Kusado Sengen

Kusado Sengen (草戸千軒, kusado sengen) is the name of a medieval town in Japan. It is located near the Ashida River in present day Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture. Investigators believe that Kusado Sengen was a minor commercial port town on the Seto Inland Sea during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods.

Discovery

Kusado Sengen was discovered in 1931 when a large quantity of pottery, porcelain and gravestones were discovered while attempting to re-route the Ashida River. Many historians believed that it was the site of a medieval town named Kusado Sengen. Excavation was not carried out, and the site was buried by a sandbank in the re-routed river.

 

Excavation

Excavation of the site was started in 1961 by the Fukuyama Municipal Board of Education. Several items dating back to the Kamakura and Muromachi Periods were found, and it became obvious that the site was indeed Kusado Sengen. The Ministry of Construction planned river improvements and the construction of a dam. These plans caused the possibility that the sandbank on which the site was located might be destroyed or completely submerged. Serious and long-term investigations therefore became urgently necessary. Accordingly, the Hiroshima Prefectural Institute for the Kusado Sengen-cho Site Investigations was founded in 1973 as a research unit within the Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education.

Many of the finds from the site that have been excavated are waterlogged and reasonably well preserved. Finds include wells, pits for garbage dumping, ditches, ponds, graves, and a wide range of objects such as pottery, wooden objects, stone objects, metal objects, bone tools, fabrics, and organic remains.

Pottery was very common amongst the finds at the site, the most common being earthenware. A great deal of imported pottery from Vietnam, Korea and China was found with it.

Many kinds of wooden objects were discovered. The majority of them were for daily activities such as eating and storage.

Lacquer ware bowls and dishes are regarded as common tableware in the town. These are believed to have been produced in the town, since a lot of lacquering tools were excavated from the site. On many of lacquer vessels there are designs of living things such as birds and plants.

Other finds include coins and carpenters' tools.

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusado_Sengen

Obama Castle (Fukui)

Obama Castle (小浜城, Obama-jō) is a castle located in Obama, Fukui Prefecture, Japan. The castle is also known as Unpin Castle (雲浜城, Unpin-jō). In 1601 (Keichō 6), after receiving Wakasa Province due to successes in the Battle of Sekigahara, Kyōgoku Takatsugu (京極高次) built Obama Castle by using local fisherman as workers. In 1634 (Kan'ei 11), Sakai Tadakatsu (酒井忠勝) took control of the castle after the Kyōgoku family moved to Izumo near Matsue. He finally completed the castle tower with 113,000 stones in 1636 (Kan'ei 13), with the tower reaching a height of 29m.
Obama Castle was held by the Sakai family up to the Meiji Restoration in 1868. It was destroyed in a fire in 1871 (Meiji 4) after acting as the prefectural office since the Meiji Restoration, and only the stone walls remain today. The ruins are often referred to as Obama Castle Ruins (小浜城跡, Obama-jō Ato) in tourist brochures.

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_Castle_(Fukui)

Tulor

Tulor is an archaeological site located in the Norte Grande natural region of the Antofagasta Region, Chile near San Pedro de Atacama. The site is a former village complex with an area of 5,200 m² (55,972 sq ft) and 22 outlying edifices. The settlement's remains are distributed in an east-west fashion along 2 km (1 mi). Radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating date the origin of the settlement sometime between 380 BCE and 200 CE, but most structures are from the period 800 CE - 1200 CE. Architectural characteristics of Tulor are circular walls are made of mud and vaults.

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulor

Lasana

Lasana is a small village located 40 km (25 mi) northeast of the city of Calama in the Calama province of Chile's northern Antofagasta Region. It sits along the banks of the Loa River.

Pukará de Lasana, (from Quechua Pukara: fortress), a pre-Columbian fortress built in the 12th century, is the main architectural attraction of the village. It is located 8 km (5 mi) north of San Francisco de Chiu Chiu and was declared a national monument in 1982.

Petroglyphs can also be found in the area.

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasana

Atacama Giant

The Atacama Giant (Spanish: Gigante de Atacama) is a large anthropomorphic geoglyph in the Atacama Desert, Chile. Located at "Cerro Unitas", this is the largest prehistoric anthropomorphic figure in the world with a height of 86 metres (282 ft) and represents a deity for the local inhabitants from 1000 to 1400 CE.

The figure was an early astronomical calendar for knowing where the moon would set; by knowing this the day, crop cycle, and season could be determined. The points on the top and side of the head would say what season it would be depending on their alignment with the moon, which was very important in determining when the rainy season would come in the barren Atacama.

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atacama_Giant

Areopagus

The Areopagus or Areios Pagos (Greek: Άρειος Πάγος) is the 'Rock of Ares', north-west of the Acropolis, which in classical times functioned as the high Court of Appeal for criminal and civil cases in Athens. Ares was supposed to have been tried here by the gods for the murder of Poseidon's son Alirrothios (a typical example of an aetiological myth). In The Eumenides of Aeschylus (458 BC), the Areopagus is the site of the trial of Orestes for killing his mother (Clytemnestra) and her lover (Aegisthus).

Phryne, the hetaera from 4th century BC Greece and famed for her beauty, appeared before the Areopagus accused of profaning the Eleusinian mysteries. Legend has it that she let her cloak drop, so impressing the judges with her almost divine form that she was summarily acquitted.

The origin of its name is not clear. In Greek pagos means big piece of rock. Areios could have come from Ares or from the Erinyes, as on its foot was erected a temple dedicated to the Erinyes where murderers used to find shelter so as not to face the consequences of their actions. Later, the Romans referred to the rocky hill as "Mars Hill," after Mars, the Roman God of War. Near the Areopagus was also constructed the basilica of Dionysius Areopagites.

In pre-classical times (before the 5th century BC), the Areopagus was the council of elders of the city, similar to the Roman Senate. Like the Senate, its membership was restricted to those who had held high public office, in this case that of Archon. In 462 BC, Ephialtes put through reforms which deprived the Areopagus of almost all its functions except that of a murder tribunal in favour of Heliaia.

In an unusual development, the Areopagus acquired a new function in the 4th century BC, investigating corruption, although conviction powers remained with the Ecclesia.

The Areopagus, like most city-state institutions, continued to function in Roman times, and it was from this location, drawing from the potential significance of the Athenian altar to the Unknown God, that the Apostle Paul is said to have delivered the famous speech, "Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands." ( Acts 17:24)

The term "Areopagus" also refers to the judicial body of aristocratic origin (the power of which was enhanced by Solon) that subsequently formed the higher court of modern Greece.

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areopagus

Discophoros

The Discophoros, also spelled Discophorus, (Greek - "Discus-Bearer") was a bronze sculpture by the classical Greek sculptor Polyclitus, creator of the Doryphoros and Diadumenos, and its many Roman marble copies. (It is not, however, to be confused with Discobolus of Myron, which shows a discus being thrown not carried.)

Like the Doryphoros and Diadumenos, it was created as an example of Polyclitus's "canon" of the ideal human form in sculpture. It features a young, muscular, solidly-built athlete in a moment of thought between disrobing ready to throw the discus and actually throwing it. The marble copies that feature the addition of a marble tree stump - marble is weaker but heavier than bronze, so the stump is needed for support. These copies are also often missing their arms, which are equally often restored.

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discophoros