Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World

sung by common people. Historians know that a seven- stringed zither of Chinese design was played in Korea dur- ing the third, f ...

is now generally accepted that these Bronze Age horns were played throughout the islands as entertainment and in cer- emonies su ...

contexts; percussion instruments (which included cymbals, castanets, and hand-held drums) were used in entertainment and in ecst ...

treated as celebrities. Despite music’s popularity, ancient Ro- mans left behind little information on their music and mu- sical ...

Th e player plucked the strings with a large plectrum made of wood, bone, or horn. Roman musicians oft en played the kithara, a ...

oped a variety of skin drums. Th ese were essentially wooden tubes or barrels across the mouths of which were stretched membrane ...

string. Interestingly, this musical weapon seems to have been the only string instrument used in ancient America. See also adorn ...

775  ▶ natural disasters introduction Natural disasters are a fi xture of life on earth. From the dawn of history to the 21st c ...

AFRICA BY LEAH A. J. COHEN Research on historic and prehistoric natural disasters in Af- rica is still a new fi eld and continue ...

connotations: Th e earth’s motion on the island of the ship- wrecked is a sign of divine manifestation or epiphany. All of these ...

Volcanic eruptions can have disastrous eff ects far beyond their immediate vicinity. Ash or other debris in the atmo- sphere red ...

meant the ancient Australians would eventually have moist food to eat. Th us, because they lived in small groups that al- lowed ...

because they were such a deviation from the normal appear- ance of the sky. Stunned by the evident power behind such events, the ...

Although Greek mythology preserves stories of threats from wind and fl ood, the most dangerous natural disas- ters faced by the ...

famous cities. Th e worst aff ected was Sardis (also Sardes), the old Lydian royal capital, and Tiberius made a grant of 10 mil- ...

that which destroyed Pompeii in 79 c.e.) or even the counter- part of the vague and fl imsy allusions to the Th íra eruption dis ...

... THE wise servant said, “Let thy heart be satisfi ed, O my lord, for that we have come back to the country; after we have bee ...

FURTHER READING Miriam S. Balmuth, David K. Chester, and Patricia A. Johnston, eds., Cultural Responses to the Volcanic Landscap ...

▶ Nomadic and Pastoral Societies introduction Historians and archaeologists take a keen interest in the ways in which ancient so ...

Most archaeologists believe that the desert of the Sahara is a combination of natural climate change and the activities of human ...