulas may also be caused by rape, in particular gang rape, and rape with foreign objects, as evidenced by the abnormally high number of women in conflict areas who have developed fistulae. In 2003, thousands of women in eastern Congo presented themselves for treatment of traumatic fistulas caused by systematic, violent gang rape, often also with sharp objects that occurred during the country's five years of war. So many cases have been reported that the destruction of the vagina is considered a war injury and recorded by doctors as a crime of combat. Head trauma can lead to perilymph fistulas, whereas trauma to other parts of the body can cause arteriovenous fistulas.
+
+== Treatment ==
+Treatment for fistula varies depending on the cause and extent of the fistula, but often involves surgical intervention combined with antibiotic therapy. In some cases the fistula is temporarily covered, using a fibrin glue or plug. Catheters may be required to drain a fistula.
+Surgery is often required to assure adequate drainage of the fistula (so that pus may escape without forming an abscess). Various surgical procedures are used, most commonly fistulotomy, placement of a seton (a cord that is passed through the path of the fistula to keep it open for draining), or an endorectal flap procedure (where healthy tissue is pulled over the internal side of the fistula to keep feces or other material from reinfecting the channel).
+Management involves treating any underlying causative condition. For example, surgical treatment of fistulae in Crohn's disease can be effective, but if the Crohn's disease itself is not treated, the rate of recurrence of the fistula is very high (well above 50%).
+
+== Therapeutic use ==
+In people with kidney failure, requiring dialysis, a cimino fistula is often deliberately created in the arm by means of a short day surgery in order to permit easier withdrawal of blood for hemodialysis. As a radical treatment for portal hypertension, surgical creation of a portacaval fistula produces an anastomosis between the hepatic portal vein and the inferior vena cava across the omental foramen (of Winslow). This spares the portal venous system from high pressure which can cause esophageal varices, caput medusae, and hemorrhoids.
+
+== Epidemiology ==
+Globally, every year between 50,000 and 100,000 women are affected by fistula relating to childbirth.
+
+== Botany ==
+In botany, the term is most common in its adjectival forms, where it is used in binomial names to refer to species that are distinguished by hollow or tubular structures. Monarda fistulosa, for example, has tubular flowers; Eutrochium fistulosum has a tubular stem; Allium fistulosum has hollow or tubular leaves, and Acacia seyal subsp. fistula is the subspecies with hollow spines.
+
+== Society and culture ==
+The term was first used in the 14th century. A fistula plays a central role in William Shakespeare's play All's Well That Ends Well.
+An arteriovenous fistula is also a main plot point in Richard Fleischer's 1966 film Fantastic Voyage (screenplay by Harry Kleiner), sending the miniaturized submarine inside a patient's body on an unforeseen course.
+
+== See also ==
+Alexis St. Martin – Canadian subject of digestion experiments (1802–1880)
+Fistulated cow
+M. Ijaiya's technique – Surgical procedure to close juxtacervical vesicovaginal fistulae
+Obstetric fistula
+Stoma (medicine)
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+ Media related to Fistulae at Wikimedia Commons

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_deposit-0.md

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+---
+title: "Foundation deposit"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_deposit"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:32.813442+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Foundation deposits are the archaeological remains of the ritual burial of materials under the foundations of buildings.
+
+
+== Ancient Egypt ==
+In the case of Ancient Egypt, foundation deposits took the form of ritual mudbrick lined pits or holes dug at specific points under temples or tombs, which were filled with ceremonial objects, usually amulets, scarabs, food, or ritual miniature tools, and were supposed to prevent the building from falling into ruin.
+
+
+== Examples ==
+
+
+== See also ==
+Builders' rites
+Cornerstone
+Cyrus Cylinder
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundational_Model_of_Anatomy-0.md

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+---
+title: "Foundational Model of Anatomy"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundational_Model_of_Anatomy"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:46.338803+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Foundational Model of Anatomy Ontology (FMA) is a reference ontology for the domain of human anatomy. It is a symbolic representation of the canonical, phenotypic structure of an organism; a spatial-structural ontology of anatomical entities and relations which form the physical organization of an organism at all salient levels of granularity.
+FMA is developed and maintained by the Structural Informatics Group at the University of Washington.
+
+
+== Description ==
+FMA ontology contains approximately 75,000 classes and over 120,000 terms, over 2.1 million relationship instances from over 168 relationship types.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Terminologia Anatomica
+Anatomography
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+
+The Foundational Model of Anatomy Ontology
+The Foundational Model of Anatomy Browser - current (tested 14 October 2025) [tried 15 Dec 2025, didn't work]
+The Foundational Model of Anatomy Browser - Archived on Web Archive- Wayback machine - seems to contain only front page but non functional
+FMA Ontology Browser (Note: dead link, tested 14 October 2025)

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_archaeology-0.md

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+---
+title: "Glossary of archaeology"
+chunk: 1/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_archaeology"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:12.956883+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains.
+
+== A ==
+
+absolute age
+The age of an object with reference to a fixed and specific time scale, as determined by some method of absolute dating, e.g. 10,000 BP or 1.9 mya.
+
+absolute dating
+Ascertaining the age of an object with reference to a fixed and specific time scale (e.g. calendar years or radiocarbon years), as opposed to relative dating.
+
+aerial archaeology
+Archaeological investigations conducted from the air, e.g. using aerial photography or satellite imagery.
+
+alignment
+Co-linear arrangement of features or structures with external landmarks or, in archaeoastronomy, an astronomically significant point or axis.
+
+antiquarian
+antiquary
+A person interested in the collection, curation and/or study of antiquities, particularly in reference to the intellectual tradition that developed in Europe in the 16th–17th centuries and is considered a precursor to modern archaeology.
+
+antiquarianism
+An intellectual tradition of inquiry that developed in Europe in the 16th and early 17th centuries AD as a result of new interests in nature, antiquity, the Renaissance of learning, and the addition of time‐depth to people's view of the world.
+
+antiquities
+Ancient artefacts, particularly in the context of their trade and collection.
+
+antiquity
+The ancient past, in particular the period of the earliest historic civilizations (see classical antiquity).
+
+archaeobotany
+Subdiscipline devoted to the analysis of plant remains in the archaeological record.
+
+archaeozoology
+See zooarchaeology.
+
+archaeologist
+A person engaged in the study or profession of archaeology.
+
+archaeology
+archeology
+The academic discipline concerned with the study of the human past through material remains.
+
+artefact
+artifact
+A physical object made by humans.
+
+assemblage
+A set of artefacts or ecofacts found together, from the same place and time. Can refer to the total assemblage from a site, or a specific type of artefact, e.g. lithic assemblage, zooarchaeological assemblage.
+
+association
+Two or more excavated objects that are thought to be related are said to be in association, e.g. artefacts discovered in close proximity within the same context, or architectural features thought to have been standing at the same time.
+
+avenue
+Type of prehistoric monument found in the British Isles, consisting of two parallel lines of standing stones and/or banks and ditches. Examples include the Stonehenge Avenue, Beckhampton Avenue and West Kennet Avenue.
+
+== B ==
+
+backfill
+1.  To re-fill a trench once an excavation has been completed.
+2.  Material used for backfilling, usually spoil from the original excavation.
+
+baulk
+balk
+A wall of earth left in place between excavated areas in order to maintain the structural integrity of the trench and/or expose a section to aid in interpretation.
+
+bladelet
+Type of stone tool; a small blade characteristic of Upper Palaeolithic Europe.
+
+box–grid method
+See Wheeler–Kenyon method.
+
+== C ==
+
+C14 dating
+See radiocarbon dating.
+
+context
+1.  Information relating to where an artefact or feature was found and what it was found in association with.
+2.  In single context excavation, a well-defined stratigraphic unit relating to a single depositional event, used as the primary unit for recording and analysis.
+
+culture
+An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society.
+
+== D ==
+
+diagnostic
+A term used for objects, particularly sherds of pottery, which can be dated to a particular chronological period, and so used to ascertain the date of a particular context.
+
+dig
+An informal term for an archaeological excavation.
+
+disturbance
+Any change to an archaeological site due to events which occurred after the site was laid down.
+
+dry sieving
+A method of sifting artefacts from excavated sediments by shaking it through sieves or meshes of varying sizes. As opposed to wet sieving, which uses water.
+
+== E ==
+
+earthworks
+Earthworks are artificial changes in land level, typically made from piles of artificially placed or sculpted rocks and soil
+
+environmental archaeology
+Environmental archaeology is the science of reconstructing the relationships between past societies and the environments they lived in.
+
+evaluation
+See trial trenching.
+
+excavation
+Excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains.
+
+== F ==
+
+fieldwork
+Archaeological investigations taking place in the field, e.g. excavations or surveys.
+
+finds
+An informal term for artifacts, features and other things discovered by archaeologists.
+
+fill
+Material that has accumulated, or been deposited, within a negative feature such as a cut, ditch, or a hollow in a building.
+
+finds processing
+The preparation of finds from an excavation for storage or further specialist analysis, typically including washing, labelling, sorting and listing in an inventory.
+
+finds specialist
+An archaeologist who specialises in the analysis of a particular type of find, e.g. medieval pottery or prehistoric worked flint.
+
+flotation
+Method of separating very small objects from excavated sediments using water. It is particularly important for the recovery of botanical remains and animal bones.
+
+forensic archaeology
+Forensic archaeologists employ their knowledge of archaeological techniques and theory in a legal context. This broad description is necessary as forensic archaeology is practiced in a variety of ways around the world.
+
+funerary archaeology
+Funerary archaeology is the study of the treatment and commemoration of the dead. It includes the study of human remains, associated artefacts and monuments.
+
+== G ==
+
+geoarchaeology
+The application of geology and other earth science techniques to archaeology.
+
+geofact
+Rocks or other naturally occurring minerals found in an archaeological context and presumed to have been transported there by humans, but not sufficiently modified to qualify as an artefact.
+
+geoglyph
+A form of rock art produced on the ground, either by arranging material on the surface (a positive geoglyph) or removing part of it (a negative geoglyph).
+
+governance archaeologyGovernance archaeology seeks to understand the myriad combinations of ways in which people have governed themselves throughout time. A goal in this endeavor is to better understand the full range of options available to modern humans and, to the extent possible, some of the opportunities and pitfalls of different governance characteristics.
+
+== H ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_archaeology-1.md

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+---
+title: "Glossary of archaeology"
+chunk: 2/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_archaeology"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:12.956883+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+henge
+A type of Neolithic earthwork that has a ring-shaped bank and ditch, with the ditch inside the bank.
+
+hillfort
+A type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement.
+
+homology
+homolog
+Similarity in style or form owing to a common origin, as opposed to an analog; see also homology (biology).
+
+== I ==
+
+industrial archaeology
+Subdiscipline devoted to the study of past industry and industrial heritage.
+
+industry
+A typological classification of stone tools, e.g. the Mousterian industry, the Acheulean industry.
+
+in situ
+Features, artefacts and other remains in their original depositional context, cf. unstratified.
+
+== J ==
+
+jar burial
+Inhumation of whole human remains in a ceramic vessel, as opposed to the more common urn burial, where only ashes from cremation are interred.
+
+== K ==
+
+K–Ar dating
+Potassium–argon dating; a radiometric dating method useful for samples older than 100,000 years.
+
+kerb
+kerbstone circle
+A circular retaining wall built around certain types of burial mound.
+
+kill site
+A site where people slaughtered and/or butchered animals, especially in a Palaeolithic context, e.g. Naco Mammoth Kill Site, Cooper Bison Kill Site.
+
+killed object
+An object which has been deliberately broken or damaged in such a way as to make it unusable.
+
+kiln site
+In Southeast Asian archaeology, a site that was the centre for manufacture of particular ceramic ware, e.g. Phnom Kulen, Buriram, Go Sanh, Kalong, Sukhothai.
+
+== L ==
+
+locus
+See context.
+
+== M ==
+
+matrix
+1.  The physical material in which finds and other cultural remains are found, e.g. soil or rock.
+2.  Harris matrix; a diagram showing the stratigraphic relations between contexts.
+
+megasite
+mega-site
+A site that is anomalously large in comparison to others from the same period and region, e.g. PPNB megasites, Trypillia megasites.
+
+== N ==
+
+negative geoglyph
+See geoglyph.
+
+== O ==
+
+occupation earth
+set of deposits believed to represent in-situ settlement at an archaeological site, containing pottery sherds, ashes, animal remains, etc.
+
+== P ==
+
+palaeoethnobotany
+paleoethnobotany
+See archaeobotany.
+
+plan
+Horizontal exposure of an excavated area, feature or artefact (as seen from above); a drawing or photograph of the same.
+
+ploughsoil
+The soil down to the level at which it will have been disturbed by ploughing.
+
+pollen diagram
+pollen profile
+pollen spectrum
+A series of side-by-side graphs, produced by archaeobotanists and palynologists, showing the frequency of different types (species) of pollen in a soil sample by depth. Usually presented vertically, with the shallowest samples at the top and the deepest at the bottom, to represent a pollen core or other stratified deposit. The depth of the sample corresponds roughly to how old it is, and therefore the vertical axis may also contain an estimate of its absolute age. Used to visualise the environmental history of the place where the sample was taken.
+
+positive geoglyph
+See geoglyph.
+
+posthole
+Cut feature that once held an upright timber or stone structural member, which can be recognised even after the (wooden) post has decayed because its fill differs from the sediment around it.
+
+postpipe
+Remains of an upright timber placed in a posthole.
+
+potassium–argon dating
+See K–Ar dating.
+
+potsherd
+A fragment of pottery. In specialised usage sherd is preferred over the more common spelling shard, where sherd refers to ceramics and shard to glass.
+
+profile
+Vertical exposure of an excavated area, feature or artefact (as seen from the side), possibly also in section; a drawing or photograph of the same.
+
+== Q ==
+
+quarter sectioning
+Sometimes called digging by quadrant, it is a procedure for excavating discrete features (especially those circular or ovoid in shape) where two diagonally opposite quadrants are removed, resulting in two complete cross-sections of a feature.
+
+== R ==
+
+radiocarbon dating
+absolute dating technique used to determine the age of organic materials less than 50,000 years old.  Age is determined by examining the loss of the unstable carbon-14 isotope, which is absorbed by all living organisms during their lifespan.  The rate of decay of this unstable isotope after the organism has died is assumed to be constant, and is measured in half-lives of 5730 + 40 years, meaning that the amount of carbon-14 is reduced to half the amount after about 5730 years. Dates generated by radiocarbon dating have to be calibrated using dates derived from other absolute dating methods, such as dendrochronology and ice cores.
+
+== S ==
+
+screening
+See sieving
+
+season
+A period of time spent working on a particular site or field project.
+
+section
+A section is a view of the archaeological sequence showing it in the vertical plane, as a cross section, showing the stratigraphy.
+
+sherd
+See potsherd
+
+shovel test pit
+test holes, usually dug out by a shovel, in order to determine whether the soil contains any cultural remains that are not visible on the surface.
+
+shovelbum
+A colloquial term for professional excavators working in cultural resources management in the United States.
+
+sieving
+The use of sieves, screens, and meshes to improve the recovery rate of artefacts from excavated sediments (spoil). Can be divided into dry sieving and wet sieving.
+
+spoil
+Loose sediment excavated from a trench.
+
+spoil heap
+A pile of sediment from an excavation, usually located next to a trench.
+
+== T ==
+
+trial trenching
+A method of archaeological evaluation used to estimate the archaeological potential of a site.
+
+typology
+The classification of objects according to their physical characteristics.
+
+== U ==
+
+underwater archaeology
+Subdiscipline devoted to the study of archaeological remains submerged under seas, lakes, or rivers.
+
+unenclosed
+See enclosure.
+
+uniface
+Stone tool or other artefact that has only been worked on one side, cf. biface.
+
+unit
+1.  In stratigraphic excavation, a context.
+2.  In British commercial archaeology, a company providing archaeological services, e.g. the Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit.
+
+univallate
+Hillfort or other enclosed settlement surrounded by a single line of walls or ramparts, cf. multivallate.
+
+unurned
+Cremation burial where the remains were not placed in a container (urn), typical of the Early to Middle Bronze Age in Northern Europe.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_archaeology-2.md

@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+---
+title: "Glossary of archaeology"
+chunk: 3/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_archaeology"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:12.956883+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+updraught kiln
+updraft kiln
+Type of ceramic kiln which works by drawing hot air from a fire placed adjacent to or below the material to be fired.
+
+urban archaeology
+Subdiscipline devoted to the study of archaeology in major cities and towns.
+
+urn
+Pottery vessel in which cremated remains were placed for interment; sometimes specially made, but often a repurposed domestic container.
+
+urnfield
+Cemetery containing cremation burials in urns. Typical of Late Bronze Age Europe and the eponymous Urnfield culture.
+
+use-wear
+Microscopic traces of wear, damage or residue left on the surface of an artefact from use. Use-wear analysis involves studying these traces to discern the function of a tool.
+
+== V ==
+virtual archaeology
+A subfield of digital archeology that creates and use virtual models and simulations of archaeological sites, artifacts, and processes.
+
+== W ==
+
+watching brief
+A formal programme of observation and investigation conducted during any operation carried out for non-archaeological reasons.
+
+wet sieving
+The use of flowing water to force excavated sediment through a screen or mesh and recover small artefacts. It is more effective than dry sieving in heavier soils and, as part of the process of flotation, can be used to recover very small organic remains.
+
+Wheeler–Kenyon method
+box–grid method
+Excavation strategy where an area is divided into a grid of square trenches and baulks are left between each square, exposing the site in both plan and profile. Developed by Mortimer Wheeler and Tessa Wheeler at Verulamium (1930–35) and refined by Kathleen Kenyon at Jericho (1952–58).
+
+== X ==
+
+X-ray fluorescence (XRF)
+Method of analysing the chemical composition of an object by exposing it to X-rays and examining the resulting secondary (fluorescent) X-rays emitted.
+
+== Y ==
+
+yield
+Information important in prehistory or history.
+
+== Z ==
+
+zooarchaeology
+Subdiscipline devoted to the analysis of animal remains in the archaeological record.
+
+== See also ==
+Outline of archaeology
+Table of years in archaeology
+Glossary of history
+
+== References ==
+
+== Bibliography ==
+
+== External links ==
+About.com Archaeology Glossary Archived 2016-12-03 at the Wayback Machine

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyph-0.md

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+---
+title: "Glyph"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyph"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:34.076369+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A glyph ( GLIF) is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface (or computer font), of an element of written language. That "element" is called a grapheme –  the conceptual abstraction of some letter, number or symbol, which is independent of the glyph designed to represent it in a particular font.
+
+
+== Glyphs, graphemes and characters ==
+
+In modern English, each symbol (such as a letter or numerical digit) is a grapheme that can be represented by a single glyph that is unique to the font where it used. Detailed differences in the design of each glyph in the repertoire is the distinguishing feature of a typeface (or computer font) but in each case the grapheme being represented is constant.
+In most languages written in any variety of the Latin alphabet except English, the use of diacritics to signify a sound mutation is common. For example, the grapheme ⟨à⟩ requires two glyphs: the basic |a| and the grave accent |`|. In general, a diacritic is regarded as a glyph, even if it is contiguous with the rest of the character like a cedilla in French, Catalan or Portuguese, the ogonek in several languages, or the stroke on a Polish ⟨Ł⟩. Although these marks originally had no independent meaning, they have since acquired meaning in the field of mathematics and computing, for instance.
+Conversely, in the languages of Western Europe, the dot (formally, tittle) on a lower-case ⟨i⟩ is not a glyph in itself because it does not convey any distinction, and an |ı| in which the dot has been accidentally omitted is still likely to be recognized correctly. However, in Turkish and adjacent languages, this dot is a glyph because that language has two distinct versions of the letter i, with and without a dot. 
+In Japanese syllabaries, some of the characters are made up of more than one separate mark, but in general these separate marks are not glyphs because they have no meaning by themselves. However, in some cases, additional marks fulfil the role of diacritics, to differentiate distinct characters. Such additional marks constitute glyphs. 
+Some characters such as |æ| in Icelandic and |ß| in German may be regarded as glyphs. They were originally typographic ligatures, but over time have become characters in their own right; these languages treat them as unique letters. However, a ligature such as |fi|, that is treated in some typefaces as a single unit, is arguably not a glyph as this is just a design choice of that typeface, essentially an allographic feature, and includes more than one grapheme. In normal handwriting, even long words are often written "joined up", without the pen leaving the paper, and the form of each written letter will often vary depending on which letters precede and follow it, but that does not make the whole word into a single glyph.
+Older models of typewriters required the use of multiple glyphs to depict a single character, as an overstruck apostrophe and full stop to create an exclamation mark. If there is more than one allograph of a unit of writing, and the choice between them depends on context or on the preference of the author, they now have to be treated as separate glyphs, because mechanical arrangements have to be available to differentiate between them and to print whichever of them is required.
+In computing as well as typography, the term character refers to a grapheme or grapheme-like unit of text, as found in writing systems (scripts). In typography and computing, the range of graphemes is broader than in a written language in other ways too: a typeface often has to cope with a range of different languages each of which contribute their own graphemes, and it may also be required to print non-linguistic symbols such as dingbats. The range of glyphs required increases correspondingly. In summary, in typography and computing, a glyph is a graphical unit.
+
+
+== Representative glyph ==
+In material about a grapheme, the author must select one of the range of glyphs that could be used for it, without intending to convey any implication that it is the "correct" one. This choice is called a representative glyph.
+
+
+== See also ==
+
+Character encoding – Using numbers to represent text characters
+Complex text layout – Neighbour-dependent grapheme positioning
+Glyph Bitmap Distribution Format – File format for storing bitmap fonts
+Hieroglyph – Ancient Egyptian writing systemPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
+International Phonetic Alphabet § Brackets and transcription delimiters
+Letter cutting – Form of inscriptional architectural lettering
+Palaeography – Study of handwriting and manuscripts
+Punchcutting – Craft used in traditional typography
+Sort (typesetting) – Character printing block
+
+
+== Notes ==
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+ The dictionary definition of glyph at Wiktionary
+ Media related to Glyphs at Wikimedia Commons

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haltern_cooking_pot-0.md

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+---
+title: "Haltern cooking pot"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haltern_cooking_pot"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:35.343034+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Haltern cooking pot is an earthenware vessel from the Roman period. Due to its frequent occurrence as utility pottery in eastern Gallic and Rhinelandic settlements and military sites of the 1st century AD, it serves as a type fossil in provincial Roman archaeology for dating archaeological finds. In ceramic typology, the form is referred to as Haltern 91 after its eponymous site, the Haltern Roman camp.
+
+
+== Form ==
+
+The Haltern cooking pot is a bulbous vessel whose widest diameter is at the shoulder. It is characterized by an inwardly curved, grooved rim with a sharp shoulder angle. It tapers steeply toward the base, with the narrowest part located at the flat base. Early vessels were handmade, but during the Tiberian era, they were replaced by wheel-thrown pots, maintaining the same shape.
+The vessel surface is often coated with a clay slip, roughened with straw or twigs before firing to improve grip. The sherd is clay-based with sand tempering. Depending on the production site, it is black, light-colored, or reddish.
+Two variants are distinguished in current literature. Haltern 91 A consists of poorly levigated clay, with reddish-brown to black sherds and a cork-like texture ("cork ware"). In contrast, Haltern 91 B is made from denser-firing clays. The exterior of Haltern 91 B is usually smooth, unlike the roughened surface of 91 A.
+The type was first described in 1901 by Emil Ritterling based on finds from Haltern am See.
+
+
+== Origin, Distribution, and Dating ==
+The form derives from late La Tène eastern Gallic cooking pots and appears from the last decade of the 1st century BC in the Rhine-Moselle region, initially associated with Roman military sites. Its primary distribution area lies between Cologne, Nijmegen, and Mainz.
+The La Tène version of this vessel type is usually handmade and lacks the characteristic Roman shoulder angle. Its surface is also often smooth rather than roughened. Roman troops stationed in Augustan eastern Gaul adopted this vessel type from the local population and introduced it to military sites along the Rhine and Lippe during the Drusus campaigns. Shortly after, Roman potters improved its production with advanced techniques. Handmade forms, however, persisted in the archaeological record until at least the second decade AD. These show the roughened surface and the characteristic shoulder angle. 
+Haltern cooking pots were widely used throughout the 1st century by Roman soldiers and in civilian settlements in Germania Inferior and adjacent regions. By the Flavian period, they gradually disappeared from the archaeological record.
+A fine chronology within the type group has not been established. Variations in key features, such as the rim profile, seem to lack chronological significance.
+
+
+== Usage ==
+In addition to their use as cooking pots, Haltern pots were also employed as containers for food storage and transport. Some finds with pitched rims indicate that perishable goods were sealed in these vessels, covered with parchment, leather, or similar materials. The seal was made airtight with pitch and secured with a cord guided by the grooved shoulder rim. A vessel found at the Kops Plateau in Nijmegen contained the remains of 30 song thrushes, likely originating from the southern Ardennes.  This storage vessel is typologically similar to the Haltern cooking pot but differs in rim design from the classic Haltern 91.
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Literature ==
+Hans Dragendorff: Excavations at Haltern. Finds from the Camp and Riverside Fort 1901–1902. In: Reports of the Antiquities Commission of Westphalia. 3, 1903, p. 85 ff. (supplementing Ritterling 1901).
+Ursula Heimberg: Colonia Ulpia Traiana. The earliest ceramics from the forum excavation. In: Bonner Jahrbücher. Vol. 187, 1987, pp. 411–474.
+Dieter Hupka: Roman settlement finds, industrial remains, and road findings in Mönchengladbach-Mülfort. Dissertation, University of Cologne, 2015, pp. 69 ff.
+Edeltraud Mittag: ''Studies on so-called Haltern cooking pots from the area of Colonia Ulpia Traiana (Xanten).'' In: Xantener Berichte, Vol. 8, Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1999, pp. 201–311.
+Mercedes Vegas: ''The Augustan utility pottery from Neuss'' (= ''Novaesium VI'', = ''Limesforschungen'' Vol. 14). Berlin 1975, pp. 38 ff.
+Emil Ritterling: ''The Roman settlement at Haltern. The finds.'' In: ''Reports of the Antiquities Commission of Westphalia.'' 2, 1901, pp. 160–162, Plate XXXVIII 20 and Plate XXXVI 27 ff.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_calendar-0.md

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+---
+title: "Holocene calendar"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_calendar"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:14:36.505459+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Holocene calendar, also known as the Holocene Era or Human Era (HE), is a year numbering system that adds exactly 10,000 years to the currently dominant (AD/BC or CE/BCE) numbering scheme, placing its first year near the beginning of the Holocene geological epoch and the Neolithic Revolution, when humans shifted from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture and fixed settlements. The current year by the Gregorian calendar, AD 2026, is 12026 HE in the Holocene calendar. The HE scheme was first proposed by Cesare Emiliani in 1993 (11993 HE), though similar proposals to start a new calendar at the same date had been put forward decades earlier. Emiliani thereby dismissed his original proposal to align the era with the 7980-year Julian cycles, i.e. start with the epoch in 4713 BCE (5288 HE).
+
+
+== Overview ==
+Cesare Emiliani's proposal for a calendar reform sought to solve a number of alleged problems with the current Anno Domini era, also called the Common Era, which numbers the years of the commonly accepted world calendar. These issues include:
+
+The Anno Domini era has no year "zero", with 1 BC followed immediately by AD 1, making calculation of time spans difficult.
+The years BC/BCE are counted down when moving from past to future, complicating the calculation of timespans further.
+The birth date of Jesus is a less universally relevant epoch event than the approximate beginning of the Holocene.
+The Anno Domini era is based on the erroneous or contentious estimates of the birth year of Jesus of Nazareth. The era places Jesus's birth year in AD 1, but modern scholars have determined that it is more likely that he was born in or before 4 BC. Emiliani argued that replacing the contested date with the approximate beginning of the Holocene makes more sense.
+Instead, HE uses the "beginning of human era" as its epoch, arbitrarily defined as 10,000 BC and denoted year 1 HE, so that AD 1 matches 10,001 HE.
+This is a rough approximation of the start of the current geologic epoch, the Holocene (the name means entirely recent). The motivation for this is that human civilization (e.g. the first settlements, agriculture, etc.) is believed to have arisen within this time. Emiliani later proposed that the start of the Holocene should be fixed at the same date as the beginning of his proposed era.
+
+
+=== Accuracy ===
+When Emiliani discussed the calendar in a follow-up article in 1994, he mentioned that there was no agreement on the date of the start of the Holocene epoch, with estimates at the time ranging between 12,700 and 10,970 years BP. Since then, scientists have improved their understanding of the Holocene on the evidence of ice cores and can now more accurately date its beginning. A consensus view was formally adopted by the IUGS in 2013, placing its start at 11,700 years before 2000 (9701 BC), about 300 years more recent than the epoch of the Holocene calendar.
+
+
+=== Equivalent proposals ===
+In 1924 Gabriel Deville proposed the use of Calendrier nouveau de chronologie ancienne (CNCA), which would start 10,000 years before AD 1, which is identical to Emiliani's much later proposal.
+Since 1929, Dievturība adherents  use Latviskā ēra (the Latvian Era) which begins at the same point; this coincides with the first inhabitants’ influx to the territory of present Latvia (10500–10047 BCE). According to the Latvian Era, 12026 is written for 2026 CE. Detailed explanation of Latvian Era by Ernests Brastiņš was first published in 1934.
+In 1963 E.R. Hope proposed the use of Anterior Epoch (AE), which also begins at the same point.
+
+
+== Conversion ==
+Conversion from Julian or Gregorian calendar years to the Human Era can be achieved by adding 10,000 to the AD/CE year. The present year, 2026, can be transformed into a Holocene year by adding the digit "1" before it, making it 12,026 HE. Years BC/BCE are converted by subtracting the BC/BCE year number from 10,001.
+
+
+== See also ==
+After the Development of Agriculture, a calendar system that adds 8000 years to the Common Era.
+Anno Lucis, a calendar system that adds 4000 years to the Common Era.
+Before Present, the notation most widely used today in scientific literature for dates in prehistory.
+Calendar reform
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+David Ewing Duncan (1999). The Calendar. Fourth Estate. pp. 331–332. ISBN 978-1-85702-979-6.
+Duncan Steel (2000). Marking Time: The Epic Quest to Invent the Perfect Calendar. John Wiley and Sons. pp. 149–151. ISBN 978-0-471-29827-4.
+Günther A. Wagner (1998). Age Determination of Young Rocks and Artifacts: Physical and Chemical Clocks in Quaternary Geology and Archeology. Springer. p. 48. ISBN 978-3-540-63436-2.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Code_of_Area_Nomenclature-0.md

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+---
+title: "International Code of Area Nomenclature"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Code_of_Area_Nomenclature"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:25.858217+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The International Code of Area Nomenclature (ICAN) was proposed by a group of few biogeographers to provide a universal naming system or nomenclature for areas of endemism used in contemporary biogeography. There are other proposals to palaeobiogeographic areas. The ICAN also serves as the international standard rules for proposing and using "area of endemism" names.
+The ICAN was ratified by the Systematic and Evolutionary Biogeographical Association (SEBA) in Paris in the only meeting of the group, during July 2007. This community was created and maintained by the same group of biogeographers that proposed the ICAN.
+There is little agreement on the use of different methods and systems of nomenclature in Biogeography, and this proposal represents one of the various kinds of study in this science.
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+ICAN Website

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_scientific_vocabulary-0.md

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 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_scientific_vocabulary"
 category: "reference"
 tags: "science, encyclopedia"
-date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:14:11.149094+00:00"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:23.251826+00:00"
 instance: "kb-cron"
 ---
 

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terms_using_the_word_occipital-0.md

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+---
+title: "List of terms using the word occipital"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terms_using_the_word_occipital"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:47.505322+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The adjective occipital, in zoology, means pertaining to the occiput (rear of the skull).
+Occipital is a descriptor for several areas of animal and human anatomy.
+
+External occipital protuberance
+Internal occipital crest
+Greater occipital nerve
+Lesser occipital nerve
+Occipital artery
+Occipital bone
+Occipital bun
+Occipital condyle
+Occipital groove
+Occipital lobe
+Occipital plane
+Occipital pole
+Occipital ridge
+Occipital scales
+Occipital triangle
+Occipital vein
+Parieto-occipital sulcus
+PGO (Ponto-geniculo-occipital) waves
+Preoccipital notch
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markedness-0.md

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+---
+title: "Markedness"
+chunk: 1/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markedness"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:13.402808+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In linguistics and social sciences, markedness is the state of standing out as nontypical or divergent as opposed to regular or common. In a marked–unmarked relation, one term of an opposition is the broader, dominant one. The dominant default or minimum-effort form is known as unmarked; the other, secondary one is marked. In other words, markedness involves the characterization of a "normal" linguistic unit against one or more of its possible "irregular" forms.
+In linguistics, markedness can apply to, among others, phonological, grammatical, and semantic oppositions, defining them in terms of marked and unmarked oppositions, such as honest (unmarked) as opposed to dishonest (marked). Marking may be purely semantic, or may be realized as extra morphology. The term derives from the marking of a grammatical role with a suffix or another element, and has been extended to situations where there is no morphological distinction.
+In social sciences more broadly, markedness is, among other things, used to distinguish two meanings of the same term, where one is common usage (unmarked sense) and the other is specialized to a certain cultural context (marked sense).
+In psychology, the social science concept of markedness is quantified as a measure of how much one variable is marked as a predictor or possible cause of another, and is also known as Δp (deltaP) in simple two-choice cases.  See confusion matrix for more details.
+
+== Marked and unmarked word pairs ==
+In terms of lexical opposites, a marked form is a non-basic one, often one with inflectional or derivational endings. Thus, a morphologically negative word form is marked as opposed to a positive one: happy/unhappy, honest/dishonest, fair/unfair, clean/unclean, and so forth. Similarly, unaffixed masculine or singular forms are taken to be unmarked in contrast to affixed feminine or plural forms: lion/lioness, host/hostess, automobile/automobiles, child/children. An unmarked form is also a default form. For example, the unmarked lion can refer to a male or female, while lioness is marked because it can refer only to females.
+The default nature allows unmarked lexical forms to be identified even when the opposites are not morphologically related. In the pairs old/young, big/little, happy/sad, clean/dirty, the first term of each pair is taken as unmarked because it occurs generally in questions. For example, English speakers typically ask how old someone is; use of the marked term (how young are you?) would presuppose youth.
+
+== Background in Prague School ==
+While the idea of linguistic asymmetry predated the actual coining of the terms marked and unmarked, the modern concept of markedness originated in the Prague School structuralism of Roman Jakobson and Nikolai Trubetzkoy as a means of characterizing binary oppositions.
+Both sound and meaning were analyzed into systems of binary distinctive features. Edwin Battistella wrote: "Binarism suggests symmetry and equivalence in linguistic analysis; markedness adds the idea of hierarchy." Trubetzkoy and Jakobson analyzed phonological oppositions such as nasal versus non-nasal as defined as the presence versus the absence of nasality; the presence of the feature, nasality, was marked; its absence, non-nasality, was unmarked.  For Jakobson and Trubetzkoy, binary phonological features formed part of a universal feature alphabet applicable to all languages. In his 1932 article "Structure of the Russian Verb", Jakobson extended the concept to grammatical meanings in which the marked element "announces the existence of [some meaning] A" while the unmarked element "does not announce the existence of A, i.e., does not state whether A is present or not". Forty years later, Jakobson described language by saying that "every single constituent of a linguistic system is built on an opposition of two logical contradictories: the presence of an attribute ('markedness') in contraposition to its absence ('unmarkedness')."
+In his 1941 Child Language, Aphasia, and Universals of Language, Jakobson suggested that phonological markedness played a role in language acquisition and loss. Drawing on existing studies of acquisition and aphasia, Jakobson suggested a mirror-image relationship determined by a universal feature hierarchy of marked and unmarked oppositions. Today many still see Jakobson's theory of phonological acquisition as identifying useful tendencies.
+
+== Jakobsonian tradition ==
+The work of Cornelius van Schooneveld, Edna Andrews, Rodney Sangster, Yishai Tobin and others on 'semantic invariance' (different general meanings reflected in the contextual specific meanings of features) has further developed the semantic analysis of grammatical items in terms of marked and unmarked features. Other semiotically-oriented work has investigated the isomorphism of form and meaning with less emphasis on invariance, including the efforts of Henning Andersen, Michael Shapiro, and Edwin Battistella. Shapiro and Andrews have especially made connections between the semiotic of C. S. Peirce and markedness, treating it "as species of interpretant" in Peirce's sign–object–interpretant triad.
+Functional linguists such as Talmy Givón have suggested that markedness is related to
+cognitive complexity—"in terms of attention, mental effort or processing time". Linguistic 'naturalists' view markedness relations in terms of the ways in which extralinguistic principles of perceptibility and psychological efficiency determine what is natural in language. Willi Mayerthaler, another linguist, for example, defines unmarked categories as those "in agreement with the typical attributes of the speaker".

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markedness-1.md

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+---
+title: "Markedness"
+chunk: 2/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markedness"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:13.402808+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Cultural markedness and informedness ==
+Since a main component of markedness is the information content and information value of an element, some studies have taken markedness as an encoding of that which is unusual or informative, and this is reflected in formal probabilistic definitions of markedness and informedness that, for dichotomous problems, correspond to the chance-correct unidirectional components of the Matthews correlation coefficient known as Δp and Δp'. Conceptual familiarity with cultural norms provided by familiar categories creates a ground against which marked categories provide a figure, opening the way for markedness to be applied to cultural and social categorization.
+As early as the 1930s Jakobson had already suggested applying markedness to all oppositions, explicitly mentioning such pairs as life/death, liberty/bondage, sin/virtue, and holiday/working day. Linda Waugh extended this to oppositions like male/female, white/black, sighted/blind, hearing/deaf, heterosexual/homosexual, right/left, fertility/barrenness, clothed/nude, and spoken language/written language. Battistella expanded this with the demonstration of how cultures align markedness values to create cohesive symbol systems, illustrating with examples based on Rodney Needham's work. Other work has applied markedness to stylistics, music, and myth.
+
+== Local markedness and markedness reversals ==
+Markedness depends on context. What is more marked in some general contexts may be less marked in other local contexts. Thus, "ant" is less marked than "ants" on the morphological level, but on the semantic (and frequency) levels it may be more marked since ants are more often encountered many at once than one at a time.  Often a more general markedness relation may be reversed in a particular context. Thus, voicelessness of consonants is typically unmarked. But between vowels or in the neighborhood of voiced consonants, voicing may be the expected or unmarked value.
+Reversal is reflected in certain West Frisian words' plural and singular forms: In West Frisian, nouns with irregular singular-plural stem variations are undergoing regularization. Usually this means that the plural is reformed to be a regular form of the singular:
+
+Old paradigm: "koal" (coal), "kwallen" (coals) → regularized forms: "Koal" (coal), "Koalen" (coals).
+However, a number of words instead reform the singular by extending the form of the plural:
+
+Old paradigm: "earm" (arm), "jermen" (arms) → regularized forms: "jerm" (arm), "jermen" (arms)
+The common feature of the nouns that regularize the singular to match the plural is that they occur more often in pairs or groups than singly; they are said to be semantically (but not morphologically) locally unmarked in the plural.
+
+== Universals and frequency ==
+Joseph Greenberg's 1966 book Language Universals was an influential application of markedness to typological linguistics and a break from the tradition of Jakobson and Trubetzkoy. Greenberg took frequency to be the primary determining factor of markedness in grammar and suggested that unmarked categories could be determined by "the frequency of association of things in the real world".
+Greenberg also applied frequency cross-linguistically, suggesting that unmarked categories would be those that are unmarked in a wide number of languages. However, critics have argued that frequency is problematic because categories that are cross-linguistically infrequent may have a high distribution in a particular language.
+More recently the insights related to frequency have been formalized as chance-corrected conditional probabilities, with Informedness (Δp') and Markedness (Δp) corresponding to the different directions of prediction in human association research (binary associations or distinctions) and more generally (including features with more than two distinctions).
+Universals have also been connected to implicational laws. This entails that a category is taken as marked if every language that has the marked category also has the unmarked one but not vice versa.
+
+== Diagnostics ==
+Markedness has been extended and reshaped over the past century and reflects a range of loosely connected theoretical approaches. From emerging in the analysis of binary oppositions, it has become a global semiotic principle, a means of encoding naturalness and language universals, and a terminology for studying defaults and preferences in language acquisition. What connects various approaches is a concern for the evaluation of linguistic structure, though the details of how markedness is determined and what its implications and diagnostics are varies widely. Other approaches to universal markedness relations focus on functional economic and iconic motivations, tying recurring symmetries to properties of communication channels and communication events. Croft (1990), for example, notes that asymmetries among linguistic elements may be explainable in terms economy of form, in terms of iconism between the structure of language and conceptualization of the world.
+
+== In generative grammar ==
+Markedness entered generative linguistic theory through Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle's The Sound Pattern of English. For Chomsky and Halle, phonological features went beyond a universal phonetic vocabulary to encompass an 'evaluation metric', a means of selecting the most highly valued adequate grammar. In The Sound Pattern of English, the value of a grammar was the inverse of the number of features required in that grammar. However, Chomsky and Halle realized that their initial approach to phonological features made implausible rules and segment inventories as highly valued as natural ones. The unmarked value of a feature was cost-free with respect to the evaluation metric, while the marked feature values were counted by the metric. Segment inventories could also be evaluated according to the number of marked features. However, the use of phonological markedness as part of the evaluation metric was never able to fully account for the fact that some features are more likely than others or for the fact that phonological systems must have a certain minimal complexity and symmetry.
+In generative syntax, markedness as feature-evaluation did not receive the same attention that it did in phonology. Chomsky came to view unmarked properties as an innate preference structure based first in constraints and later in parameters of universal grammar. In their 1977 article "Filters and Control", Chomsky and Howard Lasnik extended this to view markedness as part of a theory of 'core grammar':

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markedness-2.md

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+---
+title: "Markedness"
+chunk: 3/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markedness"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:13.402808+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+We will assume that [Universal Grammar] is not an 'undifferentiated' system, but rather incorporates something analogous to a 'theory of markedness.' Specifically, there is a theory of core grammar with highly restricted options, limited expressive power, and a few parameters. Systems that fall within core grammar constitute 'the unmarked case'; we may think of them as optimal in terms of the evaluation metric. An actual language is determined by fixing the parameters of core grammar and then adding rules or conditions, using much richer resources, ... These added properties of grammars we may think of as the syntactic analogue of irregular verbs.
+A few years later, Chomsky describes it thus:
+
+The distinction between core and periphery leaves us with three notions of markedness: core versus periphery, internal to the core, and internal to the periphery. The second has to do with the way parameters are set in the absence of evidence. As for the third, there are, no doubt, significant regularities even in departures from the core principles (for example, in irregular verb morphology in English), and it may be that peripheral constructions are related to the core in systematic ways, say by relaxing certain conditions of core grammar.
+Some generative researchers have applied markedness to second-language acquisition theory, treating it as an inherent learning hierarchy which reflects the sequence in which constructions are acquired, the difficulty of acquiring certain constructions, and the transferability of rules across languages. More recently, optimality theory approaches emerging in the 1990s have incorporated markedness in the ranking of constraints.
+
+== See also ==
+
+Inflection
+Lemma (morphology)
+Lexeme
+Male as norm
+Marker (linguistics)
+Matthews correlation coefficient
+Null morpheme
+Other (philosophy)
+Underlying representation
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+Andersen, Henning 1989 "Markedness—The First 150 Years", In Markedness in Synchrony and Diachrony. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
+Andrews, Edna 1990 Markedness Theory: The Union of Asymmetry and Semiosis in Language, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
+Archangeli, Diana 1997 "Optimality Theory: An Introduction to Linguistics in the 1990s", In Optimality Theory: An Overview. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
+Battistella, Edwin 1990 Markedness: The Evaluative Superstructure of Language, Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
+Battistella, Edwin 1996 The Logic of Markedness, New York: Oxford University Press.
+Chandler, Daniel 2002/2007 Semiotics: The Basics, London: Routledge.
+Chandler, Daniel 2005 Entry on markedness. In John Protevi (ed.) (2005) Edinburgh Dictionary of Continental Philosophy, Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press.
+Chomsky, Noam & Halle, Morris 1968 The Sound Pattern of English, New York: Harper and Row.
+Greenberg, Joseph Language Universals, The Hague: Mouton, 1966.
+Trask, R. L. 1999 Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics, London and New York: Routledge.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medial_umbilical_fold-0.md

@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+---
+title: "Medial umbilical fold"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medial_umbilical_fold"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:48.759233+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The medial umbilical fold is an elevation of the peritoneum (on either side of the body) lining the inner surface of the lower anterior abdominal wall formed by the underlying medial umbilical ligament (the obliterated distal portion of the umbilical artery) which the peritoneum covers. Superiorly, the two medial umbilical folds converge towards the midline to meet and terminate at the umbilicus.
+The unpaired midline median umbilical ligament lies medially to each medial umbilical fold; a lateral umbilical fold lies lateral to either medial umbilical fold. A supravesical fossa lies between the median umbilical fold and either medial umbilical fold on either side. A medial inguinal fossa lies between the median umbilical fold and lateral umbilical fold of the same side on either side.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microaggression-0.md

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+---
+title: "Microaggression"
+chunk: 1/7
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microaggression"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:14.791929+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Microaggression is a term used for commonplace verbal, behavioral or environmental slight, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicates hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward members of marginalized groups. The term was coined by Harvard University psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce in 1970 to describe insults and dismissals which he regularly witnessed non-black Americans inflicting on African Americans. By the early 21st century, use of the term was applied to the casual disparagement of any socially marginalized group, including LGBT, poor, and disabled people. Psychologist Derald Wing Sue defines microaggressions as "brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership". In contrast to aggression, in which there is usually an intent to cause harm, persons making microaggressive comments may be otherwise well-intentioned and unaware of the potential impact of their words.
+A number of scholars and social commentators have criticized the concept of microaggression for its lack of a scientific basis, over-reliance on subjective evidence, and promotion of psychological fragility. Critics argue that avoiding behaviors that one interprets as microaggressions restricts one's own freedom and causes emotional self-harm, and that employing authority figures to address microaggressions (i.e. call-out culture) can lead to an atrophy of those skills needed to mediate one's own disputes. Some argue that, because the term "microaggression" uses language connoting violence to describe verbal conduct, it can be abused to exaggerate harm, resulting in retribution and the elevation of victimhood.
+D. W. Sue, who popularized the term microaggressions, has expressed doubts on how the concept is being used: "I was concerned that people who use these examples would take them out of context and use them as a punitive rather than an exemplary way."  In the 2020 edition of his book with Lisa Spanierman and in a 2021 book with his doctoral students, Dr. Sue introduces the idea of "microinterventions" as potential solutions to acts of microaggression.
+
+== Description ==
+Microaggressions are common, everyday slights and comments that relate to various aspects of one's appearance or identity such as class, gender, sex, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, mother tongue, age, body shape, disability,  or religion.
+They are thought to spring from unconsciously held prejudices and beliefs which may be demonstrated consciously or unconsciously through daily interactions. Although these communications typically appear harmless to observers, they are considered a form of subtle or everyday discrimination, like covert racism. Microaggressions differ from what Pierce referred to as "macroaggressions" in the context of racial discrimination: these are more extreme forms of racism (such as lynchings or beatings), differentiated due to their ambiguity, size and commonality. Today, researchers do not use the prefix "micro-" to mean the aggressions have a small impact, but instead to emphasize how subtly they take place, which can make them hard to point out. In fact, research on the impacts of repeated microaggressions towards members of minority groups suggests that microaggressions negatively affect mental health and are related to minority stress.
+Microaggressions are experienced by most stigmatized individuals and occur on a regular basis. These can be particularly stressful for people on the receiving end as the harm or bias inherent to a microaggression is easily denied by those committing them. Because microaggressions are rooted in bias, which is societally taught, they can be committed by members of dominant social groups or members of marginalized groups. The impact of microaggressions is shaped by the dilemma of unconscious bias: perpetrators of microaggressions may view their actions or motivations differently than targets do, and perspectives diverge more when it is easy for offenders to ignore or dismiss implicit bias if it is in fact present. Additionally, this bias is most invisible to members of dominant social groups, and it is easy for observers to dismiss a microaggression as trivial and harmless. This makes it harder for a target to respond to a microaggression without backlash. The key factor here is that microaggressions are harder to detect by members of the dominant culture, as they are often unaware they are causing harm. 
+Microaggressions are often divided into three categories: each can be verbal or action-based, but they are united by their effect of insulting someone due to their membership in a marginalized group. All categories may occur between individuals or through an environment, via social norms or policies. Categories of microaggressions are usually called microinsults, for demeaning, rude, stereotyping or insensitive behavior; microinvalidations, for behavior that excludes or denies someone else's experiences; and microassaults, for more explicit discriminatory actions or insults. Microassaults may be an exception to the generally unconscious and subtle nature of microaggressions: some of the behaviors researchers have classified as microassault are so traumatic and overt, and perhaps frequently rooted in conscious bias, that some researchers have proposed reclassifying them outside of microaggressions.
+
+== Targeted identities ==
+Microaggressions were originally studied in the context of racial discrimination in the U.S., but researchers later studied their impact on many historically and presently marginalized social groups. The taxonomies and themes documented for microaggressions are often based on the identity type that a microaggression targets. Microaggressions can also be intersectional, targeting people based on more than one aspect of their identity. 
+
+=== Race or ethnicity ===
+
+Social scientists Sue, Bucceri, Lin, Nadal, and Torino (2007) described microaggressions as "the new face of racism", saying that the nature of racism has shifted over time from overt expressions of racial hatred and hate crimes, toward expressions of aversive racism, such as microaggressions, that are more subtle, ambiguous, and often unintentional. Sue says this has led some Americans to believe wrongly that non-white Americans no longer suffer from racism. One example of such subtle expressions of racism is Asian students being either pathologized or penalized as too passive or quiet. An incident that caused controversy at UCLA occurred when a teacher corrected a student's use of "indigenous" in a paper by changing it from upper- to lowercase.
+According to Sue et al., microaggressions seem to appear in four forms:

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+---
+title: "Microaggression"
+chunk: 2/7
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microaggression"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:14.791929+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Microassault: an explicit racial derogation; verbal/nonverbal; e.g. name-calling, avoidant behavior, purposeful discriminatory actions.
+Microinsult: communications that convey rudeness and insensitivity and demean a person's racial heritage or identity; subtle snubs; unknown to the perpetrator; hidden insulting message to the recipient.
+Microinvalidation: communications that exclude, negate, or nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality of a person belonging to a particular group.
+Environmental Microaggressions (Macro-Level): Racial assaults, insults and invalidations which are manifested on systemic and environmental level.
+Some psychologists have criticized microaggression theory for assuming that all verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities are due to bias. Thomas Schacht says that it is uncertain whether a behavior is due to racial bias or is a larger phenomenon that occurs regardless of identity conflict. However, Kanter and colleagues found that racial microaggressions were robustly correlated to five separate measures of bias. In reviewing the microaggression literature, Scott Lilienfeld suggested that microassaults should probably be struck from the taxonomy because the examples provided in the literature tend not to be "micro", but are outright assaults, intimidation, harassment and bigotry; in some cases, examples have included criminal acts. Others have pointed out that what could be perceived as subtle snubs could be due to people having autism, and assuming ill will could be harmful to people with autism.
+
+==== Examples ====
+In conducting two focus groups with Asian-Americans, for instance, Sue proposed different themes under the ideology of microinsult and microinvalidation.
+Microinvalidation:
+
+Alien in own land: When people assume people of color are foreigners.
+E.g.: "So where are you really from?" or "Why don't you have an accent?"
+Denial of racial reality: When people  emphasize that a person of color does not suffer from racial discrimination or inequality (this correlates to the idea of model minority).
+Invisibility: Asian-Americans are considered invisible or outside discussions of race and racism.
+E.g.: Discussions on race in the United States excluding Asian-Americans by focusing only on 'white and black' issues.
+Refusal to acknowledge intra-ethnic differences: When a speaker ignores intra-ethnic differences and assumes a broad homogeneity over multiple ethnic groups.
+E.g.: Descriptions such as "all Asian-Americans look alike", or assumptions that all members of an ethnic minority speak the same language or have the same cultural values.
+Microinsult:
+
+Pathologizing cultural values/communication styles: When Asian American culture and values are viewed as less desirable.
+E.g.: Viewing the valuation of silence (a cultural norm present in some Asian communities) as a fault, leading to disadvantages caused by the expectation of verbal participation common in many Western academic settings.
+Second-class citizenship: When minorities are treated as lesser human beings, or are not treated with equal rights or priority.
+E.g.: A Korean man asking for a drink in a bar being ignored by the bartender, or the bartender choosing to serve a white man before serving the Korean man.
+Ascription of intelligence: When people of color are stereotyped to have a certain level of intelligence based on their race.
+E.g.: "You people always do well in school", or "If I see a lot of Asian students in my class, I know it's going to be a hard class".
+Exoticization of non-white women: When non-white women are stereotyped as being in the "exotic" category based on gender, appearance, and media expectations.
+E.g.: Descriptions of an Asian-American woman as a 'Dragon Lady', 'Tiger mother', or 'Lotus Blossom', or using symbols associated with Eastern cultures.
+In a 2017 peer-reviewed review of the literature, Scott Lilienfeld critiqued microaggression research for hardly having advanced beyond taxonomies such as the above, which was proposed by Sue nearly ten years earlier. While acknowledging the reality of "subtle slights and insults directed toward minorities", Lilienfeld concluded that the concept and programs for its scientific assessment are "far too underdeveloped on the conceptual and methodological fronts to warrant real-world application". He recommended abandonment of the term microaggression since "the use of the root word 'aggression' in 'microaggression' is conceptually confusing and misleading". In addition, he called for a moratorium on microaggression training programs until further research can develop the field.
+In 2017 Althea Nagai, who worked as a research fellow at the conservative Center for Equal Opportunity, published an article in the National Association of Scholars journal, criticizing microaggression research as pseudoscience. Nagai said that critical race theory influences microaggression theory and that researchers "reject the methodology and standards of modern science." She lists various technical shortcomings of research on racial microaggressions, including "biased interview questions, reliance on narrative and small numbers of respondents, problems of reliability, issues of replicability, and ignoring alternative explanations."

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+---
+title: "Microaggression"
+chunk: 3/7
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microaggression"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:13:14.791929+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Gender ===
+ 
+Gender microaggressions may replace more blatant forms of sexism and gender discrimination when a society evolves sufficiently for those forms of outright prejudice to be deemed no longer acceptable. For instance, explicit sexism in the society of the US is on the decline, but still exists in a variety of subtle and non-subtle expressions. Women encounter microaggressions in which they are made to feel inferior, sexually objectified, and bound to restrictive gender roles, both in the workplace and in academia, as well as in athletics. Microaggressions against sexual and gender minority people and cisgender women share many common themes.
+Influential early studies on gender microaggressions documented common themes across incidents. The themes are sexual objectification, treatment as an invisible or second-class citizen, assuming inferiority, denying the reality of sexism, assuming traditional gender roles, using sexist language, denying one's own sexism, and systemic or environmental issues. As one example, when one employer paid women less than men for the same work, it sent the message that the company believed women were less smart or capable than men, fitting the themes of second-class citizen and environmental mistreatment. Researchers continue to draw out further themes for classifying gender microaggressions, like expectations for people's appearances.
+Gender microaggressions fit into the three types of microaggressions: microassault, microinsult, and microinvalidation. Catcalling is a form of sexual objectification and gendered slurs are a use of sexist language, but both could be classified as blatant, likely conscious, acts of microassault. Overlooking women for physical tasks, which signals an assumption that women are weak, has a theme of assuming inferiority: this can be considered a microinsult due to its more subtle insulting message. Dismissing an employee's complaint of a coworker's sexist behavior can be a form of denying the reality of sexism, and also a microinvalidation. However, researchers have debated how the frameworks of gender microaggressions, sexual harassment, and sexual assault intersect. Behaviors classified as gender microassaults frequently overlap with harassment and assault, so labeling them as microassaults may thus be confusing and invalidating.
+Some examples of gender microaggressions are "[addressing someone by using] a sexist name, a man refusing to wash dishes because it is 'women's work,' displaying nude pin-ups of women at places of employment, someone making unwanted sexual advances toward another person". Microaggressions based on gender are applied to female athletes when their abilities are compared only to men, when they are judged on "attractiveness", and when they are restricted to "feminine" or sexually attractive attire during competition. Some of the most-studied environmental microaggressions include biased media portrayals of women, gender disparities in leadership across society or for a career, and overheard everyday discriminatory messages. Makin and Morczek use the term gendered microaggression to refer to male interest in violent rape pornography.
+Microaggressions specifically targeting transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people are documented in a growing body of studies, usually involving interviews with transgender people about their experiences. One 2012 study documented a set of themes that commonly occur in these microaggressions: the use of transphobic or misgendering language, threatening or harassing behaviors, assuming a stereotypical trans experience, exoticizing, pathologizing, or disapproving of trans people, assuming roles based on the gender binary, denying that transphobia exists or denying one's own transphobic actions, and invading bodily privacy. One theme centers around family settings, where family members may refuse to use a trans person's pronouns or the name that aligns with their gender identity. A 2014 study noted another theme among microaggressions towards trans people, where the perpetrator questions the legitimacy of a gender identity or invalidates the target's specific gender identity.
+Some studies suggest that the microaggressions a trans person experiences from their friends tend to vary depending on the sexuality and gender identity of their friend. Microaggressions coming from trans friends may involve invalidating someone's trans identity or questioning their authenticity as a trans person, and these may be the most distressing microaggressions because of the similar identity of the friend. Microaggressions coming from queer friends who aren't trans may feel disappointing because the friend is in a relatedly marginalized group but still committed the behavior. Microaggressions from straight cisgender friends often follow the set of general themes of microaggressions towards trans people, and these occur much more frequently than microaggressions from queer friends.  
+Systemic microaggressions targeting trans people frequently happen in the context of public restrooms, the criminal justice system, emergency healthcare, and government IDs. Sociologists Sonny Nordmarken and Reese Kelly (2014) identified trans-specific microaggressions that transgender people face in healthcare settings, which include pathologization, sexualization, rejection, invalidation, exposure, isolation, intrusion, and coercion.
+
+=== Sexuality and sexual orientation ===