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Piedras Negras, ancient city, Guatemala

(Encyclopedia)Piedras Negras pyāˈᵺräs nāˈgräs [key] [Span.,=black stones], ruined city of the Classic era of the Maya, NW Petén, Guatemala, in the Usumacinta valley. Reaching a peak of sculptural achieveme...

photostat

(Encyclopedia)photostat fōˈtəstătˌ [key], reproduction of any printed or simple black-and-white material, such as drawings or manuscripts, made by the Photostat, a photographic camera. While slower and more ex...

Redditch

(Encyclopedia)Redditch, city (1991 pop. 61,639) and district, Worcestershire, central England. Redditch was designated one of the new towns in 1964 to alleviate overpopulation in Birmingham and the Black Country. I...

Rion

(Encyclopedia)Rion rēônˈ [key], ancient Phasis, river, c.195 mi (310 km) long, rising in the Caucasus near the Mamison Pass, W Georgia, and flowing S and W past Kutaisi into the Black Sea at Poti. Its upper cour...

Nicholson, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Nicholson, Sir William, 1872–1949, English woodcut artist, illustrator, and painter. The striking contrasts of black and white of his woodcutting technique were used to great effect on posters, on w...

Paphlagonia

(Encyclopedia)Paphlagonia păfˌləgōˈnēə [key], ancient country of N Asia Minor, between Bithynia and Pontus on the Black Sea coast, in modern Turkey. A mountainous district with the Halys as its chief river, ...

omen

(Encyclopedia)omen, sign or augury believed to foreshadow the future. Almost any occurrence can be interpreted as an omen. The typical omen was a natural phenomenon, such as a meteor, an eclipse, or the flight of b...

Walsall

(Encyclopedia)Walsall wôlˈsôl [key], metropolitan borough (1991 pop. 177,923), W central England, in the Black Country. Iron and brass founding, limestone quarrying, and the manufacture of leather goods, small h...

Bradley, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Bradley, Tom (Thomas Bradley), 1917–98, African-American politician, b. Calvert, Tex. A sharecropper's son who became (1940) a Los Angeles police officer, he earned (1956) a law degree from Southwes...

spinel

(Encyclopedia)spinel, magnesium aluminum oxide, MgAl2O4, a mineral crystallizing in the isometric system, usually as octahedrons. It occurs as an accessory mineral in basic igneous rocks, in aluminum-rich metamorph...