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Amaravati

(Encyclopedia)Amaravati ŭˌmərävŭˈtē [key], ancient ruined city, Andhra Pradesh state, SE India, near the mouth of the Krishna River. The former capital of the Buddhist Satavahana, or Andhra, kingdom, it is a...

lyre

(Encyclopedia)lyre, generic term for stringed musical instruments having a sound box from which project curved arms joined by a crossbar. The strings are stretched between the crossbar and the sound box and are plu...

Lanciani, Rodolfo Amadeo

(Encyclopedia)Lanciani, Rodolfo Amadeo rōdôlˈfō ämädĕˈō länchäˈnē [key], 1847?–1929, Italian archaeologist. He was an authority on the ancient topography of Ostia and Rome and discovered many importa...

Shakhmatov, Aleksey Aleksandrovich

(Encyclopedia)Shakhmatov, Aleksey Aleksandrovich əlĭksyāˈ əlĭksänˈdrəvĭch shôkmətôfˈ [key], 1864–1920, Russian philologist and historian. Shakhmatov's many books on the history of the Russian langua...

Elephantine

(Encyclopedia)Elephantine ĕlˌəfăntīˈnē [key], island, SE Egypt, in the Nile below the First Cataract, near Aswan. In ancient times it was a military post guarding the southern frontier of Egypt. The Elephant...

body-marking

(Encyclopedia)body-marking, painting, tattooing, or scarification (cutting or burning) of the body for ritual, esthetic, medicinal, magic, or religious purposes. Evidence from prehistoric burials, rock carvings, an...

Leopardi, Giacomo

(Encyclopedia)Leopardi, Giacomo jäˈkōmō lāōpärˈdē [key], 1798–1837, Italian poet and scholar, considered Italy's outstanding 19th-century poet. An intellectual prodigy, he taught himself Hebrew and ancie...

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 1st Baron, 1800–1859, English historian and author, b. Leicestershire, educated at Cambridge. After the success of his essay on Milton in the Edinburgh Review (Aug., 1825...

asylum

(Encyclopedia)asylum əsīˈləm [key], extension of hospitality and protection to a fugitive and the place where such protection is offered. The use of temples and churches for this purpose in ancient and medieval...

Morgan, Lewis Henry

(Encyclopedia)Morgan, Lewis Henry, 1818–81, American anthropologist, b. Aurora, N.Y., grad. Union College, Schenectady, 1840. Practicing as a lawyer, he became interested in the Native Americans of his locality, ...