Ivory carving is the art of carving ivory for ornamental or useful purposes, practised from prehistoric to modern times. The ivory most frequently used is obtained from elephant tusks, but other types of ivory or substitute materials include the tusks, teeth, horns, and bones of the narwhal, walrus, and other animals, as well as vegetableivory and synthetic ivories. The earliest ivory carvings known were made in the Old Stone Age. The inhabitants of Europe in the Perigoridan period more than 20,000 years ago produced great numbers of ivory, bone, and horn carvings, with nude female figures being the most common subject. Representations of animals occur most often in the subsequent Magdalenian period. In Egypt the art of ivory and bone carving was developed in predynastic times, before 3000 BC . Large numbers of carved figures of men and women, as well as carved combs, hairpins, and handles, have been found in Egyptian tombs dating from predynastic and early dynastic periods. Objects found in Egyptian tombs of later date include carved ivory weapon hilts and furniture and caskets inlaid with ivory carvings.
Mesopotamian ivories frequently show strong Egyptian influence. They include a series of tablets carved with figures in low relief, made at the ancient Assyrian capital Nineveh. The Minoans in Crete, and later the ancient Greeks, were noted for their ivory carvings. The Minoans carved small acrobats and snake goddesses.
The Greeks were famous especially in the 5th century BC for their chryselephantine statues, often of heroic size, in which the flesh was represented in carved ivory and the hair and garments in sculptured gold. Among the Romans, in late imperial times, consular diptychs of carved ivory were much in demand. A consular diptych was a two-leafed tablet decorated with portraits and scenes commemorating the inauguration of a consul. It contained a sheet of wax for writing and was given to friends. Ivory carving flourished under the Byzantine Empire, particularly in the 5th and 6th centuries and from the 10th to the 13th century. Christian figures, symbols, and scenes were the subjects most commonly depicted on ivory book covers, icons, boxes, shrines, crosiers, crucifixes, door panels, and thrones. A masterpiece of Byzantine ivory is the Throne of Maximilian. Most Byzantine carvings, however, were in the form of a diptych. In Europe during the reigns of Charlemagne and his successors in the 9th and 10th centuries, elaborately carved ivory book covers, reliquaries, and altarpieces were produced.
Relatively little ivory carving was undertaken in Romanesque Europe, but it reached great heights in the Gothic period. Gothic ivories from the 13th to the 15th century were chiefly religious, as in earlier periods, but were more for private devotions than ecclesiastical use. Popular objects included diptychs with deeply carved figures and elaborate architectural decoration. Especially fine work was produced in Paris. During the 15th and 16th centuries, ivory carving was not popular, but in the baroque and rococo periods in the 17th and 18th centuries it again came into vogue, especially in Germany and the Netherlands. German craftsmen were known for richly ornamented ivories; Flemish craftsmen produced statuettes and other sculpture- inspired ivory carvings. France again became an important ivory- carving centre. The chief centres of the industry were the French cities of Dieppe and Paris, where large numbers of crucifixes and other religious objects were produced.
During the 18th century, however, the demand for ivories diminished. Ivory recovered its popularity in decorative arts in the Art Nouveau style at the end of the 19th century. Old ivory carvings are especially valued by 20th-century collectors of ivory, but very little ivory work is now produced in the western hemisphere. Muslim craftsmen in the Middle East created ivory inlay in intricate arabesque patterns on furniture and other woodwork. In the Far East the best-known ivories are those of India, Japan, and particularly China. Indians carved figures of their gods and ornate caskets, often imitating Italian styles. Japanese netsukes, small carved purse toggles, are often made of ivory. The Chinese have traditionally esteemed ivory and encouraged their artists to work in it. The art still flourishes today; objects created include statuettes, chess pieces, fans, screens, toilet articles, chopsticks, and models of buildings and boats. The Chinese are world famous for their ivory curiosities, particularly the concentric ivory balls carved one inside the other by Cantonese craftsmen. In Inuit, African, and American Indian cultures, carving in ivory, horn, and bone has been practised from the earliest times to the present day. Research Ivory Carving
The Anthozoa is the class of marine animals known as sea anemones, sea fans, sea pens and stony corals. They are solitary or colonial animals in which only hydroid individuals are represented. Research Anthozoa
The Gorgonidae or sea-fans are a family of corals belonging to the Alcyonarian division. The skeleton is horny and fan-shaped, but a certain amount of lime is always present. Research Gorgonidae
The Purse-Web Spider (Atypus affinis) is a species of British spider. The spider lives inside a subterranean silken tube a small part of which lies on the surface of the soil. When an insect walks over the tube the spider rushes up the tube, upside down, sinks its fans into the prey, devours it and then repairs the tube. Research Purse-Web Spider
The Fans are an African race of people inhabiting the region of the west coast about the Gaboon River and the Ogoway. They are traditionally an energetic race, skilled in various arts and cannibals, but contact with Europeans led to their cannibalism being supressed in the 20th century.
Ozzy Osbourne (real name John Michael Osbourne) is an English singer and actor. He was born in 1948 at Birmingham. He was a founder member of the rock group 'Black Sabbath' before leaving the band in 1979 following a break down in his relationship with fellow band member Tony Iommi. During the 1980's attempts were made to link his records with suicides among some of his fans, however he was cleared of all responsibility. Research Ozzy Osbourne
Diana Muldaur is an American actress. She was born in 1943. She is known to Star Trek fans for appearing in two original series episodes, and in the ' Next Generation' series. She has also appeared in numerous other American television series including Bonanza and Hawaii-Five-O. Research Diana Muldaur
Dame Judi Dench is an English actress. She was born in 1934 at York. A five- time winner of the British Academy Award, she was granted an Order of the British Empire in 1970 and made a Dame of the British Empire in 1988. Dench made her stage debut as a snail in a junior school production. After attending art school, she studied acting at London's Central School of Speech and Drama and in 1957, made her professional stage debut as Ophelia in the Old Vic's Liverpool production of Hamlet. A prolific stage career followed, with seasons spent performing with the likes of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Dench broke into film in 1964 with a supporting role in The Third Secret. The following year, she won her first BAFTA, a Most Promising Newcomer honor for her work in Four in the Morning. Although she continued to work in film, Dench earned most of her recognition and acclaim for her stage work. Occasionally she brought her stage roles to the screen in such film adaptations as A Midsummer Night's
Dream in 1968 and Macbeth in 1978, in which she was Lady Macbeth to Ian McKellen's tormented king. It was not until the mid-1980s that Dench began to make her name known to an international film audience. In 1986, she had a memorable turn as a meddlesome romance author in A Room with a View, earning a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for her tart portrayal. Two years later, she won the same award for her work in another period drama, A Handful of Dust. After her supporting role as Mistress Quickly in Kenneth Branagh's acclaimed 1989 adaptation of Henry V, Dench exchanged the past for the present with her thoroughly modern role as M in GoldenEye in 1995, the first of the Pierce Brosnan series of James Bond films. She portrayed the character for the subsequent Brosnan 007 films, lending flinty elegance to what had traditionally been a male role. The part of M had the advantage of introducing Dench to an audience unfamiliar with her work, and in 1997 she earned further international recognition, as well as an Oscar nomination and
Golden Globe award, for her portrayal of Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown. The following year, Dench did win the Oscar, garnering Best Supporting Actress honors for her eight- minute appearance as Queen Elizabeth in the acclaimed Shakespeare in Love. Her win resulted in the kind of media adulation usually afforded to actresses one-third her age. The following year, Dench continued to reap both acclaim and new fans with her work in Tea with Mussolini and the latest Bond extravaganza, The World is Not Enough. While her screen career has taken on an increasingly high- profile nature, Dench has continued to act on both television and the stage. In the former medium, she endeared herself to viewers with her work in such series as As Time Goes By and 'A Fine Romance' . On the stage, Dench made history in 1996, becoming the first performer to win two Olivier Awards for two different roles in the same year. Research Judi Dench More information about Judi dench
Navigation is the science and technology of finding the position, course, and distance travelled by a ship, plane, or other craft. Traditional methods include the magnetic compass and sextant. Today the gyrocompass is usually used, together with highly sophisticated electronic methods, employing beacons of radio signals, such as Decca, Loran, and Omega. Satellite navigation uses satellites that broadcast time and position signals. The Phoenicians, Syrians, Carthaginians, Greeks and Romans conducted their voyages solely by the observation of the heavens, and by keeping as much as possible to the coast. It was not until the voyages made by direction of Prince Henry of Portugal, after 1418, that navigation seems to have been systematically conducted, and the sea-instruments and sea-charts then constructed formed the basis of maritime science until replaced by satellite
navigation equipment in the late 1990s. An early invention that marked progress was the cross-staff, first described by Werner in 1514. It was used for the determination of longitude, by observation of the distance between the moon and some star; and out of it grew the fore-staff and the back-staff.
In 1530 Gemma Frisius of Louvain devised the idea of using small clocks in conjunction with instrumental observation, and the nautical quadrant in some form was thenceforth part of every ship' s furniture. John Davis' quadrant (the back-staff) seems to have been generally preferred for many years. In the early 16th century there also cam into use at sea the astrolabe, for taking the altitude of the sun and stars. This instrument was made very heavy, so that it hung perpendicularly and steadily. The middle of the 16th century saw the invention of the log-line. Voyages were, however, conducted rather by guesswork and experience, and especially so previous to the discovery of methods of finding the longitude. Mercator's system of plane charts furthered
progress; and Edward Wright discovered the true method of dividing the meridian, and drew up a table for the use of navigators by which latitude could be determined.
The US global positioning system (GPS) was introduced 1992 and features 24 Navstar satellites that enable users to triangulate their position (from any three satellites) to within 15 m. In 1992, 85 nations agreed to take part in trials of a new navigation system which makes use of surplus military space technology left over from the Cold War. The new system, known as FANS or Future Navigation System, makes use of the 24 Russian Glonass satellites and the 24 US GPS satellites. Small computers will gradually be fitted to civil aircraft to process the signals from the satellite, allowing aircraft to navigate with pinpoint accuracy anywhere in the world. The signals from at least three satellites will guide the craft to within a few metres of accuracy. FANS will be used in conjunction with four Inmarsat satellites to provide worldwide communications between pilots and air-traffic controllers.
An Australian prototype for an electronic navigation system ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display Information System) is a single computer-based apparatus that combines information from existing navigational aids, such as charts, radar, sonar and satellites. Research Navigation
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