A Wisdom Archive on Roman Square Capitals

At different times of Europe's history the quality of penmanship has varied considerably. Ancient Roman handwriting styles included Roman cursive, and the more calligraphic rustic capitals and square capitals, the latter of which forms the basis for modern capital letters and was used in stone inscriptions. Writing implements and materials were easy to come by. With the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Dark Ages, new scripts developed from the old Roman ones, such as uncial and later blackletter. The Carolingian period saw t ...

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Ancient Rome - Monarchy. The city of Rome grew from settlements around a ford on the river Tiber, a crossroads of traffic and trade. According to archaeological evidence, the village of Rome was probably founded sometime in the 9th century BC by members of two central Italian tribes, the Latins and the Sabines, on the Palatine and Quirinal Hills. The Etruscans, who had previously settled to the north in Etruria, seem to have established political control in the region by the late 7th century BC. The Etruscans app ...

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Damascus - Ancient. Excavations at Tell Ramad on the outskirts of the city have demonstrated that Damascus has been inhabited as early as 8,000 to 10,000 BC. It is due to this that Damascus is considered to be the oldest continually inhabited city in the world. However, Damascus is not documented as an important city until the coming of the Aramaeans, Semitic nomads who arrived from the Arabian peninsula. It is known that it was the Aramaeans who first established the water distribution system of Damascus by cons ...

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The letter A probably started as a pictogram of an ox head in Egyptian hieroglyphs or the Proto-semitic alphabet. By 1600 BC, the Phoenician alphabet's letter had a linear form that served as the basis for all later forms. Its name must have corresponded closely to the Hebrew aleph. The name is also similar to the Arabic alif. When the Ancient Greeks adopted the alphabet, they had no use for the glottal stop that the letter had denoted in Phoenician and other Semitic languages, so they used the sign for the vowel

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A flagpole or flagstaff can be a simple support made of wood or metal. If it is taller than can be easily reached to raise the flag, a cord is used, looping around a pulley at the top of the pole with the ends tied at the bottom. The flag is fixed to one lower end of the cord, and is then raised by pulling on the other end. The cord is then tightened and tied to the pole at the bottom. The pole is usually topped by a flat plate called a "truck" (originally meant to keep a wooden pole from splitting) or by a ball or ...

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Main article: Demographics of Haiti Although Haiti averages about 270 people per square kilometer (699/mi²), its population is concentrated most heavily in urban areas, coastal plains, and valleys. About 95% of Haitians are of African descent. The rest of the population is mostly mulatto, or mixed Caucasian-African ancestry. A few are of European or Levantine heritage. About two thirds of the population live in rural areas. The biggest city is the capital Port-au-Prince with 2 million inhabitants, ...

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Graz was originally the site of a Roman fort. Later a small castle was built here by the Slovenians, which in time became a heavily defended fortification. 'Gradec' literally means "small castle" in Slovenian. The German name 'Graz' was first used in 1128, and during this time dukes under Babenberg rule made the town into an important commercial center. Later Graz came under the rule of the Habsburgs, and in 1281 gained special ...

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Boston's colleges and universities have a major impact on the city and region's economy. Not only are they major employers, but they also attract high-tech industries to the city and surrounding region, including computer hardware and software companies as well as biotechnology companies like Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Biogen Idec. Other important industries include financial services, especially mutual funds and insurance. Boston-based Fidelity Investments helped popularize the mutual fund in the 1980s, and has made Boston one of the to ...

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As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 589,141 people, 239,528 households, and 115,212 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,697/km² (12,166/mi²). There were 251,935 housing units at an average density of 2,009/km² (5,203/mi²). The Irish are the largest ethnic group in the city of Boston, and Boston is commonly considered the capital of "Irish America". Italians also form a very large segment of the city's population. The racial makeup of the city was 54.48% White, 25.33% Black or Africa ...

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Main article: Demographics of Bolivia Bolivia is one of only three countries in Latin America whose largest population segment is comprised of unmixed Amerindians - the other two being Guatemala and Peru. Bolivia's ethnic distribution is estimated to be 33% Quechua and 30% Aymara Amerindians, 25% Mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European) and 12% European. The largest of the approximately three-dozen indigenous groups are the Quechua-speaking groups (2.5 million), the Aymara (2 million), Chiquitano (180,000), and Guaraní (125,000 ...

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