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  • ear (anatomy)
    organ of hearing and equilibrium that detects and analyzes noises by transduction (or the conversion of sound waves into electrochemical impulses) and maintains the sense of balance (equilibrium)....
  • ear bone (anatomy)
    Crossing the middle-ear cavity is the short ossicular chain formed by three tiny bones that link the tympanic membrane with the oval window and inner ear (Figure 2). From the outside inward they are the malleus (hammer), the incus (anvil), and the stapes (stirrup). The malleus more closely resembles a club than a hammer, and the incus looks more like a premolar tooth with uneven roots than an......
  • ear disease (human)
    any of the diseases or disorders that affect the human ear and hearing....
  • ear fly (insect)
    any member of the insect family Tabanidae (order Diptera), but more specifically any member of the genus Tabanus. These stout flies, as small as a housefly or as large as a bumble bee, are sometimes known as greenheaded monsters; their metallic or iridescent eyes meet dorsally in the male and are separate in the female. Gad fly, a nickname, may refer either to the fly’s roving habits...
  • ear fungus
    The ear fungus (Auricularia auricula-judae), also called Jew’s ear fungus, is a brown, gelatinous edible fungus found on dead tree trunks in moist weather in the autumn. One of 10 widespread Auricularia species, it is ear- or shell-shaped and sometimes acts as a parasite, especially on elder (Sambucus)....
  • ear, labyrinth of the (anatomy)
    part of the ear that contains organs of the senses of hearing and equilibrium. The bony labyrinth, a cavity in the temporal bone, is divided into three sections: the vestibule, the semicircular canals, and the cochlea. Within the bony labyrinth is a membranous labyrinth, which is also divided into three parts: the semicirc...
  • ear mite
    ...ears—the basset hound is an extreme example (see photograph)—are prone to diseases of the ear canal. Moisture becomes trapped in the ear, producing yeast infections. Such parasites as ear mites thrive in the ear canal, causing a dark, malodorous exudate. Frequently, the dog is uncomfortable and scratches the ears or rubs the ears along the ground or on the furniture. Most ear......
  • ear shell (gastropod family)
    any of various marine snails of the subclass Prosobranchia (class Gastropoda) that constitute the genus Haliotis and family Haliotidae. The characteristic planispiral shell has a broad, oblique aperture, which gives it an earlike shape, and a series of perforations through the shell involved in directing water flow. The inside of the shell is always nacreous, often in iridescent greens and ...
  • ear squeeze (physiology)
    effects of a difference in pressure between the internal ear spaces and the external ear canal. These effects may include severe pain, inflammation, bleeding, and rupture of the eardrum membrane. Underwater divers and airplane pilots are sometimes affected....
  • ear-poisoning drug
    Ototoxic (harmful to the ear) drugs can cause temporary and sometimes permanent impairment of auditory nerve function. Salicylates such as aspirin in large enough doses may cause ringing in the ears and then a temporary decrease in hearing that ceases when the person stops taking the drug. Quinine can have a similar effect but with a permanent impairment of auditory nerve function in some......
  • eardrum (anatomy)
    membrane in the human ear that receives sound vibrations from the outer air and transmits them to the auditory ossicles, which are tiny bones in the tympanic (middle ear) cavity. It also serves as the lateral wall of the tympanic cavity, separating it from the external auditory canal. The membrane lies across the end of the external canal and looks like a flattened cone with its tip (apex) pointe...
  • eardrum membrane (anatomy)
    membrane in the human ear that receives sound vibrations from the outer air and transmits them to the auditory ossicles, which are tiny bones in the tympanic (middle ear) cavity. It also serves as the lateral wall of the tympanic cavity, separating it from the external auditory canal. The membrane lies across the end of the external canal and looks like a flattened cone with its tip (apex) pointe...
  • eared seal (mammal)
    ...and related species), Mephitidae (skunks and stink badgers), Herpestidae (mongooses), Viverridae (civets, genets, and related species), and Hyaenidae (hyenas). There are three aquatic families: Otariidae (sea lions and fur seals), Phocidae (true, or earless, seals), and Odobenidae (the walrus). These aquatic families are referred to as pinnipeds....
  • eared vulture (bird)
    The lappet-faced vulture (Torgos tracheliotus), sometimes called the eared, or Nubian, vulture, is a huge Old World vulture of arid Africa. Being a metre tall, with a 2.7-metre (8.9-foot) wingspan, it dominates all other vultures when feeding. It is black and brown above and has a wedge-shaped tail; there is white down on the underparts. Large folds of skin hang from the sides of......
  • Earhart, Amelia (American aviator)
    American aviator, one of the world’s most celebrated, who was the first woman to fly alone over the Atlantic Ocean....
  • Earhart, Amelia Mary (American aviator)
    American aviator, one of the world’s most celebrated, who was the first woman to fly alone over the Atlantic Ocean....
  • Earl of Baltimore, the (American baseball player and manager)
    American professional baseball player and manager whose career managerial record of 1,480 wins and 1,060 losses is one of the best in major league history....
  • Earl of Leicester’s Men (English theatrical company)
    earliest organized Elizabethan acting company. Formed in 1559 from members of the Earl of Leicester’s household, the troupe performed at court the following year. A favourite of Queen Elizabeth, the company was granted a license by royal patent. In 1576 James Burbage, a member of the troupe, built The Theatre to stage their productions. From 1570 to 1583 the Earl of Leice...
  • Earle, Alice Morse (American author)
    American writer and antiquarian whose work centred on the manners, customs, and handicrafts of various periods of American history....
  • Earle, Diane (American singer and actress)
    ...second most successful singing group of the decade—surpassed only by the Beatles—but they remain the most successful female singing group of all time. The group’s glamorous lead singer, Diana Ross, went on to a remarkable solo career as a singer and a moderately successful career as an actress....
  • Earle, Florence Van Leer (American poet)
    American poet whose carefully crafted, contemplative verse gained the respect of many of the leading literary figures of her day....
  • Earle, George (American settler)
    city, Lake county, northwestern Indiana, U.S., adjacent to Gary. George Earle laid out the site in 1849, having built a dam across the Deep River to provide waterpower for his gristmill in 1845, and he named the community for his brother Frederick Hobart Earle. The dam created Lake George, now a recreation area near the centre of the city. Hobart is part of the East Chicago–Gary......
  • Earle, John (British clergyman and author)
    Anglican clergyman, best known as author of Micro-cosmographie. Or, A Peece of the World Discovered; in Essayes and Characters (1628; enlarged 1629 and 1630)....
  • Earle, Stephen Fain (American musician)
    American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who bridged the genres of rock and country music....
  • Earle, Steve (American musician)
    American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who bridged the genres of rock and country music....
  • Earles, John (British clergyman and author)
    Anglican clergyman, best known as author of Micro-cosmographie. Or, A Peece of the World Discovered; in Essayes and Characters (1628; enlarged 1629 and 1630)....
  • earless monitor (lizard species)
    The earless monitor (L. borneensis), a rare and little-known lizard native to Borneo, is the only species in the subfamily Lanthanotinae. It too is elongate with a relatively long neck, but the limbs are small. It grows to a length of 40 cm (16 inches)....
  • earless seal (mammal)
    ...(skunks and stink badgers), Herpestidae (mongooses), Viverridae (civets, genets, and related species), and Hyaenidae (hyenas). There are three aquatic families: Otariidae (sea lions and fur seals), Phocidae (true, or earless, seals), and Odobenidae (the walrus). These aquatic families are referred to as pinnipeds....
  • earless water rat (rodent)
    Water rats of the genus Hydromys live in the mountains and coastal lowlands of Australia, New Guinea, and some nearby islands. The earless water rat (Crossomys moncktoni) inhabits mountains of eastern New Guinea, where it prefers cold, fast-flowing streams bordered by tropical forest or grass. The African water rat is also found along streams bordered by tropical......
  • Earlham College (college, Richmond, Indiana, United States)
    private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Richmond, Ind., U.S. It is affiliated with the Society of Friends (Quakers). A four-year liberal arts college, it offers bachelor’s degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, religion, fine arts, and natural sciences and a master’s degree in religion. About two-thirds of the students spend a term in an off-campus study...
  • Earlier German History, Society for
    ...energy did not desert him. German historical science, in fact, owes to Stein’s efforts its most important enterprise of publishing. The Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde (Society for Earlier German History) was founded on Jan. 20, 1819, at his house in Frankfurt am Main, with him as its head and its coordinating force. The Gesellschaft has remained the most i...
  • Earlier Le dynasty (Vietnamese history)
    (1428–1788), the greatest and longest lasting dynasty of traditional Vietnam. Its predecessor, the Earlier Le, was founded by Le Hoan and lasted from 980 to 1009....
  • Earliest Jōmon (ancient culture, Japan)
    The period called Earliest, or Initial, Jōmon (c. 7500–5000 bc) produced bullet-shaped pots used for cooking or boiling food. The tapered bases of the pots were designed to stabilize the vessels in soft soil and ash at the centre of a fire pit. Decorative schemes included markings made by pressing shells and cords or by rolling a carved stick into the clay before...
  • early abortion
    ...abortion as the expulsion or extraction of all (complete) or any part (incomplete) of the placenta or membranes, with or without an abortus, before the 20th week (before 134 days) of gestation. Early abortion is an abortion that occurs before the 12th completed week of gestation (84 days); late abortion is an abortion that occurs after the 12th completed week but before the beginning of the......
  • Early American Children’s Books (work by Rosenbach)
    ...to the Philadelphia Free Library; he bought eight Gutenberg Bibles and more than 30 Shakespeare first folios. He published a great many bibliographical and literary articles; his checklist Early American Children’s Books (1933) is a standard reference. In 1930 he established the Rosenbach Fellowship in Bibliography at the University of Pennsylvania and willed his estate to the......
  • Early American furniture
    furniture made in the last half of the 17th century by American colonists. The earliest known American-made furniture dates from the mid-17th century, when life in the colonies was becoming increasingly settled. Many of these early pieces were massive in size and were based on styles recalled from earlier days in England. In general, furniture styles followed those of England, with adaptations, af...
  • Early Anyathian complex (prehistoric implements)
    Pebble tools, including choppers and chopping tools, are found in the Pleistocene terrace deposits of the Irrawaddy Valley of upper Myanmar. This complex is known as the Anyathian. The Early Anyathian is characterized by single-edged core implements made on natural fragments of fossil wood and silicified tuff, and these are associated with crude flake implements. In the Late Anyathian, a direct......
  • Early Archaic Chinese language
    Oracular Chinese is known only from rather brief oracle inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells. Archaic Chinese falls into Early, Middle (c. 800–c. 400 bc), and Late Archaic. Early Archaic is represented by bronze inscriptions, parts of the Shujing (“Classic of History”), and parts of the Shijing ...
  • Early Bangkok period (Thailand history)
    The Thon Buri and Early Bangkok periods...
  • Early Bird (satellite)
    The consortium contracted with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to launch its satellites. The first of these was Early Bird, later renamed Intelsat 1, which was placed in a stationary orbit over the Atlantic Ocean at the Equator in 1965. Within a few years, other members of the Intelsat series were orbited over the Pacific and Indian oceans, establishing a......
  • early blind snake (snake family)
    ...Pelvic vestiges present. Tracheal lung present. 1 species (Ramphotyphlops braminus) parthenogenetic.Family Anomalepididae (dawn blind snakes)15 species in 4 genera from Central America to northern South America. Size small, 15–40 cm. Pelvic vestiges absent. Tracheal lung pre...
  • Early Bodleian Music (compilation by Stainer)
    ...music for the church service. He also published treatises on the organ and music theory and collaborated on a dictionary of musical terms. Stainer’s most lasting contribution is his compilation Early Bodleian Music, with musical examples from the 12th to the 16th century, and Dufay and His Contemporaries (publication begun in 1898), an edition of 15th-century music prepared...
  • Early Bronze Age
    The period following the Chalcolithic in Anatolia is generally referred to as the Bronze Age. In its earlier phases the predominant metal was in fact pure copper, but the older term Copper Age created confusion and has been discarded. Archaeological convention divides the Bronze Age into three subphases: early, middle, and late. The beginning of the Bronze Age, in the mid-4th millennium ...
  • Early Cambrian Epoch (geochronology)
    earliest time division of the Paleozoic Era, extending from about 542 to 488.3 million years ago. The Cambrian Period is divided into four stratigraphic series: Series 1 (542 to 521 million years ago), Series 2 (521 to 510 million years ago), Series 3 (510 to 501 million years ago), and the Furongian Series (501 to 488.3 million......
  • Early Carboniferous Epoch (geochronology)
    a mountain-building event in eastern Australia toward the end of Early Carboniferous time (about 325,000,000 years ago). Uplift and deformation occurred in a wide belt extending from Tasmania to Cape York. The Kanimblan was the most severe orogenic episode to affect the Tasman Geosyncline....
  • Early Chagatai language (language)
    The “Middle Turkic” period, which began in the 13th century, embraces several regional written languages: Khwārezmian Turkic, Volga Bolgarian, Old Kipchak, Old Ottoman, and Early Chagatai. Khwārezmian, used in the 13th–14th centuries in the empire of the Golden Horde, is based on the old language, but mixed with Oghuz and Kipchak elements. Volga Bolgarian is......
  • early childhood education
    education during the earliest phases of childhood, beginning in infancy and ending upon entry into primary school at about five, six, or seven years of age (the age varying from country to country)....
  • Early Christian art
    architecture, painting, and sculpture from the beginnings of Christianity until about the early 6th century, particularly the art of Italy and the western Mediterranean. (Early Christian art in the eastern part of the Roman Empire is usually considered to be part of Byzantine art) The Christian religion was part of a gener...
  • early church (Christianity)
    Christianity began as a movement within Judaism at a period when the Jews had long been dominated culturally and politically by foreign powers and had found in their religion (rather than in their politics or cultural achievements) the linchpin of their community. From Amos (8th century bc) onward the religion of Israel was marked by tension between the concept of monotheism, with it...
  • Early Classic sub-period (Mesoamerican history)
    Early Classic period (ad 100–600)...
  • Early Classical period (Greek art)
    The only significant architectural work of the early Classical period was at Olympia, where a great Temple of Zeus was built in about 460. This temple was the first statement of Classical Doric in its canonical form and one of the largest Doric temples of the Greek mainland....
  • Early Cretaceous Epoch (geology)
    ...like the East Pacific Rise (see below). Further, a correlation has been found between global spreading rates and the transgression and regression of ocean waters onto the continents. During the Early Cretaceous period about 100 million years ago, when global spreading rates were uniformly high, oceanic ridges occupied comparatively more of the ocean basins, causing the ocean waters to......
  • Early Devonian Epoch (geology)
    In the Antarctic both marine and continental Devonian strata occur, the latter rich in fossil fishes of European genera. The marine Lower Devonian shows some affinity with the Bokkeveld in South Africa, which in turn has strong links with South America. No Devonian strata are known in Africa between the Bokkeveld and sections in Ghana and northwestern Africa....
  • Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)
    Beyond this general characteristic of Sumerian sculpture, two successive styles have been distinguished in the middle and late subdivisions of the Early Dynastic period. One very notable group of figures, from Tall al-Asmar, Iraq (ancient Eshnunna), dating from the first of these phases, shows a geometric simplification of forms that, to modern taste, is ingenious and aesthetically acceptable.......
  • Early Dynastic period (ancient Egyptian history)
    The Early Dynastic period (c. 2925–c. 2575 bc)...
  • early Eocene Epoch (geology)
    ...from Africa and parts of Asia. Gundis have no close relatives among current rodents, and they form a small relict cluster of an impressive evolutionary diversification that began in the Early Eocene Epoch (54.8 million to 49 million years ago)....
  • early fallout (nuclear physics)
    ...If the explosion is on or near the surface, the soil, water, and other materials in the vicinity will be sucked upward by the rising cloud, causing early (local) and delayed (worldwide) fallout. Early fallout settles to the ground during the first 24 hours; it may contaminate large areas and be an immediate and extreme biological hazard. Delayed fallout, which arrives after the first day,......
  • Early Formative period (Mesoamerican history)
    ...to corn, crops included beans, squashes, chili peppers, and cotton. As agricultural productivity improved, the rudiments of civilization emerged during the period designated by archaeologists as the Early Formative (1500–900 bc). Pottery, which had appeared in some areas of the region as early as 2300 bc, perhaps introduced from Andean cultures to the south, t...
  • Early Germanic script
    There are at least three main varieties of runic script: Early, or Common, Germanic (Teutonic), used in northern Europe before about 800 ad; Anglo-Saxon, or Anglian, used in Britain from the 5th or 6th century to about the 12th century ad; and Nordic, or Scandinavian, used from the 8th to about the 12th or 13th century ad in Scandinavia and Iceland. After ...
  • Early Gothic art
    This first phase lasted from the Gothic style’s inception in 1120–50 to about 1200. The combination of all the aforementioned structural elements into a coherent style first occurred in the Île-de-France (the region around Paris), where prosperous urban populations had sufficient wealth to build the great cathedrals that epitomize the Gothic style. The earliest surviving Gothi...
  • Early Harappan culture (ancient Asian history)
    ...more-detailed cultural profiles for those periods, scholars have come to emphasize the subsistence bases of early societies—e.g., hunting and gathering, pastoralism, and agriculture. The terms Early Harappan and Harappan (from the site where remains of a major city of the Indus civilization were discovered in 1921) are used primarily in a chronological way but also loosely in a cultural....
  • Early History of the Christian Church (work by Duchesne)
    ...(1896; “Ecclesiastical Autonomies: Detached Churches”), dealing with the origin of the Greek and Anglican churches; and Histoire ancienne de l’église chrétienne (Early History of the Christian Church), of which the first three volumes (1905–08) were put on the Index of Forbidden Books, the fourth volume being published posthumously (1925)....
  • Early Horizon (Andean history)
    The Early Horizon emerged after the appearance and rapid spread of the Chavín art style, ending the regional isolation of the Initial Period. The Chavín art style derives its name from the ruined temple complex of Chavín de Huántar in the Andean highlands of central Peru. The dates suggested for the emergence of the style beyond the environs of the temple, however,......
  • Early Hunting period (Mesoamerican history)
    ...central Mexico remains speculative. The assertions of some archaeologists and linguists that early humans resided in Mexico some 30,000 to 40,000 years ago, before developing technology for big-game hunting, are rejected by most scholars. More generally accepted claims for early settlers in Mexico pertain to a somewhat later period and to hunters of large herd animals such as the mammoth. Human...
  • Early Indus culture (ancient Asian history)
    ...more-detailed cultural profiles for those periods, scholars have come to emphasize the subsistence bases of early societies—e.g., hunting and gathering, pastoralism, and agriculture. The terms Early Harappan and Harappan (from the site where remains of a major city of the Indus civilization were discovered in 1921) are used primarily in a chronological way but also loosely in a cultural....
  • Early Intermediate period (Andean history)
    The Early Horizon was succeeded by what has been termed the Early Intermediate Period. The onset of the Early Intermediate marked the decline of Chavín’s cultural influence and the attainment of artistic and technological peaks in a number of centres, both on the coast and in the highlands....
  • Early Iron Age (history)
    ...Danube about 1200 bc. Its expansion westward and southward, through diffusion and migration, was stimulated by a shift from bronze- to ironworking. Archaeologically, the type of developing Celtic Iron Age culture conventionally classified as Hallstatt appeared in Gaul from about 700 bc; in its La Tène form it made itself felt in Gaul after about 500 ...
  • Early Jōmon (ancient culture, Japan)
    Early Jōmon (5000–3500 bc) sites suggest a pattern of increased stabilization of communities, the formation of small settlements, and the astute use of abundant natural resources. A general climatic warming trend encouraged habitation in the mountain areas of central Honshu as well as coastal areas. Remains of pit houses have been found arranged in horseshoe formations ...
  • Early, Jubal A. (Confederate general)
    Confederate general in the American Civil War (1861–65) whose army at one time threatened Washington, D.C., but whose series of defeats during the Shenandoah Valley campaigns of late 1864 and early 1865 led to the final collapse of the South. A West Point graduate, Early served in the Second Seminole War in Florida (1835–42) and the Mexican War (1846–48). In...
  • Early, Jubal Anderson (Confederate general)
    Confederate general in the American Civil War (1861–65) whose army at one time threatened Washington, D.C., but whose series of defeats during the Shenandoah Valley campaigns of late 1864 and early 1865 led to the final collapse of the South. A West Point graduate, Early served in the Second Seminole War in Florida (1835–42) and the Mexican War (1846–48). In...
  • Early Ly dynasty (Vietnamese history)
    ...known later as Dai Viet, was established by Ly Thai To in the Red River Delta area of present northern Vietnam. Its capital was Thang Long (Hanoi). (It is “later” with respect to the Earlier Ly dynasty, founded by Ly Bon and lasting from 544 to 602/603.) The Later Ly was the first stable Vietnamese dynasty and helped establish many of the characteristics of the modern Vietnamese.....
  • Early Man and the Ocean: A Search for the Beginning of Navigation and Seaborn Civilizations (work by Heyerdahl)
    Heyerdahl’s other books include Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island (1958); Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature (1974); and Early Man and the Ocean: A Search for the Beginnings of Navigation and Seaborne Civilizations (1979), in which he synthesized the findings of earlier expeditions and provided additional evidence for his....
  • early Medieval Warm Period (geology)
    Approximately ad 1000–1250 the worldwide warm-up that culminated in the 10th century and has been called the early Medieval Warm Period or the “Little Climatic Optimum,” continued for two more centuries, although there was a brief drop in mean solar activity in the period around 1030–70. During the 8th to 10th centuries the Vikings had extended as far afie...
  • Early Middle Ages (European history)
    the early medieval period of western European history. Specifically, the term refers to the time (476–800) when there was no Roman (or Holy Roman) emperor in the West; or, more generally, to the period between about 500 and 1000, which was marked by frequent warfare and a virtual disappearance of urban life. It is now rarely used by historians because of the value judgment it implies. Thou...
  • Early Middle English language
    The history of Middle English is often divided into three periods: (1) Early Middle English, from about 1100 to about 1250, during which the Old English system of writing was still in use; (2) the Central Middle English period from about 1250 to about 1400, which was marked by the gradual formation of literary dialects, the use of an orthography greatly influenced by the Anglo-Norman writing......
  • early Miocene Epoch (geology)
    ...order Rodentia. Their closest living relatives are the nutria and American spiny rats. The oldest species of hutia (genus Zazamys) is represented by Cuban fossils from the Early Miocene Epoch (23,800,000 to 16,400,000 years ago); remains of the eight genera listed below do not date earlier than the Pleistocene Epoch (1,800,000 to 10,000 years......
  • Early Modern English Dictionary
    ...the period 1100 to 1475, has fared much better. Publication started in 1952, and it had reached the S’s by 1992, with an overwhelming fullness of detail. For the period 1475 to 1700, an Early Modern English Dictionary has not fared as well. It got under way in 1928 at the University of Michigan, and over 3,000,000 quotation slips were amassed, but the work could not be cont...
  • Early Modern English language
    The death of Chaucer at the close of the century (1400) marked the beginning of the period of transition from Middle English to the Early Modern English stage. The Early Modern English period is regarded by many scholars as beginning in about 1500 and terminating with the return of the monarchy (John Dryden’s Astraea Redux) in 1660. The 15th century witnessed three outstanding......
  • Early Modern Japanese language (Japanese language)
    ...however, to divide the 1,200-year history into four or five periods; Old Japanese (up to the 8th century), Late Old Japanese (9th–11th century), Middle Japanese (12th–16th century), Early Modern Japanese (17th–18th century), and Modern Japanese (19th century to the present)....
  • Early Nazca pottery (ancient Peruvian art)
    ...in black and filled in with various shades of red, orange, blue-gray, or purple. The designs are naturalistic (people, animals, birds, fish, plants) but quite stylized and often stiff or angular. Early Nazca pottery tends to be confined to either open bowl forms or double-spouted jars with flat bridge handles, and the painted designs are relatively uncomplicated and bold; the Late Nazca (Ica).....
  • Early Netherlandish art
    sculpture, painting, architecture, and other visual arts created in the several domains that in the late 14th and 15th centuries were under the rule of the dukes of Burgundy, coincidentally counts of Flanders. As “Burgundian” and “Flemish” describe only parts of the phenomenon, neither can posit for the whole, al...
  • Early Palace Period (ancient Greek history)
    Crete does not seem to have been affected by the movements of people into the Cyclades and the mainland at the end of the 3rd millennium, but important changes were taking place there. Great palaces of a distinctive type built around large rectangular open courts seem to have been constructed within a comparatively short time at the leading centres of Knossos, Phaistos, and Mallia. The art of......
  • Early Permian Epoch (geology)
    ...occurring in the region that would become North America, and the continuance of the Hercynian orogeny, its northwestern European counterpart. The assembly of Pangea was complete by the middle of the Early Permian Epoch following its fusion to Angara (part of the Siberian craton) during the Uralian orogeny....
  • early Pliocene Epoch (geology)
    ...Onychomys species are related to grasshopper mice represented by four-million to five-million-year-old fossils that extend the evolutionary history of the genus back to the Early Pliocene Epoch (5.3 million to 3.6 million years ago) in North America....
  • Early Proterozoic Era (geology)
    ...the evidence is provided by glacial deposits in sediments of the Pongola Rift in southern Africa. The most extensive early Precambrian Huronian glaciation occurred 2.3 billion years ago during the early Proterozoic. It can be recognized from the rocks and structures that the glaciers and ice sheets left behind in parts of Western Australia, Finland, southern Africa, and North America. The most....
  • early purple orchid (plant)
    The root of the early purple orchid (O. mascula) and several other species contain a nutritive starch. In southern Europe they are collected and dried to produce a flour that is mixed with sugar, flavourings, and liquid (such as water or milk) to produce a drink called salep. The green-winged orchid (O. morio) is widely distributed throughout......
  • Early Renaissance (art)
    The Renaissance began in Italy, where there was always a residue of Classical feeling in architecture. A Gothic building such as the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence was characterized by a large round arch instead of the usual Gothic pointed arch and preserved the simplicity and monumentality of Classical architecture. The Renaissance might have been expected to appear first in Rome, where there......
  • Early Sefardic (script)
    ...from the first 500 years of the Common Era. Most of the development in the square Hebrew script occurred between 1000 and 1500 ce. The earliest script to emerge from the Dead Sea writing was the Early Sefardic (Spharadic), with examples dating between 600 and 1200 ce. The Classic Sefardic hand appears between 1100 and 1600 ce. The Ashkenazic style of He...
  • Early Shang (Chinese archaeological period)
    ...century bc.) One must, however, distinguish Shang as an archaeological term from Shang as a dynastic one. Erlitou, in north-central Henan, for example, was initially classified archaeologically as Early Shang; its developmental sequence from about 2400 to 1450 bc documents the vessel types and burial customs that link Early Shang culture to the Late Neolithic culture...
  • Early Silurian Epoch (geology)
    ...stratotype was fixed at a horizon in Dob’s Linn near Moff in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. The effect on sea level of Late Ordovician glaciation, combined with increasing deglaciation during the early Silurian, accounts for widespread stratigraphic unconformities at the Ordovician-Silurian boundary that usually omit the P. acuminatus biozone. In earliest Silurian time ...
  • Early Sorrow (work by Mann)
    From this time onward Mann’s imaginative effort was directed to the novel, scarcely interrupted by the charming personal novella Early Sorrow or by Mario and the Magician, a novella that, in the person of a seedy illusionist, symbolizes the character of Fascism. His literary and cultural essays began to play an ever-growing part in elucidating and communicating his awareness o...
  • Early Spharadic (script)
    ...from the first 500 years of the Common Era. Most of the development in the square Hebrew script occurred between 1000 and 1500 ce. The earliest script to emerge from the Dead Sea writing was the Early Sefardic (Spharadic), with examples dating between 600 and 1200 ce. The Classic Sefardic hand appears between 1100 and 1600 ce. The Ashkenazic style of He...
  • Early Spring of 1072 (painting by Guo XI)
    ...aid to understanding the landscape painting of the Northern Song dynasty. Few of his paintings have survived; among the works that may be considered authentic are the famous Early Spring of 1072, which is dated 1072, and a hand scroll entitled The Coming of Autumn. Both effectively capture the quality of their seasonal interests and......
  • Early Stone Age (anthropology)
    ancient cultural stage, or level, of human development, characterized by the use of rudimentary chipped stone tools. (See also Stone Age.)...
  • Early Sunday Morning (painting by Hopper)
    ...sense of loneliness. This isolation of his subjects was heightened by Hopper’s characteristic use of light to insulate persons and objects in space, whether in the harsh morning light (“Early Sunday Morning,” 1930; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City) or the eerie light of an all-night coffee stand (“Nighthawks,” 1942; Art Institute of Chicago)....
  • Early Teutonic script
    There are at least three main varieties of runic script: Early, or Common, Germanic (Teutonic), used in northern Europe before about 800 ad; Anglo-Saxon, or Anglian, used in Britain from the 5th or 6th century to about the 12th century ad; and Nordic, or Scandinavian, used from the 8th to about the 12th or 13th century ad in Scandinavia and Iceland. After ...
  • Early Triassic Epoch (geochronology)
    ...that were to take place throughout the Mesozoic Era, particularly in the distribution of continents, the evolution of life, and the geographic distribution of living things. At the beginning of the Triassic, virtually all the major landmasses of the world were collected into the supercontinent of Pangea. Terrestrial climates were predominately warm and dry (though seasonal monsoons occurred......
  • Early Vedic period (Indian history)
    In the Early Vedic period (beginning with the entrance of the Vedic religion into South Asia about 1500 bce), several kingdoms existed in the plains of Bihar. North of the Ganges was Videha, one of the kings of which was the father of Princess Sita, the wife of Lord Rama and the heroine of the Ramayana, one of the two great Hindu epic poems of India. During the same period, th...
  • early winter cress (plant)
    Upland cress (Barbarea verna), a hardy biennial native to Europe, is a coarse, often weedy plant rarely cultivated. The closely related winter cress, or yellow rocket (B. vulgaris), is a common weed, conspicuous in fields for its bright-yellow spring flowers. Bitter cress, cuckoo flower, or meadow cress (Cardamine pratensis), of......
  • early wood (wood)
    ...woody angiosperms are usually annual, but under environmental fluctuations, such as drought, more than one can form, or none at all. Growth rings result from the difference in density between the early wood (spring wood) and the late wood (summer wood); early wood is less dense because the cells are larger and their walls are thinner. Although the transition of early wood to late wood within......
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